Theatre Links Site Directory

Styles

• 15 Theatre of the Absurd Reference Materials
  The Theatre of the Absurd began in Paris in the early 1950s with a number of European playwrights. Influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of existentialism, Absurdist plays commonly consisted of illogical dialogue, cyclical plots that ended where they began, characters who lacked motivation, and a strong sense of timelessness. Most of the conventional rules of theatre were deliberately, sometimes shockingly broken. The existential view of man’s meaningless existence out of harmony with the world (in essence, “absurd”) was visibly portrayed in works of the movement, most notably in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953). 
• 1960s Guerrilla Theatre Protest Resources
  Guerrilla theatre is a form of theatrical protest popularised in America in the 1960s by the San Fransisco Mime Troupe. Commedia dell’Arte and satire were actually the group’s principal modes of performance, not mime. At its purest, guerrilla theatre was left-wing political activism in the form of avant-garde performance in non-traditional spaces such as public parks and sidewalks.
• 20 Crazy Melodrama Resources
  Melodrama, derived from the Greek “melos” (music) and the French “drame” (drama), was a form of theatrical entertainment popular in Europe and America from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. While melodramatic plots were often romantic depictions of everyday life showcasing heightened emotions (stemming from earlier sentimental dramas), the staging of these was nothing short of spectacular. Characters were usually archetypal figures such as villains, victims and heroes.
• 25 Important Bunraku Teaching Resources
  Bunraku is a traditional Japanese art form involving puppets, music and narration. Bunraku first came to prominence in the 17th century and continues to be performed today. Puppet dolls typically measure two to four feet high and are manipulated by puppeteers visible to the audience. A small shamisen (three-stringed Japanase lute) provides musical accompaniment during performances along with the narrator (tayu) who voices the puppets as well as chants.
• Allegory
  Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of biblical and classical traditions into what would become recognizable as medieval culture. People of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so allegory in medieval literature and medieval art…
• Auto Sacramental
  Autos sacramentales (Spanish auto, “act” or “ordinance”; sacramental, “sacramental, pertaining to a sacrament”) are a form of dramatic literature which is peculiar to Spain, though in some respects similar in character to the old Morality plays of England. The auto sacramental may be defined as a dramatic representation of the mystery of the Eucharist. At…
• Ballad Opera
  The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later … its distinguishing characteristic is the use of tunes in a popular style (either pre-existing or newly composed) with spoken dialogue. These English plays were ‘operas’ mainly…
• Biomechanics
  Biomechanics was a system of actor training developed by Vsevolod Meyerhold. Its purpose was to widen the emotional potential of a theater piece and express thoughts and ideas that could not be easily presented through the naturalistic theater of the period. The techniques of Biomechanics were developed during the rehearsals of a series of plays…
• Black Comedy
  A black comedy (or dark comedy) is a comic work that employs black humor, which, in its most basic definition, is humor that makes light of otherwise serious subject matter. Black humor corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor. ABWAG Useful definitions of black comedy. DePaul University Definition of black humour. Joe Essid Black…
• Burlesque
  Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which, in turn, is derived from the Italian burla – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Burlesque overlaps in meaning with…
• Burletta
  A burletta (Italian, meaning “little joke”), also sometimes burla or burlettina, is a musical term generally denoting a brief comic Italian (or, later, English) opera. The term was used in the 18th century to denote the comic intermezzos between the acts of an opera seria, but was sometimes given to more extended works; Pergolesi’s La…
• Butoh
  Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo. The art form is known to “resist fixity” and be difficult to…
• Cabaret
  Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation or drama. It is mainly distinguished by the performance venue (also called a cabaret), such as in a restaurant, pub or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Musicals101.com Outstanding…
• Children’s Theatre
  Northwestern University Brief history of Children’s theatre in the United States.
• Closet Drama
  A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group. A related form, the “closet screenplay,” developed during the 20th century. Theatre Dictionary Definitions of theatre terms, including closet drama. Wikipedia Excellent discussion about the writing of…
• Collage Drama: 13 Great Playbuilding Resources for Students and Teachers
  Collage drama normally involves original improvised material, group-devised through the act of playbuilding. The form often includes a number of different performance styles deliberately juxtaposing against each other. The narrative of collage drama is usually episodic, consisting of various scenes linked only by a common theme such as the environment, peer pressure, body image, or global warming. Collage drama is regularly used in the classroom and can exist purely as a process for learning or extend through to performance, if desired. This page consists of a number of playbuilding and collage drama resources for students and teachers.
• Comedie-Ballet
  Comédie-ballet is a genre of French drama which mixes a spoken play with interludes containing music and dance. Dictionary Very good discussion about Moliere and his comedies-ballets (translated from French). The Literary Encyclopedia Outstanding (archived) article on Moliere and his comedie-ballet. Theatre History.com Biography of French playwright and inventor of comedie-ballet Jean Baptiste Moliere. University…
• Comedy
  A comedy is any sort of performance intended to cause laughter or the emotions associated with laughter. For ancient Greeks and Romans a comedy was a stage-play with a happy ending. In the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings and a lighter tone. In this sense Dante used the…
• Comedy of Character
  Theatre Database Biogrpahy on French playwright Jean Baptiste Moliere who wrote Comedy of Character plays.
• Comedy of Humours: A Not So Funny Collection of Resources
  Comedy of humours is an historical form of comedy linked to Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson in such works as Everyman in His Humour (1598) and Everyman out of His Humour (1599). It is based on the premise that the human body consists of four liquids – blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile – all representing a different type of humour (or temperament). This in turn affected character behaviour in the drama.
• Comedy of Ideas
  eHow Useful explanation of comedy of ideas and its relationship with other forms of comedy. Talk Talk Definition for comedy of ideas.
• Comedy of Intrigue
  Dallas Baptist University Brief definition of Comedy of Intrigue.
• Comedy of Manners
  The comedy of manners is an entertainment form which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class or of multiple classes, often represented by stereotypical stock characters. For example, the miles gloriosus (“boastful soldier”) in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young. Restoration…
• Comedy of Situation
  Dallas Baptist University Excellent definition of Comedy of Situation with references to various Elizabethan plays of the genre. University of California Santa Barbara Course outline notes referring to Comedy of Situation in the New Comedy works of Greek playwright Menander and Roman playwrights Terence and Plautus.
• Commedia dell’Arte
  Commedia dell’arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked “types” which began in Italy in the 16th century and was responsible for the advent of the actresses and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is “comedy of craft”; it is shortened from commedia dell’arte all’improvviso, or “comedy…
• Community Theatre
  Community theatre refers to theatrical performance made in relation to particular communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community. It may refer to theatre that is made entirely by a community with no outside help, or to a collaboration between community members and professional theatre artists, or to performance made entirely by…
• Constructivism
  Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as the Bauhaus…
• Dinner Theatre
  Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. Sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a sophisticated night club, or the play may be a major production with dinner less important, or…
• Documentary Drama
  A docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of radio and television programming, feature film, and staged theatre, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. On stage, it is sometimes known as documentary theatre. In the core elements of its story a docudrama strives to adhere to known historical facts, while allowing a greater or…
• Domestic Comedy
  The Museum of Broadcast Communications Excellent article on the television genre domestic comedy, its origins, characteristics and examples of shows. Similarities can easily be drawn from this information for understanding the domestic comedy genre in the theatre.
• Domestic Tragedy
  In English drama, a domestic tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or lower-class individuals. This subgenre contrasts with classical and Neoclassical tragedy, in which the protagonists are of kingly or aristocratic rank and their downfall is an affair of state as well as a personal matter. The Ancient Greek…
• Dumb Show
  Dumbshow, also dumb show or dumb-show, is a traditional term for pantomime in drama, actions presented by actors onstage without spoken dialogue. It is similar to the masque. The term is most often used in regard to medieval drama and English Renaissance theatre, though it can apply in other pertinent contexts as well, as with…
• Elzabethan Jig
  By the close of the sixteenth century the term ‘jig’ (variously spelt ‘jigg’, ‘jigge’, ‘gig’, ‘gigg’, ‘gigge’, ‘gigue’, ‘jigue’, ‘jeg’, ‘jegg’) had come to refer simultaneously to ‘a song’, ‘a dance’ and ‘a piece of music’, as well as taking on a specialist meaning in the early modern playhouse to refer to a relatively short drama sung…
• Epic Theatre
  Epic theatre began in Germany in the early 20th century with Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht. Working independently and together on a number of projects during the 1920s, mostly in Berlin, both practitioners developed their own brand of this radical new theatre form. Largely anti-realistic in style, epic theatre aimed to politically educate the German…
• Expressionism
  Expressionism is a modernist movement in drama and theatre that developed in Europe (principally Germany) in the early decades of the 20th century and later in the United States. It forms part of the broader movement of Expressionism in the arts. There was a concentrated Expressionist movement in early 20th century German theatre of which…
• Fantasy
  Though the fantasy genre in its modern sense is less than two centuries old, its antecedents have a long and distinguished history. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. The hallmarks that distinguish the modern genre from tales that merely contain fantastic elements are the logic of…
• Farce
  In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid…
• Fate Drama
  Dromo’s Den Biography of Austrian Fate Drama writer Franz Grillparzer. Infoplease Biography of August Graf von Platen, German writer of Fate Tragedies. New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia Comprehensive entry on the history of German literature, including a reference to Fate Drama playwright Zacharias Werner under section ‘ VII: The Classic Period of German Literature (1748-1805)’. New…
• Folk Theatre
  Abbots Bromley Information and pictures of the famous Horn Dance in English Folk Theatre history. AsiaRecipe.com Brief article on the history of Folk Theatre in India. BBC Article on the unusual characteristics of Sri Lankan Folk Theatre. Smash Awards Worthwhile information on Folk Theatre in India. Wikipedia Article on the Morris Dance, part of English…
• Fringe Theatre
  Fringe theatre is theatre that is not of the mainstream. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which name comes from Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival (1948) as a “fringe”, writing: “Round the fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to…
• Fun Jukebox Musical Resources for Theatre Buffs
  A jukebox musical is a musical theatre work centring on a collection of songs, usually by a single artist or group, and typically part of a back catalogue. The plot is often created around the story of the songs. While this technique has attracted criticism by some, the shows are often blockbusters such as Mamma Mia! (ABBA), Jersey Boys (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical .
• Futurism: 20 Powerful Theatre Resources for the Intelligentsia
  The Futurism movement began in Italy in 1909 with Filippo Marinetti and The Futurist Synthetic Theatre Manifesto. Futurist performance evenings, known as ‘serate’, were a mixture of poetry readings, visual art displays, performed plays and most important of all, manifesto readings. The Futurist play was often frighteningly short (sometimes only a moment or two in duration).
• Heroic Drama
  Heroic drama is a type of play popular during the Restoration era in England, distinguished by both its verse structure and its subject matter. The sub-genre of heroic drama evolved through several works of the middle to later 1660s; John Dryden’s The Indian Emperor (1665) and Roger Boyle’s The Black Prince (1667) were key developments….
• High Comedy
  High comedy or ‘pure comedy’ is a type of comedy characterized by witty dialog, satire, biting humor, or criticism of life. Today, high comedy can be seen among sitcoms targeted at cultured and articulate audiences The Cambridge History of English and American Literature Good discussion on the essential ingredients of the English High Comedy. Dallas…
• Improv Theatre
  Improvisational theatre, often called improv or impro, is a form of theater where most or all of what is performed is created at the moment it is performed. In its purest form, the dialogue, the action, the story and the characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without…
• Interlude
  The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try…
• Intermezzo
  The intermedio (also intromessa, introdutto, tramessa, tramezzo, intermezzo), in the Italian Renaissance, was a theatrical performance or spectacle with music and often dance which was performed between the acts of a play to celebrate special occasions in Italian courts. It was one of the important predecessors to opera, and an influence on other forms like…
• Jesuit Drama
  Jesuit drama was a form of theatre practised in the colleges of the Society of Jesus between the 16th and 18th centuries, as a way of instructing students in rhetoric, assimilating Christian values and imparting Catholic doctrine. aeiou Worthwhile article on Jesuit religious dramas. Fairfield University Excellent historical account of Jesuit Drama with a comprehensive…
• Kabuki
  Kabuki is a classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji, from left to right, mean sing, dance, and skill. Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as “the art of singing and dancing”. These are, however, ateji…
• Kitchen Sink Drama
  Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a term coined to describe a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose ‘heroes’ usually could be described as angry young men. It used a style of social realism, which often depicted the…
• Kyogen
  Ky?gen (literally “mad words” or “wild speech”) is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside Noh, was performed along with Noh as an intermission of sorts between Noh acts, on the same Noh stage, and retains close links to Noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated Noh-ky?gen. However, its…
• Living Newspaper
  Living Newspaper is a term for a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience. Historically, Living Newspapers have also urged social action (both implicitly and explicitly) and reacted against naturalistic and realistic theatrical conventions in favor of the more direct, experimental techniques of agitprop theatre, including the extensive use of…
• Low Comedy
  Low comedy, in association to comedy, is a dramatic or literary form of entertainment with no primary purpose but to create laughter by boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery and other riotous activity. It is also characterized by “horseplay”, slapstick or farce. Other examples include somebody throwing a custard pie in another’s face. This…
• Magical Realism Theatre Resources
  Magical realism (sometimes referred to as magic realism) is a term first used in the art world by German critic Franz Roh (1925) and later in literature by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier (1949). Characteristics of the genre typically include the coexistence of the real and the fantastical, the natural and the supernatural, the normal and magical worlds. In magical realism, elements of fantasy are accepted.
• Masque
  The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the…
• Method Acting
  In the dramatic arts, method acting is a group of techniques actors use to create in themselves the thoughts and feelings of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances. Though not all Method actors use the same approach, the “Method” refers to the method of teaching the craft of acting, which was created by…
• Mime
  A mime artist (from Greek, mimos, “imitator, actor”) is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is…
• Minstrel Show
  The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface. Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, happy-go-lucky, and musical. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and…
• Miracle Play
  Miracle plays, or Saint’s plays, are now distinguished from mystery plays as they specifically re-enacted miraculous interventions by the saints, particularly St. Nicholas or St. Mary, into the lives of ordinary people, rather than biblical events; however both of these terms are more commonly used by modern scholars than they were by medieval people, who…
• Morality Play
  The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try…
• Mummers Play
  Mummers Plays (also known as mummering) are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers (or by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, galoshins, guysers, and so on), originally from the British Isles (see wrenboys), but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes performed in…
• Murder Mystery
  Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred. It has several sub-genres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), legal thriller, courtroom drama…
• Music Hall
  Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment popular between 1850 and 1960. It involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts and variety entertainment. The term is derived from a type of theatre or venue in which such entertainment took place. British music hall was similar to American vaudeville, featuring rousing songs…
• Musical Theatre
  Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms…
• Mystery
  Mystery fiction is a genre of fiction typically focused on the investigation of a crime. Mystery fiction is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction—in other words a novel or short story in which a detective (either professional or amateur) investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfictional….
• Mystery Play
  Mystery plays (from the Latin “misterium” meaning “occupation”) and miracle plays (sometimes distinguished as two different forms, although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They developed from…
• Naturalism: 25 Helpful Theatre Resources
  The naturalistic theatre movement emerged in the mid 19th century and was first introduced by French novelist, critic and playwright Emile Zola in the preface to his novel Thérèse Raquin (1867), which the author later adapted into a stage play (first performed in 1873). Naturalism demanded a slice of life authenticity in every aspect of production and is not to be confused with realism.
• Noh Theatre
  Noh derived from the Sino-Japanese word for “skill” or “talent”—is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 13th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh “performance day” lasts all day and consists of five Noh plays interspersed with shorter, humorous…
• Non Naturalism
  Specific links for non naturalism are scattered throughout this website. Check out any of the practitoners and styles other than Stanislavski, Zola, Method Acting, Realism or Naturalism. The vast majority of links are in the non naturalistic (or anti-realistic) style.
• Opera
  Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house,…
• Operetta
  Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre. Dallas Baptist University Brief definition of Comic Opera (Operetta). This page uses Creative Commons Licensed excerpt(s) from Wikipedia.
• Pantomime
  Pantomime (informally panto), is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is generally performed during the Christmas and New Year season. Modern pantomime includes songs, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combines topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy…
• Parody
  A parody (also called spoof, send-up or lampoon), in use, is an imitative work created to imitate, or comment on and trivialize an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Dallas Baptist University Excellent explanation of the ingredients of Parody in the theatre, offering examples…
• Performance Art
  In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or via media; the performer can be present or absent. It can be any situation that…
• Physical Theatre
  Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means. Several performance traditions all describe themselves as “physical theatre”, but the unifying aspect is a reliance on physical motion of the performers rather than or combined with text to convey the story. In basic sense, you talk through hand gestures,…
• Play of Ideas
  The problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of realism in the arts. It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context. The critic F. S. Boas…
• Political Theatre
  In the history of theatre, there is long tradition of performances addressing issues of current events and central to society itself, encouraging consciousness and social change. The political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres had considerable influence on public opinion in the Athenian democracy. Those earlier Western dramas, arising out of the…
• Poor Theatre
  Jerzy Grotowski (11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre director and innovator of experimental theatre, the “theatre laboratory” and “poor theatre” concepts. Grotowski was born in Rzeszów, Poland on 11 August 1933 and died in Pontedera, Tuscany, Italy on 14 January 1999, aged 65. Owen Daly Grotowski’s set of acting principles….
• Problem Play Resources
  The problem play, or play of ideas, contains strong characterisation and topical social issues. The genre is typically thought to have reached its maturity in the late 1800s with some of the works of Henrik Ibsen such as A Doll’s House (1879), Ghosts (1882), and An Enemy of the People (1882). These realistic social dramas frankly portrayed current social issues on the stage.
• Psychodrama
  Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. (1889–1974) psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where props can be used. By closely recreating real-life…
• Radio Drama
  Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theater) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: “It is auditory…
• Rare Atellan Farce Resources
  Atellan farce, or Atellanae fabulae, was improvisational comic drama in Roman times originating in the town of Atella. As with its modern counterpart, this was a form of low comedy aimed at entertaining the masses. The characters in Atellan farce each had their own mask and costume, similar to the stock characters of the Commedia dell’Arte centuries later. Atellan farce existed for over 500 years, eventually losing popularity around 200 A.D.
• Realism: Academic Theatre Resources for Students
  Realism as a theatre movement emerged in Europe in the latter part of the 19th century. As a genuine theatre style, realism was a reaction against romanticism and the sensationalism of melodrama which dominated the stages of Europe and America for much of the 1800s. The realistic movement continues to influence theatre to this day.
• Revenge Tragedy
  The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a tragedy in which a murder victim is avenged, often by a younger kinsmen, and usually resulting in the death of both murderer and avenger. The form of play was extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras with the best-known examples being Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy…
• Revue
  A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Though most famous for their visual spectacle, revues…
• Romantic Comedy
  Dallas Baptist University Very good definition of Romantic Comedy for the theatre.
• Satire
  Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using…
• Sentimental Comedy
  Dallas Baptist University Excellent explanation of Sentimental Comedy for the theatre, offering several examples of the genre throughout historiy. Theatre Database Useful essay by playwright Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops To Conquer) attacking sentimental comedy.
• Slapstick
  Slapstick comedy’s history is measured in centuries. Shakespeare incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his play The Comedy of Errors. Building on its later popularity in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century ethnic routines of the American vaudeville house, the style was explored extensively during the “golden era” of black…
• Surrealism Theatre Resources
  Surrealism in the theatre was noticeably less prominent than in the visual arts, centring mainly in Paris in the 1920s. Typical conventions included dream sequences, illogical plots and fantasy elements. This avant-garde theatre movement was the very antithesis of realism. Theatre practitioner Antonin Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists. The form paved the way for future movements such as Theatre of the Absurd. – Justin Cash
• Symbolism
  Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The characteristic emphasis on an internal life of dreams and fantasies have made symbolist theatre…
• Symphonic Drama
  The symphonic outdoor drama is a kind of historical play, set outdoors on the very site depicted in account. It combines music, dance, and drama in a unique way to tell the story. It is most like historical pageantry performed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The best known example of a religious pageant in…
• Theatre of Cruelty
  The Theatre of Cruelty is a form of theatre developed by avant-garde playwright, actor, essayist, and theorist, Antonin Artaud, in The Theatre and its Double. Originally a member of the surrealist movement, Artaud eventually began to develop his own theatrical theories. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as break with traditional Western theatre, and…
• Theatre of Fact
  Documentary theatre is theatre that wholly or in part uses pre-existing documentary material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, etc.) as source material for the script, ideally without altering its wording. Guardian Unlimited Excellent article discussing the reemergence of theatre of fact dramas in contemporary UK theatre and what effect this is having on the…
• Theatre of the Oppressed
  The Theatre of the Oppressed describes theatrical forms that the Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal first elaborated in the 1960s, initially in Brazil and later in Europe. Boal was influenced by the work of the educator and theorist Paulo Freire. Boal’s techniques use theatre as means of promoting social and political change. In the Theatre…
• Tragedy
  Tragedy (from the Greek: goat-song) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and…
• Tragicomedy
  Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or, often, a serious play with a happy ending. Dallas Baptist University Excellent explanation of the…
• Variety Show
  A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts (hence the name), especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and is normally introduced by a compère (master of ceremonies) or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling and ventriloquism….
• Vaudeville: 25 Fascinating Teaching Resources
  Vaudeville arrived in America in the 1880s and became a hugely popular form of cultural entertainment for the next fifty years. Consisting of a series of short, non-related acts on a single bill, vaudeville’s eclectic list of variety performances involved anything from live animals, jugglers, magicians and singers to comedians, dancers, clowns, and female and male impersonators. The form gradually died out due to the competing medium of motion pictures. This page contains a collection of curated resources on the history and characteristics of vaudeville.
• What Makes a Great History Play? Shakespeare Wrote 10 of Them!
  A history play, also known as a chronicle play, is a dramatic work where the events of the plot are either partially or entirely drawn from history. It is also considered a theatrical genre. William Shakespeare wrote ten of these plays, each loosely based on an English monarch and the period in which he reigned. Importantly, these plays remain works of fiction, whether based on an historical figure or not.
• Whodunit: Mysterious Crime Resources for Drama Students
  Often considered a sub-genre of the crime and mystery genres, the whodunit play is a thrilling plot-driven detective story. Suspenseful throughout, the aim of a whodunit is to discover who committed the murder? The audience normally witnesses the perfect crime, while suspects are then wrongly accused. Agatha Christie’s whodunit The Mousetrap ran continuously on London’s West End from 1952 to 2020, making it the longest first run of any play in history. J. B . Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls (1945) is another fine example of the genre.