Stephanie Gamarra 4^th Paper

January 8, 2006

Group: A

In general, theatre has been such a popular type of entertainment for many decades, although in my opinion this popularity has decreased as time went by. Although there’re still people who keep going to the theatres to watch plays, but who are a vast minority. I think that in the future this minority of spectators will maintain being the minority for a long time, although theatre itself will never die.

(Before) To start with, Theatre has been a hobby or a type of entertainment in society for many decades. When theatre was just born, it immediately became very popular, due to the fact that there weren’t any kind of other entertainment available. Back then, society, in my opinion, was divided into two groups, the people who didn’t have money and the people who had money, who belonged to the upper class. Only the high-class society had the privilege to attend to these marvelous plays because the other class only had enough money to survive.

As the years passed, the evolution of the theatre was dispersing into different branches. For example each play was categorized into more specific terms. We can see plays that were categorized as tragic plays, melodramatic plays, comedies, etc. Also during the 20^th century we can see isms, like dadaism, expressionism, surrealism, absurdism, and postmodernism. (Wikipedia encyclopedia) Also we can se other types of theatre; realism, naturalism, individualism, theatre of the absurd, impressionism, etc.

Due to these new types of theatre, the audience changed from being just simple spectators into critics. Many people found this quite amusing and entertaining. As the years past, theatre no longer was a privileged type of entertainment, but for everybody who could afford it. This made theatre plays more popular within the society.

(Now) Nowadays entertainment has become diverse and popular, although ones more than others. For example, TV, radio, internet, are three of the most popular types of entertainment of the 21^st century. This caused a decrease of theatre spectators, although there are people who still go and watch plays, although they’re a vast minority.

(Future) In my opinion, I think that theatre will still remain the same, as it is nowadays although few things might change. The plays that are in performance in are local theatres now in day are all classics. We can see plays by Shakespeare, Harold Pinter, John Osborne etc. All these plays written by these authors are all time classics that will live with us now and forever. Modern theatre in my opinion isn’t very popular and therefore these classical will still be playing in our theatres for ages and will never die. There will be new and modern plays in the future of course, but with different topics that will have to do with the historic, political, and social, issues that will be present at that time.

In conclusion, I think that theatre will never die out, and although it isn’t that popular in our society there will still be people who will go and watch these beautiful plays and enjoy as much as they did back then.

1- ¨Isms of the 20^th Century Theatre¨, Wikipedia encyclopedia,