Theatre

Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art and stagecraft are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe").

Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from ancient Greek drama, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing, and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature, and the arts in general.

Theatre Arts Magazine

Theatre Arts Magazine, sometimes titled Theatre Arts or Theatre Arts Monthly, was a magazine published from November 1916 to January 1964. It was established by author and critic Sheldon Warren Cheney.

History

Cheney established the magazine as a quarterly publication with the support of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, which provided him with a workspace and financial support. The society's support proved short-lived. When the United States entered World War I, censorship of German art became common. Cheney criticized this practice in the magazine's August 1917 issue, leading the society to drop its support. Cheney responded by moving the magazine to New York City. Cheney served as the magazine's editor until 1921, with several co-editors being added as of volume three.

With Cheney's departure, Edith J.R. Isaacs took over as the lead editor. In 1924 the name of the magazine changed to Theatre Arts Monthly, and its frequency of publication increased to match the new title. In 1939 the name was changed again to Theatre Arts. As editor, Isaacs included arts such as music and dance in her view of "theatre". She supported the Little Theatre Movement and the establishment of the American National Theater and Academy. She publicized emerging artists, including Martha Graham, Robert Edmond Jones, Jo Mielziner, Donald Oenslager, Eugene O'Neill, and Thornton Wilder.