Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance. Elements of design and stagecraft are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”) and θεάομαι (theáomai, “to see", "to watch", "to observe”).

Modern Western theatre derives in large measure from ancient Greek drama, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre scholar Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing, and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature, and the arts in general. Theatre includes performances of plays and musicals. Although it can be defined broadly to include opera and ballet, those art forms are outside the scope of this article.

History

Classical and Hellenistic Greece

The city-state of Athens invented theatre. It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and ''symposia''. Participation in the city-state's many festivals—and attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member (or even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particular—was an important part of citizenship. Civic participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly, both of which were understood as analagous to the theatre and increasingly came to absorb its dramatic vocabulary. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism, acting as a career, and theatre architecture. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play.

Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world), and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. No tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institutionalised in competitions (''agon'') held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama) playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE; official records (''didaskaliai'') begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced. Most Athenian tragedies dramatise events from Greek mythology, though ''The Persians''—which stages the Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE—is the notable exception in the surviving drama. When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his ''Poetics'' (c. 335 BCE).

Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New Comedy". Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster.

Roman theatre

Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans. The Roman historian Livy wrote that the Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a performance by Etruscan actors. Beacham argues that they had been familiar with "pre-theatrical practices" for some time before that recorded contact. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage.

Post-classical theatre in the West

Theatre took on many alternate forms in the West between the 15th and 19th centuries, including ''commedia dell'arte'' and melodrama. The general trend was away from the poetic drama of the Greeks and the Renaissance and toward a more naturalistic prose style of dialogue, especially following the Industrial Revolution.

Through the 19th century, the popular theatrical forms of Romanticism, melodrama, Victorian burlesque and the well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou gave way to the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism; the farces of Feydeau; Wagner's operatic ''Gesamtkunstwerk''; musical theatre (including Gilbert and Sullivan's operas); F. C. Burnand's, W. S. Gilbert's and Wilde's drawing-room comedies; Symbolism; proto-Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen; and Edwardian musical comedy.

These trends continued through the 20th century in the realism of Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, the political theatre of Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht, the so-called Theatre of the Absurd of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, American and British musicals, the collective creations of companies of actors and directors such as Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, experimental and postmodern theatre of Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage, the postcolonial theatre of August Wilson or Tomson Highway, and Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.

Eastern theatrical traditions

The earliest form of Indian theatre was the Sanskrit theatre. It began after the development of Greek and Roman theatre and before the development of theatre in other parts of Asia. Japanese forms of Kabuki, Nō, and Kyōgen developed in the 17th century CE. Theatre in the medieval Islamic world included puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ''ta'ziya'', where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the ''shaheed'' (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Secular plays were known as ''akhraja'', recorded in medieval ''adab'' literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ''ta'ziya'' theatre.

Types

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action", which is derived from "to do". The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. The early modern tragedy ''Hamlet'' (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy ''Oedipus the King'' (c. 429 BCE) by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama. A modern example is ''Long Day's Journey into Night'' by Eugene O’Neill (1956).

Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's ''Poetics'' (c. 335 BCE)—the earliest work of dramatic theory. The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific ''type'' of play dates from the 19th century. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is ''neither'' a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's ''Thérèse Raquin'' (1873) or Chekhov's ''Ivanov'' (1887).

Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and Japanese Nō, for example). In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) some dramas have been written to be read rather than performed. In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.

Musical theatre

Music and theatre have had a close relationship since ancient times—Athenian tragedy, for example, was a form of dance-drama that employed a chorus whose parts were sung (to the accompaniment of an ''aulos''—an instrument comparable to the modern clarinet), as were some of the actors' responses and their 'solo songs' (monodies). Modern musical theatre is a form of theatre that also combines music, spoken dialogue, and dance. It emerged from comic opera (especially Gilbert and Sullivan), variety, vaudeville, and music hall genres of the late 19th and early 20th century. After the Edwardian musical comedy that began in the 1890s, the Princess Theatre musicals of the early 20th century, and comedies in the 1920s and 1930s (such as the works of Rodgers and Hart), with ''Oklahoma!'' (1943), musicals moved in a more dramatic direction. Famous musicals over the subsequent decades included ''My Fair Lady'' (1956), ''West Side Story'' (1957), ''The Fantasticks'' (1960), ''Hair'' (1967), ''A Chorus Line'' (1975), ''Les Misérables'' (1980), and ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1986).

Musical theatre may be produced on an intimate scale Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and elsewhere, but it often includes spectacle. For instance, Broadway and West End musicals often include lavish costumes and sets supported by multi-million dollar budgets.

Comedy

Theatre productions that use humour as a vehicle to tell a story qualify as comedies. This may include a modern farce such as ''Boeing Boeing'' or a classical play such as ''As You Like It''. Theatre expressing bleak, controversial or taboo subject matter in a deliberately humorous way is referred to as black comedy.

Tragedy

Tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it. From its obscure origins in the theatres of Athens 2,500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through its singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Racine, and Schiller, to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of Strindberg, Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering, and Müller's postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change. In the wake of Aristotle's ''Poetics'' (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre.

Theories of theatre

Having been an important part of human culture for more than 2,500 years, theatre has evolved a wide range of different theories and practices. Some are related to political or spiritual ideologies, while others are based purely on "artistic" concerns. Some processes focus on a story, some on theatre as event, and some on theatre as catalyst for social change. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle's ''Poetics'' (c. 335 BCE) is the earliest-surviving example and its arguments have influenced theories of theatre ever since. In it, he offers an account of what he calls "poetry" (a term which in Greek literally means "making" and in this context includes drama—comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play—as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and the dithyramb). He examines its "first principles" and identifies its genres and basic elements; his analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion. He argues that tragedy consists of six qualitative parts, which are (in order of importance) ''mythos'' or "plot", ''ethos'' or "character", ''dianoia'' or "thought", ''lexis'' or "diction", ''melos'' or "song", and ''opsis'' or "spectacle". "Although Aristotle's ''Poetics'' is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition," Marvin Carlson explains, "almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions." Important theatre practitioners of the 20th century include Konstantin Stanislavski, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Edward Gordon Craig, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Luís de Sttau Monteiro, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal, and Dario Fo.

Stanislavski treated the theatre as an art-form that is autonomous from literature and one in which the playwright's contribution should be respected as that of only one of an ensemble of creative artists. His innovative contribution to modern acting theory has remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century. That many of the precepts of his 'system' of actor training seem to be common sense and self-evident testifies to its hegemonic success. Actors frequently employ his basic concepts without knowing they do so. Many actors routinely equate his 'system' with the American Method, although the latter's exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with Stanislavski's multivariant, holistic and psychophysical approach, which explores character and action both from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in' and treats the actor's mind and body as parts of a continuum.

Technical aspects of theatre

Theatre presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002 and 13 million in 2007, setting a new record for the West End. Since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of famous screen actors on the London stage.

Repertory companies

While most modern theatre companies rehearse one piece of theatre at a time, perform that piece for a set "run", retire the piece, and begin rehearsing a new show, repertory companies rehearse multiple shows at one time. These companies are able to perform these various pieces upon request and often perform works for years before retiring them. Most dance companies operate on this repertory system. The Royal National Theatre in London performs on a repertory system.

Repertory theatre generally involves a group of similarly accomplished actors, and relies more on the reputation of the group than on an individual star actor. It also typically relies less on strict control by a director and less on adherence to theatrical conventions, since actors who have worked together in multiple productions can respond to each other without relying as much on convention or external direction.

Producing vs. presenting

In order to put on a piece of theatre, both a theatre company and a theatre venue are needed. When a theatre company is the sole company in residence at a theatre venue, this theatre (and its corresponding theatre company) are called a resident theatre or a producing theatre, because the venue produces its own work. Other theatre companies, as well as dance companies, do not have their own theatre venue. These companies perform at rental theatres or at presenting theatres. Both rental and presenting theatres have no full time resident companies. They do, however, sometimes have one or more part time resident companies, in addition to other independent partner companies who arrange to use the space when available. A rental theatre allows the independent companies to seek out the space, while a presenting theatre seeks out the independent companies to support their work by presenting them on their stage.

Some performance groups perform in non-theatrical spaces. Such performances can take place outside or inside, in a non-traditional performance space, and include street theatre, and site specific theatre. Non-traditional venues can be used to create more immersive or meaningful environments for audiences. They can sometimes be modified more heavily than traditional theatre venues, or can accommodate different kinds of equipment, lighting and sets.

A touring company is an independent theatre or dance company that travels, often internationally, being presented at a different theatre in each city.

Unions

There are many theatre unions including Actors Equity Association (for actors and stage managers), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE, for designers and technicians). Many theatres require that their staff be members of these organizations.

See also

Acting

Alternative theatre

Black light theatre

Culinary theatre

Illusionistic tradition

Employment in theatre

List of awards in theatre

List of notable theatre festivals

List of playwrights

List of theatre directors

Outline of theatre

Performance art

Reader's theatre

Theatre consultant

Theatre for development

Theater (structure)

Theatre technique

Theatrical style

Notes

Sources

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Brown, John Russell. 1997. ''What is Theatre?: An Introduction and Exploration.'' Boston and Oxford: Focal P. ISBN 978-0240802329 .

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Burt, Daniel S. 2008. ''The Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time.'' New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-6073-3.

Carlson, Marvin. 1993. ''Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present.'' Expanded ed. Ithaca and London: Cornell UP. ISBN 0801481546.

Carnicke, Sharon M. 1998. ''Stanislavsky in Focus''. Russian Theatre Archive Ser. London: Harwood Academic Publishers. ISBN 9057550709.

---. 2000. "Stanislavsky's System: Pathways for the Actor". In Hodge (2000, 11–36).

Counsell, Colin. 1996. ''Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theatre.'' London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415106436.

Dacre, Kathy, and Paul Fryer, eds. 2008. ''Stanislavski on Stage.'' Sidcup, Kent: Stanislavski Centre Rose Bruford College. ISBN 1903454018.

Deal, William E. 2007. ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan.'' Oxford: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-533126-4.

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. ''Anti-Œdipus''. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 . New Accents Ser. London and New York: Methuen. ISBN 0416720609.

Dukore, Bernard F., ed. 1974. ''Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greeks to Grotowski''. Florence, KY: Heinle & Heinle. ISBN 978-0030911521.

Elam, Keir. 1980. ''The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama''. New Accents Ser. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415039840.

Felski, Rita, ed. 2008. ''Rethinking Tragedy.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP. ISBN 0801887402.

Fergusson, Francis. 1949. ''The Idea of a Theater: A Study of Ten Plays, The Art of Drama in a Changing Perspective.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1968. ISBN 0691012881.

Gauss, Rebecca B. 1999. ''Lear's Daughters: The Studios of the Moscow Art Theatre 1905–1927''. American University Studies ser. 26 Theatre Arts, vol. 29. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0820441559.

Gordon, Mel. 1983. ''Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell'Arte''. New York: Performing Arts Journal. ISBN 0933826699.

Gordon, Robert. 2006. ''The Purpose of Playing: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective.'' Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P. ISBN 978-0472068876.

Harrison, Martin. 1998. ''The Language of Theatre''. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1857543742.

Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. 1983. ''The Oxford Companion to the Theatre''. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0192115461.

Hodge, Alison, ed. 2000. ''Twentieth-Century Actor Training''. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415194525.

Janko, Richard, trans. 1987. ''Poetics with Tractatus Coislinianus, Reconstruction of Poetics II and the Fragments of the On Poets.'' By Aristotle. Cambridge: Hackett. ISBN 978-0872200333.

Johnstone, Keith. 1981. ''Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre'' Rev. ed. London: Methuen, 2007. ISBN 0713687010.

Jones, John Bush. 2003. ''Our Musicals, Ourselves: A Social History of the American Musical Theatre.'' Hanover: Brandeis UP. ISBN 1584653116.

Kuritz, Paul. 1988. ''The Making of Theatre History.'' Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-547861-5.

Leach, Robert. 1989. ''Vsevolod Meyerhold''. Directors in perspective ser. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 978-0521318433.

---. 2004. ''Makers of Modern Theatre: An Introduction''. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415312417.

Leach, Robert, and Victor Borovsky, eds. 1999. ''A History of Russian Theatre.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 978-0521034357.

Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Daniel. 2001. ''Approaches to Acting: Past and Present.'' London and New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0826478795.

Meyerhold, Vsevolod. 1991. ''Meyerhold on Theatre''. Ed. and trans. Edward Braun. Revised edition. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0413387905.

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Pavis, Patrice. 1998. ''Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis.'' Trans. Christine Shantz. Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P. ISBN 978-0802081636.

Peterson, Richard A. 1982. "Five Constraints on the Production of Culture: Law, Technology, Market, Organizational Structure and Occupational Careers." ''The Journal of Popular Culture'' 16.2: 143–153.

Pfister, Manfred. 1977. ''The Theory and Analysis of Drama''. Trans. John Halliday. European Studies in English Literature Ser. Cambridige: Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0521423830.

Rayner, Alice. 1994. ''To Act, To Do, To Perform: Drama and the Phenomenology of Action.'' Theater: Theory/Text/Performance Ser. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472105373.

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Richmond, Farley. 1998. "India." In Banham (1998, 516–525).

Richmond, Farley P., Darius L. Swann, and Phillip B. Zarrilli, eds. 1993. ''Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance.'' U of Hawaii P. ISBN 978-0824813222.

Roach, Joseph R. 1985. ''The Player's Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting''. Theater:Theory/Text/Performance Ser. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P. ISBN 978-0472082445.

Speirs, Ronald, trans. 1999. ''The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings.'' By Friedrich Nietzsche. Ed. Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy ser. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0521639875.

Spolin, Viola. 1967. ''Improvisation for the Theater''. Third rev. ed Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 081014008X.

Taxidou, Olga. 2004. ''Tragedy, Modernity and Mourning''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP. ISBN 0748619879.

Ward, A. C. 1945. ''Specimens of English Dramatic Criticism XVII-XX Centuries.'' The World's Classics ser. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. ISBN 978-1408631157.

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External links

Theatre Archive Project (UK) British Library & University of Sheffield.

Theater Wikia – An editable database dedicated to all aspects of theatre.

University of Bristol Theatre Collection

Music Hall and Theatre History of Britain and Ireland

nan:Hì-kio̍k

Category:Stage terminology

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''"Donald Baker" redirects here. You may be looking for the plaintiff in ''Baker v. Wade''

name	Don Baker
background	solo_singer
birth name	Don Baker
birth date	August 26, 1950
origin	Sheriff street, inner city Dublin, Whitehall, Dublin County, Ireland
genre	Rock, Blues
associated acts	Sonny Boy Williamson, Sonny Terry, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell, Charlie McCoy
occupation	Musician, singer, songwriter, actor
years active	1960–present (musician) 1991–present (actor)
label	[Own Label]
website	www.donbaker.ie }}

Don Baker (born 26 August 1950 in Whitehall, Dublin) is an Irish blues musician and actor.

Baker is a singer-songwriter who plays the harmonica and the guitar. He appeared in several films, his most notable appearance being in ''In the Name of the Father''. He also published harmonica instruction books and videos.

In August 2008, he starred in RTÉ's reality show ''Fáilte Towers'' and came in a very respectable third place, earning huge amounts of money for his charity "Health Action Overseas"

Discography

''Almost illegal''

''Duckin' & Divin''

''Miss You''

''No Regrets "Live in Concert"''

''Four for the Road'' with Jimmy McCarthy, Mick Hanly and Finbar Furey

''Born With the Blues''

''Just Don Baker''

''No Nonsense''

Bibliography

''The Winner in Me''

''Beginning Blues Harp''

''Beginning Rock Harp''

''Famous Harmonica Styles''

''Complete Harmonica Techniques''

''Learn to Play Blues Harmonica''

''Soodlums Harmonica Pack''

Filmography

''In the Name of the Father'' (1993)

''On the Nose'' (2001)

References

External links

Official Don Baker Website

Beginning Blues Harp with Don Baker DVD

Famous Harmonica Styles

J'Apprends L'Harmonica Blues

Methode Intégrale des Différentes Techniques de l'Harmonica

Rattlebag Don Baker in conversation with RTE's Myles Dungan

Under the Influence Don Baker in conversation with Joe Jackson

Category:Irish male singers Category:Irish singer-songwriters Category:Irish songwriters Category:Blues harmonica players Category:People from County Dublin Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Music from Dublin (city)

fr:Don Baker

David Cromer is an American theatre director and stage actor. He has received recognition for his work Off-Broadway and in his native Chicago. Cromer has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including winning the Lucille Lortel Award and Obie Award for his direction of ''Our Town''. He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for his direction of ''The Adding Machine''.

Biography

Cromer attended Columbia College Chicago.

He was nominated for or won the Joseph Jefferson Award for his work in Chicago productions, winning for ''Angels in America'' Parts I and II in 1998, ''The Price'' in 2002, and ''The Cider House Rules'' in 2003. In 2005, Cromer made his Off-Broadway debut directing Austin Pendleton's ''Orson's Shadow'' at the Barrow Street Theatre. The production originated at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. His 2008 production of a musical adaptation of ''The Adding Machine'' also moved to Off-Broadway from Chicago and received wide critical acclaim, receiving six Lucille Lortel Award nominations in the 2008 season, more than any other show. Cromer received a nomination for the 2008 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Director of a Musical, for ''The Adding Machine''. It is now being produced in regional theaters around the country.

In 2009, Cromer performed the role of the Stage Manager in an Off-Broadway revival of ''Our Town'', which he also directed, at The Barrow Street Theatre. The production, which began in Chicago in 2008, has been acclaimed for its non-traditional elements. Cromer won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director and the Obie Award, Directing for ''Our Town''.

In October 2009, Cromer directed a short-lived Broadway revival of ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' starring Noah Robbins, Santino Fontana, Laurie Metcalf, and Dennis Boutsikaris. (The planned production of ''Broadway Bound'' was cancelled.) He has directed the Broadway revival of ''The House of Blue Leaves'', which plays a limited run in April 2011 to August 2011. The cast stars Ben Stiller and Edie Falco.

He will direct Nicole Kidman in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' expected to premiere in the fall of 2011. He will direct the Broadway-bound musical ''Yank!'' by Joseph and David Zellnik. He will direct ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Massachusetts, starring Jessica Hecht as Blanche, which will run in June to July 2011.

He was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow.

References

External links

Internet Off-Broadway Listing

Category:American theatre directors Category:American stage actors Category:American voice actors Category:Joseph Jefferson Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Skokie, Illinois Category:Columbia College Chicago alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:MacArthur Fellows

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