[Vocabulary] drama / theater

[Mnemon]

Hello there,
I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the two, drama and theater. Could someone explain in details?
According to The Free Dictionary,

the·a·ter
or the·a·tre (thē′ə-tər)n.1. A building, room, or outdoor structure for the presentation of plays, films, or other dramatic performances.

2. A room with tiers of seats used for lectures or demonstrations: an operating theater at a medical school.

3. a. Dramatic literature or its performance; drama: the theater of Shakespeare and Marlowe.

b. The milieu of actors and playwrights.

[...]

Here's what Wikipedia says about theater,

Theatre or theater[SUP][a][/SUP] is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage.

Could it be said that drama is a specific type of theater?

 

[teechar]

Hello there,
I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the two,

Well, the text you quoted shows that "theatre" can be a reference to an actual building, whereas "drama" can't.

Could it be said that drama is a specific type of theater?

Yes, when "theatre" is used to mean the production of plays.

I strongly suggest that you learn words as you encounter them in some real/concrete context, not just by plucking them out of nothing (or from a dictionary).

 

[Mnemon]

Thanks.

I strongly suggest that you learn words as you encounter them in some real/concrete context, not just by plucking them out of nothing (or from a dictionary).

Just for the record, I encountered the words in a real context, and then looked them up in some online dictionaries. But I was still rather perplexed. Here's the context,

Idioms with act have two main meanings, one connected simply with doing things, the other with acting as in a theatre or drama.

Source: English Idioms in Use book

 

[Tarheel]

A theater (or theatre) is a place where a performance is held. A drama is a type of performance.

 

[Mnemon]

A theater (or theatre) is a place where a performance is held. A drama is a type of performance.

Thanks.
Does it work for you if I say,
I went to the theatre and saw the drama of Macbeth.
Sounds idiomatic?

 

[emsr2d2]

No. Macbeth is a play. We would just say "I went to the theatre to see Macbeth".

 

[Mnemon]

No. Macbeth is a play. We would just say "I went to the theatre to see Macbeth".

Thank you.
What if I say,
I'm going to the theatre to see a drama.
Accurate?

 

[emsr2d2]

Grammatically, I suppose it's OK but no native speaker would ever say it.

 

[Mnemon]

Grammatically, I suppose it's OK but no native speaker would ever say it.

Thanks.
I'm still rather confused. Could you please elaborate? What makes it unidiomatic, I wonder! Probably it has to do with the indefinite article. No?

 

[Rover_KE]

No. We don't say '... to see a drama'.

We say '... to see a play', or '... to see "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".'

 

[Skrej]

We tend to use 'drama' more as a genre, particularly for television and movies.

A natural use of the term might be something like "I prefer dramas over comedies."

The Lifetime network specializes in B-grade drama movies. We're about due for several more seasonal releases, because Lifetime seems determined to plague us during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. :roll:

 

[Tdol]

To me the drama of Macbeth is the murder scene, the soliloquy She should have died hereafter- the moments of extreme tension in the play.