What is Theater for?

Without even realizing it, many people go to theater to fulfill a variety of needs or desires. Theater in its earliest days began as festivals to honor the gods. This not only helped to satisfy the demands of the gods, but it also brought the community together. The Hopi community has also demonstrated how religious needs can be fulfilled through “ritual performances.” Although theater was originally composed of only chorus members, one of the most defining moments for theater was when Thespis stepped out of the chorus to deliver his lines. As the history of theater progressed, theater became an outlet for authors to communicate their feelings of what was going on during that time period. By going to theater, audiences were able to identify with the similar feelings of other theater goers. This desire to connect with feeling of current events has gone as far as to help band people together to fuel the fire of revolutions. Present day theater goers are not very different from the theater goers of the past. As recently as the feelings about the interrogations of suspected communists during the 1950’s were reflected by many play writes. (Arnold, Stephanie. The Creative Spirit, 3rd ed. 6-39.) There are also more basic reasons for why people feel the need to go to the theater. They may not want to learn anything historical or religious from their theater experience, because they may just be using the theater for a basic emotional experience. To achieve this, all the theater goers would have to do is to pick a play that described the emotion they needed/wanted to experience. In Mammet’s, The Shawl, Ms. A is experiencing distraught over the sudden loss of her mother and confusion from being left out of the will. As Ms. A experiences these emotions, it is the purpose of the theater to help the audience members to feel these emotions as well