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Floss (dance)
The floss is a repetitive viral dance of swinging fists and opposing hips, popularized by Russell Horning (Backpack Kid) on SNL in 2017 and spread by Fortnite.
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.
Folies Bergère
Folies Bergère: historic Parisian music hall and cabaret at 32 rue Richer, opened 2 May 1869 on the site of the Les Colonnes d'Hercule store; famed for revues, Joséphine Baker's 1926 banana-belt debut, Art Déco 1928 redesign, and about 1,460 seats today.
Folk dance
Folk dance: traditional, informally learned social dancing of common people, also called traditional or ethnic dance. Distinct from stage and court dance; includes ritual, social, and national forms, IFD movement, staged ensembles, and UNESCO-listed traditions such as kolo and polonaise.
Follies
Follies is a 1971 Stephen Sondheim musical with a book by James Goldman, about a reunion of Weismann Follies showgirls before their theatre's demolition. Known for its pastiche score, Loveland sequence, seven 1972 Tonys, and the 1987, 2001, 2011, and 2017 revivals.
Footlights
The Cambridge Footlights is the University of Cambridge's student sketch comedy society, founded 1883, rival to the ADC, home of the May Week revue, smokers, and the Tour Show, and alumnus source for Python, Beyond the Fringe, and Perrier-winning revues.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf is Ntozake Shange's choreopoem of 20 poems for seven color-named Black women, first staged in 1974, a 1976 Broadway Tony nominee later adapted for PBS in 1982, film in 2010, and Broadway revival in 2022.
Forced Entertainment
Forced Entertainment is a Sheffield-based experimental theater and performance ensemble founded in 1984 by University of Exeter graduates, led since then by artistic director Tim Etchells.
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.
Ford Kiernan
Ford Kiernan (born 1962) is a Scottish actor, comedian and writer, co-creator with Greg Hemphill of Chewin' the Fat and Still Game, in which he plays Glaswegian pensioner Jack Jarvis across 62 episodes and sold-out Hydro live shows.
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre, at 511 Tenth Street NW, Washington, D.C., is a working theatre and National Historic Site where John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865; it later served as a federal office building and reopened in 1968.
Foreskin's Lament
Foreskin's Lament is a landmark 1980 New Zealand play by Greg McGee, set in a rugby team's dressing shed and read as an analysis of New Zealand society.
Forget Herostratus!
Forget Herostratus! (Russian: «…Забыть Герострата!») is a tragicomedy in two parts by Grigory Gorin, written in the early 1970s, that reworks the ancient story of Herostratus, who burned the Temple of Artemis for fame.
Foster Brooks
Foster Brooks (Foster Murrell Brooks, 1912-2001), American comedian and former newscaster famous as the 'Lovable Lush' drunk act on Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts; quit drinking himself in the 1960s.
Four Cries of a Gibbon
Four Cries of a Gibbon (Sisheng yuan, 四声猿) is a set of four short plays by the Ming dynasty playwright Xu Wei, best known for its Female Mulan play.
Four Seasons Centre
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is Canada's first purpose-built opera house, opened in Toronto in June 2006. Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects, its 2,071-seat R. Fraser Elliott Hall houses the Canadian Opera Company and hosts the National Ballet of Canada.
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary boundary between performers and audience in a proscenium theatre; breaking it means actors or characters acknowledging the audience. Attributed to Diderot (1758), named by Jean Jullien; extends to film, TV, games, and books.
Fox Theatre (Atlanta)
The Fox Theatre (Atlanta): 1929 Neo-Mideastern movie palace at Peachtree and Ponce de Leon, built for the Yaarab Temple Shriners, saved by Atlanta Landmarks in 1975, now a 4,665-seat National Historic Landmark.
Fox Theatre (Detroit)
The Fox Theatre is a 1928 movie palace on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, now a concert venue and the largest continually operating theater in the country.
Foxtrot
The foxtrot is a smooth progressive ballroom dance that emerged circa 1914 in New York, linked to Vernon and Irene Castle, James Reese Europe, and Harry Fox. It splits into American Smooth (30-34 mpm) and International Standard Slow Foxtrot (28-30 mpm, closed hold).
Fozzie Bear
Fozzie Bear is the resident stand-up comedian Muppet of The Muppet Show (1976–1981), Kermit's inept sidekick, created by Jim Henson and performed originally by Frank Oz, now Eric Jacobson, as a live-hand bear puppet with hat and scarf.
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.
Francesca Hayward
Francesca Hayward, born 1992 in Nairobi, is an English Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, trained at the Royal Ballet School 2003-11, promoted to Principal in 2016, known for Manon and as Victoria in the 2019 film Cats.
Francesca Martinez
Francesca Martinez, British comedian, actress, writer and campaigner born in London; "wobbly" with cerebral palsy; first woman to win the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award (2000), Grange Hill actress, author of What The Is Normal?!, and playwright of All of Us at the National Theatre.
Franceska Mann
Franceska Mann (Franciszka Manheimer, Mannówna, 1917–1943), Polish Jewish dancer trained in Warsaw and placed 4th at the Brussels dance competition; credited with shooting SS officer Josef Schillinger in the Birkenau undressing room on 23 October 1943.
Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont (1584/5-1616), English Jacobean playwright, best known for his collaboration with John Fletcher on Philaster, The Maid's Tragedy, and A King and No King, and for his solo comedy The Knight of the Burning Pestle.
Francis Benhamou
Francis Benhamou is an American actress, born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and raised in Miami. Known for Arranged (2007) and for winning the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards as Elodie in Prayer for the French Republic on Broadway in 2024.
Francis Coleman
Francis Coleman (1924–2008), Canadian-born conductor and television producer; first music director era of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, some 500 CBC programs, then BBC2, ITV, and Thames TV in Britain; Prix Italia 1977 for Saint Nicolas.
Francophone theatre in Canada
Francophone theater in Canada is the tradition of French-language stage work in Quebec, Acadian New Brunswick, and francophone Ontario, dating in its modern professional form from 1948.
Frank Caliendo
Frank Caliendo (born 1974) is an American comedian and impressionist, born in Chicago and raised in Wisconsin. Known for John Madden, Bush, and Trump impressions; MADtv cast member 2001-2006, Fox NFL Sunday, TBS's Frank TV, ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown.