Theater vs. Theatre

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 4:59pm

What's the difference? It has been killing me for the longest time. For the lonest time I thought that theatre was like the act of participating in theatre. And theater was the place where theatre played. But it can't be the place because all the broadway theatres end with re not er. I don't know if I'm making any sense at all, but if you do know what I'm saying can you please tell me when each is to be used?

[JustChillin8908]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:01pm

I've been wondering this too. From what I see there are movie "theaters" and broadway "theatres", but I really have no clue.

[pab]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:02pm

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardname=off&thread=315600#319129

[bjh2114]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:02pm

"Theater" is the American spelling, and "theatre" is the British spelling. They are interchangable. But, I use "theatre" for everything.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:03pm

Theater is the American english spelling of the British Theatre. That's it. Lots of Brits here, it seems.

[Patronus]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:03pm

The short answer is that theatre is the french spelling and also used in England.

Theater is the Americanized version, but obviously it's used both ways here.

Here is a more in depth explanation from a website:
1.3 What is the correct spelling of theatre/theater? [AW/ELN]

[AW]: Francis Hodge published an article about this in THEATRE SURVEY in the late 1960’s. “Theater” is a result of Noah Webster’s efforts in the 1830s to create an American language purified of English spellings: that’s when we lost “colour” “centre” and a lot of other words that Noah deemed to be too British for the new American democracy. Since the American theatre/theater at the time was still dominated by British actors and managers, along with American actors and managers trying to suggest that theater/theatre was a high class art, the practitioners rather stubbornly clung to the British spelling. There have been a lot of attempts to differentiate usage ever since, but whatever the market or editor or style sheet will accept will work.

About the naming of the newsgroup [ELN, comments: [e-mail]]:

Back in 1990 or so when I [ELN] proposed creating the newsgroup, I polled the members of the musicals mailing list as to a preferred spelling. The overwhelming support was for ’theatre’ over ’theater’ for several reasons, among them a) that ’theater’ represented the building and ’theatre’ represented the art and b) that Americans were the only country that spelled the word ’theater’, and it would be more international in flavor to use ’theatre’. It was also said that ’theatre’ looked more elegant. Thus the name was submitted for the discussion as rec.arts.theatre, and when the question came up again during the pre-vote period it became obvious that the popular support was still for ’theatre’ over ’theater’, and it was voted on that way.

Source: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/theatre/part1/

Updated On: 6/19/06 at 05:03 PM

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:04pm

kk. Thanks.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:05pm

I miss "shoppe."

[freeadmission]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:07pm

^ Me too. Let's start using it.

[Patronus]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:10pm

I've been making a conscious effort the last couple of weeks to start using shall and shant rather than will and won't.

[Calvin]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:13pm

I want to start calling ravens "corbies."

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:16pm

Theater is pronounced "theaytur," while theatre is pronounced "thehAYYYYYtuuhhhhhh."

Updated On: 6/19/06 at 05:16 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:22pm

lol

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:22pm

I like shoppe and theater.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:23pm

Have you been to the shoppe at "The Colour Purple," playing at the Broadway Theatre?

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:26pm

Wow what a sentence.

To answer the question, I can't say I have.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:33pm

I don't believe I've ever used the British spelling, theatre. Nor do I use colour, or honour, or analyse, or learnt, or any number of other British spellings.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:41pm

Do you have a british accent?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:44pm

No, I'm American. But, that's my point. Most people here who spell theater, theatre, don't have British accents, either.

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:46pm

Just as you don't take on a German accent whilst spelling it theater (who do spell it that way too...)

[BluCat500]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:48pm

"Standard British calls for "re."

So unless you´re a pompous American,
I would go with 'er.'" ~Drew Barrymore, Never Been Kissed

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:48pm

No, I take on an American accent, who spell it that way. Technically, it was the British who changed the spellings, and even the grammar that had it's origins in German. They got rid of "gotten", for example; but Americans still use it.
Updated On: 6/19/06 at 05:48 PM

[Weez]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:52pm

I spell everything the British way and speak with a British accent.

... plus I was born and raised and currently live in Britain. ^_^

Okay, sometimes I slip into a German accent, but I don't really do it on purpose or have any legitimate reason for doing so. :3

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:53pm

Weez why do you put ^_^ so much?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/19/06 at 5:54pm

lol