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Vanya
7 years ago

Hello! I loved this article because I am so confused by this question. Can someone please help me by telling me the list of genres in theatre? It would mean the world to me.

11 years ago

I’ve always thought of genre as characterizing the WHAT (literary content) and style defining HOW (the piece will be performed) and in this way is consistent with your definitions above. To build off your point, realism would apply to a playwright like David Mamet. The style would be predicated on how the actors were to perform it.

The Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Theater Grades PreK-12 (New York City Department of Education) defines genre as: “Each of the main genres may be subdivided by style or content. Comedy, for example, may be absurdist, comedy of humors, comedy of manners, or romantic. Genre studies examine a particular work in relation to others of the same kind, determining how closely it meets the characteristics in that genre.” This definition doesn’t help very much for your discussion but I was curious about it and thought I’d share it here.

More info about the Blueprint: http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/Blueprints/Theaterbp2007.pdf .