theater-in-the-round: see theater.

round, in music, a perpetual canon on a tune that returns to its beginning in which all the voices enter at the unison or the octave. An example is Sumer Is Icumen In. Rounds were popular in 17th-century England when the catch reached its height. The catch was originally just a simple round, e.g., Three Blind Mice, written in a single line with the effect gained by having another singer come in ("make the catch") at the right time. Later, comic effects, often quite bawdy, were added, using the interweaving of the parts. The Rounds, Catches and Canons of England (1864) by E. F. Rimbault is a comprehensive collection. The term round was also used to designate a dance performed in a circle and, by extension, to the tunes for such dances.

Round Tops: see Gettysburg campaign.

Round Table, in Arthurian legend, the table at which King Arthur and his knights held court. It was allegedly fashioned at the behest of Arthur to prevent quarrels among the knights over precedence. According to one version it was given to Arthur as a wedding gift by his father-in-law. A round table of undetermined antiquity hangs now in the castle at Winchester. Traditionally King Arthur's, it may be a relic of one of the medieval jousts also called round tables.

or arena stage

Theatre in which the stage is located in the centre of the auditorium with the audience seated on all sides. The form evolved from Greek theatre and was used in medieval times. From the 17th century the proscenium stage limited audience seating to the area directly in front of the stage. In the 1930s, plays at Moscow's Realistic Theatre were produced in the round and the arena stage began to gain favour in Europe and the U.S. Its advantages are its informality and the rapport it creates between audience and actors, but it requires actors to turn constantly to address new sections of the audience.

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or roundworm

Any of more than 15,000 named and many more unnamed species of worms in the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes). Nematodes include plant and animal parasites and free-living forms found in soil, freshwater, saltwater, and even vinegar and beer malts. They are bilaterally symmetrical and usually tapered at both ends. Some species have separate sexes; others are hermaphroditic. They range from microscopic to about 23 ft (7 m) long. Nematode parasites can occur in almost any body organ but are most common in the digestive, circulatory, or respiratory system. Hookworms, pinworms, and eelworms are nematodes. Seealso filarial worm, guinea worm, trichina.

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English round, or simple perpetual canon, for three or more unaccompanied voices. Catches were sung by men as a popular pastime in the 16th–19th centuries. Catch texts were often humorous or ribald, and in some instances a pause in the melody in one voice was filled in by the notes and text of another, creating a pun or change of meaning, especially in the late-17th-century Restoration period.

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