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Subjects

Explore content thematically through our carefully structured taxonomy, and reflect on fascinating new relationships between concept and content. All entries have been taken from Paul Allain’s and Jen Harvie’s Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance (Routledge: London, 2006), and are edited by Maggie B. Gale, unless otherwise indicated.

Actor Training subject list view
Acting & Actor Training
The training of performers operates in a variety of ways according to the contexts for which they are being trained: through apprenticeships, specialist programmes, or arduous long-term commitment.
Comedy list view
Comedy
Comedy developed in opposition to tragedy and is generally intended to create laughter through the presentation of humorous dialogue or physical action, but more usually through a combination of both.
Dance subject list view
Dance
As a phenomenon, dance – like play or ritual – is vast in its potential frameworks and in encompassing a ubiquitous part of human and even animal behaviour, with multiple motivations and functions.
Song list
Form & Genre
Form and genre are terms that are often used interchangeably. While form is more often about structure, and genre is more to do with typology, forms and genres of theatre and performance vary widely.
Performance Art subject list
Performance Art / Live Art & Performance
Performance art – often called live art in the UK – is a live artistic practice that evolved as artists sought to extend art beyond conventional media. Much performance art is politically motivated.
Political subject thumbnail
Political Theatre & Performance
Arguably, all performance is political as it in some way reflects its political and social contexts. However, the term political theatre has specific roots in early 20th-century Europe and the US.
Popular Theatre list view
Popular Theatre & Performance
Popular theatre embraces practices including melodrama, street theatre, circus, vaudeville, clowning and musicals. Historically, it encompasses both commercial and political theatre for the people.
Puppetry subject thumbnail
Theatre-Making & Processes
The creation of a performance involves a process informed by method, aesthetic choice and economic context, as well as practical aspects which have little to do with the writer, performer or director.