stage playn.
a. A dramatic performance; also, a dramatic composition adapted for representation on the stage. (Cf. play n. 17.)
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun]
playeOE
joyc1440
sportc1475
historya1509
drama?1521
stage playa1535
gameplay1560
show1565
device1598
piece1616
auto1670
action1679
natak1826
speakie1921
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > as literary composition
play1440
stage playa1535
scenes1664
a1535 T. More Hist. Richard III in Wks. (1557) 66/2 And in a stage play all the people know right wel, that he that playeth the sowdayne is percase a sowter.
1605–6 Act 3 Jas. I c. 21 For the preventing and avoyding of the greate Abuse of the Holy Name of God in Stageplayes..and such like.
1693 J. Dryden Disc. conc. Satire in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires p. xlvi Stage-Plays, which are all of one Action, and one continu'd Series of Action.
1843 Act 6 & 7 Vict. c. 68 §23 The Word ‘Stage-Play’ shall be taken to include every Tragedy, Comedy, Farce, Opera, Burletta, Interlude, Melodrama, Pantomime, or other Entertainment of the Stage, or any Part thereof.
b. Dramatic acting, play-acting.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > acting > [noun]
action1540
acting1590
stage-playing1597
interluding1612
play-acting1633
histrionisma1682
theatrics1807
histrionics1824
mumming1861
histrionicism1870
stage play1872
Thespianism1914
1872 J. Morley Voltaire i. 9 The contest was real, and not our present pantomimic stage-play.
c. attributive.
ΚΠ
a1821 J. Keats Otho i. ii, in R. M. Milnes Life, Lett. & Lit. Remains Keats (1848) II. 127 I do not personate The stage-play emperor to entrap applause.
1908 Stage Year Bk. 26 Many provincial theatres also have..a stage play licence and a music and dancing licence.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1915; most recently modified version published online June 2020).
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n.a1535