3,335 articles
Palladium (New York City)
Palladium, 126 East 14th Street, Manhattan, NYC: rock venue (1976-1985) and nightclub (1985-1997) in the former Academy of Music movie palace, designed by Arata Isozaki with art by Keith Haring and Basquiat, demolished for NYU's Palladium Hall dorm.
Pan's People
Pan's People were a British all-female dance troupe, formed in London in 1966 and resident dancers on the BBC music show Top of the Pops.
Panchali gayan
Panchali gayan (পাঁচালি গায়ন, panchali singing) is a Bengali performance genre in which a narrative poem, the panchali, is sung, recited, and danced before an audience.
Pandora Boxx
Pandora Boxx, drag persona of Michael Steck, is an American drag comedian from Rochester, New York, who placed fifth and won Miss Congeniality on RuPaul's Drag Race season 2, famed for her Carol Channing Snatch Game, and later competed on All Stars 1 and 6.
Pantalone
Pantalone (Pantalón, Pantalone de' Bisognosi) is a Venetian commedia dell'arte mask, one of the vecchi: a rich, miserly old merchant in red breeches and black cloak, later reformed by Goldoni; the source of 'pantaloons.'
Pantomime
British pantomime (panto): a Christmas-season musical-comedy theatre genre from commedia dell'arte and the harlequinade, with dames, principal boys, fairy tales, slapstick and audience participation, distinct from silent mime.
Paquita
Paquita: Romantic ballet created 1 April 1846 at the Paris Opera by Joseph Mazilier to Édouard Deldevez's music, with Carlotta Grisi. Marius Petipa's 1881 Saint Petersburg revival added the Grand Pas Classique, the fragment now danced worldwide.
Parade (ballet)
Parade is a one-act 1917 Ballets Russes ballet by Cocteau (scenario), Satie (music), Massine (choreography), and Picasso (designs), premiered 18 May 1917 at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, causing a scandal.
Paranormal Activity (play)
Paranormal Activity is a horror stage play by Levi Holloway, directed by Punchdrunk's Felix Barrett, telling an original story of couple James and Lou in London; premiered at Leeds Playhouse 2024, West End 2025, Broadway 2026, with illusion design by Chris Fisher.
Pardeh-khani
Pardeh-khani (پردهخوانی) is a traditional Iranian art in which a storyteller, the pardeh-khan, narrates and sings epic and religious stories before a large painted curtain depicting the scenes.
Parijata Harana
Parijata Harana is the episode in which the god Krishna carries the celestial Parijata tree from Indra's heaven, and the title of plays based on it.
Paris Opera Ballet
Paris Opera Ballet (Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris), the ballet company of the Paris Opera, is the world's oldest national ballet company, founded under Louis XIV, with its famed Nanterre school, a quadrille-to-etoile rank system, and directors including Nureyev.
Paris Opera Ballet School
The Paris Opera Ballet School (École de danse de l'Opéra de Paris) is a ballet school in Nanterre, tracing its founding to a 1713 decree of Louis XIV.
Parris Goebel
Parris Goebel, also known as Parri$, is a New Zealand choreographer and director from South Auckland who founded the Palace Dance Studio and Royal Family crew, choreographed Justin Bieber's "Sorry", Rihanna's 2023 Super Bowl show, and Lady Gaga's 2025 Coachella set, and won a 2022 Emmy for Savage X Fenty.
Parsi theatre
Parsi theatre was the commercial proscenium-stage theater of colonial India, founded by Parsi entrepreneurs in Bombay in the 1850s and dominant from the 1860s to the 1930s.
Parts of a theatre
Parts of a theatre: auditorium (house), stalls, dress circle, proscenium arch, stage configurations (proscenium, thrust, arena), wings, fly tower and grid, orchestra pit, understage machinery, and front-of-house and backstage areas.
Pas de deux
Pas de deux (French, "step for two") is a ballet duet for two dancers, classically structured as entrée, adagio, two variations, and coda; codified by Marius Petipa in 19th-century Imperial Russia, with famous examples from Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Giselle.
Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse, founded by Gilmor Brown in 1917 in Pasadena, California, is the official State Theater of California and a 2023 Regional Theatre Tony Award winner, with over 500 world premieres, a famed College of Theatre Arts, and alumni including Dustin Hoffman and Leonard Nimoy.
Passion Play
Passion play: a dramatic performance of Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection, developed from medieval liturgical Easter drama. Most famous example: the Oberammergau Passion Play, staged every ten years since a 1634 plague vow.
Patina Miller
Patina Miller (born 1984, Pageland, South Carolina) is an American actress and singer, Tony winner for Pippin (2013), Olivier- and Tony-nominated for originating Deloris in Sister Act, and star of Raising Kanan.
Patni Prasad
Patni Prasad, also written Patni-Prasada, is a one-act devotional play by Assamese saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva, based on the Bhagavata Purana and regarded as the earliest of his six surviving plays.
Patravadi Mejudhon (ภัทราวดี มีชูธน)
Patravadi Mejudhon (ภัทราวดี มีชูธน), also known as Lek Patravadi, is a Thai actress who pioneered Thai television sitcoms and founded the Patravadi Theatre in 1992.
Patrice O'Neal
Patrice O'Neal (Patrice Lumumba Malcolm Oneal), American stand-up comedian and actor (1969–2011), known for Elephant in the Room, Tough Crowd, Opie and Anthony, and The Black Phillip Show.
Patricia Broderick
Patricia Broderick (Patricia Biow, 1925–2003), American playwright, screenwriter, actress and painter, wife of actor James Broderick and mother of Matthew Broderick; wrote the screenplay for Infinity (1996). Distinct from the D.C. judge of the same name.
Patrick Page
Patrick Page, birth name John Patrick Page, is an American stage and screen actor born in 1962, best known for playing villains on Broadway, including Hades in Hadestown.
Patsy Swayze
Patsy Swayze (Yvonne Helen Karnes, 1927-2013), American dance teacher and choreographer, mother of Patrick Swayze; founded Houston Jazz Ballet Company, choreographed Urban Cowboy, taught Tommy Tune, Debbie Allen, and John Travolta.
Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone (born 1949, Northport, NY) is an American Broadway singer and actress, Juilliard-trained, with three Tony Awards (Evita, Gypsy, Company), two Oliviers, and two Grammys.
Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt (born 1969, Portsmouth, Virginia) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer, known as Spence on The King of Queens, the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, and an Emmy and Grammy winner for Talking for Clapping.
Paul Capsis
Paul Capsis (born 1964) is an Australian cabaret, theatre, film, and television performer of Maltese/Greek descent, a five-time Helpmann Award winner known for Head On, Boulevard Delirium, and Angela's Kitchen.
Paul Chowdhry
Paul Chowdhry (Tajpaul Singh Chowdhry, born 1974) is a British Punjabi Sikh stand-up comedian from Edgware, London; first Asian-heritage comedian to sell out Wembley Arena, star of Taskmaster series 3 and the Live Innit and Family-Friendly Comedian specials.