Shot in front of a theatre (5)
I believe the answer is:
drama
'theatre' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'shot in front of a' is the wordplay.
'shot' becomes 'dram' (of whisky say).
'in front of' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go in front of others).
'dram'+'a'='DRAMA'
(Other definitions for drama that I've seen before include "Play - crisis" , "Plays as a genre" , "High emotion" , "Turbulent emotional episode" , "Theatre or radio play" .)