In 400 words or more, define “Conventions in Theater” and give three examples of these “conventions”.

Conventions in theater are general rules that are commonly used in certain styles of theater. It is generally thought that these “rules” should not be violated. But they often times are. Many believe that violating conventions make for more interesting, innovative theater.

Another way to put it is that conventions are a set of conditions that are used “which the audience agrees to accept” (Janaro, page 173). Conventions also reflect the time period of the composition. For example, the audience “played along” with the pretension that men were women (since only male actors were allowed) in Greek Classical Theater. A second example is that audiences accept people “breaking into song” in the middle of conversation in a musical production. Can you imagine your disbelief if your professor sang her lectures once in a while? A third example of a theater convention is “the fourth wall”. This is the imaginary wall at the front of the stage (in a traditional three wall stage) where the audience peers in. A standard convention is that the actors do NOT break this wall and do NOT talk directly to the audience (rather they talk to the other actors or to themselves looking slightly away from the audience).

However, some theater “breaks” the fourth wall convention allowing the audience to hear the character’s inner thoughts. Below is a shot of the protagonist “Frank Underwood” breaking the fourth wall in the Netflix series “House of Cards”. This technique lets the audience know how Frank immediately feels after he is betrayed. He stops and looks directly into the camera and breaks the fourth wall, as you can see in the example beloReferences:

Janaro, R., & Altshuler, T. (2017). Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a Technique for Living (11th ed). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

Virgil. (2015). [Untitled animation of Frank Underwood]. ‘House of Cards’ – A Small Insight Into American Politics. Freetimejury. Retrieved July 20, 2015 from https://freetimejury.wordpress.comw. This is becoming more popular in television and theater in the 21st century.