Portal:Theatre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Portal:Theater)

The Theatre Portal

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 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...)

Featured article

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (1 May 1875)
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its popular companion piece, Jacques Offenbach's La Périchole. The story concerns a "breach of promise of marriage" lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Gilbert based the libretto of Trial by Jury on an operetta parody that he had written in 1868. The opera premiered more than three years after Gilbert and Sullivan's only previous collaboration, Thespis, an 1871–72 Christmas season entertainment. In the intervening years, both the author and composer were busy with separate projects. Beginning in 1873, Gilbert tried several times to get the opera produced before the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte suggested that he collaborate on it with Sullivan. Sullivan was pleased with the piece and promptly wrote the music. Critics and audiences praised how well Sullivan's witty and good-humoured music complemented Gilbert's satire. The success of Trial by Jury launched the famous series of 13 collaborative works between Gilbert and Sullivan that came to be known as the Savoy Operas.

Featured pictures

In this month

William Shakespeare

Featured biography

Katherine Hepburn circa 1941
Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. Known for her headstrong independence and spirited personality, Hepburn's career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned more than 60 years. She won a record four Academy Awards, and in 1999 was named by the American Film Institute as Hollywood's top female legend. Hepburn began acting in college, and spent four years in the theatre before entering films in 1932. She became an instant star, but after a series of unsuccessful films was named "box office poison". The Philadelphia Story revived her career, and she subsequently formed a popular alliance with Spencer Tracy that lasted 25 years. In middle age Hepburn found a niche playing spinsters, such as in The African Queen, and became a Shakespearean stage actress. She continued to work into old age, making her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. Hepburn is remembered as an important cultural figure, as she came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th-century America and helped change perceptions of women.
  • ... that the runway at the Winter Garden Theatre was nicknamed the "bridge of thighs" after lightly clothed showgirls paraded down it?
  • ... that Jochen Schmidt, a dance critic for the FAZ for 30 years, wrote a book about Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal dance theatre?
  • ... that when the Marquis Theatre was completed, some Broadway performers boycotted it because of a controversy over the construction of the hotel above it?
  • ... that despite plans to restore the Sam H. Harris Theatre in the 1990s, it became an entrance to a wax museum?
  • ... that for several nights early in her career, ballerina Mary Ellen Moylan danced in a Balanchine ballet, then took a taxi to another theater to appear in the second act of an operetta?
  • ... that Lunt and Fontanne retired from Broadway after the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre was renamed after them?

Selected quote

Sacha Guitry, portrait by Léon Gard
When they have a success, the producers think they are brilliant, but when they have a failure, they think the public are fools.

Related portals

WikiProjects

More did you know

Sen no Rikyū

Topics

Recognized content

Extended content

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Featured pictures

Featured portals

Good topics

Featured sounds


Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Things you can do

Things you can do

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals