Para

Sweetie, you're reading postmodernists again, aren't you. (speedwell grins)

Dictionary.com entry here is the best one I found: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=para-

Since there are so many possible definitions, it's impossible to decide which one applies unless we see it in context, along with its surrounding text.

My stab-in-the-dark guess, based on several purely subjective factors, is that the writer felt that their subject was beyond, or more advanced than, "mere" theater. But again, it's impossible to tell just from the word itself.

Not quite postmodern, but I'm troubled with a beardy Polish man, named Jerzy Grotowski who once said "I said yes to past".
However, he had a research program known as the paratheatre. Do you know anything about him?
The thing is that I gotta translate this term to Persian. Any suggestion? :)

Yeah. Found this...

http://www.eu25.org/html/events/athina.htm

Relevant quotation from the page: "Grotowski also developed the „Paratheater“ or as he called it „project-events“ and „active culture“ , a form we today refer to as „events“." Nice mix of Continental and U.S. punctuation there. :)

That qoutation ain't really hitting nothing about Grotowski, I should say.
Check out the "tata, hoho" post, by the way

The most common usage I've come across is simply "pertaining to".

i.e. paratrooper - pertaining to trooper; paramedical - pertaining to medical.

u r a bunch of sad geeks, but thanx for the info

Speedwell is NOT an UNHAPPY GEEK.

Speedwell is a HAPPY NERD CHICK.

Technically, "para" means "beside." A paralegal is not a lawyer, but works with a lawyer. A paramedic is a not a doctor, but works with doctors. Think "paraphrase."