Portal:Theatre
The Theatre Portal

Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. It is the oldest form of drama, though live theatre has now been joined by modern recorded forms. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. Places, normally buildings, where performances regularly take place are also called "theatres" (or "theaters"), as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe").
A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances, as distinct from a theatre troupe (or acting company), which is a group of theatrical performers working together. (Full article...)
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In this month
- 5 May 1893 – Birth of Ivo Pelay, a prolific Argentine playwright whose musicals helped popularize the tango
- 9 May 1662 – First recorded performance of a Punch and Judy (pictured) puppet show in England
- 11 May 1950 – Premier of Eugène Ionesco's La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) at the Théâtre des Noctambules in Paris
- 14 May 1881 – Birth of actor Julian Eltinge, who became famous for cross-dressing in plays such as The Fascinating Widow and The Crinoline Girl
- 22 May 1872 – Foundation stone is laid for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, built especially for the operas of Richard Wagner
- 25 May 1878 – Premiere of H.M.S. Pinafore, the first big hit by Gilbert and Sullivan
- 29 May 1934 – Birth of Mexican actor and playwright Nancy Cárdenas
- 31 May 1957 – Playwright Arthur Miller is convicted of contempt of Congress because he refused to name friends and colleagues who had participated in political activities that the House Un-American Activities Committee might find problematic
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Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that Jonathan Reynolds deep-fried a real turkey during his performance of Dinner With Demons at the Second Stage Theater, New York?
- ... that the New Amsterdam Theatre, once described as "a vision of gorgeousness", later had dead cats in the basement and mushrooms growing through the floor?
- ... that Louise Heims Beck co-founded the American Theatre Wing and was responsible for overseeing the organization of the 1st Tony Awards?
- ... that in 1999, donors to the American Airlines Theatre could pay US$75,000 for their name on a bathroom?
- ... that in 2016, on the tenth anniversary of its premiere, the Royal Ballet performed Chroma with five dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater?
- ... that many Broadway stars went to Therapy on Monday nights?
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- Main project
Theatre
- Descendant projects
- New York Theatre
- Musical Theatre
- Sister projects
- Dance
- Ballet
- Opera
- Gilbert and Sullivan
- Richard Wagner
- Magic
- Stagecraft
- Drum Corps
- Literature
- Shakespeare
- Circus
More did you know
- ...that Danny Kaye, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Abbott and Costello and Sammy Davis Jr. are among the performers to have graced the stage of the Howard Theatre (pictured) in Washington, D.C.?
- ...that the rise of ticket prices in the new Covent Garden Theatre led to the so-called Old Price Riots, which lasted for more than two months in 1809?
- ...that by 1608, performances of William Shakespeare's plays had become popular enough that his playing company was able to act indoors, in the Blackfriars Theatre?
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