Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What is the oldest surviving theater in the world?
The Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus is a major theatre in Athens, considered to be the world's first theatre, built at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis. Dedicated to Dionysus, the god of plays and wine (among other things), the theatre could seat as many as 17,000 people with excellent acoustics,[1] making it an ideal location for ancient Athens' biggest theatrical celebration, the Dionysia. It was the first theatre ever built, cut into the southern cliff face of the Acropolis, and supposedly the birthplace of Greek tragedy. The remains of a restored and redesigned Roman version can still be seen at the site today. It is sometimes confused with the later, smaller, and better-preserved Odeon of Herodes Atticus, located nearby on the southwest slope of the Acropolis.
Music was an important part of social and cultural life in ancient Greece. Musicians and singers played a prominent role in Greek theater. Mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies. Instruments included the double-reed "aulos" and a plucked string instrument, the "lyre", principally the special kind called a "kithara". Music was an important part of education, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of music development. Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, that eventually became the basis for Western religious and classical music. Later, influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The oldest surviving work written on the subject of music theory is "Harmonika Stoicheia" by Aristoxenus.
The 1609 wreck of the flagship of the Virginia Company, the "Sea Venture", resulted in the settlement of Bermuda by the Company. This was made official in 1612 when the town of St. George's, now the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World, was established. It is the location of St. Peter's Church, the oldest-surviving Anglican church outside of the British Isles (Britain and Ireland) and the oldest surviving non-Roman Catholic church in the New World, also established in 1612. It remained part of the Church of England until 1978 when the Anglican Church of Bermuda was formed. The Church of England was the state church in Bermuda and a system of parishes was set up for the religious and political subdivision of the colony (they survive, today, as both civil and religious parishes).
The parish of St. John the Baptist in the city of St. John's, Newfoundland (part of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador) is the oldest in Canada, founded in 1699 in response to a petition drafted by the Anglican townsfolk of St. John's and sent to the Bishop of London, Henry Compton. In this petition the people also requested help in the rebuilding of their church, which had been destroyed, along with the rest of the city, in 1696 by the French under the command of General Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville.
Abe and Barney Balaban, together with Sam and Morris Katz—founders of the Balaban and Katz theater chain, built the Chicago Theatre in 1921 as one of a large chain of opulent motion picture houses. The theater would become the flagship for 28 theaters in the city and over 100 others in the Midwestern United States that B&K operated in conjunction with the Paramount Publix chain. Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp were primary architects and the final construction cost was $4 million ($ million in dollars). The Rapp brothers also designed many other B&K properties in Chicago, including the Oriental and Uptown Theatres. Preceded by the now-demolished Tivoli Theatre of Chicago and Capitol Theatre of New York City, the Chicago Theatre was the "...largest, most costly and grandest of the super deluxe movie palaces" built up to that date and thus now the oldest surviving grand movie palace. The Chicago Theatre was among the earliest theaters in the nation to be built in Rapp and Rapp's signature Neo-Baroque French-revival style. It is the oldest surviving example of this style in Chicago.
During the Renaissance, the first modern enclosed theaters were constructed in Italy. Their structure was similar to that of ancient theaters, with a "cavea" and an architectural scenery, representing a city street. The oldest surviving examples of this style are the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (1580) and the Teatro all'antica in Sabbioneta (1590).
Teatrul Evreiesc de Stat (TES, the State Jewish Theater) in Bucharest, Romania is a theater specializing in Jewish-related plays. It is the oldest Yiddish-language theater with uninterrupted activity in the world. Its contemporary repertoire includes plays by Jewish authors, plays on Jewish topics, and plays in Yiddish (which are performed with simultaneous translation into Romanian, using headphones installed in the theater in the 1970s). Many of the plays also feature Jewish actors.
Of the more than 200 L&K-designed or redesigned theaters, few remain. In downtown Minneapolis, their lavish renovations of the Academy, World, and Gopher theaters were destroyed as a result of urban renewal, but the firm's 1929 Art Deco makeover of the State survives, restored in 1991 with city funding and now part of the Hennepin Theatre Trust. The firm's first theater design, The Granada (later renamed Suburban World), showed movies from 1928 until it closed in 2003. A stellar example of an atmospheric theater with Moorish features, it was closed again after a brief revival as a cinema grill in the following decade. The building, in a high-rent area of Uptown, has managed to survive the wrecking ball, and after being vacant for five years it was purchased in 2018 by new owners with plans to renovate the theater into a live music and entertainment space.
Their Majesties Chappell, St. Peter's Church, in St. George's, Bermuda, is the oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside the British Isles. It is also reportedly the oldest continuously used Protestant church in the New World. A UNESCO World Heritage Site (together with related fortifications), St. George's Town is the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World, having been settled by the Virginia Company in 1612 (in the aftermath of the wrecking of its flagship, the Sea Venture, in Bermuda in 1609).
One of the oldest surviving operating theaters is the Old Operating Theatre in London. Built in 1822, it is now a museum of surgical history. Another theater still exists at the University of Padua, in Italy, inside Palazzo Bo. It was commissioned by the anatomist Girolamo Fabrizio d'Acquapendente in 1594. Another famous operating theater is the Ether Dome in Boston. Built in 1824, it is now a conference room and tourist attraction. Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia also boasts its own surviving operating theater, built in 1804.
The 800-seat National Theater, built in 1911, is the only known theatre designed by Albert Kahn and the oldest surviving theatre from the city's original theatre district of the 19th century. It operated as a movie theater until the 1920s, when competition from larger movie houses forced a change to a vaudeville venue. The National survived as a burlesque and adult entertainment theater until it closed in the 1970s.
The Southern Theatre is an historic theater located at 21 East Main Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It opened on September 21, 1896 and is the oldest surviving theater in Central Ohio and one of the oldest in the state of Ohio. The Southern Theatre is currently owned and operated as a home for live concerts, plays and opera by CAPA (the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts). CAPA also manages several other venues in Columbus including the Ohio, the Palace, and the Lincoln Theatres.
Opened as the Lagoon Theater on June 3, 1916, the Uptown is one of the oldest surviving theaters in the Twin Cities area. A name change to the Uptown on April 11, 1929, coincided with the installation of sound equipment and a screening of "The Dummy". A fire broke out in the ventilation system during "Trade Winds" on April 25, 1939, but the cinema was rebuilt soon after by the firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan.
The Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis crafted maps and books of navigation, including his first world map (1513) which is one of the oldest surviving maps of America and possibly the oldest surviving map of Antarctica. The first world map (1513) and second world map (1528) of Piri Reis are today preserved at the Library of Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. Other works of Piri Reis are preserved at the Naval Museum in Istanbul.
Allingham was the oldest ever surviving member of any of the British Armed Forces and one of the oldest surviving veterans of the First World War. He was the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force (RAF). In 2001 he became the face of the First World War veterans' association and made frequent public appearances to ensure that awareness of the sacrifices of the First World War was not lost to modern generations. He received many honours and awards for his First World War service and his longevity.
Contrary to popular belief, Metropole is not the oldest movie theater in Jakarta. The oldest movie theater in Jakarta is Grand Theater, established in 1930 on the corner of Jalan Kramat Raya and Jalan Kramat Bunder, however in extremely poor condition and survived by offering low budget movie (usually horror or erotic). 
After his discharge, Painter pursued a career as a blacksmith and married his childhood sweetheart, Gillie Watson. The couple adopted two daughters. On November 19, 1999, Painter was recognized as the world's oldest veteran at age 111. On September 20, 2000, Tennessee Representative Bart Gordon read the following proclamation in honor of John's 112th birthday: "Mr. Speaker, I rise today to wish a happy 112th birthday to Tennessee's oldest surviving World War I veteran, John George Painter of Hermitage Springs. He is also believed to be the nation's oldest surviving veteran."
When television is available in Indonesia, many cinemas are closed in Jakarta, including Jakarta's oldest cinema, the Globe, which was opened in 1910 but has to be closed in 2009. Grand Theater on the other hand survived by offering low budget movies e.g. horror and erotic movies. With the closing of the Globe, Grand Theater is currently the Jakarta's oldest cinema that is still in operation.
The Teatro all'antica ("Theater in the style of the ancients") is a theatre in Sabbioneta, northern Italy; it was the first free-standing, purpose-built theater in the modern world. The Teatro all'antica is the second-oldest surviving indoor theater in the world (after the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza), and is, along with that theater and the Teatro Farnese in Parma, one of only three Renaissance theaters still in existence.
Metropole is a historic multipurpose building complex in Jakarta, Indonesia. Metropole is the oldest surviving movie theater in Jakarta after the Grand Theater cinema in Senen. One of its main tenants is the 21 Cineplex group, which operates the Metropole XXI movie theater in the complex's main building. As a historic cinema, it has screened films during the first Indonesian Film Festival (1955) and the 16th Asia Pacific Film Festival (1970). Metropole was listed as an architectural heritage site by the governor in 1993. 
Henry William Allingham (6 June 1896 – 18 July 2009) was an English supercentenarian, he was also the oldest surviving man ever from the United Kingdom, First World War veteran and, for one month, the verified oldest living man in the world. He is also the second oldest military veteran ever and, at the time of his death, he was the 12th-verified oldest man of all time.
The State Theater in Washington, Iowa is the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the world. It showed its first films in 1897, and was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records on April 21, 2016. It is still in operation as of June 1, 2018.
In 1608, King James I granted one such licence to Sir Thomas Phillips, a landowner in Bushmills, County Antrim. It is through this licence that the Old Bushmills Distillery lays claim to being the oldest surviving grant of licence to distil in the world. However, the current Bushmills distillery and company was not registered to trade until 1784 which allows the Kilbeggan Distillery (formerly Locke's Distillery), founded by the McManus family in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, which has been licensed and distilling since 1757 (not counting the period between 1954 and 2007) to lay claim to the title of the oldest licensed distillery in Ireland. Kilbeggan also has what is believed to be the oldest operational copper pot still in the world, over 250 years old.
"Kwong Wah Yit Poh" is one of the oldest Chinese-language newspapers in Malaysia ("Nanyang Siang Pau" is the oldest national Chinese-language newspaper), outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as one of the world's oldest surviving Chinese newspaper ("Ta Kung Pao" is the oldest active Chinese-language newspaper in the world). However, it is not the first Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia.
The last surviving member of the class was Edmund De Treville Ellis. Commissioned in the cavalry, he later transferred to the Quartermaster Corps, with which he served in the European Theater during World War II and during the 1948 Berlin airlift. He retired from the Army as a colonel on 31 March 1950. He became the oldest living graduate of West Point in October 1990, and the last surviving member of the class of 1915 on the death of Van Fleet. He died at the age of 104 on 22 January 1995. Like Van Fleet, he was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
Claude Stanley Choules (; 3 March 1901 – 5 May 2011) was an English-born military serviceman from Perth, Western Australia who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War from England, having served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926. After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a Chief Petty Officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen. He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars. At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia. He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas on 21 June 2010. Choules died at the age of 110 years and 63 days. He had been the oldest British-born man; following his death, that honour went to Reverend Reginald Dean. In December 2011, the landing ship was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.