Expensive but exhilarating form of entertainment/art. Jean Vilar reckoned that theatre should be a public service, like gas or electricity. I reckon that everybody should be exposed to the random theatrical review generator.

Theatre takes its start in ancient Greece where people would perform works by such playwrights as Sophocles -- who wrote Oedipus Rex -- as part of their Dionysian rituals.

Throughout human history, this art form has dazzled and inspired people often drawing criticism from traditionally conservative groups such as the medeival church.

While today theatre has been largely displaced in western culture by its decendants (motion picture, television, video game), its flexibility and the immediacy of live actors allow it to retain a certain power lacking in other medium.

Also, there's not very much money in theatre, so there are fewer money-hungry exibitionists trying to appeal to our baser instincts. This leaves room for the more talented playwrights, directors, and actors to put on artistic productions. This is why you never see Baywatch: The Musical or Phantom of the Opera VII.

The"a*ter, The"a*tre (?), n. [F. th'eatre, L. theatrum, Gr. , fr. to see, view; cf. Skr. dhya to meditate, think. Cf. Theory.]


An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed.


Any room adapted to the exhibition of any performances before an assembly, as public lectures, scholastic exercises, anatomical demonstrations, surgical operations, etc.


That which resembles a theater in form, use, or the like; a place rising by steps or gradations, like the seats of a theater.


Shade above shade, a woody theater Of stateliest view. Milton.


A sphere or scheme of operation.


For if a man can be partaker of God's theater, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest. Bacon.


A place or region where great events are enacted; as, the theater of war.


© Webster 1913.
