Theatre

(This article is about a type of built structure; for other uses of the term see Theatre (disambiguation).

---

The word "theatre" (sometimes spelt "theater" in American English) is used to refer both to a building in which plays and other dramatic works are performed, and (especially in North America) by extension to that branch of the performing arts concerned with the staging of such works, also called "drama" or "the dramatic arts".

The word "theatre" comes from the the Greek "θέατρον" ("theatron") meaning "place of seeing") via the French "théâtre".

Ancient theatres

Legend traces the origins of drama to Ancient Greece in the sixth-century BCE, when a man called Thespis (hence the use of the term "thespian" for "actor") first added spoken parts to traditional choral and dance performances. Actors wearing masks performed outdoors at festivals in honour of Dionysos, the god of theatre, often to crowds of 12,000 or more.

The first theatre to be built in Ancient Greece was the Theatre of Dionysos in Athens. It was cut into the cliff face south of the Acropolis between 342 and 326 BCE, a replacement by the Athenian statesman Lykourgos of an earlier structure built of wood and earth. (What can be seen in Athens today are in fact the remains of a later rebuilding by the Romans — a much enlarged structure.)

Elizabethan theatres

Elizabethan plays were mainly performed publicly in four types of venue (performances were also given in private houses and gardens): the yards of [[inn]s, open-air amphitheatres, and purpose-built playhouses. The earliest of these were the inn yards, whose layout influenced the playhouses (and the dramatic structure of many plays), and which were themselves sometimes converted into playhouses. Amphitheatres were used in the Summer, acting troupes moving to indoor venues in the Winter.

See also

• Cinema (U.S. English "movie theater")

External links

• Didaskalia — electronic journal and resource dedicated to the study of ancient Greek and Roman drama in performance
• "Theatre of Dionysus and Odeon of Herodus Atticus" — from Architecture around the World
• Elizabethan Theatres, Playhouses, and Inn-Yards
• "Glossary of Technical Theatre terms" — from Theatrecrafts.com