What Is Theater? Crash Course Theater #1

Welcome to Crash Course Theater with Mike Rugnetta! In this, our inaugural week, we're going to ask the two classic questions about theater. 1.What is theater? And 2. Is it spelled -re or -er? Well, there's a clue to question two in the title of the video. The first question is a little trickier. We'll look at some of the historical definitions of theater, and investigate some of the ways people have thought about theater in different times and places in the world.

Thanks to the following Patrons for their generous monthly contributions that help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever:

Mark Brouwer, Nickie Miskell Jr., Jessica Wode, Eric Prestemon, Kathrin Benoit, Tom Trval, Jason Saslow, Nathan Taylor, Divonne Holmes à Court, Brian Thomas Gossett, Khaled El Shalakany, Indika Siriwardena, Robert Kunz, SR Foxley, Sam Ferguson, Yasenia Cruz, Daniel Baulig, Eric Koslow, Caleb Weeks, Tim Curwick, Evren Türkmenoğlu, Alexander Tamas, Justin Zingsheim, D.A. Noe, Shawn Arnold, mark austin, Ruth Perez, Malcolm Callis, Ken Penttinen, Advait Shinde, Cody Carpenter, Annamaria Herrera, William McGraw, Bader AlGhamdi, Vaso, Melissa Briski, Joey Quek, Andrei Krishkevich, Rachel Bright, Alex S, Mayumi Maeda, Kathy & Tim Philip, Montather, Jirat, Eric Kitchen, Moritz Schmidt, Ian Dundore, Chris Peters, Sandra Aft, Steve Marshall
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Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[lolosbizarreadventure]

who else is here because of theatre class but its online for quarantine

[TheNoobster]

anyone here cause they gotta do class online

[philcollins]

75/10, keep these coming. Theater is one of the most underappreciated but important art forms in the modern world, and I can't want to see how you cover the field.

[rachelelizabeth]

AHH!!! I am SOO excited for this series!!! It’s AMAAAZING so far!!!!

[emmaleclerc-neve]

Can you guys do Crash Course music???? That would be so cool!

[barendkriel]

As a theatre practitioner and educator, I find myself holding back so many positive emotions when I find content like this (that is content that reestablishes theatre as a valid art integral to the human experience). You guys at Crash Course are sent straight from the theatre gods! Bravo!

[lynnieannie]

I would just like to say that durning quarantine watching this is my theatre homework.

[amook]

The screeching of a thousand theater nerds echoed around the world today.

[OwenLikesComics]

I'm a simple guy; I see Mike Rugnetta, I smile.

[johnmahon]

Thoth is here? And a story about Ares cleverly disguised as "Theatre"? Mike you sneaky man this is Crash Course Mythology Season 2!

[jbeastly]

Crash course does an incredible job bringing on hosts, this is only the second series I’ve started without hank or John but both hosts have been so incredible and engaging. Can’t wait for more episodes!

[CatHasOpinions]

Me 2 weeks ago: Aww, Idea Channel is gone and CC World Mythology is almost over, guess I'll have to get used to not seeing Mike Rugnetta videos anymore.

Me Today: Ooh, another new Crash Course, I could stand to know more about theater, wonder who's hosting... OH MY GOODNESS YES!!!

[marywoolf]

You pronounced Dionysus properly!!! Already off to a better start than mythology. Thank you.

[arsenik_beats]

I love it, the same speaker, and now it seems like a continuation of recently ended mythology course, but with theatrical flavour

[annao]

THANK YOU. I'm doing a school project about the evolution of theatre and drama, stumbled upon this video and oh my god my life became so much easier

[willlexie]

theatRE or theatER???
Let me break this down.


-American English: theater


Note that modern English (that we use today in the 21st century) is a Germanic language with influence from Romance language (Latin root), but "theatre" came from Greek language.


-Greek: θέατρον / théatron (a place for viewing)


-British English: theatre
*also in Canadian, Australian and New Zealandian English


-Latin: theatrum
French: théâtre
Spanish: teatro
Portuguese: teatro
Italian: teatro
Romanian: teatru


All of them use -tr + vowel, only American English uses -ter.


American English is simplified and British English is traditional.

[jeralyncabaluna]

Our teacher taught us that theater is a place where theatrical performance is performed while theatre is the dramatic presentation for an audience.

[doing_aok]

I've never been more excited for a Crash Course series! I've been obsessed with theatre since I was 4 and am a HUGE dramaturge. I'm so excited to learn about theatre history, theatre theories, and hope we get into acting theory (Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen, Misner, etc) Break a leg Mike and Crash Course team!!

[DuluthTW]

This is already answering some questions I had. Thanks, Mike!

[mauhri]

So happy to see Mike as the host and who doesn’t want a crash course on theater? So excited for this series!