Name appearing in parish theatre (5)
I believe the answer is:
arena
'theatre' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'name appearing in parish' is the wordplay.
'name' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation e.g. on forms).
'appearing in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'parish' becomes 'area'.
'n' put inside 'area' is 'ARENA'.
(Other definitions for arena that I've seen before include "Coliseum" , "Area in centre of sports stadium" , "bowl? Possibly" , "Stadium - battlefield" , "Sit around here being entertained" .)