<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Theatre encompasses live performances in front of an audience.

Not the first medium that comes to most people's minds for Sci Fi, live theatre has in fact played a significant role in genre productions.

The Wizard of Oz, Dracula, Peter Pan and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all had important and popular stage versions before their movie adaptations.

While movies have special effects that allow for a larger scale, and literature only requires the special effects the mind can provide, theatre can count on the participation of the audience to create a fantasy world.

A Midsummer's Night Dream is a good example, with Shakespeare's fairies performing magic on stage, and even a transformation.

R.U.R., by Capek, introduced the term "robot" to the world.

Many of the biggest and most successful Broadway shows have been fantasy, including Cats, The Wiz, and Wicked.

Some particular types of theatre have higher percentages of fantasy, such as puppet shows and opera.

Not all Sci Fi theatre productions have been great successes, of course. How many mainstream theatre fans remember that there was a Broadway musical of Superman?