Talk:Theater (structure)

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A fact from Theater (structure) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 6 April 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that during the Elizabethan era in England, theatres were constructed of wood and were circular in form, open to the elements and with a large portion of the audience standing directly below the stage?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/April.

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Theater (structure)

This article is about theater buildings and the history of theater construction. Nobbie 07:54, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This section was originally found in Theatre for early history of this article see the history located with that article. Ganymead 13:44, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This is the trunk article

I couldn't really find anything here, so is there some other article where things like stalls, dress circle, upper circle, etc. are explained? And shouldn't areas such as the orchestra pit be mentioned in this article? <K F> 22:20, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

The Auditorium article is the best place for such descriptions - it needs padding out a little. Sticki 20:28, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

No, this article needs to incorporate all the fragments listed in Category:Parts of a theatre with links for the reader. Auditorium is just part of a theatre's structure. The text at Auditorium also needs to be represented here in a concise version with the Main article: see... heading. Theatre (structure) is the trunk article, from which all fragments (sometimes just expanded dictionary definitions) can be directly reached. Think encyclopedic. --Wetman 05:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Stage directions

This section is fairly useless here so I removed it to Stage (theatre).

==Stage directions==

The stage itself has been given named areas to facilitate blocking:

The rear of the stage is considered up-stage This derives from the raked stage of the Greek Theater (see below).
The front of the stage is down-stage.
Stage Left and right, at least in British and North American Theater, refer to the actor's left and right facing the audience. Because this is sometimes misunderstood the terms prompt (stage) (left) and opposite prompt (right) are also used.
House left and house right refer to how the audience perceives the stage. The audience’s left is referred to as house left, and the audience’s right is referred to as house right.

I've cut and pasted the above text at [[blocking (stage), in order to complete the incomplete editing action. As a general rule, never simply delete useful text without finding the more appropriate place for it: remember, that's undoing someone's work. --Wetman 05:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Friends,

Several Wikians, in several languages, have called for a disambiguation between theaters as physical buildings and "the theater." I found that many, many, many -- oh, so many -- of the language links were wrong -- i.e., they linked buildings with the art form. Even on the Latin page this was a problem. Thus, I have started to do some work on having "Theater (physical structure)", "Theater (prose)", and "Lyric Theater (= Opera)" be three separate pages, in all the languages. A big project, but there was call for it even before I noticed the problem. GiovaneScuola2006 14:38, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The convenient notion to use one spelling for buildings and one for the art form is flawed. It does not reflect the reality. Instead it reflects the frustration a few Wikians have trying to atificially force reality to conform conviently (for them) into a system where only one entry of the spelling is permitted by the folks who run Wikipedia. However, in reality, both spellings are used for both of these meanings.

I think all pretty much agree on what the British usage is. In America there is a prevailing usage that can be found in most reference sources and publications of record.

Theater is used by America's national theater and all major American newspapers such as the New York Times (theater section) to refer to both the dramatic arts as well as to buidlings where performances take place.

Numerous other examples can be found under the discussion 'What is the international spelling of "theater"?'. W.C. 19:21, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

British v. American

I reverted someone's edit, changing all the instances of "theatre" to "theater". My mistake - sorry. I thought for a minute that I was working on the Globe Theatre. If this article was begun in American English, it should stay that way. Cbdorsett 15:23, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No foul! Thanks for letting us know the circumstances. --Old Moonraker 15:27, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I can see why the mistake was made, the article veers between International and American English - often in the same sentence (cf Globe Theatre (link) and Globe Theater (unlinked)) - I'm not going to change it, but I do feel that the article would read better if it were all in one form. Dare I suggest that the majority is in International English and should go to that form. Exeunt, pursued by bears .... Kbthompson (talk) 10:45, 3 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Boldly jumping in: I've changed all the "theatre" to "theater" to match the spelling of the article title, except the proper names and links. Likewise awaiting the "savage clamour" (oops, another UK spelling) ....

--Old Moonraker (talk) 11:29, 3 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

actors going through the audience

is there a special term for that like "Walking Act" oder "Walk Act"? -- 172.180.208.41 18:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dress circle

May I ask if someone could write something about this an related terms and link up to those here? I tried to look up the term yesterday and found it here. However I coulnd't find an explanation as to why different sections are so named. Being a foreign speaker and not knowing too much about theatre stuctures I think I should leave that to someone else. --Teodor605 (talk) 10:02, 11 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A little more, but not much, in Auditorium. --Old Moonraker (talk) 10:37, 11 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Parterre

In two recently constructed Toronto music halls, there are sections of seats referred to as "parterre". These are different from the 18th centery parterre which was on the floor of the orchestra. The modern parterre section is slightly raised above other seats at orchestra level and the section is against a side or rear wall. "Parterre" is not present in Category:Parts of a theatre. I am merely a theatre goer rather than an architect so I don't feel qualified to edit the article. Rdmoore6 (talk) 20:33, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Slight expansion of parterre from an existing source. Your "orchestra level" usage is still current in UK. I couldn't reference your "slightly raised", but it seems logical, so people at the back can see over the people at the front. --Old Moonraker (talk) 21:09, 19 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Enclosed theatres

Enclosed theatres were not invented during the British Restoration. They were created in Italy in the same period of Elizabethan Theatre: the surviving examples are the Teatro Olimpico and the Teatro all'antica. Moreover, in the same period there was an intermediate pattern: the Spanish corral de comedias. Lele giannoni (talk) 21:06, 18 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Daemonic Kangaroo (talk) 06:22, 2 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Theatre (structure) → Theater (structure) – WP:RETAIN. This page has been in American English and at Theater (structure) for nearly eight years, until Grammarcrammer decided unilaterally and against policy to change the spelling to the -re version. [1] Then, Daemonic Kangaroo, in good faith saw the article post-spelling change, noticed it was now in British English, didn't check the history (honest mistake--I might not have, either) and boldly moved it to the current title. But this article, title and all, had been in American English for a long, long time. As per WP:RETAIN... Red Slash 17:17, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I know some people think spelling should be consistent throughout WP but even though the vast majority of articles are spelled using theatre I agree this one should retain the spelling used in most of its history. Zarcadia (talk) 18:32, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy support per WP:RETAIN and out-of-process changes detailed by Red Slash. Powers ^T 23:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Obvious support the move to this title (the British spelling) was done in complete disregard to existing guidelines (WP:RETAIN). Hot Stop 02:32, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support per WP:RETAIN. SSR (talk) 06:44, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support - Next time I'll check the article's history before making such a move. Presumably, the spelling in the article will be changed back to make it consistent. BTW, the more serious problem is that the article has no references until the last two paragraphs. -- Daemonic Kangaroo (talk) 09:11, 1 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Citations needed

There are a lot of uncited passages in this article. Perhaps this article could be shorter and not try to explain in such detail? I will try to add some references and have a look more at the structure of it, to see what could be trimmed. Pakoire (talk) 09:22, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Engl 221 Introduction to Technical and Professional Communication

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 8 January 2024 and 22 March 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Deedeeedits (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Mpmill, Sflower07, Dancermia11, Mariposa41324.

— Assignment last updated by EMEEdits (talk) 19:30, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question for my class assignment

I had a question about editing this article. Is this wiki article considering how different theater architecture affects the play itself and how certain productions can only be staged in a certain type of theater or is it just the history being covered? Deedeeedits (talk) 04:17, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]