Most of the "-re" words that British English borrowed from French have been Americanized as "-er" words: "centre"/"center," "metre"/"meter," "litre"/"liter," etc. For simple consistency's sake, it seems that "theatre" should follow suit as "theater." On the other hand, we don't say that Shrek is an "oger" ...
Still, in America we write "jail" rather than "gaol," and "pajamas" instead of "pyjamas," so the retention of "theatre" can indeed seem a little pretentious - rather like a stereotypically lock-jawed high-society
grande dame whose pronunciation hews toward the British because she thinks it makes her sound classy.
The Associated Press Stylebook, pretty much the Bible of usage for journalists, has an entry specifying the use of the spelling "theater."
Here in Florida, however, the state's course code directory for public schools lists my courses as Theatre 1, Theatre 2, etc., so in school I generally adopt that spelling in order to avoid confusion among my students. Even so, they often ask me if the word is spelled "-re" or "-er." I usually tell them that it doesn't matter, but that it will probably help if any given piece of writing uses one spelling of the word consistently, instead of alternating between the two.
Hey, the Brits still drive on the wrong side of the road, and let's not even get into their spelling and pronunciation of the thirteenth element on the periodic table! ;-)
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Jeff Grove
Theatre Teacher, Aesthetics Department Chair
Stanton College Preparatory School
Jacksonville FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-28-2018 11:53
From: Kenneth Buswell
Subject: Theater vs. Theatre
Just to stir up some trouble:
I know the difference - theatre is what is created inside the building called a theater. My American sensibilities find the use of theatre to be pretentious, as if spelling it the English way makes it fancier or more refined. I have resisted using "theatre" and tell my kids (only half in jest) that we don't do fancy "theatre" we do real "theater" (and yeah, maybe I'm the one being pretentious).
Does anyone else share my pain, or am I fighting a losing battle here?
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Ken Buswell
Drama Teacher
Peachtree City, GA
http://mcintoshtheater.org/
Theater kills ignorance
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