Classification and systematic composition of theater

First, the classification of theater

1. Classification by function (or main staged drama)

Theater can be divided into the following categories according to its functions or main types of plays.

(1) Song and dance Theatre

This kind of theater is mainly for performing large-scale opera and dance drama, and the plot is mainly for singing and accompaniment. It belongs to music performance architecture. This kind of drama has a large performance scene, a large number of actors and a large range of activities, requiring a large stage plane size and space, and a large audience hall capacity, usually about 1600 seats, or even larger, up to 3000 seats.

(2) Drama Theatre

Drama mainly consists of dialogue, with little music in the plot, so it belongs to language drama. Drama is an art form that is closest to the reality of life. The audience should be able to hear the actors' subtle words and see their subtle expressions. Audience hall capacity should not be too large, generally in 800 ~ 1000 seats is better. In some theater designs, the peninsula - shaped extended stage has been tried to make the actors and audience as close as possible.

(3) Beijing Opera and local theater

Beijing Opera and local opera have singing and dialogue. The proportion of music and dialogue varies greatly with the type of opera and repertoire. Historically, China's traditional drama is a high level of freehand brushwork art, the scenery and props are very simple, mainly rely on actors highly summarized actions, superb acting, arouse the audience's association, create the play environment. It does not need a very large stage, the audience hall capacity can be slightly larger than drama theatre.

(4) Other types of theatre

There are also concert halls for music performance, puppet theaters for puppets, as well as quyi, shadow play and acrobatics, etc., which have different requirements in the use of functions. In addition, there is a multi-purpose theatre.