In general, theatre simply means a venue of usually large scale live entertainment. The first drama in recorded history - 8th century B.C, were from Greece. Greek Drama, closely associated with religion - stories based on myth or history, were performed for special gods worshipping festivals. Singing had been an important part in Greek Drama & that actors and playwrights competed among one another for prizes. Then Rome borrowed Greek ideas & improving on them, thus creating Roman Theatre whereby Julius Caesar built the 1st Stone Theatre in 55 B.C. and enjoyed entertainments more than just plays. It was also used for acrobatics, gladiators, jugglers, athletics, chariots races, animal fights and many circus-like performances. It could be a place of genuine cruelty and violence.
But as mankind evolved into civilization, many of such actual cruelty and violence in theatre has been submerged from the public. I used the word "submerged" here because I do not forsake the possibility of underground theatre of such nature. Though there might still be violence in the public theatres of today, but I have strong reasons to believe that they're mostly the art of “Stage Combat”, a series of pre-planned, safely executed moves for fight scenes which are choreographed and executed after careful rehearsal, so as not to hurt one another at all. Careful designs of safe weapon-like props have also contributed to the realistic violence in theatre, e.g. retractable knives, wax beer bottles, artificial blood & etc. All these are done purely for the virtual pleasure purposes in theatre.
In another sense, as nowadays theatre are more commonly used for plays or dramas, theatre is a museum of the art of performing, and a venue for storytelling to a variety of many other forms of entertainment. It is a "small world" that houses the lives and spirits of producers, directors, scriptwriters, actors and all personnel involved in staging a play, and not forgetting to include all the other performing art lovers as well.
The word "theatre" is also commonly used to refer to plays. Many referred theatre and drama as the same subject, but my personal definitions for these two words are that drama means a short (usually around 30 minutes) and small scale play (small venue for audiences of about 20-30), but theatre means a much longer running (usually may reach up to 1-2 hours) and larger scale play (large venues for audiences of near hundred and above). As a result, I often regard a theatre as a major production that involves a large crew of people with heavy commitments, intimate cooperation, intensive rehearsals and that it is highly disciplinary demanding. Personally, I feel that a good theatre play should always have a good storyline of moral or message to share with the audiences.
Theatre has long been evolved into movie theatre or so-called screen plays in cinemas. From a performer's point of view on theatre, in terms of acting for a theatre productions compared to screen productions, a significant difference is that the style of acting in theatre is more exaggerated to accommodate the audiences seated far away from the stage. Another major difference is that there are no retake of "shootings" in front of the live theatre audiences should any mistakes occur. As such, sufficient rehearsals are mandatory, and that theatre performers should be quick-witted and always ready to accept and adapt to any unforeseen circumstances during actual performances. Thus it is critical for theatre performers to be equipped with good improvisational skills.
Today, theatre has also evolved into musical theatre whereby audiences are virtually more demanding as in enjoying a combination of good storyline, live music, songs, dances, acting, magic, masks, laser art, animation, sand art, audience interactions & etc, and there seems to be a never ending possibilities of art forms to add on. This is becoming mentally and physically more challenging for performers, producers and directors alike. Personnel of performing arts are seeing the importance of equipping themselves in such area of skills in order to bring theatre to a higher level of entertainment value for their audiences. No doubt, theatre has evolved well and has lasting global influences on mankind's lifestyles.
