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Play

Specialty Definition: Play

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Specialty Definition: Chaos theory

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Established in the 1960s, chaos theory deals with dynamical systems that, while in principle deterministic, have a high sensitivity to initial conditions, because their governing equations are nonlinear. Examples for such systems are the atmosphere, plate tectonics, economies, and population growth.

Description of the theory

A non-linear dynamical system can in general exhibit one or more of the following types of behaviour:

• forever at rest
• forever expanding (only for unbounded systems)
• in periodic motion
• in quasi-periodic motion
• in chaotic motion

The type of behaviour may depend on the initial state of the system and the values of its parameters, if any.

Chaotic motion

The most famous type of behaviour is chaotic motion, a non-periodic complex motion which has given name to the theory. In order to classify the behaviour of a system as chaotic, the system must be

• bounded,
• sensitive on the initial conditions,
• transitive and
• The periodic orbits must be dense.

Sensitivity on the initial conditions means that two such systems with however small a difference in their initial state eventually will end up with a finite difference between their states (However, two deterministic systems with identical initial conditions will remain identical).

An example of such sensitivity is the well-known butterfly effect, whereby the flapping of a butterfly's wings produces tiny changes in the atmosphere which over the course of time cause it to diverge from what it would have been and potentially cause something as dramatic as a tornado to occur. Other commonly known examples of chaotic motion are the mixing of colored dyes and airflow turbulence.

Transitivity means that application of the transformation on any given Interval I₁ stretches it until it overlaps with any other given Interval I₂.

The fourth condition means that for any point in the system and any real number ε > 0 there is another point with distance d ≤ ε which is located on an periodic orbit.

Strange attractors

One way of visualizing chaotic motion, or indeed any type of motion, is to make a phase diagram of the motion. In such a diagram time is implicit and each axis represents one dimension of the state. For instance, a system at rest will be plotted as a point and a system in periodic motion will be plotted as a simple closed curve.

A phase diagram for a given system may depend on the initial state of the system (as well as on a set of parameters), but often phase diagrams reveal that the system ends up doing the same motion for all initial states in a region around the motion, almost as though the system is attracted to that motion. Such attractive motion is fittingly called an attractor for the system and is very common for forced dissipative systems.

While most of the motion types mentioned above give rise to very simple attractors, such as points and circle-like curves called limit cycles, chaotic motion gives rise to what are known as strange attractors, attractors that can have great detail and complexity. For instance, a simple three-dimensional model of the Lorenz weather system gives rise to the famous Lorenz attractor. The Lorenz attractor is perhaps one of the best known chaotic system diagrams, probably because not only was it one of the first, but it is one of the most complex and as such gives rise to a very interesting pattern which looks like the eyes of an owl.

Strange attractors have fractal structure.

History

The theory has roots back to around 1950 when it first became evident for some scientists that linear theory, the prevailing system theory at that time, simply could not explain the observed behaviour of certain experiments like that of the logistic map. The main catalyst for the development of chaos theory was the electronic computer. Much of the mathematics of chaos theory involves the repeated iteration of simple mathematical formulas, which would be impractical to do by hand. Moore's law and the availability of cheaper computers has greatly increased the extent of chaos theory. As of 2003, chaos theory continues to be a very active area of research.

An early pioneer of the theory was Edward Lorenz whose interest in chaos came about accidentally through his work on weather prediction in 1961. Lorenz was using a basic computer to run his simulation of the weather. He wanted to see a sequence of data again and to save time he started the simulation in the middle of its course. He was able to do this by entering a printout of the data corresponding to conditions in the middle of his simulation which he had calculated last time.

To his surprise the weather that the machine began to predict was completely different to the weather calculated before. Lorenz tracked this down to only bothering to enter 3-digit numbers in to the simulation, whereas the computer had last time worked with 5-digit numbers. This difference is tiny and the consensus at the time would have been that it should have had practically no effect. However Lorenz had discovered that small changes in initial conditions produced large changes in the long-term outcome.

The importance of chaos theory can be illustrated by the following observations:

• In popular terms, a linear system is exactly equal to the sum of its parts, whereas a non-linear system can be more than the sum of its parts. This mean that in order to study and understand the behaviour of a non-linear system one need in principle to study the system as a whole and not just its parts in isolation.

• It has been said that if the universe is an elephant, then linear theory can only be used to describe the last molecule in the tail of the elephant and chaos theory must be used to understand the rest. Or, in other words, almost all interesting real-world systems are described by non-linear systems.

Mathematical theory

Mathematicians have devised many additional ways to make quantitative statements about chaotic systems. These include

• fractal dimension of the attractor
• Lyapunov exponents
• recurrence plots
• Poincaré maps
• bifurcation diagrams

Minimum complexity of a chaotic system

Many simple systems can also produce chaos without relying on partial differential equations, such as the logistic equation, which describes population growth over time.

Even discrete systems can heavily depend on initial conditions, such as cellular automata. Stephen Wolfram has investigated a cellular automaton with this property, termed by him rule 30.

Other examples of chaotic systems

• Double pendulum
• Logistic map

See also: fractal, Dynamical systems and chaos theory, Benoit Mandelbrot, Mandelbrot set, Julia set, predictability, Mitchell Feigenbaum

References

• Chaotic and Fractal Dynamics, by Francis C. Moon, ISBN 0471545716

Further Reading

• http://www.nbi.dk/ChaosBook/
• The Beauty of Fractals, by H.-O. Peitgen and P.H. Richter
• Chaotic Evolution and Strange Attactors, by David Ruelle
• Computers, Pattern, Chaos, and Beauty, by Clifford A. Pickover
• Fractals, by Hans Lauwerier
• Fractals Everywhere, by Michael Barnsley
• The Fractal Geometry of Nature, by Benoit Mandelbrot
• Order Out of Chaos, by Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers
• The Science of Fractal Images, by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Dietmar Saupe, Eds.
• Chaos Theory and Education

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Chaos theory."

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Henry V (play)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Henry V is a play by William Shakespeare based on the life of King Henry V of England. It deals only with the events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years War.

It is important to note that the play was one of a series of "histories" written by Shakespeare, and would have been performed as such. Audiences would already have been familiar with "Prince Hal" as depicted in the Henry IV plays as a wild undisciplined lad. In Henry V, the young prince has grown into a mature man and is about to embark on the attempted conquest of France. Because of the scene changes that would have been required in order to convey the changes of location, Shakespeare introduces the character of Chorus (a throwback to the chorus of Greek and Roman drama), who acts as a kind of narrator, explaining developments to the audience and encouraging them to use their imaginations.

The early scenes deal with the embarkation of the fleet for France, and include a dramatised version of the real-life incident in which the Duke of Cambridge and two others plotted to assassinate Henry at Southampton. Henry's clever and ruthless uncovering of the plot is one indication of how he has changed from the earlier plays in which he appears.

As with all Shakespeare's serious plays, there are a number of minor characters, some definitely comic, whose activities are intended as a diversion for restless audiences. In this case, they are mostly common soldiers in Henry's army, and include Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, and Fluellen (Fluellen is a comically-stereotyped Welsh soldier, whose name is almost certainly a phonetic rendition of "Llewellyn"). The play also deals briefly with the death of Falstaff, another character from the Henry IV plays.

The play includes several well-known speeches, the most quoted of which, beginning, Once more unto the breach, dear friends..., actually comes not from the Agincourt scene, but from the scene depicting the siege of Harfleur, earlier in the play. As the action unfolds and victory looks less certain, the young king's heroic character is shown by his decision to wander around the English camp at night, in disguise, so as to comfort his soldiers and find out what they really think of him.

Following the victory at Agincourt, there is a charming scene in which Henry attempts to court his future wife, Catherine of Valois. This is not historically accurate, as the princess was only a child at the time of Agincourt, and their wedding did not take place for some years afterward.

Cast

• King Henry V
• Duke of Gloucester, brother to the King ([Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester]])
• Duke of Bedford, brother to the King (John, Duke of Bedford)
• Duke of Clarence, brother to the King
• Duke of Exeter, uncle to the King (Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter)
• Duke of York, cousin to the King
• Earl of Salisbury
• Earl of Westmorland
• Earl of Warwick
• Archbishop of Canterbury
• Bishop of Ely
• Earl of Cambridge (Richard, Earl of Cambridge)
• Lord Scroop
• Sir Thomas Grey
• Sir Thomas Erpingham
• Gower, Fluellen, MacMorris, Jamy, all fictional officers in King Henry's army
• Bates, Court, Williams, all fictional soldiers in King Henry's army
• Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, a boy, Herald (all fictional)

• King of France (Charles VI of France)
• Louis, the Dauphin
• Duke of Burgundy
• Duke of Orleans
• Duke of Bourbon
• Duke of Britain
• Duke of Berri
• Duke of Beaumont
• Constable of France
• Rambures, a French Lord
• Grandpre, a French Lord
• Governor of Harfleur
• Montjoy, a French herald
• Ambassadors to the King of England

• Queen of France
• Katherine, daughter to the King and Queen of France (Catherine of Valois)
• Alice, a lady attending on her
• Hostess of the Boar's Head tavern in Eastcheap, formerly Mistress Quickly, now married to Pistol (fictional)

• Lord, ladies, soldiers, etc.

Movie Versions

The play spawned two big screen movies of the same name as well as several made for TV or video movies.

• For the 1944 (US release 1946) film starring Laurence Olivier as King Henry, see Henry V (1946 movie).

• For the 1989 film starring Kenneth Branagh as King Henry, see Henry V (1989 film).

why is one a (movie) and the other a (film)??????

External link

• Henry V - searchable, indexed e-text
• Henry V - Project Gutenberg e-text

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Henry V (play)."

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Play

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Fun

Play, (noun) or the act of playing (verb) refers to the act of engaging in unrestrained, amusing interaction with people or things, often in the context of learning. It is equally a common and a behavioural science term, and the act of playing has, in recent decades, come into light as essential behaviour of species' environmental and social adaptation processes (such as in learning basic hunting skills.). Playing tools are toys.

See also Playing with sand, Games, fair play.

Theatre

A play (noun) is a common literary form, usually consisting chiefly of dialog between characters, and usually intended for performance rather than reading. However, many scholars study plays in this more academic manner, particularly classical plays such as those of Shakespeare (rare authors, notably George Bernard Shaw, have had little preference whether their plays were performed or read). The term play refers both to the written works of dramatists and to the complete theatrical performances of such.

Plays are generally performed in a theatre, by actors. To better communicate a unified interpretation of the text in question, productions are usually overseen by a director, who often puts their own unqiue interpretation on the production. (see theatre and related topics for more detailed information on the process of producing plays for performance).

The interpretive nature of drama is what makes it so appealing to so many performers and audience members alike — because a playwright is incapable of presenting the play in its intended format (a performance) without the aid of the actors and a director (though he may choose to take any of these roles himself — Molière, for example, often acted in his own plays), a play is by definition undergoing constant rebirth and renewal as new experiences and interpretations are brought by new contributors.

See also: List of plays, List of playwrights

Music

To play is also the verb used for the activity of musicians creating music from musical instruments, and for performing as an actor (see above). None the less, these activities can be as much demanding work as any other skilled profession.

Specific play

Play is also the name of a specific play, written by Samuel Beckett; see Play (play).

Band

Play is also a new pop group from Norway, composed of four teenage girls. In 2002, the group toured the United States, and they have been on the covers of such teen magazines as Blast!, amongst others.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Play."

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Play (album)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Play is a compilation of Swiss drum n' bass artists, released on September 8, 1997.

Tracks

1. I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
2. Us Against The World
3. Cinderella
4. Hopelessy Devoted
5. It Is Love
6. I Don't Get Down Like That
7. Disco Hippie

   Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Play (album)."

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Play (band)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The factual accuracy of this article is disputed

Play is a name popular pop band, who founded in 2001.

Line-Up

• Anaïs Lameche
• Anna Sundstrand
• Faye Hamlin
• Rosie Munter

Discography

• Play - June 25, 2002
• Replay - June 10, 2003

External Links

• Official Website

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Play (band)."

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Play (play)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Play is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in 1962 to 1963 and first produced in German as Spiel on June 14, 1963 at the Ulmer Theatre in Ulm-Donau in Germany. The first performance in English was in 1964 at the Old Vic in London.

The curtain rises to three people, two women and a man, in a row along the front of the stage with their heads sticking out of the tops of large urns, the rest of their bodies unexposed. They remain like this for the play's duration. There are a few short moments when all three speak at once, but in the main the play is made up of short, sometimes broken sentences spoken by one character at a time. Over the course of the play, it becomes apparent that the man has betrayed one of the women by having an affair with the other.

A spotlight is shone on whoever is speaking, leaving the other two characters in darkness. Beckett writes that this spotlight "provokes" the character's speech, and that a single, swivelling light should be used, rather than three lights switching on and off.

Near the end of the script, there is the terse instruction: "Repeat play." Beckett elaborates on this in notes, by saying that the repeat might be varied, by changing the intensity of the light, giving a breathless quality to the lines, or even shuffling some of the lines around. At the end of this second repeat, the play appears to start again for a third time, but does not get more than a few seconds into it before it suddenly stops.

Play is a relatively short play, with a typical performance lasting around twenty-five minutes.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Play (play)."

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Play from scrimmage

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A football play is the activity of the games of Canadian football andAmerican football during which one team tries to advance the ball or to score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the next play starts, the football is considered dead. A game of American football consists of many such plays.

The term is also used to denote a specific plan of action, or its execution, under a particular set of circumstances faced by either team. For instance, the offensive team may be faced with one or or two downs left in a possession and still ten or more yards to go to earn a new set of downs. In this instance, they may decide to employ a forward pass. Well in advance of the particular game, a number of different kinds of forward pass plays will have been planned out and practiced by the team. They will be designated by obscure words, letters and/or numbers so that the name of a play does not reveal its exact execution to outsiders. The team's coach, or perhaps the quarterback, will choose one of the pre-planned forward passing strategies, and tell the team, during the huddle which one has been chosen. Because of planning and practice, each player will know what his role in the play is to be, and how to execute it. This will be the offensive play.

Conversely, the defensive team will know that the offense has to cover a good deal of ground in a single play, will expect a forward pass, and will know from earlier study something of the propensities of the offense they face. The defensive captain is likely to call out a specific formation or defensive play, to anticipate and counteract the expected action by the offense.

The play will begin with the snap of the ball from the center to a back, usually the quarterback, and it will end when the effort by the offensive squad to advance the ball has either succeeded in scoring, or has been frustrated by the ball being downed before the aim of the offensive play is accomplished, or by the defensive squad having managed to come into possession of the ball without first downing it. In the event of change of possession during a play, the team newly in possession of the ball may try to advance it toward their own goal, which the team formerly in possession with naturally resist. Change of possession during a routine play may occur by interception or by fumble.

Change of possession may also occur in other ways. A change of possession can occur on downs, if the offensive team fails to achieve a first down or a touchdown in four attempts. Another way is through a change of possession play, when the offensive team, having surmised the unlikelihood of scoring or achieving a first down within four attempts, kicks the ball away in what is known as a punt. kickoffss and free kicks are not considered true change of possession plays

See also

• American football/Glossary

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Play from scrimmage."

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Richard III (play)

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Richard III is a play by William Shakespeare, in which the monarch Richard III of England is unflatteringly depicted. Critics have argued that this is because the ruling monarch of Shakespeare's time, Elizabeth I, was a descendant of Henry VII of England who had defeated the last Yorkist king and started the Tudor dynasty. Shakespeare's "history" plays were not, however, intended to be historically accurate -- this would have been an outlandish concept for the time -- but were designed for entertainment. As with Macbeth, Richard's supposed villainy is depicted as extreme in order to achieve maximum dramatic effect. The playwright never concerned himself with the veracity of his sources.

Warning: wikipedia contains spoilers

The play opens with the famous speech by Richard, beginning, Now is the winter of our discontent... The speech reveals Richard's jealousy and ambition, as his brother, Edward IV of England, rules the country successfully. With little attempt at chronological accuracy, Richard is shown ingratiating himself with "the Lady Anne" -- Anne Neville, widow of the Lancastrian Prince of Wales. Despite her prejudice against him, Anne is won over by his pleas and agrees to marry him. Richard, in collaboration with his friend Buckingham (Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), plots to be the next king, and presents himself to the other lords as a modest, devout man with no pretensions to greatness. This causes them to select him as king after Edward IV's death, putting aside the claims of his innocent young nephews (the Princes in the Tower).

Richard's crimes go from bad to worse. He murders all who stand in his way, including the young princes, Lord Hastings, his former ally Buckingham, and even his wife. When he has lost all popular support, he faces the invading Earl of Richmond (Henry VII) at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Prior to the battle, Richard is visited by the ghosts of those whose deaths he has caused, all of whom tell him to Despair and die! Alone on the field at the climax of the battle, he utters the often-quoted line, A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse! He is defeated in hand-to-hand combat by Richmond, and dies dramatically.

Shakespeare's main source for his play was the chronicle of Raphael Holinshed. He may also have drawn on the work of Sir Thomas More, who was a protege of John Morton, one of Richard III's implacable enemies. More is supposed by some to have had a copy of Morton's manuscript of his version of the story, but this manuscript, if it ever existed, does not survive.

Richard III is the culmination of the cycle of Wars of the Roses plays. In Henry VI Part III, Shakespeare had already begun the process of building Richard's character into that of a villain, even though he could not possibly have been involved in some of the events depicted. From an overview of the cycle, it can be seen that Shakespeare's inaccuracy works both ways.

The most famous player of the part in recent times was Sir Laurence Olivier in the 1950s film version. His inimitable rendition has been satirised by many comedians including Peter Cook, and Peter Sellers (who had aspirations to do the role straight). Sellers' version of A Hard Day's Night was delivered in the style of Olivier as Richard III.

More recently, Shakespeare's Richard III has been brought to the screen by Sir Ian McKellen (1995) in an abbreviated version set in a 1930s fascist England, and by Al Pacino in the 1997 documentary, Looking for Richard.

The Cast
(links are to articles on the historical personages, who may not precisely correspond to Shakespeare's portrayal of them)

King Edward IV
Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V, son to the king
Richard, Duke of York, son to the king
George, Duke of Clarence, brother to the king
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III, brother to the king
Edward, Earl of Warwick, young son of Clarence
Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII
Thomas Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York
John Morton, Bishop of Ely
Duke of Buckingham (Henry Stafford)
Duke of Norfolk (John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk)
Earl of Surrey, his son Thomas Howard)
Earl Rivers (Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers), brother to Queen Elizabeth
Marquess of Dorset (Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset), son to Queen Elizabeth
Lord Grey, son to Queen Elizabeth
Earl of Oxford (John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford)
William, 1st Lord Hastings
Lord Stanley (Thomas Stanley), afterwards Earl of Derby
Lord Lovel (Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell)
Sir Thomas Vaughan
Sir Richard Ratcliffe
Sir William Catesby
Sir James Tyrrel
Sir James Blunt (James Blount)
Sir Walter Herbert
Sir Robert Brackenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower
Christopher Urswick, a priest
Another priest
Hastings, a pursivant
Tressel and Berkeley, gentlemen attending on the Lady Anne
Keeper in the Tower
Lord Mayor of London (Sir Edmund Shaa)
Sheriff of Wiltshire

Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV
Margaret of Anjou, widow of Henry VI
Duchess of York (Cecily Neville), mother to King Edward IV, Clarence, and Gloucester
Lady Anne Neville, widow of Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI), afterwards married to Gloucester
Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, young daughter of Clarence

ghosts, lords, gentlemen, citizens, etc.

External Links:

• Richard III - searchable, indexed e-text

http://classics.mit.edu/Shakespeare/richardiii/ - Full Text of Shakespeare's Play

http://www.r3.org/bookcase/shaksper/ -- Full text of Shakespeare's play, annotated with excerpts from the standard biography to provide comparison with the historical Richard III, from the Richard III Society, American Branch.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Richard III (play)."

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Romeo and Juliet

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Romeo and Juliet is a famous play by William Shakespeare. The story originates through several retellings from a 1476 story of Mariotto and Gianozza by Masuccio Salernitano.

Romeo and Juliet was first performed on January 29, 1595.

Story

Romeo and Juliet is the story of Romeo Montague (Romeo Montecchi) and Juliet Capulet (Giulietta Capuleti), two children of warring families in Verona, Italy, who fall in love in contradiction to the rivalries of their relatives. The two seek to defy their parents and marry, perhaps bringing the two families to peace with each other, but this ultimately fails and they both commit suicide, each believing the other is already dead.

The play, along with many others by Shakespeare, is almost entirely written in iambic pentameter.

This is an early play by William Shakespeare and while it is often classified as a tragedy it does not bear the hallmarks of the 'great tragedies' like Hamlet and Macbeth. Romeo and Juliet are not flawed individuals, indeed much of their misfortune comes from the actions of others or from accident. It has been noted that the plot of Romeo and Juliet is more that of a farce or comedy of errors than a tragedy, except that it lacks the vital last-minute save and everyone dies at the end instead of living happily ever after.

Adaptations

Opera

The story was converted into the opera Romeo et Juliette by Charles François Gounod in 1867 with a libretto written by Jules Barbier and Michel Carrè.

Ballet

Several ballet adaptations of the story have been made, the first recorded in the 18th century. The best known feature music by Sergei Prokofiev, and a variety of choreographers have used this music. The first version featuring Prokofiev's music was performed in 1938.

Musical

The musical West Side Story, also made into a film, is based on Romeo and Juliet but updates the story to mid-20th century New York City and the warring families to ethnic gangs.

Movie versions

Thera have been over forty movie versions of the tale, with the first in 1900. Some of the more notable adaptations include:

;1936 - Romeo and Juliet, produced by Irving Thalberg

The 1936 screen version was one of the more notable. Irving Thalberg spared no expense, and showcased his wife, Norma Shearer, in the lead role. Romeo was played by Leslie Howard, John Barrymore was Mercutio, and Andy Devine was Peter, the servant to Juliet's nurse.

Academy Awards nominations:

• Best Picture - Irving Thalberg, producer

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Basil Rathbone - as Tybalt

Best Actress - Norma Shearer

Best Art Direction - Cedric Gibbons, Fredric Hope and Edwin B. Willis

;1968 - Romeo and Juliet, directed by Franco Zeffirelli

Filmed in Italy, the casting of a young Olivia Hussey as Juliet has been considered as truly inspired. It won Oscarss for best cinematography and best costume design, and was nominated for Best Director.

;1996 - Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the title roles, Luhrmann gave the famous tale a modern setting.

At the Berlin International Film Festival 1997, it won:

• Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)

Alfred Bauer Prize

Academy Awards 1996 nominations:

• Best Art Direction (Catherine Martin)

Set Decoration (Brigitte Broch)

External links

• Romeo and Juliet - The electronic text in Italian of the original story

• Romeo and Juliet - plain vanilla text from Project Gutenberg
• Romeo and Juliet - searchable, indexed version from shakespeare-literature.com
• Romeo and Juliet - searchable, indexed version from literaturepage.com

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Romeo and Juliet."

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Theater

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Theater (also Theatre in British and Commonwealth English) is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle - indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialog style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, chinese opera, and pantomime. Here is a list of acting terms.

Kinds of theater

"Drama" is that branch of theatre in which speech, either from written text (plays or "dramatic literature") or improvised, is paramount. "Musical theater" is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and spoken dialogue. There is a particularly long tradition of political theater, intended to educate audiences on contemporary issues and encourage social change. Various creeds, Catholicism for instance, have built upon the entertainment value of theatre and created (for example) mystery plays and morality plays.

There is an enormous variety of philosophies, artistic processes, and theatrical approaches to creating plays and drama. Some are connected to political or spiritual ideologies, and some are based on purely "artistic" concerns. Some processes focus on story, some on the theatre as event, some as theatre as a catalyst for social change. According to Aristotle's seminal theatrical critique Poetics, there are six elements necessary for theatre. They are Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Music, and Spectacle. The 17th-century Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote that for theatre one needs "three boards, two actors, and one passion." Others notable for their contributtion to theatrical philosophy are Konstantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles, Jerzy Grotowski.

20th Century American Playwrights

• Edward Albee
• Jane Anderson
• Christopher Durang
• Horton Foote
• Lorraine Hansberry
• George S Kaufmann
• Tony Kushner
• Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things)
• David Mamet
• Arthur Miller
• Terrence McNally
• Eugene O'Neill
• Neil Simon
• Stephen Sondheim
• Rodolfo Usigli
• Tennessee Williams
• Thornton Wilder
• August Wilson
• Lanford Wilson

20th Century British Playwrights

• Alan Ayckbourn
• Peter Barnes
• Caryl Churchill
• Michael Frayn (Noises Off)
• John Galsworthy
• David Hare
• Sarah Kane
• John Osborne
• Harold Pinter
• J.B. Priestley
• Terence Rattigan
• Tom Stoppard

20th Century German Language Playwrights

• Heiner Mueller
• Bertolt Brecht
• Thomas Bernhardt
• Elfriede Jelinek
• Friederich Durrenmatt
• Wolfgang Hildesheimer

20th Century Irish Playwrights

• Samuel Beckett
• Brendan Behan
• Paul Vincent Carroll
• Brian Friel
• Lady Gregory
• Denis Johnston
• John B. Keane
• Thomas Kilroy
• Martin McDonagh
• M. J. Molloy
• Sean O'Casey
• Lennox Robinson
• George Bernard Shaw
• George Shiels
• John Millington Synge
• W. B. Yeats

See also: Irish theatre

Other 20th Century English-language playwrights

• Athol Fugard

This gives a brief listing of some of the better-known playwrights; but theatre is a highly collaborative, multi-person, multi-media craft. Plays are usually produced by a production team*artistic staff combined with various technical, support, and design staff. Among these are the director, scenic designer, the lighting designer, the costume designer, the dramaturge, and the stage manager and production manager. This is not an all inclusive list, and may include other personnel from the world of technical theatre.

20th Century English Language Theatre Directors

• Julie Taymor
• Harold Prince
• Kelly Johnston
• Peter Sellars
• Tyrone Guthrie
• Peter Brook
• Mike Nichols
• Peter Hall

20th Century Russian and French Theatre Directors

• Konstantin Stanislavski
• Anton Artaud

20th Century Polish Theatre Director

• Jerzy Grotowski

20th Century German Language Theatre Directors

• Fritz Kortner
• Claus Peymann
• Peter Stein
• Peter Zadek
• Frank Castorf
• August Everding
• Max Reinhardt

Awards

• European Theatre Award
• Laurence Olivier Awards (United Kingdom)
• Tony Award (USA)

See also*Repertory theatre, dramatist, list of dramatists, history of theatre, improvisational theatre, radio and television drama, summer stock, cinematic drama, suspension of disbelief

Theater building

A theatre is also the building in which works and plays are performed. There are as many styles of performance space as there are styles of performance, but most theatres include a designated "stage" or playing space, a designated audience area or "house," and some sort of off-stage area for preparation and storage, called "backstage," which is typically concealed from the audience. Theatres range from ornate, cathedral-like structures to simple undecorated rooms or black box theatres.

Some of these buildings are masterpieces of architecture. Others, often those known for opera, have become major cultural references and symbols.

The original Greek theatre was semicircular in form and was normally built on a hillside, often overlooking the sea. These theatres also typically included a "raked" or sloped stage, with the back of the stage being higher than the front. Such theatres were often constructed with excellent acoustics, so that a player standing centre stage could be clearly heard throughout the auditorium. The Romanss copied this style of building, but tended not to be so concerned about the location, being prepared to build walls and terraces instead of looking for a naturally-occurring site.

During the Elizabethan era in England, theatres were constructed of wood and were circular in form, like the Globe Theatre in London, home to William Shakespeare's troupe of actors. The Globe has now been rebuilt as a fully working and producing theatre near its original site (largely thanks to the efforts of film director Sam Wanamaker) to give modern audiences an idea of the environment for which Shakespeare and other playwrights of the period were writing.

Contemporary theatres are often non-traditional, such as very adaptable spaces, or theatres where audience and performers are not separated. A major example of this is the modular theatre, (see for example the Walt Disney Modular Theatre). This large theatre has floors and walls divided into small movable sections, with the floor sections on adjustable hydraulic pylons, so that the space may be adjusted into any configuration for each individual play. As new styles of theatre performance have evolved, so has the desire to improve or recreate performance venues. This applies equally to artistic and presentation techniques, such as stage lighting.

Specific designs of contemporary live theaters include proscenium, thrust, black box theater, theater in the round, amphitheater, and arena. A special kind of theater is one in a train carriage (picture). See also movie theater and puppet theater.

See also: Stagecraft,Technical theater, Theater Techniques, Opera house, Home Theater, Irish theatre

simple:Theater zh-cn:剧场 zh-tw:劇場

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Theater."

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Play

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Photo Album: Play

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Several young children can be seen playing with toy trucks and their pet rabbits. They are outdoors on a summer day, building a play construction site. A farmstyle house and mountains can be seen in the background. These people are part of a large Mormon family who are being studied for their low cancer death rate. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer).		Pictured is a group of children, part of a large Morman family. One of the adolescents is leading the other children in play exercises, including pushups. It is a family room and the children are all on the floor. The Mormons are presently being studied for their low cancer death rate. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer).
	Physically challenged children at play. Credit: CDC.		Aedes mediovittatus is known to be a container breeder, and may play a role in the inter-epidemic transmission of Dengue Fever. Credit: CDC.
	Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. People at play. Credit: CDC.		The NF-16D VISTA will give the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., flexibility by providing one aircraft that can play the role of several fighters. It also provides students an opportunity to learn how to test future integra.
	U.S. Air Force Academy Falcons' fullback Nate Beard evades Fresno State Bulldogs' Bryce McGill for a seven yard gain during this play in the first quarter of the Silicon Valley Football Classic Dec. 30. The Falcons went on to win the game 37-34. (Air Forc.		Horses at play in Linn County, Oregon. Credit: Ron Nichols.
	Kids play in the quiet street at the completed self help homes in Placerville, CA. Credit: USDA.		Soldiers and play in the Pioneer festival scene at the NHOTIC. Credit: BLM Staff.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Digital Photo Gallery: Play
 

"Play a drum" by Mirko Commentary: "My friend's concert."	"Snooker play in pub" by Adam Kurzok Commentary: "Snooker table in pub, christmas time, nice light reflection, bit blurred free to use, just click www.creactive.cz."
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers.

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Sounds Captioned with "Play".

Play	Caption
	Electronic sound of a computerized pinball machine when the pinball is shot into play.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Play