Editing Entertainment (section)

==== Theatre ====
{{Main|Theatre}}
[[File:G Durand Saturday Night at the Victoria Theatre VA.jpg|thumb|Saturday night audience at the [[Victoria Palace Theatre|Victoria Theatre]], London (1872)]]
Theatre performances, typically dramatic or musical, are presented on a stage for an audience and have a history that goes back to [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic times]] when "leading musicians and actors" performed widely at "poetical competitions", for example at "[[Delphi]], [[Delos]], [[Ephesus]]".<ref>{{cite book|ref=CITEREFMcDonald_Walton2007|title=The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman theatre|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge; New York|isbn=978-0-521-83456-8|editor=McDonald, Marianne |editor2=Walton, J. Michael |page=26}}</ref> [[Aristotle]] and his teacher [[Plato]] both wrote on the theory and purpose of theatre. Aristotle posed questions such as "What is the function of the arts in shaping character? Should a member of the ruling class merely watch performances or be a participant and perform? What kind of entertainment should be provided for those who do not belong to the elite?"{{sfnp|ref=CITEREFMcDonald_Walton2007|McDonald & Walton|2007|p=93}} The "Ptolemys in Egypt, the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucids]] in [[Pergamon|Pergamum]]" also had a strong theatrical tradition and later, wealthy patrons in Rome staged "far more lavish productions".{{sfnp|ref=CITEREFMcDonald_Walton2007|McDonald & Walton|2007|p=26}}<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of British Theatre|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press (3 volumes)|isbn=978-0-521-82790-4|editor1=Milling, Jane |editor2=Donohue, Joseph W. |editor3=Thomson, Peter }}</ref>

Expectations about the performance and their engagement with it have changed over time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kenrick|first=John|title=Musical theatre: a history|year=2008|publisher=Continuum|location=London|isbn=978-0-8264-2860-8}}</ref> For example, in England during the 18th century, "the prejudice against actresses had faded"<ref>{{cite book|last=Ackroyd|first=Peter|title=London: The Biography|year=2000|publisher=Anchor Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-385-49771-8}} p. 620.</ref> and in Europe generally, going to the theatre, once a socially dubious activity, became "a more respectable middle-class pastime"<ref>{{cite book|last=Frame|first=Murray|title=The St. Petersburg Imperial Theaters: Stage and State in Revolutionary Russia, 1900–1920|year=2000|publisher=McFarland & Co, Inc. Publishers|isbn=978-0-7864-4330-7}} pp.&nbsp;65–66.</ref> in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the variety of popular entertainments increased. [[Operetta]] and music halls became available, and new drama theatres such as the [[Moscow Art Theatre]] and the [[Aleksey Suvorin#Suvorin Theatre|Suvorin Theatre]] in Russia opened.{{sfnp|Frame|2000}} At the same time, commercial newspapers "began to carry theatre columns and reviews" that helped make theatre "a legitimate subject of intellectual debate" in general discussions about art and culture.{{sfnp|Frame|2000}} Audiences began to gather to "appreciate creative achievement, to marvel at, and be entertained by, the prominent 'stars'."{{sfnp|Frame|2000}} [[Vaudeville]] and music halls, popular at this time in the United States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, were themselves eventually superseded.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bailey|first=Peter|title=Popular Culture and Performance in the Victorian City|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57417-4}}</ref>

Plays,<ref>{{cite book|last=Mordden|first=Ethan|title=All that glittered: the golden age of drama on Broadway|year=2007|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-33898-5|url=https://archive.org/details/allthatglittered00mord}}</ref> musicals,<ref>{{cite book|last=Stempel|first=Larry|title=Showtime: a history of the Broadway musical theater|year= 2010|publisher=W.W. Norton & Co.|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-06715-6}}</ref> [[monologue]]s, [[pantomime]]s, and [[performance poetry]] are part of the very long history of theatre, which is also the venue for the type of performance known as comedy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Peter M.|title=The dance of the comedians: the people, the president, and the performance of political standup comedy in America|year=2010|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|location=Amherst|isbn=978-1-55849-733-7}}</ref> In the 20th century, radio and television, often broadcast live, extended the theatrical tradition that continued to exist alongside the new forms.

The stage and the spaces set out in front of it for an audience create a theatre. All types of stage are used with all types of seating for the audience, including the impromptu or improvised; the temporary; the elaborate; or the traditional and permanent. They are erected indoors or outdoors. The skill of managing, organising and preparing the stage for a performance is known as [[stagecraft]]. The audience's experience of the entertainment is affected by their expectations, the stagecraft, the type of stage, and the type and standard of seating provided.

<gallery class="center" caption="Theatrical entertainment – stages, staging and stagecraft" widths="180" heights="150">
File:Isaac Cruikshank King John's first appearance at the New Theatre Covent Garden 1809.jpg| Satirical representation of audience reaction (1809)
File:Öffentlich durchgeführte medizinische Behandlung auf einem französischen Jahrmarkt.jpg| Improvised stage for a public performance at a [[fair]] (1642)
File:The stage.jpg| Improvised stage for domestic theatre
File:Dalhalla stage before show.JPG| Outdoor stage before a show
File:Troldsalen-inne03.jpg| Concert theatre ready for solo instrumentalist
File:PipesAndDrums.jpg| Outdoor theatre created from [[Edinburgh castle]] forecourt
File:Noh stage Miyajima Sep2008.jpg| Traditional stage for Japanese [[Noh]] theatre
File:Music Circus Stage 2011.jpg| Stage for [[theatre in the round]]
File:Colon-interior-escenario-TM.jpg| [[Teatro Colón]], a highly decorative, horseshoe theatre
File:SWHS locking rail.jpg| Stagecraft{{snd}} a [[Fly system|locking rail]] backstage
</gallery>