BEHIND THE CURTAIN

What is Theater?

By Christopher Raymond

In his book, Poetics, Aristotle defines drama, or more broadly, theater as "performance of imitation for spectators". The imitation being that of all human action. He claimed theater's purpose was to use mimesis for an audience to evoke some form of catharsis. A thoughtful and insightful definition. And the beauty of its simplicity has quite the awe factor. 

But it is a definition that was obviously formed before the time of any other form of performance art. Before radio, movies, television, or Taylor Swift concerts. So now that we have those things, now that we have all this technology and theater as we know it is changing in front of our eyes, how does our definition change? Aristotle's definition is vague and leaves room for a lot of growth. In the coming months, I am going to ask; What is our new definition of theater? Do we need a new definition? And does the artform change with us or do we change with this artform that maybe is naturally evolving?

Theater, like all art, has changed drastically over the years. But what makes theater different from other artforms in this respect, is that it has changed so much in just the past decade. Even in the last 5 years. We have mostly technology and a struggle to survive to thank for that.

Technology changes everything in society. And theater along with it. From the obvious things like projections and videos, to the not so obvious like lights and sound, producing a play in 2025 is a different beast than it was in 2019. This is leading to one of the biggest arguments in theater circles today. What counts as theater anymore? Broadway’s current production of Sunset Boulevard begins with one of the lead actors walking down New York City's streets singing into a camera and the audience watching a livestream until he eventually enters the theater. It may be live, but so is live tv. Does watching Disney’s live recording of Hamilton count as a night out at the theater? Using projections in place of a set is the new big thing on Broadway right now, but isn’t the physical set part of the theatrical experience? During the pandemic the go to way to do theatrical productions was over zoom. But where’s the stage then? Some would argue the audience now lacks the feeling of experiencing the performance together which Aristotle considered vital to theater as an art. But these types of productions were necessary to keep people safe.

Believe it or not, Broadway has still not fully recovered from closing during the lock down. Neither has community theater, really. This has caused two responses among theaters. Some have decided to do the most commercially safe shows to bring in large audiences, and some have taken huge artistic swings with new, different plays. Let’s not forget that the pandemic was also a time of civil unrest around the country. BLM protests and marches took the US by storm, and Broadway reacted by trying to give opportunities to lesser heard voices. Unfortunately, neither response seems to be working to bring back the pre-pandemic crowd sizes. Shows are closing faster and faster, and people are struggling to find the right solution.

These are just some of the recent changes in theater. In the next few articles, I will be talking to members of New Surry Theatre to get their take on the rapidly changing artform we know as theater.

As I write this article, I want to ask; What is theater? But I can’t answer this question alone. First, I looked to Aristotle for help and went to the reasons for the recent changes to the DNA of the medium. Here, we talk to NST Artistic Director, Lori Sitzabee for some clarity.

  Lori has been involved in community theater for quite some time. Since her now 35 year old daughter was cast as the youngest child, Gretl in Sound of Music. Before that, Lori performed in shows with her high school and in college as a member of the orchestral pit. She has also lost count of the number of professional theater productions she has seen.

In my chat with Lori, we got real deep about the purpose of theater. She always managed to find her way back to, in her opinion, the real goal of theater: Community. Maybe a bit on the nose for the artistic director of Blue Hill’s community theatre, but then again, isn’t Aristotle’s definition just as simple? Lori defines theater like this, “A collaboration between a director, actors, and crew members to bring a live production to an audience.” She goes on to say, “A space to build and create community.”

My first goal was to dive into this definition. What is community? She pointed to Aristotle’s time. In his day, theater was therapeutic. It was used almost as news. In times of war or tragedy people would go to the theater to process everything. Now it’s what tourists do when they visit NYC. While these seem very different at first, I would argue that that thread of community holds true in both. A sense of togetherness and a shared experience can be found in theater throughout time when you look at this way. Lori then moved to the fact that theater is a group experience on both ends. Not only is an audience watching it together, but so many people are creating it together. “Somebody’s got to raise the curtain.”.  Lastly, Lori said a defining factor of theater, the thing that separates it from other art, is language. It’s identity is formed in a use of shared language intended to present a message.

But isn’t technology partly eliminating the community aspect in theater? And one could argue that while yes, theater uses language in a unique way, isn’t music the universal language? So I had to respectfully challenge Lori’s definition. She said that yes, music is something that everyone can understand, but a song can be felt in an infinite amount of ways. When she hears a piece of classical music, it could make her happy, but when somebody else hears that same piece, it could bring them to tears. “Music is up to interpretation through the ear.” While a play can be analyzed and interpreted differently as well, I doubt someone is leaving happy that Orpheus loses Eurydice. Lori’s response to virtual plays, something NST did multiple times, was that they were a temporary exception while they were necessary for health reasons and not a new permanent rule to change the definition of theater. She says that while parts of it are theater adjacent, it felt more like tv.

Towards the end of our conversation, Lori said two things that stuck with me. Theater is about “Humanizing ‘the other’” and that she doesn’t feel pressure to change with the growing technology. “We don’t have to when we can creatively do it on our stage.” She says community theater hasn’t actually changed all that much. And she seems to like it that way.

In my conversation with Ellen Lancaster, recent director and actor at New Surry Theatre, i went about finding the definition of theater a little differently. We talked about what it means to love theater. And how her evolving involvement with it has opened her eyes to all of the ways to create it.

I decided to come at this interview differently when I asked Ellen for her definition of theater and she gave me something I wasn’t prepared for. Rather than what she thinks theater is to the world, she told me what it means to her specifically on an emotional level. Ellen told me that theater “... is my church. I go to connect with the human experience.”. So one of my first questions was “What do you mean by ‘church’?”. She expanded, saying things like devout, and rituals and songs. She called them “sacred places” to gather with a community. Then she gave the perfect comparison. “Sitting in the dark in real time”. Just watching humans be humans as they always have been. And now I realize another difference in her response. She views theater from an audience’s perspective. Which is surprising since she has been a creator for so long.

Ellen has been in theater since childhood. Beginning in dance and planning on going to school for dance therapy, but quickly transitioning to degrees in theater. She acted both on stage and screen in New York and Chicago, was part of a touring improv group, and later found herself teaching acting at the college level. Her faith in theater was only strengthened when she started teaching and directing. Finding new ways to love and appreciate the craft. One change that she has experienced recently is in directing Misery at NST, switching from years of experience in professional to community theater. It was a challenge for her, having to now be much more hands on and trying to get a handle on the idea of everyone doing a little bit of everything. It was an experience she learned a lot from and is thankful that she had the team that she did.

When we got into the difference between acting for the stage and the screen, she mentioned the big one. Television and film is made in the editing room. As the saying goes, it’s a director’s medium. In theater though, the actor is the story. She says, “You can’t cut away in theater.”. When I asked her if she thought modern technology was bringing the two closer together, she responded, “I hope not!”, pointing out that you can’t match the thrill of a live performance, reinforcing the power of sitting in the dark.

In the end, I asked Ellen what changes in theater she is most excited about and what aggravates her. She started with the second part, claiming the capitalism of it all as the most infuriating. Pointing to the fact that it shouldn’t have to cost so much to see theater. She asks, “Does theater need to be expensive to touch people?”. But she said the overall increase of diverse representation is very exciting. We agreed that that theater should be accessible to all, in price and stories, and it seems to be moving toward that on at least one front.