Theater, STO-ŠVA
There's no business like show business! Nothing quite matches the immediacy and electricity of a live dramatic performance, a fact which may help explain why the art form has persevered from its ancient origins up through the present day. During the 20th century, live theater demonstrated an unexpected tenacity in the face of tough competition from film, television, video, the Internet, and other media.
Theater Encyclopedia Articles By Title
stock character, a character in a drama or fiction that represents a type and that is recognizable as belonging......
stock company, troupe of actors performing regularly in a particular theatre, presenting a different play nightly......
Fred Stone was a popular American stage actor and dancer known for his versatility. Stone was raised in Topeka,......
Joseph Anton Stranitzky was an actor and manager of the indigenous Austrian popular theatre, who developed the......
Barbra Streisand is an American singer, composer, actress, director, and producer who is considered by many to......
Jule Styne was an American songwriter. The son of Ukrainian Jewish parents, Stein immigrated with them to the United......
Ed Sullivan was an American television personality who was best known as the master of ceremonies of the immensely......
summer theatre, in American theatre, productions staged during the summer months (the off-season for professional......
Swan Theatre, Elizabethan theatre built about 1595 by Francis Langley in Bankside, London. A description and a......
sword swallowing, a magician’s trick dating back to ancient Greece and Rome, involving the swallowing of a sword......
Aleksandr Yakovlevich Tairov was the founder and producer-director (1914–49) of the Kamerny (Chamber) Theatre in......
talk show, radio or television program in which a well-known personality interviews celebrities and other guests.......
François-Joseph Talma was a French actor and theatrical company manager whose reforms in acting styles, stage costuming,......
Helen Tamiris was an American choreographer, modern dancer, and teacher, one of the first to make use of jazz,......
tamāshā, erotic form of Indian folk drama begun in the early 18th century in Mahārāshtra. In all other forms of......
Eva Tanguay was an American singing and dancing comedienne billed as “the Girl Who Made Vaudeville Famous.” Tanguay......
Richard Tarlton was an English actor, ballad writer, favourite jester of Queen Elizabeth I, and the most popular......
Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker and actor who gained renown for his comic films that portrayed people in conflict......
Julie Taymor is an American stage and film director, playwright, and costume designer known for her inventive use......
telenovela, Latin American serial drama similar to a soap opera in plot development but having a broader audience......
Fay Templeton was an American singer and actress who enjoyed popularity in a career that extended from light opera......
Richard Teschner was a puppeteer who developed the artistic potentialities of the Javanese rod puppet for western......
The Book of Mormon, comedic and deliberately offensive stage musical by Robert Lopez, Trey Parker, and Matt Stone......
The Phantom of the Opera, award-winning stage musical by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricists Charles Hart......
theatre, in architecture, a building or space in which a performance may be given before an audience. The word......
- Introduction
- Acoustics, Design, Architecture
- Stage Design, Proscenium, Backdrops
- Asian Traditions, Architecture, Performance
- Japanese Architecture, Design, Performance
- Medieval, Architecture, Performance
- Staging, Conventions, Design
- Renaissance, Architecture, Design
- Staging, Design, Performance
- Elizabethan, Stage, Design
- Baroque, Staging, Design
- Technical Advances, Innovations, Evolution
- France, Spain, Developments
- Northern Europe, Design, Performance
- 19th Century, Design, Architecture
- German Romanticism, Naturalism
- Russian Imperial, Architecture, Performance
- American Design, Architecture, Performance
- Evolution, Production, Design
- Realism, Naturalism, Expressionism
- Appia, Craig, Influence
- Movement, Design, Architecture
- Reinhardt, Design, Architecture
- Architecture, Scenery, Performance
- Expressionist, Production, Aspects
- The influence of Piscator
- Russian Futurism, Suprematism
- Political Festivals
- American, Design, Architecture
- Modernization, Design, Architecture
- Grotowski, Polish, Laboratory
theatre, in dramatic arts, an art concerned almost exclusively with live performances in which the action is precisely......
theatre design, the art and technique of designing and building a space—a theatre—intended primarily for the performance......
Theatre Guild, a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 for the production of high-quality, noncommercial......
African theatre, effectively, the theatre of Africa south of the Sahara that emerged in the postcolonial era—that......
The Theatre, first public playhouse of London, located in the parish of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch. Designed and......
Western theatre, history of the Western theatre from its origins in pre-Classical antiquity to the present. For......
- Introduction
- Ancient Greece, Drama, Tragedy
- Ancient Rome
- Medieval, Drama, Performance
- Mystery Cycles
- Renaissance, Drama, Performance
- Opera, Ballet, Musicals
- English, Drama, Performance
- Jacobean, Drama, Plays
- French Neoclassicism
- Enlightenment, Comedy, Tragedy
- Romanticism, Drama, Performance
- Romanticism, Realism, Drama
- Naturalism, Realism, Drama
- American, Drama, Performance
- 20th Century, Beyond, Performance
- Russian Drama, Performance, History
- Expressionism, Germany, Drama
- British Drama, Plays, Musicals
- Post-WWII, Drama, Performance
- Broadway, Musicals, Plays
- African, Asian, Hispanic
- Alternative, Experimental, Avant-Garde
- French Drama, Comedy, Tragedy
- European Countries, Drama, Performance
theatre-in-the-round, form of theatrical staging in which the acting area, which may be raised or at floor level,......
theatrical production, the planning, rehearsal, and presentation of a work. Such a work is presented to an audience......
theatricalism, in 20th-century Western theatre, the general movement away from the dominant turn-of-the-century......
James Thomson was a Scottish poet whose best verse foreshadowed some of the attitudes of the Romantic movement.......
the Three Stooges, American comedy team noted for violent anarchic slapstick and comedy routines rooted in the......
The Threepenny Opera, musical drama in three acts written by Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with composer Kurt......
General Tom Thumb was an American showman noted for his small stature. He was the first major attraction promoted......
Howard Thurston was an American magician who led the largest magic show in history. (Read Harry Houdini’s 1926......
Théâtre National Populaire (TNP), French national theatre created in 1920 to bring theatre to the general public.......
Théâtre-Libre, (French: Free Theatre), independent, private theatre founded in Paris in 1887 by André Antoine,......
Vesta Tilley was an English singing comedienne who was the outstanding male impersonator in music-hall history.......
Michael Todd was an American showman with a flair for the flamboyant who is remembered as a film producer for Around......
Taylor Tomlinson is an American comedian and television host known for stand-up that combines commentary on contemporary......
Tony Awards, annual awards for distinguished achievement in American theatre. Named for the actress-producer Antoinette......
touring company, cast of actors assembled to bring a hit play to a succession of regional centres after the play......
toy theatre, popular 19th-century English children’s toy that provides modern theatre historians with a valuable......
trap, in theatre, a concealed opening, usually in the stage floor, through which actors, props, and scenery can......
Jiří Trnka was a preeminent filmmaker of the Czech puppet animation tradition who was also a painter, designer,......
Kurt Tucholsky was a German satirical essayist, poet, and critic, best-known for his cabaret songs. After studying......
Sophie Tucker was an American singer whose 62-year stage career included American burlesque, vaudeville, and nightclub......
tumbling, execution of acrobatic movements such as rolls, twists, handsprings, or somersaults on floor mats or......
Compagnia degli Uniti, company of actors performing commedia dell’arte (improvised popular comedy) in Italy in......
Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov was a Russian theatrical director of the Moscow Art Theatre. A pupil of Konstantin......
Romolo Valli was an Italian actor who appeared in leading stage roles and won many awards for his work in motion......
Melvin Van Peebles was an American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and starred in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song......
Sir John Vanbrugh was a British architect who brought the English Baroque style to its culmination in Blenheim......
vaudeville, a farce with music. In the United States the term connotes a light entertainment popular from the mid-1890s......
ventriloquism, the art of “throwing” the voice, i.e., speaking in such a manner that the sound seems to come from......
Jesse Ventura is a professional wrestler known as Jesse “the Body” Ventura and later entered politics, serving......
Dai Vernon was a Canadian magician and sleight-of-hand artist who was one of the 20th century’s most renowned practitioners......
Gil Vicente was the chief dramatist of Portugal, sometimes called the Portuguese Plautus. He was also a noted lyric......
Theatre of the Vieux-Colombier, French theatre founded in Paris in 1913 by the writer and critic Jacques Copeau......
Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter and actor whose gritty, sometimes romantic depictions of the lives of......
James William Wallack was a leading British-American actor and manager of New York theatres, from whose acting......
Lester Wallack was an actor, playwright, and manager of the Wallack Theatre Company, the training ground of virtually......
Karl Wallenda was the founder of the Great Wallendas, a circus acrobatic troupe famed for their three-man-high......
Harry Warren was an American songwriter who, by his own estimate, produced 300 to 400 songs from 1922 through 1960,......
Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright whose work probes, with humour and sensibility, the predicament facing......
wayang, (Javanese: “shadow”), classical Javanese puppet drama that uses the shadows thrown by puppets manipulated......
John Weaver was a dancer, ballet master, choreographer, and theorist known as the father of English pantomime.......
Charles Weidman was a major innovator of American modern dance, noted for the abstract, rhythmic pantomime he developed......
Kurt Weill was a German-born American composer who created a revolutionary kind of opera of sharp social satire......
West Side Story, theatre music by American composer Leonard Bernstein that premiered August 19, 1957, in Washington,......
Mae West was an American stage and film actress, a sex symbol whose frank sensuality, languid postures, and blasé......
Whitefriars Theatre, private London playhouse located in the priory of the Whitefriars monastery on the north side......
Dick Whittington was an English merchant and lord mayor of London who became a well-known figure in legend and......
If you’re brainstorming family-friendly activities for your next reunion, kicking and punching are likely not the......
Wicked, stage musical by American composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and librettist Winnie Holzman that serves......
Wild West show, theatrical extravaganza begun in 1883 by William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Cody, an Indian......
Bert Williams was an American comedian who portrayed the slow-witted, shuffling Black man that was then a standard,......
Robin Williams was an American comedian and actor known for his manic stand-up routines and his diverse film performances.......
Flip Wilson was one of the most popular comedians in America, and his comedy variety show, The Flip Wilson Show,......
Jonathan Winters was an American comedian who used sound effects, facial contortions, a gift for mimicry, and breakneck......
Ali Wong is a comedian, writer, and actress whose irreverent and incisive work explores themes of cultural identity,......
WPA Federal Theatre Project, national theatre project sponsored and funded by the U.S. government as part of the......
WrestleMania, in professional wrestling, the flagship annual event held by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.......
Ed Wynn was an American comedian and actor in vaudeville, theatre, and motion pictures and on radio and television.......
Xiong Foxi was a Chinese playwright who helped create popular drama intended to entertain and educate the peasantry.......
yakshagana, dance-drama of South India, associated most strongly with the state of Karnataka. Elaborate and colourful......
Vincent Youmans was an American songwriter best known for writing the scores for the musicals No, No, Nanette (1925),......
zaju, one of the major forms of Chinese drama. The style originated as a short variety play in North China during......
zanni, stock servant character in the Italian improvisational theatre known as the commedia dell’arte. Zanni were......
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. was an American theatrical producer who brought the revue to spectacular heights under the......
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech Surrealist artist, puppeteer, animator, and filmmaker known for his dark reimaginings......