Theater - The Art of Storytelling

A theater is a collaborative fine art form which uses live performance to present experience or real-life or imagined event to the audience in a specific place, usually by storytelling. Some of the elements of theater is that of gestures, speech, music, or dance. The elements of design and stagecraft are to enhance the atmosphere of the theater depends on what it wants to portray.

Some of the early theater were in ancient Greece, where theater play is introduced. At that time, theater plays a significant role in the ancient Greek community, where it tells the story based on their religious activities and myth, politics, law, and and many other applications on their culture. In their myth, the origin of theater is based on the Greek god of wine and theater, Dionysus. This art then expanded to Rome, where the Romans share some common similarities in their play due to their similar beliefs. This has then extended to Asia after the age of Greek and Roman civilization, using it as part of Asia's cultural belief and mythology, such as the Japanese Kabuki, Chinese Opera, and many more. Later, the era of the Renaissance further implemented theater play, giving it  more naturalistic approach.

There are many types of theater play. A drama is an acting play which the performing actor will play out a specific character or role in the play. A music theater is another type of way to perform the play, where usually acting and music played some significant roles in theater. An opera is where a form of theater was combined with orchestra and the role of staging, dance and singing in a large scale. A comedy, now a genre, includes humor in the theatrical play. A tragedy is that of a history which has significant role in culture, usually telling the condition of the culture and surroundings.

These days, theater play has evolved to appliance of film, animation and so on. Their stage design, dialog, gestures and action can be applied in the film media's script writing, misc-en-scene, acting, and music in film which was introduced during the Industrial Evolution where Europe and America begins to apply theatrical play in the film industry, which then gives America the upper hand during World War 2 when most film talents from Europe had a huge migration to the United States. The appliance of theater play is further expanded in television dramas, sitcoms, advertisements and animation. Later, video games also applied storytelling in their respective titles, starting from the ever popular Super Mario Bros. to a more complex arrays of storytelling in video games using the same format as a theater play.

In conclusion, theatrical play still plays a significant role in media, where humans relate themselves with acting and theatrical play and to dive them in into their 'virtual reality'. As theater is some of the oldest form of media, it is still some of the most effective storytelling device, ranging in different genres and ways to convey messages. As long as people can relate themselves to storytelling, this form of art be an entertainment to enjoy or a tool to relate them to our everyday events that forms us.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre