CHAPTER 1

What Is the Theatre?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This chapter introduces the nature and scope of theatre by discussing it in three ways it can be
perceived: as a place, a group of artists, and an activity.

I. You need to know the kinds of spaces and buildings that theatre requires and uses.

II. You should be familiar with the collaborative nature of theatre and how theatre artists
have grouped themselves.

III. You need to be familiar with the ways in which theatre is work, the crafts it entails,
and its relationship to play.

IV. You need to understand why theatre is an art and how impersonation, as a unique
quality of theatre, creates the paradox within performing and perceiving theatre.

V. You should be acquainted with what constitutes a performance and the two general
modes of performance.

VI. You should understand what distinguishes live from recorded performance and
appreciate the relationship between performance and script.

OVERVIEW AND OUTLINE

The origins of theatre are ancient. The English words for theatre and drama have their
roots in ancient Greek, from the time of organized theatres first great emergence. Today, we use
the word theatre in a variety of ways: as a place for dramatic performance, a company of
players with a vision that animates them, and an occupation.

A theatre may be an elaborate structure in size, decoration, and functionality. The only
requirement of a theatre is, however, an empty space with a place to act and a place to watch.

Theatre may also suggest its nature as a collaborative art by indicating the company or
troupe into which its practitioners have formed themselves. Additionally, theatre may refer to a
larger grouping of artists, plays, buildings, and practices that constitute, for instance, the
American theatre or the Elizabethan theatre.

Finally, theatre is an occupation and avocation. As such it involves the work of many
people in multiple functions. Theatre, however, holds historical and qualitative relationships to
play, games, and sports that suggest its impulses originate in human nature. Theatre is also artistic
work, and one that involves a quality unique in the arts, that of impersonating characters. As a
performing art, theatre differs from the performances individuals may present in everyday life. As
an art, it utilizes differing modes of performancerepresentational and presentational. It also
differs from other kinds of related but recorded performance. Theatre is a live event that puts
performers and audiences in an immediate and mutually affecting relationship.

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 I. WHAT IS THE THEATRE?
II. THE THEATRE BUILDING
III. THE COMPANY, OR TROUPE, OF PLAYERS
IV. THE OCCUPATION OF THEATRE
A. Work
B. Art
C. Impersonation
D. Performance
1. Live Performance
2. Scripted and Rehearsed Performance

TERMS
Acting
Art
Audience
Building
Character
Crewing
Designing
Directing
Drama
Dran
Empathy
Empty space
House managing
Immediacy
Impersonation
Mask
Performance
Play
Play script/script
Playwriting (playwright)
Presentational
Producing
Representational
Stage managing
Suspension of disbelief
Theatron
Troupe

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