399 articles
Dianna Fuemana
Dianna Fuemana, born in 1973, is a Niuean-New Zealand playwright, screenwriter, and director whose 1998 solo play Mapaki broke ground for Pacific theater; she was named the 2026 Niue Artist in Residence.
Diego Andres Rodriguez
Diego Andres Rodriguez, also credited as Diego Rodriguez, is an American actor and writer from McAllen, Texas, a University of Michigan BFA musical theatre graduate (2024) who made his Broadway debut as Artie and understudy Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (2024-2025) and his West End debut as Che in Evita at the London Palladium (2025), earning an Olivier Award nomination.
Distancing effect
Distancing effect (Verfremdungseffekt, alienation effect) is Bertolt Brecht's epic-theatre technique of anti-illusive devices, songs, placards, and detached acting, coined after Mei Lanfang's 1935 Moscow performance, that keeps spectators critical rather than empathetic.
Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese, born Heather Renée Sweet in 1972, is an American burlesque dancer, model, and entrepreneur credited with re-popularizing burlesque, earning the moniker "Queen of Burlesque."
DMX512
DMX512 (Digital Multiplex, 512 channels), also ANSI E1.11 DMX512-A, is the 1986 USITT serial lighting-control standard: 512 8-bit channels per universe over RS-485 at 250 kbit/s, unidirectional, no error detection, still the fixture-level standard.
Donna Murphy
Donna Murphy, born 1959 in Queens, New York, is an American stage and screen actress, two-time Tony winner for Passion (1994) and The King and I (1996), Daytime Emmy winner, and the voice of Mother Gothel in Tangled.
Dorothea Jordan
Dorothea Jordan, also known as Mrs. Jordan or Dora Jordan, was an Irish actress famed for comic roles and breeches parts at Drury Lane from 1785 to 1809.
Douglas Hodge
Douglas William Hodge (born 1960, Plymouth) is an English actor, director, and composer; Tony and Olivier winner as Albin in La Cage aux Folles, originator of Willy Wonka at Drury Lane, and Alfred Pennyworth in Joker.
Edwin Booth
Edwin Booth, born Edwin Thomas Booth (1833–1893), was an American stage actor and theatrical manager, famed for his Hamlet and for founding the actors' club The Players in New York.
Eiko Ishioka (石岡瑛子)
Eiko Ishioka (石岡瑛子, 1938–2012), Japanese graphic designer, art director, and Oscar-winning costume designer; Parco advertising, Miles Davis's Tutu, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Eleonora Duse
Eleonora Duse (1858–1924), Italian stage actress called "the incomparable Duse"; rival of Sarah Bernhardt, pioneer of naturalistic acting, celebrated interpreter of Ibsen and D'Annunzio; toured internationally, influenced Stanislavski, died on tour in Pittsburgh.
Elizabeth Kemp
Elizabeth Kemp (1951–2017) was an American actress and Actors Studio acting coach who taught Bradley Cooper, Hugh Jackman, Lady Gaga, and Harvey Keitel, chaired the Actors Studio Drama School MFA at Pace University, and appeared in He Knows You're Alone.
Elizabeth LeCompte
Elizabeth LeCompte (born 1944) is the American experimental theater director who co-founded The Wooster Group in 1980 with Spalding Gray and directs it from The Performing Garage, Soho; MacArthur, Gish Prize, and 2025 Venice Golden Lion winner.
Ellen Ternan
Ellen Lawless Ternan (Nelly, 1839-1914), English actress and Charles Dickens's secret companion from 1857 until his death in 1870; later married George Wharton Robinson; her story was reconstructed by Claire Tomalin's The Invisible Woman.
Emily Davis
Emily Davis is an American actress best known for playing Reality Winner in Is This a Room, winning a 2020 Obie Award for the role.
Emma, Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton (Amy Lyon, Emma Hart, 1765–1815): English model, performer and diplomat, muse of Romney, creator of the classical 'Attitudes', wife of ambassador Sir William Hamilton, mistress of Nelson, died in debt in Calais.
Emmett Kelly
Emmett Kelly (Emmett Leo Kelly Sr., 1898-1979), American circus clown who created the sad hobo character Weary Willie, starred with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey 1942-1956, helped during the 1944 Hartford circus fire, and appeared in The Greatest Show on Earth.
Erica Schmidt
Erica Schmidt, American theater director, playwright, and screenwriter; wrote the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated 2021 film Cyrano from her 2018 Goodspeed musical; Lucille Lortel Award for Humor Abuse; directed Orpheus Descending; married to Peter Dinklage.
Ethel Merman
Ethel Merman (Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, 1908–1984), American Broadway singer and actress, star of Girl Crazy, Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Call Me Madam, and Gypsy, famed for her unamplified belting voice.
Étienne Decroux
Étienne Decroux (1898–1991), French actor and mime teacher, creator of corporeal mime, also called mime corporel dramatique. Student of Jacques Copeau, teacher of Marcel Marceau and Barrault, author of Paroles sur le mime (1963), known for the counterweight-based 'gymnastique dramatique' technique distinct from Lecoq's and Marceau's mime.
Euan Morton
Euan Morton, born Iain Douglas George Middleton, is a Scottish actor and singer known for playing Boy George in the musical Taboo and King George III in Hamilton.
Eva Noblezada
Eva Noblezada (born 1996, San Diego) is a Filipino American musical theater actor, two-time Tony nominee, known as Kim in Miss Saigon, Eurydice in Hadestown, Daisy in The Great Gatsby, and Sally Bowles in Cabaret, wife of Reeve Carney.
Faith Prince
Faith Prince (born 1957, Augusta, Georgia) is an American Broadway singer-actress who won the 1992 Tony Award for Miss Adelaide in the Guys and Dolls revival, with nominations for Jerome Robbins' Broadway, Bells Are Ringing, and A Catered Affair, plus TV roles on Huff and Spin City.
Fanne Foxe
Fanne Foxe, stage name of Annabel Battistella (1936–2021), Argentine-American striptease dancer whose 1974 Tidal Basin jump during a traffic stop with Congressman Wilbur Mills ended his career and made her famous.
Fire performance
Fire performance, also known as fire dancing or firedancing, is a performing art in which entertainers manipulate open flame with props such as poi, staffs, fans, and hoops before an audience.
Flea circus
Flea circus: a sideshow in which fleas pull carts, race chariots, and spin carousels under magnification. Also known as performing flea shows; popular 1830s–1960s in England and Germany, pioneered by Louis Bertolotto, sustained by harnessed human fleas and, elsewhere, pure mechanical illusion.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (1867 or 1869, Chicago – July 22, 1932, Hollywood), American Broadway impresario, creator of the annual Ziegfeld Follies revues (1907–1931), producer of Show Boat (1927), discoverer of stars including Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Marilyn Miller.
Fly system
Fly system, or theatrical rigging: overhead system of ropes, cables, pulleys, and counterweights that flies scenery, drapes, and lights above a stage. Types include hemp, counterweight (most common), and motorized; Vienna Court Theatre 1888 introduced counterweight flying.
Forced perspective
Forced perspective is an optical-illusion technique making objects appear larger, smaller, nearer, or farther than they are; used in theatre set design since sixteenth-century Italy, in film with fixed cameras, and in magic shows.
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, British actor and composer from Brighton, won the 2025 Ian Charleson Award for Juliet opposite Tom Holland in Jamie Lloyd's West End Romeo & Juliet, after racist abuse; also known as Blessing in BBC's Bad Education.