theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, methexis ( grc, μέθεξις; also methectics), is "group sharing". Originating from

Greek theatre Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...

, the audience participates, creates and improvises the action of the

ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...

. In philosophy, methexis is the relation between a

particular In metaphysics, particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with universals. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. Particulars are often seen as concrete, spatiotemporal entities as opposed to a ...

and a form (in

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's sense), e.g. a beautiful object is said to partake of the form of beauty. Methexis is sometimes contrasted with mimesis. The latter "connotes emphasis on the solo performer (the hero) separate from the audience," in direct contrast to the communal methectic theatrical experience which has "little or no 'fourth wall'".

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* * Theatrical genres {{Philosophy-stub