theatre - cinema

“Throughout the twentieth century, not only did live performance integrate film into production, but both mainstream and experimental theater also competed with cinema in terms of its own sense of spectacle, and theater became more cinematic in conception, particularly in the latter half of the century. Playwriting saw increasing use of short scenes, cross-cut parallel action, and the use of flashbacks and dramatic time shifts, while theater staging drew inspiration from the cinema, increasingly employing neocinematic devices such as the introduction of incidental music and the use of lighting to create sharp montage or gentle dissolve effects. This aimed to intensify the theatrical experience, and to approximate cinema’s absolute control of space and time, and the flow and location of the audience’s attention.”
Steve Dixon, “Digital Performance”