Throughly define the term "convention" as it applies to the theatre.?

how does this term apply to the relationship between the audience and performers? In addition, provide at least three examples of theatrical conventions and describe how these work in the theatre

Throughly define the term "convention" as it applies to the theatre.?state theatre

Conventions are the generally accepted "rules" of the theatre by which the audience understands the play - the "grammar" of the stage, if you like. Theatrical convention includes the techniques used by the performers to communicate with the audience in aspects of staging, blocking, and interpreting the play, whose meaning is agreed upon by audience and artist alike.

Another opinion: [Robt. W. Corrigan, The World of the Theatre (2nd Ed.), Wm. C. Brown, 1992]

"Conventions are mutual agreements about the meanings of actions, gestures, and words that let us interpret and understand the social behavior of others almost spontaneously." Conventions are the "rules of the game" by which we understand what goes on. They are also accepted deviations from empirical reality.

"Conventions are the grammar of the theatre. They are the rules that govern a play's composition. One might even go so far as to say that in a very real way, the history of the theatre is a history of conventions. There are conventions of language and movement; conventional character types, conventions of theme; conventions of form; conventions of staging, design, and costumes even conventions regarding the relationship of the audience to the stage."

One convention of staging is the "fourth wall". In many plays, the audience is "invisible" to the characters in the play, as if there was a one-way mirror between the action in the play, and the audience, spectating.

In plays with this "fourth wall", this convention may be broken by another convention, that of the soliloquy. A lone character on the stage may directly - though rhetorically - "address" the audience through the "fourth wall," to reveal their internal processes of thought. The audience understands that a soliloquy cannot be heard by other characters in the play, but obtains a glimpse into that character's hidden thoughts or motivations.

In some productions, however, the concept of the "fourth wall" is removed completely, to involve the audience as part of the production. This is a convention in its own right, but in the "grammar" of the theatre it is usually not interchangeable with a "fourth wall" within the same production - imagine how confusing it would be for the audience if, half-way through a play where the audience has felt "invisible" to the actors, the performers suddenly started trying to involve the audience!

Understanding theatrical conventions is important for presenting a play in a way that audiences can understand, so that the "rules" can be set early in the production through the style of the play's presentation, and the audience can settle into the role chosen for them by the presenters: for example, as as invisible spectators, or as participants in the performance.