THTR 1020 Lecture : 1020 Spring Lecture Outline Two
Document Summary
The qualities of theatre often apply to other forms of performance. There is therefore a great overlap between theatre and these other forms. I therefore resist giving a single, stable definition of theatre though others have! Scholars and artists use theatre refer to many practices from different eras and cultures. Theatre is therefore a tool for reflection and communication among human beings. The mirror is an apt metaphor for the stage. In it we are ourselves and not ourselves, real and an illusion, true and yet false. In the theatre we are always aware that we are watching real people play fictions that have a greater reality than our own lives for the duration of the performance. Theatre operates according to codes or conventions that make communication possible. Theatre, as the most social of all the arts human beings coming together in the same space to share an event also has its rules of conduct and understood communication codes.
