Curtain going up!
A sudden hush falls over the theater. As the lights dim, the curtain
goes up. And there, on the brightly lighted stage, a story comes alive.
Most plays are stories in which the actors speak their parts. Operas are
stories in which the performers sing their parts. And in ballet, the
stories are acted out by dancing to special music.
All over the world, people enjoy going to the theater to see acted-out
stories of real or make-believe happenings. These acted-out stories are
called plays. In a play about real happenings, events that could happen
in real life are acted out, and all the events in the story are
believable.
In a play about make-believe happenings, the actors can make the
characters in the play do amazing things. In the play Peter Pan, the
characters, Peter Pan and the children, fly through the air. Everyone
knows that people can’t really fly. The actors wear harnesses and glide
through the air attached to wires. That makes their flying look real to
the people in the audience.
