THEATRICAL PRODUCTION

the planning, rehearsal, and presentation of a work. Such a work is presented to an audience at a particular time and place by live performers, who use either themselves or inanimate figures, such as puppets, as the medium of presentation. A theatrical production can be either dramatic or nondramatic, depending upon the activity presented. While dramatic productions frequently conform to a written text, it is not the use of such a text but rather the fictional mimetic (from Greek mimesis, imitation, representation) nature of the performer's behaviour that makes a work dramatic. For example, a person walking a tightrope is performing an acrobatic act, whereas a person who pretends to be an acrobat walking a tightrope is performing a dramatic act. Both performers are engaged in theatrical presentation, but only the latter is involved in the creation of dramatic illusion. Though a dramatic performance may include dancing, singing, juggling, acrobatics, or other nondramatic elements, it is concerned mainly with the representation of actual or imagined life. In nondramatic theatrical productions there is no imitation of another existence but simply the entertainment or excitation of the audience by the performer. Whether acrobatic or musical, gestural or vocal, such activity is theatrical because it is presented by a live performer to an audience, but it remains nondramatic so long as it has a purely presentational quality rather than a representational one. In any single theatrical production, one or another type of activity may so prevail that there is little difficulty in determining the aesthetic nature of the final work. A play by the 19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, with its depiction of middle-class behaviour, minimizes nondramatic activity; the recital of a song by the 19th-century Romantic composer Franz Schubert, by contrast, with its emphasis upon musical values, may ignore dramatic elements and, to a considerable extent, even the act of presentation itself. Between these two extremes, however, there are many types of theatrical production in which the aesthetic nature of the form is less simple. Opera, for example, employs both drama and music in shifting patterns of emphasis. In Europe and the United States several forms arose in the 20th century that combine dramatic and nondramatic material. Vaudeville, or music hall, for instance, employs a succession of various acts, such as fictional sketches, musical and dance numbers, and feats of dexterity, of which some are representational and others are not. In the musical theatre, song and dance serve both to further the narrative and to provide a break from purely dramatic presentation. This variety also characterizes much of Oriental theatre, in which dramatic moments are elaborated in dancelike exhibitions. In light of these examples, the definition of what constitutes theatrical production must remain elastic. For a general discussion of theatre as an art form, as well as a specific treatment of the crafts of acting and directing, see the articles theatre, directing, and acting. Drama as a literary genre is treated in the article dramatic literature, while the history of dramatic literature is covered in theatre, history of. Drama or dramatic literature is also treated in numerous other articles, including those on the literature or art of a specific country or region, of which the following are examples: African arts; American literature; Central Asian arts; East Asian arts; English literature; French literature; German literature; Greek literature; Oceanic arts; South Asian arts; and Southeast Asian arts. Other articles that pertain to theatrical production include circus; folk arts: Folk dance; and puppetry. Additional reading John Gassner, Producing the Play, rev. ed. (1953), descriptions of standard practices in major aspects of theatrical production until the middle of the 20th century; and Toby Cole and Helen Krich Chinoy (eds.), Actors on Acting, new rev. ed. (1970), and Directors on Directing, 2nd rev. ed. (1963, reprinted 1976), collections of essays by actors and directors, respectively. The insights of prominent persons in the field, with coverage of their working methods, are found in Eugenio Barba, The Floating Islands: Reflections with Odin Teatret, trans. from Danish, Italian, and Norwegian (1979); Jerzy Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre (1968, reissued 1975); and Erwin Piscator, The Political Theatre (1978; originally published in German, 1929). Studies of directing include Edward Braun, The Director and the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski (1982).Phyllis Hartnoll (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 4th ed. (1983), is a reference source. For further research, the following bibliographies are recommended: David F. Cheshire, Theatre: History, Criticism, and Reference (1967), a guide to theatre books in English, with emphasis on the British stage; and Claudia Jean Bailey, A Guide to Reference and Bibliography for Theatre Research, 2nd rev. ed. (1983). Studies of theatrical history and philosophy include Oscar G. Brockett, History of the Theatre, 4th ed. (1982); Allardyce Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre: A Study of Theatrical Art from the Beginnings to the Present Day, 5th rev. ed. (1966); Barrett H. Clark, European Theories of the Drama; with a Supplement on American Drama: An Anthology of Dramatic Theory and Criticism from Aristotle to the Present Day, rev. ed., edited by Henry Popkin (1965); George Freedley and John A. Reeves, A History of the Theatre, 3rd rev. ed. (1968); A.M. Nagler, Sources of Theatrical History (1952, reissued 1959); and Keir Elam, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama (1980). Specific periods and areas are examined in Margarete Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theater, 2nd rev. ed. (1961); E.K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage, 2 vol. (1903, reprinted 1978); A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici, 15391637 (1964, reprinted 1976); A.M. Nagler, Shakespeare's Stage, enlarged ed., trans. from the German (1981); Michael Hattaway, Elizabethan Popular Theatre (1982); Giuliana Ricci, Teatri d'Italia: Dalla Magna Grecia all'Ottocento (1971); Margarete Baur-Heinhold, The Baroque Theatre: A Cultural History of the 17th and 18th Centuries (1967; originally published in German, 1966); Leslie Hotson, The Commonwealth and Restoration Stage (1928, reissued 1962); Michael R. Booth, Victorian Spectacular Theatre, 18501910 (1981); Howard Goorney, The Theatre Workshop Story (1981); Gerald M. Berkowitz, New Broadways: Theatre Across America, 19501980 (1982); Faubion Bowers, Theatre in the East (1956, reprinted 1980); A.C. Scott, An Introduction to the Chinese Theatre (1958); and Balwant Gargi, Theatre in India (1962). Historical developments are studied in the following works: William Tydeman, The Theatre in the Middle Ages: Western European Stage Conditions, c. 8001576 (1978); George R. Kernodle, From Art to Theatre: Form and Convention in the Renaissance (1944); Barnard Hewitt, The Renaissance Stage: Documents of Serlio, Sabbattini, and Furttenbach (1958); Alan C. Dessen, Elizabethan Stage Conventions and Modern Interpreters (1984); Andrew Curr, The Shakespearean Stage, 15741642, 2nd ed. (1980); Ashley Horace Thorndike, Shakespeare's Theater (1916, reprinted 1968); C. Walter Hodges, The Globe Restored (1953, reprinted 1977); Allardyce Nicoll, Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage (1938, reprinted 1980); and Per Bjurstrm, Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design (1961).Architecture and construction of theatres are examined in Donald C. Mullin, The Development of the Playhouse: A Survey of Theatre Architecture from the Renaissance to the Present (1970); Roberto Aloi, Architetture per lo spettacolo (1958); Maxwell Silverman, Contemporary Theatre Architecture: An Illustrated Survey (1965); Jo Mielziner, The Shapes of Our Theatre (1970); Harold Burris-Meyer and Edward C. Cole, Theatres and Auditoriums, 2nd ed. (1964, reprinted 1975); Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Farkas Molnr, The Theater of the Bauhaus (1961, reissued 1979; originally published in German, 1925); Gerhard Graubner, Theaterbau: Aufgabe und Planung (1968); George C. Izenour, Theater Design (1977); and Edwin O. Sachs and Ernest A.E. Woodrow, Modern Opera Houses and Theatres, 3 vol. (189698, reprinted 1981).