So you are studying something called "theatre". What is it? What is it for? These are important questions to ask. There are many answers and by understanding the different answers to these two questions we can begin to gain an understanding of the various theories of drama.
Read below what some of the key theatre practitioners think theatre is, and what they thought it is for:
Augusto Boal - This is theatre - the art of looking at ourselves...Theatre is a form of knowledge;it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.
Mike Alfreds - Theatre is the most human of the arts. Its basic material is three groups of people: audiences, actors and characters - the first two groups complicitly combining their imaginations to create the third.... This is what theatre does: makes what isn't there, be there; what doesn't exist, exist.
Robert Lepage - The idea of theatre is first of all to bring people in a dark room and do the festival of light.
Robert Wilson - It's a form where people come together to have an exchange of ideas and feelings. It's something that is necessary in society ...
Declan Donnellan - A theatre is not only a literal space, but also a place where we dream together; not merely a building, but a space that is both imaginative and collective.... Theatre provides a safe frame within which we can explore dangerous extremities in the comfort of fantasy and the reassurance of a group.