the.com/theatre
Life, but edited for pacing, and everyone agreed to pretend the walls aren't walls.
means A building or art form where live performers act out stories in front of an audience, both sides tacitly agreeing to believe in something fake for a couple of hours.
from From Greek 'theatron,' literally 'a place for viewing' — built from 'theasthai,' meaning 'to behold' or 'to gaze at' (it's related to 'theory,' another word about watching and seeing). The Greeks named the seats, basically — the structure where spectators sat to watch the drama — and the word wandered through Latin 'theatrum' into French and English, gradually sliding from the architecture itself to everything that happens inside it: the plays, the performers, the entire pretending.
- origin
- from greek theatron, literally seeing place
- rule
- actors never acknowledge the fourth wall exists
- economics
- most productions lose money even when sold out
- superstition
- saying macbeth backstage invites actual disaster