Questions tagged [theater]
For general questions about plays and theatrical performances as works of literature. If your question is about a specific play, use the title and author tags instead.
37 questions
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What does "playing soupé" mean here?
From a letter (allegedly) received by Charles Guiteau in prison, from "A Philadelphia Lawyer":
[...] Corkhill is an ass and cannot appreciate the fine point on which your case turns. Porter ...
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Did classical Greek drama serve to reintegrate combat veterans?
Arguing that participating in theatrical performance can help traumatized individuals, Bessel van der Kolk says:
Greek drama may have served as a ritual reintegration for combat veterans. At the time ...
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Identify solo rock opera about a hit man
When I was in college in the mid-1990's, I saw a rock opera that I've been trying to identify unsuccessfully. This was a touring production (not a college production).
This production had only one ...
6
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1
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Why did it take so long for Jitney to appear on Broadway?
The ten plays in August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle have all appeared on Broadway, but (table adapted from the one on Wikipedia) spot the odd one out:
Year of premiere
Title
Decade
Opened on Broadway
...
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Why did Boy Willie refer to toast as "grilled bread"?
In Act 1, Scene 1 of The Piano Lesson, Boy Willie asks Doaker for some "grilled bread" he was holding. The stage directions identify the "grilled bread" as toast. Why did he refer ...
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What is the English word for "tableau" in the context of the theatre?
This question was initially posted on ell.stackexchange.com but was poorly received, perhaps I'll have better luck here.
In French theater (at least in the 19th century, I'm not talking about ...
user22153
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Why would Goldoni have wanted to allude to a treatise on thermal waters in "La bottega del caffè"?
I managed to find a copy of the critical edition edited by Roberta Turchi of Goldoni's La bottega del caffè. In this book, I found a note that caught my attention. It is a commentary regarding this ...
- 3,003
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Was The Glass Menagerie the first memory play, or merely the first instance of the phrase?
There seems little dispute that Tennessee Williams coined the phrase "memory play" to describe his play The Glass Menagerie, in which one of the characters is also the narrator of events ...
- 25k
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Is the fact that "La bottega del caffè" is an ensemble comedy an innovation by Goldoni?
Reading La bottega del caffè, one striking fact is that if you ask who the main characters are, the answer is that there are none. It is truly what we would call today an ensemble piece: there are ...
- 3,003
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Why are songs no longer performed as part of Shakespeare's plays?
Having studied Macbeth extensively during a course I took as a younger man, I was astonished to learn recently that it is thought to have contained two songs, which are also present in a related play ...
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Did Goldoni decide to set the action of "La bottega del caffè" during a Venetian carnival for the sake of verisimilitude?
I know that Goldoni is the great reformer of Italian theater, who transformed the 'commedia dell'arte' into
true and ‘modern’ theatre texts, entirely scripted, with the various roles defined and ...
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Meaning of "See you at the A and P" in Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet
In Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, what does Fox mean by "See you at A and P
"? Here:
KAREN: I don't belong here.
FOX: Well, I can help you out on that. You
ever come on the lot again, I'm going to ...
9
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1
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Identification of play about fictionalizing an in-universe murder
During the 2010s I saw a 2-act play in Birmingham's Alexandra, with a three-character plot along these lines:
Two people in a house try to kill a third, and think they've succeeded. They wrap him up ...
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Stage whisper-dominated plays
Among plays that have been written and performed before an audience, what is the largest proportion of any play script that is directed to be performed in stage whispers?
I'm interested to know if ...
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Theatre practitioners book
I'm looking for a book that I used to own and can not find. I think it was American, I had a hardback copy, it was blue and I think it had a black and white photo of actors/directors on the cover. It ...
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