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Theater Genre table
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This type is for all genres of plays.
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| x name | x image | x Plays In This Genre | x article |
|---|---|---|---|
| x Historical drama | The Red Priest of Venice |
The historical drama is a film genre in which stories are based upon historical events and famous persons. Some historical dramas attempt to accurately portray a historical event or biography, to the degree that the available historical research...
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| x Comedy |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream |
Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδία, komodia) as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the...
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| Love's Labour's Lost | |||
| Noises Off | |||
| Is He Dead? | |||
| L'Île des esclaves | |||
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| x Tragedy |
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'Tis Pity She's a Whore |
Tragedy (Ancient Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia, "goat-song") is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific...
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| Death of a Salesman | |||
| The Crucible | |||
| The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus | |||
| The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois | |||
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| x Musical comedy | In Town | ||
| The French Maid | |||
| Gentleman Joe | |||
| x Absurdism |
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The Bald Soprano |
Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe ultimately fail (and hence are absurd), because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to the individual. The word "absurd" in this context does not...
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| Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | |||
| x Tragicomedy | Uncle Vanya |
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with a happy ending or a serious play with an...
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| The Room | |||
| The Seagull | |||
| Waiting for Godot | |||
| Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | |||
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| x Surrealism |
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A Dream Play |
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many...
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| Les mamelles de Tiresias | |||
| x Purim spiel |
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The Sale of Joseph |
A Purim Spiel, or Purimshpil, meaning a Purim play—shpil means 'game' or '(stage) play' in Yiddish. (See also spiel).
A Purim Spiel is usually a comic dramatization, as a traditional type of Jewish play, or informal theatrical production, with...
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| x Fantasy |
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A Midsummer Night's Dream |
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, the majority of fantasy works have been literature. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic...
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| Endorian Dreams | |||
| The Door She Chose | |||
| x Music theatre |
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West Side Story |
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical...
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| My Fair Lady | |||
| The Sound of Music | |||
| 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue | |||
| South Pacific | |||
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| x History |
|
Henry V |
History is the study (teaching) of the past, with special attention to the written record of the activities of human beings over time. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to...
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| Henry IV, Part 1 | |||
| Henry IV, Part 2 | |||
| King John | |||
| Henry VIII | |||
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| x Realism | Fool for Love |
Realism was a general movement in 19th-century theatre that steered theatrical texts and performances toward greater fidelity to real life.
Realism began earlier in the 19th century in Russia than elsewhere in Europe and took a more uncompromising...
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| The Storm | |||
| x Romantic comedy | Strictly Dishonorable |
Romantic comedy is a hybrid genre in which a story about romance is presented in a comedic style. Works in this genre are generally considered light-hearted, and are sometimes associated with the vaguely derogatory terms "chick lit" or "chick flick"...
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| Same Time, Next Year | |||
| Private Lives | |||
| The Marriage of Figaro | |||
| Arlequin poli par l'amour | |||
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| x Drama |
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δράμα, dráma), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: δράω, dráō). The enactment of drama in theatre,...
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| Proof | |||
| The Crucible | |||
| Saved | |||
| The Invention of Love | |||
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| x Restoration comedy |
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Marriage A-la-Mode |
Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a...
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| The Rover | |||
| The Way of the World | |||
| The Plain Dealer | |||
| The Rehearsal | |||
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| x Courtroom Drama | The Trial of Mary Dugan | ||
| x Existentialism |
|
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead |
Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a number of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, took the human subject — not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling,...
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| x Parallel novel | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead |
This is a partial list of works of fiction that are written within, or derived from, the framework of another work of fiction by another author. This list does not include franchised book series', which are typically works licensed by the publisher...
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| Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge | |||
| x Comedy of manners | The Rivals |
The comedy of manners satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young...
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| The School for Scandal | |||
| The Women | |||
| x Satire |
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The Critic |
Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of...
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| Catch 22 | |||
| Is He Dead? | |||
| x Closet drama | Samson Agonistes |
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group. A related form, the "closet screenplay", developed during the twentieth century.
Any drama recorded in a...
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| x Problem plays |
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Troilus and Cressida |
In Shakespeare studies, the term problem plays normally refers to three plays that William Shakespeare wrote between the late 1590s and the first years of the seventeenth century: All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure and Troilus and...
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| Measure for Measure | |||
| x Romance | Pericles, Prince of Tyre |
Romance or romantic may refer to:
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| The Winter's Tale | |||
| x Masque |
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The Masque of Blackness |
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant.)...
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| The Masque of Beauty | |||
| x Vaudeville |
|
The Wizard of Oz |
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s in which each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill....
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| x Extravaganza |
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The Wizard of Oz |
An extravaganza is a literary or musical work (often musical theatre) characterized by freedom of style and structure and usually containing elements of burlesque, pantomime, music hall and parody. It sometimes also has elements of cabaret, circus,...
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| x Jukebox musical | Mamma Mia! |
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for,...
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| Jersey Boys | |||
| The Boy from Oz | |||
| Smokey Joe's Cafe | |||
| Forever Plaid | |||
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| x Monodrama | Pygmalion |
A monodrama (also Solospiel in German; "solo play") is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.
In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau...
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| Krapp's Last Tape | |||
| Underneath the Lintel | |||
| x Musical |
|
Alice in Wonderland |
The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are usually used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but some musical films (i.e.Down Argentine Way) simply...
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| Singin' in the Rain | |||
| Thoroughly Modern Millie | |||
| The Producers | |||
| A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | |||
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