1A building or outdoor area in which plays and other dramatic performances are given.

1. 1.1often the theater The activity or profession of acting in, producing, directing, or writing plays.
   what made you want to go into the theater?

   Example sentencesExamples

   • I was in Japan last year and was fascinated by the theatre there - it's so different from western theatre.
   • It combines elements of mime, dance, theatre, puppetry and text.
   • The idea is to turn the focus onto the fundamentals of theatre, including acting.
   • He is known for his non-conformist attitude in every field in which he has proven himself, be it politics, theatre or the legal profession.
   • He then began to move more decisively toward theatre, drawn to directing by the opportunity to interpret other people's words.
   • It was a happy coincidence that Brecht's theory of alienation was inspired by folk tales and folk theatre, which relied a lot on story-telling.
   • It's essential reading for anyone who cares about theater or writing.
   • After graduating, Grant dabbled briefly in advertising but plugged away at an acting career in regional theatre.
   • He had the experience of writing for theatre in his early career.
   • Since then he has attended the London Academy for Music and Dramatic Arts, and has been involved in all aspects of theatre including writing, acting and producing.
   • ‘She told me that it was the role of theatre to present life and to put theatre back in touch with reality,’ says Mackenney.
   • Even though film and television are more lucrative in terms of remuneration, theatre offers a true spiritual experience.
   • After a spell in the theatre, he directed the TV mini-series ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’, and the films ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘The Mother’.
   • It also gave him a valuable insight into the world of theatre and inspired him to develop his childhood talents.
   • Cinema, which borrows heavily from theatre in terms of choreography, has a few distinct features of its own that can be exploited.
   • I don't think in terms of film; I think in terms of live theater.
   • Some useful notions about theatre, past and present, suggest that it can operate in this way.
   • Lively conversation and anecdotes will abound as the duo discuss the art of writing for theatre.
   • His growing literary interest led to his writing on theatre.
   • I had never done any acting or theatre in school or college.

   Synonyms

   acting, performing
2. 1.2 A play or other activity or presentation considered in terms of its dramatic quality.
   this is intense, moving, and inspiring theater

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The award recognises the company's well-deserved reputation for high-quality theatre by people with learning difficulties.
   • Then, in 1985, he formed a theatre company with the aim of producing quality professional theatre for young people.
   • You couldn't get a better experience in terms of theatre.
   • This production has been handled very well by the director, cast and crew and is bound to delight fans of good-quality community theatre.
   • ‘It was really interesting in terms of trying to translate that experience into theatre,’ Eatough says.
   • It was a great opportunity for children to experience live, quality theatre with all the magic and excitement.
   • It has an unrivalled reputation for producing contemporary theatre of the highest quality, invention and energy, and for its dedication to new writing.
   • The festival also attempts to improve the quality of college theatre.
   • This kind of theatre is what is meant by the term ‘edgy’ - fresh, in-your-face, a little disconcerting.
   • Simone's best songs had the dramatic breadth of musical theater.
   • They have acquired such a reputation for quality theatre that their shows are always a date for the calendar.
   • The enthusiasts' tactics include presenting science as theatre, magic tricks and fantasy.
   • Peter Doran said it proved it was possible to provide quality theatre in remote regions like Pembrokeshire.
   • The production promises to live up to the group's current high standard of theatre, kicking off another packed year of top-quality shows.
3. 1.3North American, West Indian A movie theater.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Only one theater in the country (in New York City) agreed to screen ‘Winter Soldier’ when it was released in 1972.
   • Although I don't advocate moving from one theater to the next to see a movie you haven't paid for, I'm not against sneaking in a few outside snacks.
   • Sitting in a regular multiplex theater for more than two hours becomes uncomfortable.
   • Only yesterday, the last drive-in theater closed in Vancouver.
   • The scene around the East Village theater earlier this evening was ecstatic.
   • Indies can't make 5000 prints of one film, and send them to every theater that wants to show it.
   • If you really want to give them a treat, take them to a movie at an IMAX theater.
   • Everything changed in 1962 when I wandered into a double bill of Alain Resnais movies at a Boston art theater.
   • They designed multiplex theaters that had smaller seating capacities but which retained the bigger screens that distinguished the moviegoing experience.
   • Star Wars seemed to be playing in every single theater.
4. 1.4 A room or hall for lectures, etc., with seats in tiers.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Were the women the subject of any adverse comments about their presence in the lecture theatre or classroom?
   • The accommodation is rather basic and although they already have a lecture theatre, smaller conference rooms are needed.
   • The centre has a 150-seat state-of-the-art lecture theatre, an education suite and, of course, a restaurant and gift shop.
   • It has an air-conditioned, tiered lecture theatre, a conference room for 270 and a large number of seminar rooms.
   • This month, people will have the chance to watch the final cut at two showings at 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm in the lecture theatre.
   • For a moment, it feels as if I'm back in a university lecture theatre.
   • As her eyes scanned the chemistry lecture theatre her attention was drawn to the strapping, sporty-looking student at the other side of the room.
   • Further work will include a refurbished lecture theatre and new executive suite.
   • More than 100 people packed a lecture theatre at the Steam Museum to hear the MPs underline their commitment to the war and listen to the views of their constituents.
   • We are often cramped in a small lecture theatre with not enough seats and people sprawled on the stairs.
   • When was the last time a boy held a door open for me coming out of a lecture theatre?
   • Sometimes, when I had to be content with a seat at the back of the lecture theatre, I used a pair of opera glasses to get at least a glimpse of the speaker.
   • I was sitting in my usual seat in the fourth row of the lecture theatre beside one of my other closest friends, Natalie, or Tally, as I liked to call her.
   • This evening Mick spoke to a packed lecture theatre at Victoria University's Architecture School in Wellington.
   • Each day there will be exciting demonstrations, interactive workshops and fascinating talks in the lecture theatre, featuring new ideas and inspirational hints and tips from top experts.
   • Soon the protestors moved in to fill the lobby outside the lecture theatre.
   • Sitting in an overcrowded lecture theatre, I noticed students from the same school as Anna entering.
   • Work is due to start in April on the three-storey school, which will include a lecture theatre, IT rooms, restaurants and sports facilities.
   • The grant, which comes from Government money, would go towards work to build a new lecture theatre and improve disabled access and toilet facilities.
   • He made the infants' room look like a lecture theatre, with children as young as three sitting on tiers in a gallery.

   Synonyms

   hall, room, auditorium
5. 1.5 The area in which something happens.
   a new theater of war has been opened up

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Italy, which had wanted to withdraw from the fighting, now became a theatre of war.
   • These divisions were deployed by the army in various operational theatres and fully integrated into its command structure.
   • This was to turn the Middle East into an important theatre of war.
   • She has served in very many operational theatres.
   • Two soldiers from 2 Para were flown home during the investigation and the other four remained in Kabul but were removed from the theatre of operation.
   • It removed bungling amateurs from the theatre of war.
   • It is accepted that no such training can wholly reproduce the conditions of patrolling a hostile area, much less wholly reproduce the experience of a theatre of war or of combat itself.
   • Russia replied by opening up a new theatre of war in the Balkans.
   • This has obvious effects on attempts to transport armies or other land forces by sea into distant theatres of operations.
   • To compound the woes of the invading forces, with every passing day weather conditions in the theatre of war will grow increasingly worse.
   • He was later posted to the Pacific theatre of war, in charge of a mobile radar unit.
   • As the theatre of war moved south, so did the smallpox, primarily affecting civilians, camp followers, and irregular troops in both armies.
   • Now, the big question is how do they extricate themselves from a theatre of war that daily looks more like a slaughterhouse?
   • On the point of losing everything to the rebels, the king's triumphant emergence in the theater of war helps push back the enemy and offers a possibility of victory.
   • The badges will be presented to surviving members from either of the two wars, who served in operational theatres of war.
   • This allows for the rapid deployment of troops around the world, no matter where the next theater of war develops.
   • The question has to be asked, however, what parents were doing allowing their children to be in harm's way in the middle of a bloody theatre of war.
   • During World War II, Soper was sent to the Mediterranean theater of operations as part of the U.S.A. Typhus Commission.
   • Having proved that she is more than capable of working in an operational theatre, HMS Echo is now beginning to demonstrate her true capabilities and value to the Fleet.
   • He saw action in many theatres and was awarded Operational Service Medals for Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.
   • The main theatre of war was in the Crimea, where British, French and Turkish troops landed and laid siege to the port of Sebastopol.
   • This turned a diversionary skirmish into the main theatre of war.
   • Fifteen months later, he was commanding a theater of war.
   • Successive governments denied that the region had been a theatre of war: pressure from veterans has forced recantation.
   • More than two million of these were Americans bound for the European theatre of war.
   • In the European theatre of war, 5,556 war criminals were tried, the majority in France, America, and the United Kingdom.
   • The theatre of war looms large in France's film culture and this First World War prison drama, based on a true story, was long hailed as one of the greatest films ever made.
   • This theatre of war alone devoured 30,000 Soviet lives.

   Synonyms

   scene, arena, field of action, place of action, sphere of action
6. 1.6as modifier Denoting weapons for use in a particular region between tactical and strategic.
   he was working on theater defense missiles

   Example sentencesExamples

   • They would protect the country's navy in the first instance but would also offer a potential platform for theatre missile defence linked to a strategic defence system.
   • Rice was suggesting Japan and the U.S. step up cooperation on joint research on the theater missile defense system.
   • The North Korean threat is a key justification for U.S. military spending, the presence of U.S. troops in Asia and a new theatre missile defence system.
   • For one thing, if the North cancels its missile plans, the U.S. will lose a main justification for building the theater missile defense system Beijing opposes so strongly.
   • In the wake of the Rome Declaration, a special working group on theater missile defense was set up.
   • The Russians had rattled sabers throughout 1983, trying to stop NATO's theater missile deployment.
   • The program was to provide allies, such as Japan and South Korea, with so-called theater missile defense capability.
   • We already have theater missile systems that are working.
   • China has also been critical of the planned theater missile defense system to be jointly researched by Japan and the U.S.
   • But it is not a tactical and theater missile threat that has formed the focus of National Missile Defense.
   • These include theater missile defense systems to protect troops and bases in relatively small regions of conflicts.
   • In any event, as a result of the bureaucratic ploys and the increased capability of theater missiles, the lines between the two programs have blurred.
   • These capabilities include both mine warfare and other coastal combat forces, and sea-based theater missile defence.
   • The Russian proposal was made in response to U.S. national missile defense plans including the U.S. and Japanese theater missile defense concept.
   • Japan is taking a rather supportive stance because it is engaged in joint research with the U.S. to develop a theater missile defense system.
   • He stressed he was not planning to discuss high-level issues such as the U.S. plan to deploy a theater missile defense system.