Street theatre in the context of "Theatre (building)"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Street theatre in the context of "Theatre (building)"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Street theatre

Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university campus and street corners. They are especially seen in outdoor spaces where there are large numbers of people. Performers range from buskers to organised theatre companies, with the purpose of experimenting with performance spaces, promoting their mainstream work, or being commissioned for events such as street festivals, children's shows, or parades.

The logistics of doing street theatre necessitate simple costumes and props, and often there is little or no amplification of sound, with actors depending on their natural vocal and physical ability. This makes physical theatre, including dance, mime and slapstick, a very popular genre in an outdoor setting. The performances need to be highly visible, loud and simple to follow in order to attract a crowd.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
In this Dossier

Street theatre in the context of Street performance

Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers, although busker is generally not used in American English.

Performances are anything that people find entertaining, including acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, caricatures, clowning, comedy, contortions, escapology, dance, singing, fire skills, flea circus, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime, living statue, musical performance, one man band, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, street theatre, sword swallowing, ventriloquism, weightlifting and washboarding. Buskers may be solo performers or small groups.

↑ Return to Menu

Street theatre in the context of Theater (structure)

A theater, theatre or playhouse, is a structure where theatrical works, performing arts, and musical concerts are presented. The theater building serves to define the performance and audience spaces. The facility usually is organized to provide support areas for performers, the technical crew and the audience members, as well as the stage where the performance takes place.

There are as many types of theaters as there are types of performance. Theaters may be built specifically for certain types of productions, they may serve for more general performance needs or they may be adapted or converted for use as a theater. They may range from open-air amphitheaters to ornate, cathedral-like structures to simple, undecorated rooms or black box theaters. A thrust stage as well as an arena stage are just a few more examples of the multitude of stages where plays can occur. A theatre used for opera performances is called an opera house. A theater is not required for performance (as in environmental theater or street theater), this article is about structures used specifically for performance. Some theaters may have a fixed acting area (in most theaters this is known as the stage), while some theaters, such as black box theaters have movable seating allowing the production to create a performance area suitable for the production.

↑ Return to Menu

Street theatre in the context of Terukuttu

Terukkuttu is a Tamil street theatre form practised in Tamil Nadu state of India and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka. Terukuttu is a form of Koothu, an entertainment, a ritual, and a medium of social instruction, originated from the early Tamilakam. The terukkuttu plays various themes. One theme is from the Tamil language versions of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, focusing on the character Draupadi. The terms Terukkuttu and Kattaikkuttu are often used interchangeably in the modern times; however, historically the two terms appear to have distinguished, at least in certain villages, between two different kinds of performance: while Terukkuttu referred to mobile performances in a procession, Kattaikkuttu denotes overnight, narrative performances at a fixed performance space.

↑ Return to Menu

Street theatre in the context of Devised theatre

Devised theatre – frequently called collective creation – is a method of theatre-making in which the script or (if it is a predominantly physical work) performance score originates from collaborative, often improvisatory work by a performing ensemble. The ensemble is typically made up of actors, but other categories of theatre practitioners may also be central to this process of generative collaboration, such as visual artists, composers, and choreographers; indeed, in many instances, the contributions of collaborating artists may transcend professional specialization. This process is similar to that of commedia dell'arte and street theatre. It also shares some common principles with improvisational theatre; however, in devising, improvisation is typically confined to the creation process: by the time a devised piece is presented to the public, it usually has a fixed, or partly fixed form. Historically, devised theatre is also strongly aligned with physical theatre, due at least in part to the fact that training in such physical performance forms as commedia, mime, and clown tends to produce an actor-creator with much to contribute to the creation of original work.

↑ Return to Menu