Performance can be viewed from many different angles. It could be a quality of functioning as in any program for the computer or an equipment at the factory; a teaching explanation of different actions (walking, singing, playing piano, etc.); a ritual that has been repeating for years or centuries as well as by one or many different people; an event taking place in a specific location with such goals as entertainment or making change, creating beauty, anything else or all together combined. It can also be just a state of “being”, divided into categories of “active being” or “static being”, physical or spiritual. For instance, a painting could be observed as a static and physical performance, which also has an audience and a specific influence on it. Or performance could be a spiritual prayer that is aimed on emerging various emotions or altering someone’s’ behavior, thoughts. Performance doesn’t have specific borders, in fact, they are being vanished or expanded depending on what we are looking at. If we take a look at a book that has been written in English by an American novelist, the reach of the audience will be the whole world. Nowadays, we are able to translate it into different languages and publish in any part of the planet. 

So, if performance could be a lot of different things, theatre, on the other hand, can be distinguished by specific features. Firstly, it lies upon many collaborators who bring it to life. Even if the description of the character by a playwright was specific, an actor may not fit into this description, but using his craft and imagination can heighten presence and achieve even a more spectacular result. Secondly, theatre creates and demonstrates new material for the audience in a way that will be easy to understand, without additional or specific knowledge about a topic that will appear in a play. For instance, "Theory of Strings" could be introduced in a scientific play, but explained so simply that even a 12 year old will understand what it represents. Thirdly, theatre is an illusion that becomes believable. The audience understands that there is a stage and that actors on it are playing characters, but this  encourages them to use their imagination and believe in what is happening. In addition to this, theatre gives a feeling that a situation that is happening in the scene could happen to any real person in the world. For example, an actor taking a role of someone who is going through a loss of a loved one, makes an audience understand that this story is being told by an actor, but it happened to someone else initially. Lastly, the time in theatre is always present. The audience sees what is happening "here and now", where in the book usually narrator describes how characters did something in the past or a minute ago.

Even though there are so many differences between theatre and performance,  there can be found some alignments. Both can have an audience and both may have an impact on believes, thoughts, actions. Each of them will have some kind of human involvement: as actors, performers, painters, sculptors, others. Interestingly, performance is a big part of theatre. Actors repeat their lines and movements, rehearse on a daily basis in order to achieve a final result that will be shown to the audience. This routine or restored behavior is what creates what eventually becomes the theatre.

Is it important to differentiate theatre from the performance? Most certainly it is, and one of the basic reasons is the analysis of these two subjects and creation of the progress. With this understanding and clear view, the society can draw their focus to a desired field and evolve it based on their own expertise.