Genres of Theatre

There are many different genres of theatre available for us to watch. The choices are endless with performance theatres giving us the opportunity to experience all forms of entertainment that the performing arts have to offer.

Whether you want to visit a musical theatre to witness a story told through song, dance and speech or an opera theatre to listen to a story being sung, the choices are unlimited.
There are simply too many genres of theatre to name them all but the main ones that people go to theatres o see are listed below:

Musical theatre: Is a theatre where you will hear and see a story told through the performance of singing, speech and dance.
Some of the major musical productions that people have been going to see in recent times include productions such as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera. These two Andrew Lloyd Webber productions have played all over the world with more than 80 million paying customers rushing for tickets to watch these shows again and again.
Opera: Is a genre of theatre where a story is told through singing. Some of the best known Opera singers today include Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Spanish tenors Plcido Domingo and Jos Carreras. This trio make up the Three Tenors who are responsible for producing the best selling classical album, 'In Concert' by The Three Tenors.
Pantomime: A musical drama that includes dance, mime, puppetry, slapstick, and melodrama for a comic experience designed for children.

Comedy: Is a genre of theatre that performers generally tell stories through speech. A comedy play can involve speech, dance and song with a story told that conveys a happy ending after a tragic or catastrophic event.
Most of us enjoy a good comedy show and the Umbilical Brothers are an Australian comedy duo that have not only had considerable success in Australia during the last decade performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Opera House and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Romantic comedy: Is a genre of theatre involving a love plot that focuses on two would be lovers that have difficulty in finding one another. Most people enjoy a good romantic comedy with more than one Broadway show turning into successful television series.
Black comedy: Is a genre of theatre that uses a humorous or satirical manner to test the boundaries of good taste, terrible and morbid things are said that can easily offend in other circumstances. Actors like the late Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy have used black comedy to great effect with their gags about black men one way to promote the kick out racism message to the general public without having to say it.
Tragicomedy: Is a genre of theatre that literally has a tragic tale to tell with a humourous ending.
Physical theatre: Is a genre of theatre that uses expression movement, dance, mime, puppetry, and gesture as its primary means of communication during the play.

http://www.theatres.com.au/theatre-genres/

Film Sub-Genres

http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html

Main Film Genres

Genre Types
Genre Descriptions

Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience escapism. Includes the James Bond 'fantasy' spy/espionage series, martial arts films, and so-called 'blaxploitation' films. A major sub-genre is the disaster film.

Adventure films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre), searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown.

Comedies are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters. This section describes various forms of comedy through cinematic history, including slapstick, screwball, spoofs and parodies, romantic comedies, black comedy (dark satirical comedy), and more.

Crime (gangster) films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as film noir or detective-mystery films - because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms. This category includes a description of various 'serial killer' films.

Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre, with many subsets. Dramatic biographical films (or "biopics") are a major sub-genre, as are 'adult' films (with mature subject content).

Epics include costume dramas, historical dramas, war films, medieval romps, or 'period pictures' that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. Epics often share elements of the elaborate adventure films genre. Epics take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score. Epics are often a more spectacular, lavish version of a biopic film. Some 'sword and sandal' films (Biblical epics or films occuring during antiquity) qualify as a sub-genre.

Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans. They are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not usually synonymous with the horror genre. There are many sub-genres of horror: slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.

Musical/dance films are cinematic forms that emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance integrated as part of the film narrative), or they are films that are centered on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography. Major subgenres include the musical comedy or the concert film.

Sci-fi films are often quasi-scientific, visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by mad scientists or by nuclear havoc. They are sometimes an offshoot of fantasy films, or they share some similarities with action/adventure films. Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind and easily overlaps with horror films, particularly when technology or alien life forms become malevolent, as in the "Atomic Age" of sci-fi films in the 1950s.

War (and anti-war) films acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. War films are often paired with other genres, such as action, adventure, drama, romance, comedy (black), suspense, and even epics and westerns, and they often take a denunciatory approach toward warfare. They may include POW tales, stories of military operations, and training.

Westerns are the major defining genre of the American film industry - a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring genres with very recognizable plots, elements, and characters (six-guns, horses, dusty towns and trails, cowboys, Indians, etc.). Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discover.

http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html

Expressions About Tables

Yard Sale

The broken mirror, the black cat, and lots of good luck

by Chris Rose

Nikos was an ordinary man. Nothing particularly good ever happened to him, nothing particularly bad ever happened to him. He went through life accepting the mixture of good things and bad things that happen to everyone. He never looked for any explanation or reason about why things happened just the way they did.

One thing, however, that Nikos absolutely did not believe in was superstition. He had no time for superstition, no time at all. Nikos thought himself to be a very rational man, a man who did not believe that his good luck or bad luck was in any way changed by black cats, walking under ladders, spilling salt or opening umbrellas inside the house.

Nikos spent much of his time in the small taverna near where he lived. In the taverna he sat drinking coffee and talking to his friends. Sometimes his friends played dice or cards. Sometimes they played for money. Some of them made bets on horse races or football matches. But Nikos never did. He didn’t know much about sport, so he didn’t think he could predict the winners. And he absolutely didn’t believe in chance or luck or superstition, like a lot of his friends did.

One morning Nikos woke up and walked into the bathroom. He started to shave, as he did every morning, but as he was shaving he noticed that the mirror on the bathroom wall wasn’t quite straight. He tried to move it to one side, to make it straighter, but as soon as he touched it, the mirror fell off the wall and hit the floor with a huge crash. It broke into a thousand pieces. Nikos knew that some people thought this was unlucky. “Seven years bad luck” they said, when a mirror broke. But Nikos wasn’t superstitious. Nikos wasn’t superstitious at all. He didn’t care. He thought superstition was nonsense. He picked up the pieces of the mirror, put them in the bin, and finished shaving without a mirror.

After that he went into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich to take to work for his lunch. He cut two pieces of bread and put some cheese on them. Then he thought he needed some salt. When he picked up the salt jar, it fell from his hand and broke on the floor. Salt was everywhere. Some people, he knew, thought that this was also supposed to bring bad luck. But Nikos didn’t care. He didn’t believe in superstitions.

He left the house and went to work. On his way to work he saw a black cat running away from him. He didn’t care. He wasn’t superstitious. Some builders were working on a house on his street. There was a ladder across the pavement. Nikos thought about walking around the ladder, but he didn’t care, he wasn’t superstitious and didn’t believe in superstitions, so he walked right underneath the ladder.

Even though Nikos wasn’t superstitious, he thought that something bad was certain to happen to him today. He had broken a mirror, spilled some salt, walked under a ladder and seen a black cat running away from him. He told everybody at worked what had happened. “Something bad will happen to you today!” they all said. But nothing bad happened to him.

That evening, as usual, he went to the taverna. He told all his friends in the taverna that he had broken a mirror, spilled the salt, seen a black cat running away from him and then walked under a ladder. All his friends in the taverna moved away from him. “Something bad will happen to him”, they all said, “and we don’t want to be near him when it happens!”.

But nothing bad happened to Nikos all evening. He sat there, as normal, and everything was normal. Nikos was waiting for something bad to happen to him. But it didn’t.

“Nikos, come and play cards with us!” joked one of his friends. “I’m sure to win!” Nikos didn’t usually play cards, but tonight he decided to. His friend put a large amount of money on the table. His friend thought Nikos was going to lose. Nikos thought he was going to lose.

But it didn’t happen like that.

Nikos won. Then he played another game, and he won that one too. Then somebody asked him to play a game of dice, and Nikos won that as well. He won quite a lot of money. “Go on then Nikos” his friends shouted, “Use all the money you have won to buy some lottery tickets!” Nikos spent all the money he had won on lottery tickets. The draw for the lottery was the next day.

The next day after work Nikos went to the tavern again. Everybody was watching the draw for the lottery on TV. The first number came out, for the third prize. It was Nikos’ number. Then the second number, for the second prize. It was another of Nikos’ tickets. Then the first prize. It was Nikos’ number as well. He won all three of the big lottery prizes.

It was incredible. It seemed that all the things that people thought caused bad luck actually brought him good luck.

The next day Nikos bought a book about superstitions from all over the world. When he had read the book he decided to do everything that would bring him bad luck. He left empty bottles on the table. He asked his wife to cut his hair for him. He accepted a box of knives as a gift. He slept with his feet pointing towards the door. He sat on the corners of tables. He put a candle in front of the mirror. He always left his hat on the bed. He always left his wallet on the bed. He bought things in numbers of six, or thirteen. He crossed people on the stairs. He got on a boat and whistled. And with everything he did, he got luckier and luckier. He won the lottery again. He won the games of dice in the taverna every evening. The things got crazier and crazier. He bought a black cat as a pet. He broke a few more mirrors, on purpose. He didn’t look people in the eye when they raised their glasses to him. He put loaves of bread upside down on the table. He spilled salt. He spilled olive oil. He spilled wine.

The more superstitious things he did, the luckier he became. He went in to the taverna and started to tell all his friends what he thought.
“You see!” he told them. “I was right all along! Superstition is nonsense! The more things I do to break ridiculous superstitions, the more lucky I am!”
“But Nikos” replied one of his friends, “Don’t you see that you are actually as superstitious as we are? You are so careful to break superstitions, and this brings you luck. But you are only lucky when you do these things. Your disbelief is actually a kind of belief!”

Nikos thought hard about what his friend said. He had to admit that it was true. He was so careful to break all the superstitions he could, that in some way he was actually observing those superstitions.

The next day, he stopped spilling salt, chasing away black cats, walking under ladders, putting up umbrellas in the house and breaking mirrors. He also stopped winning money on the lottery. He started to lose at games of cards or dice.

He was a normal man again. Sometimes he was lucky, sometimes he wasn’t. He didn’t not believe in superstitions any more, but he didn’t believe in them either.

“Nikos”, said his friend to him, “It was your belief in yourself that made you lucky. It was your self-confidence that helped you, not superstitions.”

Nikos listened to his friend and thought that he was right. But, however rational he still believed himself to be, he always wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t broken that mirror...
Discussion

What do you think of this story? Do you have any superstitions? Are there any strange superstitions where you come from?

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/stories/broken-mirror-black-cat-and-lots-good-luck

Knock on Wood! (Russian superstitions)

http://www.passportmagazine.ru/article/369/
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30500.asp

Superstitions in Britain

Superstitions can be defined as, "irrational beliefs, especially with regard to the unknown".

General Superstitions

Good Luck

Lucky to meet a black cat. Black Cats are featured on many good luck greetings cards and birthday cards in England.

Lucky to touch wood. We touch; knock on wood, to make something come true.

Lucky to find a clover plant with four leaves.

White heather is lucky.

A horseshoe over the door brings good luck. But the horseshoe needs to be the right way up. The luck runs out of the horseshoe if it is upside down.

Horseshoes are generally a sign of good luck and feature on many good luck cards.

On the first day of the month it is lucky to say "white rabbits, white rabbits white rabbits," before uttering your first word of the day.

Catch falling leaves in Autumn and you will have good luck. Every leaf means a lucky month next year.

Cut your hair when the moon is waxing and you will have good luck.

Putting money in the pocket of new clothes brings good luck.

Bad Luck

Unlucky to walk underneath a ladder.

Seven years bad luck to break a mirror. The superstition is supposed to have originated in ancient times, when mirrors were considered to be tools of the gods.

Unlucky to see one magpie, lucky to see two, etc..

Unlucky to spill salt. If you do, you must throw it over your shoulder to counteract the bad luck.

Unlucky to open an umbrella in doors.

The number thirteen is unlucky. Friday the thirteenth is a very unlucky day. Friday is considered to be an unlucky day because Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

Unlucky to put new shoes on the table.

Unlucky to pass someone on the stairs.

Food Superstitions

When finished eating a boiled egg, push the spoon through the bottom of the empty shell to let the devil out

In Yorkshire, housewives used to believe that bread would not rise if there was a corpse (dead body) in the vicinity, and to cut off both ends of the loaf would make the Devil fly over the house!

Table Superstitions

If you drop a table knife expect a male visitor, if you drop a fork a female visitor.

Crossed cutlery on your plate and expect a quarrel.

Leave a white tablecloth on a table overnight and expect a death.

Animal Superstitions

Animals feature a lot in our superstitions as they do in superstitions around the world.

One ancient British superstition holds that if a child rides on a bear's back it will be protected from whooping-cough. (Bears used to roam Britain but now they are not seen on our shores)

In some parts of the UK meeting two or three Ravens together is considered really bad. One very English superstition concerns the tame Ravens at the Tower of London. It is believed if they leave then the crown of England will be lost.

It is said to be bad luck if you see bats flying and hear their cries. In the middle ages it was believed that witches were closely associated with bats.

If a Sparrow enters a house it is an omen of death to one of the people who live there. In some areas it is believed that to avoid bad luck, any Sparrow caught must be immediately killed otherwise the person who caught it will die.

In some areas black Rabbits are thought to host the souls of human beings. White Rabbits are said to be really witches and some believe that saying 'White Rabbit' on the first day of each month brings luck. A common lucky charm is a Rabbit's foot, but not for the Rabbit.

It is thought very unlucky to have the feathers of a Peacock within the home or handle anything made with them. This is possibly because of the eye shape present upon these feathers i.e. the Evil-Eye associated with wickedness.

Wedding Superstitions

Bride and groom must not meet on the day of the wedding except at the altar.

The bride should never wear her complete wedding clothes before the day.

For good luck the bride should wear “something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new”.

The husband should carry his new wife over the threshold of their home.