Page 255 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

Theater SEE ALSO

▸ ▸ Ancient Greece
p.18

People have acted out stories for thousands of years. ▸ ▸ Books p.44
These stories are plays, and the theater is the exciting ▸ ▸ Buildings p.48
place in which they are performed. Theater performers ▸ ▸ Clothing pp.62–63

try to make you believe that the characters in a play are ▸ ▸ Film p.100
real, and that the events they show are ▸ ▸ Music
pp.176–177
actually happening.

On stage
The area where plays are
performed in a theater
is called the stage.
Many actors can be
on stage at the same
time. Music, sounds,
and lighting on stage
make the play
more exciting.

British author
Agatha Christie’s play
The Mousetrap
has been performed
more than
25,000 times!

Actor
The people in plays
who pretend to be Costume Stage Prop
characters are The clothing an actor wears The stage is usually in Props are things used in
called actors.
is called their costume. front of the audience. plays to make them more
lifelike, such as weapons.

Ancient plays Tragedy Puppets These Chinese
puppets cast
The first plays were mask Models controlled by strings shadows onto
written in ancient or rods are called puppets. a screen.
Greece, around 700 bce. They are given voices by
Greek playwrights performers and tell
mainly wrote sad plays, stories on small stages.
called tragedies, Puppet shows have
and funny plays, Comedy been performed for at
called comedies. mask least 3,000 years.

Greek theater masks
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