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Portal:Theatre

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Ancient Greece theatre in Taormina, Sicily, Italy

Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present experiences 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...)

Featured article

A male Beijing opera performer
Peking opera (also called Beijing opera) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south. The art form is also enjoyed in Taiwan, and has spread to other countries such as the United States and Japan. Beijing opera features four main types of performers. Performing troupes often have several of each variety, as well as numerous secondary and tertiary performers. With their elaborate and colorful costumes, performers are the only focal points on Beijing opera's characteristically sparse stage. They utilize the skills of speech, song, dance, and combat in movements that are symbolic and suggestive, rather than realistic. Above all else, the skill of performers is evaluated according to the beauty of their movements.

In this month

William Wells Brown

Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2012
Catherine Zeta-Jones (born 25 September 1969) is a film and stage actress. Raised in Swansea, Wales, she studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London, and made her adult stage breakthrough with a leading role in 1987 in 42nd Street. She found great success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991–93). Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles. Critics praised her portrayal of a vengeful pregnant woman in Traffic (2000) and a murderous singer in the musical film Chicago (2002), winning her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to star in high-profile films for much of the 2000s, including the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003), the heist film Ocean's Twelve (2004), the comedy The Terminal (2004), and the romantic comedy No Reservations (2007). During a decrease in workload, she returned to the stage and portrayed an ageing actress in A Little Night Music (2009), winning the Tony Award for Best Actress.
  • ... that while preparing for War Horse, theatre set designer Rae Smith spent weeks pretending to be a First World War British Army captain?
  • ... that Angela Bassett donated a dance studio at the Royal Theater in St. Petersburg?
  • ... that in 2023, car manufacturer Rivian acquired the historic Lynn Theatre in Laguna Beach, California, and converted it into its first showroom?
  • ... that before the Biltmore Theatre was restored in 2003, there were proposals to lease the theater to a delicatessen owner or turn it into a hotel lobby?
  • ... that at the Guild Theatre, the higher an actor ascended, the farther they were from stardom?
  • ... that the Beacon Theatre, once described as "a true bit of Bagdad on Broadway", later gained a reputation as a rock venue?

Selected quote

Arthur Miller
The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it is so accidental. It's so much like life.

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