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.

Could use a preview mode on this thing....

"...intervening prepositional phrase..." was a really stupid thing to say, sorry about that. You should still see that "discrepancy of" in that last example.

Or, alternatively (continuing with what Rich has posted), "there was a discrepancy between the reports."

Google hits:
"Discrepancy between" - 273,000
"Discrepancy in" - 158,000
"Discrepancy of" - 42,000

According to the usage I've sampled:

"Discrepancy between" seems to be used to compare two things that should be the same but are not: "There were discrepancies between the proof copy and the submitted manuscript."

"Discrepancy in" seems to be used when talking about one thing that just doesn't fit the known facts: "There were some discrepancies in the story she told the police."

"Discrepancy of" seems to be used in the special case of tolerances or variation from standard measurements: "There was a discrepancy of 4.28mm in the inside diameter of the well bore." "Discrepancies in the test results averaged .02 percent of the expected value." (The second example is a "discrepancy of" with an intervening prepositional phrase.)

In the cases above cited, I would say, "I do, too."

Of course, politeness would dictate that you not, arbitrarily and uninvited, include yourself in an activity, but this is not an English grammar rule.

(speedwell is snarky after staying up all night helping her fellow with his term paper on Polykleitos and the Pythagorean influences on classical Greek sculpture.)

Oh, and Joachim is perfectly correct. This is a spelling rule, not a matter of learned opinion.

Fernando, my hourly rate for freelance work is fifty dollars an hour (more or less depending on difficulty). You may contact me at the linked e-mail address if you're interested.

The point about the conjunction is a good one. I should have included it. Thanks.

Older people = more literate people with wider vocabularies.

Younger people = idealistic puppies who think they can make the world better by impoverishing the language so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of the "victimocracy."

California = place where they recently tried to make the use of "master" and "slave" in computer technology writing illegal. 'Nuff said.

My opinion on this amounts to an unreasonable and dogmatic belief. In documentation meetings, people have unfortunately learned not to ask my advice about this particular issue anymore.

I ALWAYS place a comma before the last "and" or "or" when writing for a U.S. reader or in non-business writing. I suspect this happens because of my speech patterns.

Now wait, I SAID "opinion." In business writing, I always use the comma if the documentation is intended for our U.S. locations or for a document intended to be used company-wide. When writing specifically for our non-U.S. offices, I actually do omit the comma. And then I get struck by lightning. (just kidding)

Mr. Crow... "...Ayn Rand and God...." Subtle and pretty funny, that. :)

Goossun... Yes, that's possible. I tend to lean more toward linguistic descriptivism ("That's the way it is! Because that's the way it is!") than prescriptivism ("That's the way it's going to be! Because we said so!") though I often forget that there's more than one dialect being described!

Wish me luck, by the way... I let one of our engineers from the Aberdeen office dare me to study Scots. Oh, why do I let myself in for this sort of thing....