Both countries celebrate Thanksgiving
with turkey feasts. In the United
States, Thanksgiving Day parades and
football games have become important
traditions as well.
The Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony
held the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
They had landed in America on their
ship the Mayflower in December 1620.
Only half of them survived that first
There are many important buildings along
the Thames River. The group of buildings at
left is the Houses of Parliament, in London,
England. This is where members of the British
Parliament meet.
56 Thames River BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
winter. The next year, the harvest in the
fall was good. To celebrate their harvest,
the colonists and their Native American
guests enjoyed a three-day feast.
Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a
popular women’s magazine, led the
effort to have Thanksgiving become a
national celebration in the United
States. In 1846 she started sending letters
to important politicians in order to
achieve her goal. Finally, in 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a
national day of Thanksgiving. In
December 1941 Congress officially
named the fourth Thursday in November
as Thanksgiving Day.
Theater
A theater is a place where people go to
see plays and other performances. The
word theater can also refer to everything
involved in producing a live staged performance.
The most common form of
theater is a drama, or play. A drama is a
story that is acted out for an audience.
Other kinds of theatrical productions
may feature elements other than a story.
They include musicals, puppet shows,
circuses, operas, and ballets and other
dance performances.
Inside the Theater
The part of a theater where the actors
perform is called the stage. The most
common kind, called a proscenium
stage, is like a room with three walls.
The audience sits in an auditorium and
views the production as though looking
through the fourth wall. Some theaters
have a thrust stage, which extends partly
into the seating area. The audience sits
on three sides of the extended section of
a thrust stage. In an arena stage the audience
surrounds the stage. An arena stage
is also called theater-in-the-round.
Other important parts of the theater
include the backstage area and the dressing
rooms. There is also a booth where
technicians control the lighting and
sound.
People in Theater
Many people work together to create
theater. In a play actors have the most
visible roles. The main people behind
the scenes are the producer and the
director. As the play’s main businessperson,
a producer obtains and manages
all the money. The director decides how
the play will be brought to life. This
involves overseeing the actors and the
behind-the-scenes crew. The director
also runs rehearsals, or practices. A playwright
writes the script, which contains
the words the actors say.
A family prepares to eat a turkey dinner
together at Thanksgiving.
The word theater
comes
from a Greek
word meaning
“a place for
seeing.”
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Theater 57
The stage manager oversees all behindthe-
scenes activity during the production.
The set designer creates backdrops
and furniture. The property master
manages the small items, or props, used
onstage. Lighting experts focus light on
the stage to concentrate on certain activity
and to set a mood. The makeup artist
and costume designer help the actors
look their parts.
Other types of theatrical productions
may involve other people with special
talents. For example, in puppet theater
various people design, make, and operate
the puppets. In productions featuring
dance a person called a
choreographer may make up all the
dance steps and movements. Musicians
and composers may be a key part of
productions that use music.
History
Early Theater
In ancient Greece plays were performed
as part of special festivals. The audience
sat on seats carved into the side of a hill
overlooking the stage. Some ancient
Greek theaters could seat as many as
20,000 people.
In Europe during the Middle Ages (AD
500–1500) plays were often related to
Christianity. At first they were performed
in churches. Later they were
performed outdoors—on the church
steps, on decorated platforms, or sometimes
even in wagons.
In the 1300s a type of theater called
Noh was developed in Japan. Noh plays
combine words, music, and dance to
portray legends. Men or boys play all the
parts, including the female characters.
The actors do not act out scenes. Instead
they use their movements and appearance
as symbols to suggest the story. A
Noh play takes place on a thrust stage.
The stage has four pillars topped by a
curving temple roof.
The Renaissance (1300s to 1500s) was a
period of great artistic creation in
Europe. The large theaters built then set
the pattern for today’s theaters. Grand
spectacles staged in these theaters were
usually for the upper classes. The common
people went to see groups of traveling
actors perform comic entertainment
outdoors.
In the late 1500s many theaters opened
in London, England. The most famous
was the Globe Theater, where William
Shakespeare staged many of his plays.
The Globe had a thrust stage that
