is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Off-Broadway – professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway – theaters in New York City that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that has neither an Off-Broadway nor a Broadway contract. Downtown Theater – Part of the avant-garde artistic movement that began in the 1970s and is centered below 14th Street in Manhattan. Regional theatre – professional theatre companies outside of New York City that produce their own seasons. Summer stock theatre – any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. Often viewed as a starting point for professional actors, stock casts are typically young, just out of high school or still in college. Theatre of the Soviet Union Proletcult Theatre – theatrical branch of the Soviet cultural movement Proletcult concerned with the powerful expression of ideological content as political propaganda in the years following the revolution of 1917. Platon Kerzhentsev was one of its principal practitioners. African African theatre includes: Ancient Egyptian quasi-theatrical events – earliest recorded quasi-theatrical event dates back to 2000 BCE with the "passion plays" of Ancient Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization. Yoruba theatre – origins are traced back to the masquerade of the Egungun (the "cult of the ancestor"). The traditional ceremony culminates in the essence of the masquerade where it is deemed that ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants. In addition to its origin in ritual, Yoruba theatre can be "traced to the 'theatrogenic' nature of a number of the deities in the Yoruba pantheon, such as Obatala the arch divinity, Ogun the divinity of creativeness and Sango the divinity of the storm", whose reverence is imbued "with drama and theatre and the symbolic overall relevance in terms of its relative interpretation." Asian Asian theatre Theatre of India – began with Sanskrit theatre and flourished between the 1st and 10th centuries CE, which was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written. Modern Indian theatre developed during the