One reason many individuals like having a hand in designing their own home theatre system is that you can basically mix and match to make it into whatever you want. You are not restrained by package deals. It is possible to put together a full-scale, state of the art system with projector, receiver and the works, or if that seems a little over the top, you can buy a quality TV (some almost to projection screen sizes nowadays) and accessorize it with DVD player and surround sound speakers.

The variance can go from a couple thousand, to $100,000 for the ludicrously rich and extravagant. This illustrates the importance of choosing a system that suits your needs and doesn’t break the bank.

In the end, it’s all about getting the best possible home theater system for the money you have available. Don’t be afraid if it’s not state of the art-your neighbor will still be paying that off six years down the road when you’ve already upgraded for cheaper. Because of the rapid move of technology, prices bottom out pretty quickly as companies rush at sometimes break neck speeds to try and out do each other.

Think about your own watching and listening needs. Based on what you prefer, a little research should reveal to you the best brands, the best speakers, the best options for what you want to enjoy.

Building your home theater can be a great experience. If you are a family man, you can enjoy movies with the family without having to go out to the hassles of a theatre. If you’re a bachelor, invite the guys over for the game. If you’re a college student, you are probably incredibly popular (just don’t put it on the credit cards). There are several different factors to consider when picking out the various parts that will go into your own personal home theatre system. Here is a check list of a few things to consider:

* Projector or TV? Are you in a semi-permanent residence, or moving soon? That may make a huge difference in how much you want to sink in.

* If you’re shooting for the projector, then what type suits your needs?
* Small room or larger one.
* What is the focus? Movies? Music? Football games? All of the above?
* Location, location, location!
* Can I do it myself, or should I get help?

Keep this checklist in mind and do your research, and you’ll be sure to find the home theatre system that matches your needs.

Opened in 1910 after the old building was burned down, Theatre Royal Windsor is located directly across the road from Windsor Castle. History with regard to this theatre indicates that it was built in the high street in 1793. It was this theatre that was attended by George III when he was residing in the castle and he was provided with spacious armchairs and playbills printed on silk whenever he came to enjoy a play at the theatre. A fire in 1908 resulted in burning down the theatre which resulted in the destruction of main parts of the building. But the theatre lovers were lucky enough that they were able to see the same kind of setting in the new building which was an idea of the owner of the theatre to keep it similar to its old setting.

This theatre boasts of its position as the only unsubsidised producing theatre to operate all year round in Britain. It is also one of Britain’s leading theatres and is renowned for the quality of productions. Therefore theatre lovers have the luxury of witnessing the newest productions before they are shown in London’s West End and before they tour around the country. The success of this theatre lies on the fact that it launches a range of new schemes for both businesses and regular theatre lovers.

For those of theatre lovers a visit to Theatre Royal Windsor will guarantee a day of maximum entertainment. While you visit this intimate theatre make sure that you find Windsor accommodation at a comfortable Windsor hotel. One such recommended hotel with easy access to Theatre Royal Windsor is Millennium Uk.

The home theatre. The pinnacle of modern domestic achievement. When our ancestors flocked to the initial cinemas to gaze up in awe at the “picture shows,” little did they guess that their descendents would one day snub such locations in favor of mammoth flat screen TVs and the latest in home theatre audio equipment. Because after all, why go out for dinner and a movie when you can stay in?

The home theatre system is the latest stage in America’s ongoing romance with the television. What began as a simple black and white box has evolved into full-scale, no-holds-barred, virtual movie theatre that dominates at least one room in the average American home. And what is a movie theatre without sound? And not just any sound, but in-your-face sound that blows you out of your chair and makes you feel like you’re actually in the building that just collapsed (or the space ship that just took off, or the semi that just jackknifed…). Yes, sound is the key to the home theatre experience, and when it comes to choosing an audio system to grace your den or family room, there is no shortage of options.

An integrated home theatre audio system is often referred to as “home theatre in a box,” or HTiB. A basic system might include a 2.1 speaker system with left and right speakers and a small, 8-inch subwoofer. The most inexpensive such system will be no more than a few hundred dollars. A step up from the basic, costing several thousand dollars, might include a several-thousand-watt home theatre receiver with five to seven surround sound speakers and a powered, twelve-inch subwoofer. Finally, for those truly dedicated to their DVD collections, it is possible to build an entire room specifically designed for watching movies. Such rooms, which can cost in excess of $100,000, will often boast sophisticated acoustical design elements and will doubtless include audiophile-grade sound equipment. An audiophile, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a person who is enthusiastic about and uses high-fidelity sound reproduction equipment.

Not surprisingly, it is impossible to separate the visual from the audible when it comes to home theatre. The different levels of HTiB mentioned above are all associated with televisions of varying degrees of quality. Whereas the most basic system will probably use a standard CRT television, a mid-range setup might utilize a high-definition television and a matching video format. As for the specialized theatre rooms, well, they often include actual cinema mini-screens complete with projection booths.

To say that there are lots of different HTiB manufactures out there is undoubtedly an understatement. Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Bose…all offer a variety of options when it comes to home theatre audio. Not all brands are created equal, of course, and certain labels have better reputations than others. It is therefore advisable to do a reasonable amount of research before purchasing a home theatre system. Factors that should be taken into account include not only desired quality and budget, but the space within which one has to work. It would be unfortunate, for example, to spend $5,000 on a top-of-the-line system only to discover that there is no place in your den for a twelve-inch subwoofer.

It’s a little like getting on a plane, the desire to get more seats in the auditorium than perhaps is comfortable in order to maximise revenue per performance. It’s logical and maybe in some of the older theatres previous generations weren’t as tall as us but whatever the case it still makes for theatre seats that are not as comfortable as they could be.

Living in Lancashire most of my theatre visits are in the county and I just have to tell you about the exception to the rule above that I recently found in Blackburn.

It came about through my wife’s business. She runs networking events for local entrepreneurs who are looking for business networking Lancashire and specifically along the M65 corridor. One of her venues in Blackburn is not so good so a change was in order and it was one of the members of her business networking groups that suggested looking at the Thwaites Empire Theatre.

I have to say that I was quite sceptical but one of the directors of the theatre was willing to show us round and throw in a free performance for us. We watched an excellent production of “Shearer Or Me” but it was the tour of the theatre that really brought the visit to life.

The theatre was originally a cinema constructed in the early 1900s and packed it’s guests in on bench seats for a penny at the front, two at the back and a whole four pence for the balcony. It thrived until the advent of the television and also because it’s not ideally situated for the centre of Blackburn it fell on hard times and was eventually closed. The building lay derelict for many years until 1996 when it was acquired by a number of local businessmen with a vision to restore the theatre to it’s former glory.

Fortunately the men with the vision had plenty of business networking advice and went about securing funding from local businesses and the Blackburn family brewery Thwaites. Lot’s of hard work, five years of planning and £650,000 later and the Thwaites Empire Theatre was born complete with stage, orchestra pit, seating for 180 and of course a hospitality bar. I understand that part of the financial deal with Thwaites is that the theatre takes the brewery beer until the debt is paid off and to give you some idea of the magnitude of Thwaites generosity this won’t be paid off in my lifetime or probably yours. In fact I also understand that if the brewery now makes a bad business deal it’s referred to as a theatre deal!

The stalls used to seat 600 and now seat 180 so you can see how attention to customer comfort has taken precedence over the “bums on seats” mentality at other establishments and it was when sitting down that many people commented that this has to be the theatre with the most comfortable seats in Lancashire. The balcony was eventually completed in 2007 with further donations of £250,000 and to this day the theatre is run not for profit by volunteers.

It’s a beautiful theatre and well worth a visit and you never know, there maybe some business networking events being run there in the future.

Regarded as one of Australia’s most beloved landmarks, Princess Theatre hosts world class stage dramas and musical productions like Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Mama Mia!, The Sound of Music  and The Producers. This theatre is the second building in the same site that was used for entertainment for a period of 135 years. The first building was Astley’s Amphitheatre that was opened in 1954 and the present theatre was opened in 1886 with the name christened as Princess Theatre. The theatre has been refurbished several times after this period and today it boasts as one of the theatres with world’s first sliding roof and ceiling with state of the art electric stage lighting.

It is also said that the theatre is haunted by a friendly ghost named as Federici who died after a performance of the opera, ‘Faust’. As an honour a seat in the third row dress circle is kept empty since it is regarded as a sign of good luck to see him in the theatre. His appearance has been witnessed by many staff in the theatre. This theatre’s grand Victorian style elegant foyer and stairway is compared to that of the Paris Opera. The theatre has a seating capacity of nearly 1500 with other modern facilities for the visitors as well. This placed is also used as the venue for Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Visitors also have the luxury of dinning in the Melba or Marriner rooms before they visit to see a musical production that takes place in the theatre. While Princess Theatre is the ideal place for a perfect evening of entertainment, visitors also have the luxury of entering into a perfect mood of relaxation at a Spa in Melbourne. One of the best spas would be Chuan Spa Melbourne.

The existence of the theatre in the city of Odessa began from the first days of the city’s foundation. The Opera & Ballet Theatre is entitled to be called the elder among a great number of cultural institutions. Odessa strived for the right of building the theatre in 1804, and in 1809 it was already built. On the10th of February 1810 the first performance took place – the Russian troupe by Fortunatov staged a one -act opera by Fralih “A New Family” and a vaudeville “A Consolating Widow”.

But, unfortunately, in 1873 an old building was burnt. And it was burnt completely. The restoration was our of the question. It was a tragedy, which was relented by one circum-stance – nobody suffered from it. It was suggested to draw up a draft of a new city theatre to Vienna architects F. Felner Y. Helmer. Eleven years have passed since laying of the first brick into the foundation of the new theatre building. And the theatre opening took place on the 1st of October 1887.

The building of Odessa Opera and Ballet House was fulfilled in the style of Vienna “baroque”, which was the main in the European art from the end of the XVIth up to the middle of the XVIIIth century.

There is a sculptural group over the front, portraying one of the muse – a patron of art- Melpomena. She is sitting in the chariot, harnessed by the four furious panthers, which were subdued, her. A little bit lower there are sculptural groups from the ancient mythology subjects. At the bottom, near the central entrance, on the high pedestals, two sculptural groups are set up, personifying Comedy and Tragedy: on the left – a fragment from the tragedy by Euripi “Ippolit”, on the right – an episode from the comedy by Aristophanes: “The Birds”.

Along the pediment of the building in the bays of the upper circle the busts of the brilliant Russian art & literature creators. Pushkin, Glinka, Griboyedov, Gogol are placed. The most beautiful part of the building – is its hall. Its architecture is maintains in “rococo” style.

It is luxuriously decorated by various molded ornaments, with the fine gilt. The ceiling is of a special interest. Four pictures by Lefler in the form of a locket (medallion) are in its basis. The scenes from the works are Syakespeare: “Hamlet”, “A Dream in the Summer Night”, “The Winter Fairytale” & “As You like It”, is depicted on them.

A big chandelier in the centre of the ceiling strikes by its drake of tracery details. There are many different stucco moldings in the hall and in all the circles.

The modeling in the circles is fulfilled with a special grace. Side lobbies and along staircases, leading to the boxes. All kinds of lampions, candelabrums and bronze ornamented inlays are originally and inventively made. Perhaps, in any of the theatres, there is no so tastefully made curtain, outlined by the prominent theatrical painter – Golovin. The area of the stage is 500 Esq. The unique acoustics allows to deliver even a whisper from the stage to any part of the hall.

The Theatre itself is interesting not only by us architecture, but by its rich creative biography. The great merit in the development of musical culture in the south of our country belongs, to this theatre. P.Tchaikovsky, N.Rimsky-Korsakov, S.Rachmaninoff, Ezhen Izai, Pablo Sarasate and others performed their works. There appeared on the stage the actors, who glorified the home art/ the great singers: Fyodor Chaliapin, Solomiya Grushelnitskaya, Antonina Nezhdanova, Leonid Sobinov, Tito Ruffo, Batistini, Jeraldoni sang here, Anna Pavlova, the first world ballet-dancer, had been dancing here. In 1926 the theatre was awarded the title of “Academic”. The theatre ballet group consists of 50 people. Among them such Honored ballet dances of Ukraine as Andrey Musorin and Yelenaa Kamenskih – the participants of the Farewell Tour of Rudolf Nuriyev, and others. “Jizelle”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Nut-Cracker”, “Don Quihote”, “Chopiniana”, “Un Ballo in Maschera”, “Hunchback Horse”, “Carmen-Suite” are in the repertoire of the theatre. The ballet dancers were touring in Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Ceylon, China, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Portugal – with Maya Plisetskaya and in Indonesia, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries. The opera singer’s troupe consists of 40 people. They are National artists of Ukraine – Lyudmila Shirina, Anatoliy Boyko, Anatoliy Kapustin and Vladimir Tarasov, the Honored artists of Ukraine: Anisimova Tatyana, Irina Berlizova and Nataja Yutesh, Pavel Yermolenko, Laureates of International Contests. Viktor Mityushkin, Shalva Mukeria, Natlja Shvchenko, Ruslan Zinevich and others.

There are 25 operas, such as “Carmen”, “Aida”, “Il Trovatore”, “La Traviata”, “Cavaleria Rusticana”, “I Pagliacci”, “Iolanta”, “Madam Butterfly”, Rigoletto”, and others are in the repertoire of theatre. The theatre opera singers were appearing on the stages of Spain, Italy, France, Finland, Japan, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium, Greece and the individual opera soloists – practically in all the countries of the world.

Prague is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and the historic centre has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1992. For those wishing to experience the night-life, Prague offers a vast assortment of venues to suit most people’s tastes and is one of the cheapest places to go out in the EU. Perhaps the best reason to visit Prague however is to experience the theatre.

Prague’s strong tradition of theatre has played a significant part in preserving and developing the Czech cultural identity. Today the National Theatre consists of three artistic ensembles devoted to opera, ballet and drama, who alternate their performances between the historic buildings of the National Theatre, the Theatre of the Estates and in the Kolowrat Theatre. The venues select their repertoire from the rich Czech heritage as well as modern local and international works.

The National Theatre was opened in 1881 to honour the visit of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Despite experiencing a disastrous fire shortly thereafter, a national collection was quickly set up to rebuild it, and The National Theatre became one of the most important Czech cultural institutions, being maintained by the most distinguished personalities in Czech society. The theatre recently hosted a Gala Concert to mark the jubilee of its 125th season, which includes such works as ‘Norma’ by Vincenzo Bellini and ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet.

The Estates Theatre was built during the late 18th century in response to the Enlightenment school of thought regarding general access to theatre and how theatres demonstrated the cultural standards of a nation. The building itself was constructed in a Neoclassical style and remains one of the few European theatres to be preserved in its almost original state to this day. One of the Estates Theatre’s many claims to fame is its strong link with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who directed the world premiere of his opera ‘Don Giovanni’ there in October 1787. The Estates Theatre currently offers performances of ballets, dramas and operas with the focus of the opera company on the work of Mozart.

The Kolowrat Theatre was long part of the Theatre of the Estates’ administrative building, but was opened for performances in 1991 with a performance of Felix Mitterer’s ‘Visiting Hours’. The extensive loft has been sensitively restored and is mainly used for works of intellectual seriousness.

Tickets for performances are available online from several vendors and the venues’ ticket offices, but travellers are advised to book tickets in advance as performances can sell out quickly. Prague is serviced by the Ruzyne International Airport, a flight destination for most of the pan-European budget airlines. From there travellers can catch a bus, shuttle or arrange private transfer to get to their final destination with ease. Hotels in Prague can be booked online in advance, which is recommended, especially as prices for accommodation can be up to twice as high during peak season, which roughly runs from April to October.

So whether you prefer opera, ballet or drama, make the trip to Prague to experience the best that theatre has to offer.

I’d like to begin by differentiating postmodern theatre from its preceding periodizing categorization, the ‘classical’ and the ‘modern’ drama. Classical drama is characterized by the value placed in the plot and its adherence to Aristotle’s laws of dramatic unities. In the nineteenth century we also observed how Hegelian philosophy filtered into modern drama with the movement of ‘man’/character at the forefront of dramaturgy in the character dramas of Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekov. We also see how Aristotle’s mimesis is taken to the heights in the period of naturalism as influenced by the Darwinian science in the stagings of modern theatre. Raymond Williams observes the perfection of tragedy in modern drama where the alienated predicament of the human being in a highly industrialized world is highlighted. He sees Beckett’s tragicomedies representing the reduction and degradation of the human beings in a new absurdist dramatic structure.

To Elinor Fuchs, it is in the postmodern theatre that we witness the “death of the character” and the eradication of the plot. In this statement we are reminded of Barthes’ announcement of the “death of the author”, Foucault stating the “death of man” and Lyotard hailing the dissolution of metanarratives. As rigid categorization and structures of modernism collapse, eclecticism now characterizes postmodernism. But unlike Jameson’s notion of pastiche and extreme consumerism of multi-national capitalism, critical postmodern theatre derives its theory from the post-structuralists’ insight on semiotics. De Saussure laid bare the very construction of the human language exposing its structure of signs and codes. Taking off from this, Derrida’s analysis of the subjectivity of man’s meaning-making has furthered the invalidation of metanarratives. Now as the validity of the sign-signified and code-meaning constructs of languages are put into question, postmodernists are forced to investigate the language construction itself. Ultimately, we come to realize that meaning and signification is subjective and should be contextualized. With this, categorizing boundaries set by modernism collapse as well.

How do all these reflect in postmodern theatre?

Raymond Williams notion of the theatre convention explains this. Conventions in theatre according to Raymond Williams are methods such as figurative speech, stage blocking, songs or dance through which specific dramatic objectives are achieved. He pointed out how conventions in the theatre whether, performative techniques or literary devices, are characterized by its acceptability by the audience and its relations to the specific given standards. With this, he stressed the fact how dramatic conventions are maintained as “terms upon which author, performers and audience agree to meet, so that the performance may be carried on.” Nicole Boireau expounded on the concept of dramatic conventions through the Hamletesque metaphor of the ‘Mousetrap’. From this, he claims that the truth can be accessed through the world of illusion; that it is only through theatricality that truth can be revealed. Theatre expresses reality through the use of artificial conventions. He explained that only through the reflective nature of drama and the dramatic conventions that truths presented in drama are validated . It is then through the same dramatic and theatrical conventions set as the medium in expressing truths, that the expressed truths can be validated. It is through the limitations and self-confined means of definition can the expressed truths substantiate.

Williams and Boireau’s explanation is a profound manifestation of structuralist and post-structuralist concept of laying bare language and systems of signs and codes. Although rooted in the Classical and Modern Theatre tradition, this is a postmodern realization of what Linda Hutcheon calls the self-reflexive nature of postmodern theatre.

With the dissolution of a ‘universal’ language, postmodern theatre is but provoked to look into historical and cultural contexts for a language to articulate itself. The same characteristic is seen in other art forms. Postmodern choreographers made dances about dance, inquiring on the very core of movement vocabularies that gave birth to choreographical works on walking, skipping, etc. This is also true in the experimentations on the various dance styles seen in Twyla Tharp’s combinations of jazz, ballet and ballroom. In the Philippines, this is seen in Agnes Locsin’s and Alice Reyes’ fusion of jazz and ballet and Philippine folk and ethnic movements. Postmodern architects see the history of architectural design as a diverse source of signs to be combined and recombined, thus Greek columns, Art Deco ornamentation and Modern Industrial materials are eclectically put together in a single building.

Postmodern theatre sees the various cultural and historical traditions as a vast source of signs. Kaye describes how postmodernism sees history as a store of signs available for postmodern theatre practice. In a recent production of Hamlet in Singapore, Hamlet was shown as a Noh actor Ophelia as a Balinese dancer. Or in the recent staging of Dulaang Habi’s musical Sa Kaharian ng Araw, audiences are taken into an seemingly incoherent worlds of a cabaret/rock concert, a Peking opera stage, and an extremely expressionistic theatrical world. The music is a mixture of Broadway influenced pop and rock songs, and fusion of classical and traditional Filipino ethnic and folk music. In the postmodern theatre, representations in acting style, costumes, production design, music and other elements are taken from different contexts.

With the collapse of the modernist boundaries, postmodern theatre takes on pluralism and multiplicity in style, approach and over-all process. This has been reflected in various approaches to production. Another important postmodern theatre practice is the use of inter-text, or what Jameson calls a culture of quotations, where various texts could be used to comment on each other. Such is in a production of Romeo and Juliet, where the play ends with the closing monologue by Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Nick Pichay’s musical version of the Oyayi ng Ulan, the character Dugong complained about the accumulating garbage in the ocean. He remarked that the worst kind of garbage is the postmodern poetry of new poets- which of course includes Pichay himself.

With the similar collapse of the modernist notion of Aristotle’s linearity and the Hegelian logic of cause and effect, postmodern theatre is characterized by multi-dimensionality and simultaneity. A simplified example of this is Maria Irene Fornes’s Fefu and Her Friends where the audiences are divided into groups to see different scenes of the play happening in various places. Or in the seashore scene of the 2002 staging of Sa Kaharian ng Araw, past and present converge with the appearance of Paolo’s deceased parents in the same stage where Paolo lovingly recalls them. On the same space in the stage an actor fishes on one side, while another plays with a rain stick, while other actors waiting for their cue sit attentively on chairs onstage. Here, multi-dimensionality and simultaneity is not just seen in how the plot is (dis)arranged. Even the actors playing the characters go through different dimensions of performance and representation in the same time and space. The actor although dressed up for the character he is to portray sits on a chair on the side waiting for his cue, substantiate both as the actor and as the character. The person exist as both the actor and character simultaneously but in different dimensions – where at one point, while he waits for his cue he essentially is not part of the play but simultaneously, physically and intentionally, he is physically there.

As Fuchs sees the diminution of character and plot in postmodern theatre, she sees the other theatrical elements taking on equal importance with these elements. She sees that “each signifying element – lights, visual design, music, etc., as well as plot and character elements – stand to some degree as independent actor.” She pointed out that the Aristotelian elements survived but their classical and modern structural hierarchies ceased to operate. This attitude in theatre production takes its roots from the Brechtian Epic Theatre. Brecht earlier on said: “Today we see the theatre being given absolute priority over actual plays. The theatre apparatus’s priority is a priority of means of production… The Theatre can stage anything; it theatres it all” (Raymond Williams, p.280).

And as postmodern theatre see the “death of the author” (the playwright), the director now takes the central role as the theorist responsible for creating the language of a production.

Postmodern theatre is also differentiated from the modern theatre with its mode-of-production. The Industrial Revolution and the idea of mass-production and the division-of-labor affected music and theatre production. The symphony orchestra and the opera are megalomaniac inventions of modernism. The eighteenth century symphony captured the massive sound of modernism. Here music is produced by a big group of musicians who are divided into sections. The opera is an even bigger modernist creation. Such massive theatre production requires a complex web of ‘workers’/artists who work as a big company that include an orchestra, singers, dancers, clothes-makers, carpenters, etc. Even the art-products are now produced for mass consumption. While music used to be performed in courts and chambers, the symphony and the opera are staged in large opera houses that sit thousands.

This new paradigm in theatre production calls for a different attitude from the audience as well. In postmodern theatre, Aristotle’s notion of catharsis comes to extreme obscurity in postmodern theatre. Aesthetic experience becomes completely dependent upon the meaning making process. The aesthetic experience that transpires in the postmodern process is closer to Kant’s sublime. Unlike Aristotle’s cathartic drama that succumbs its audience to empathizing attitude towards the mimetic illusion of classical and modern drama, Kant states that distance is necessary in achieving aesthetic pleasure. Brecht in turn, proposes ‘complex seeing’ in theatre: “Complex seeing must be practiced… . Thinking above the flow of the play is more important than thinking from within the flow of the play” (Ibid., p281).

In as much as postmodern theatre is required to go through a dialogic process of taking theory into practice and back to theory for it to be able to express itself, postmodern audience then is also called to go through this process of meaning-making. Here, postmodern theatre forces its audience to always take on a critical stance in watching. Language-creation and meaning-making in postmodern theatre is never a simple one-on-one correspondence mode of cognition. With a wary stance towards subjectivity of language, postmodern productions then are manifested with recurring disruptions in its audience’s cognitive process. John Orr sees this as intentional dis-recognition/mis-recognition and he notes that these are often used as dramatic-shock effects. The audience is provoked to figure out what is ‘menacing’ and ’strange” in familiar objects onstage and they are prodded to “translate back the strangeness, as a performed disguise of the metonymic, into something they truly recognize, knowing there is no complete translation” (John Orr, p.32) .

In the elusive nature of postmodernism as a theory, DiGaetani sees the importance of having a terminology that can serve as a handle. He noted that “it is wonderful to have a term like postmodernism to describe the art” (John DiGaetani, p. xv). To Fuchs, the theatre has indeed what we can call now postmodern and she asserts that the sooner we grasp its methods we are “immediately at a better vantage point from which to view what used to be called ‘avant-garde’ theatre” (Elinor Fuchs, p.171).

Works Cited:

Boireau, Nicole. Drama in Drama. Macmillan Press: London, c.1997. John DiGaetani. The Search for Postmodernism: Interviews with Contemporary Playwrights. Greenwood Press: New York, 1991. Elinor Fuchs . Death of the Character. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c.1996 John Orr. Tragicomedy and Contemporary Culture. Hong Kong: Macmillan Academic and Professional, Ltd., 1991 Raymond Williams. Drama from Ibsen to Brecht. Oxford University Press: New York, 1969 c. 1968.

The ETC offers a fantastic view from every seat (about 200 or so by my guestimations), and also has surprisingly good acoustics for that space. What makes the venue even better is the building itself…it is a gem and has all sorts of architectural details for you to enjoy (if you’re in to that sort of thing).

As for the show we saw ‘Rabbit Hole’ which is the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Best New Play and a Tony Award-winning drama. The show was great and the seats were full…at the end the audience gave a standing ovation for the great performance. The ETC is a great theatre that has a strong history and is nationally known.

I highly recommend a visit to the ETC. It is a good alternative to the movies and the show lets out with plenty of time to go out drinking afterwards. The ETC offers student discounts, as well as, senior discounts. You can now also buy tickets online…and if you want to see ‘Rabbit Hole’ then you better hurry because its time runs up this Sunday.

The first incarnation of the theatre came to light after the Puritan Interregnum, which was an 11-year ban on “frivolous” pastimes, including theatre. It opened May 7, 1663, and was known as the “King’s Playhouse” by many. The original building was a wooden structure made of three tiers, 112 feet long and 59 feet wide. At maximum capacity, it could hold 700 patrons. The performances during this time typically took place around 3 p.m. in order to make use of the daylight. There was no roof over the audience pit, which oftentimes left those attending plays at the mercy of the elements.
Live at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane
When the first theatre was destroyed by fire in 1672, the second theatre, named the “Theatre Royale in Drury Lane,” opened in 1794. This theatre lasted almost 120 years but was demolished in 1791 to make room for a bigger theatre, which opened in 1794. This theatre only lasted 15 years, as it also burned down in 1809.

The theatre building still existing today opened on Oct. 10, 1812. It seats about 2,237 people which, despite still being considered a large theatre, makes it approximately 550 seats smaller than the previous building.

Since its opening, it has been visited by Shakespearean actors, comedians, musical composer and performers and even the Monty Python comedy troupe, who recorded a concert album there. World War II forced the theatre to temporarily close and during the war, the theatre was used as headquarters for the Entertainments National Service Association. Although the theatre suffered minor bomb damage, it reopened in 1946 with Noel Coward’s “Pacific 1860.”

Since the war, it has produced mainly musical theatre, including several Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals including “Oklahoma!” In 1946, “South Pacific” in 1951 and “The King and I” in 1953. Other productions have included “My Fair Lady,” which had a five-year run beginning in 1958; “42nd Street” from 1984 to 1989; Miss Saigon from 1989 to 1999; and, more recently, “The Producers,” which closed in January 2007; a musical adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” which closed July 19, 2008; and “Oliver!” which began directly after the closing of “The Lord of the Rings.” The Drury Lane theatre is currently owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It is often referred to as one of the world’s most haunted theatres. One of the most famous spirits alleged to haunt the theatre is that of the “Man in Grey,” a man whose skeleton was found in a walled-up room in 1848. Other supposed ghosts within the theatre include the spirits of comedian Joe Grimaldi and actor Charles Macklin.

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