The prvious answerers are right. Additional information: The word 话剧 is created in the early 30th century, befor it the major form of theatre in China was 戏 （AB戏 and XY戏），today called 戏曲 （literally drama with tune; traditional Chinese opera）, which features the Four Major Arts : 唱 singing, 念 talking, 做 performance（imitation of phsycal action ） and 打 （acrobatic fighting）, and talk is a tiny part of it. When modern theatre, which performance is basically dialogue, was indtroduced from the west ( mainly trans-indtroduced from then Japan) , some avant-garde dramaists gave it a trendy name: 文明戏 （civilization drama）, implying that it was a reaction agaist the traditional drama, for reform and modernization was the theme of the time. But obviously, the had 用力过猛 overdone in this naming, lavishing their enthusiasm on a wrong point. Ironically, quite a part of the 文明戏 then was not so 'civilized ' . Soon later, a group of dramaists, who had also tremendously reformd the subjects and form of the drama, renamed it as 话剧，since its main perfoming form is 话，对话 dialogue.

"话剧" a form of drama based on dialogue

a “ 话剧 ” is a “ play ”.

“话” means dialogue，“剧” means play。“话剧” is more like an on-stage TV episode.