Genre, Style, and Dramatic Convention

Theatre comes in many genres and styles, each with its own conventions, tone, and relationship to the audience. Recognizing these categories helps theatre-makers choose an appropriate theatrical language and helps spectators and critics understand what a production is doing. This lesson surveys key genres and styles and the idea of convention that underlies them.

Genre and style distinguished

Genre loosely groups plays by their overall type and tone, tragedy, comedy, and others, often defined by the kind of experience they offer and how they end. Style describes the manner of presentation, the theatrical language a production uses, such as naturalism, expressionism, or physical theatre. The same story could be told in different styles, and a genre can be realized in various styles, so the