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Riverside Arts Center, Fall, 2007, Newsletter

Theoretically speaking
Theater vs. theatre controversy settled
In all its incarnations, Ypsilanti’s last movie house was simply called “The Martha,” and nobody worried about the theatre vs. theater issue. Some said theatre was French and tried to roll their R’s when they used it.

In “Which is the proper spelling?” playwright Patrick Rainville Dorn says, “During my seven-year stint as a theater critic for the Boulder Daily Camera , there was a minor controversy about the proper way to spell theater . In most cases the words are interchangeable, but for the purposes of newspaper publication, the proper spelling is with an “er,” not “re”. Theatre is from the French and is commonly used in England. Apparently when Daniel Webster codified American English into his now-famous dictionary, he decided to un-anglicize many words. Honour became honor , grey became gray , and theatre became theater .

“If you are writing for publication, I recommend that you use the er ending and let the publishers change it if they so desire. But whichever way you go, be consistent. Otherwise the publisher will simply assume that you are a lazy proofreader.”

Second opinion
Bonnie Gillespie gives her thoughts on the topic in “the view from inside her brain and points south. Oh, and from Hollywood.”

“As for the theatre/theater debate, there’s more grey area here. And part of what makes the English language so damn cool is that it is constantly evolving (and bastardizing itself at rates much faster than mutations in other languages, historically).

“Meanwhile, here’s my basic guideline, backed up: Theatre : refers in general to the art of live performance. Also, the building in which live performance takes place. Theater : refers to the building in which movies are displayed.

“And more: To go to the theater means to go to a movie while to go to the theatre means to attend a live performance.”