Part of old theatre article Times rejected (5)
I believe the answer is:
arena
'part of old theatre' is the definition.
'arena' can be an answer for 'theatre' (I've seen this before). I'm not sure about the 'part of old' bit.
'article times rejected' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'an' (indefinite article).
'times' becomes 'era' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rejected' says the letters should be written backwards.
'an'+'era'='anera'
'anera' reversed gives 'ARENA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arena that I've seen before include "Amphitheatre's central space" , "Place for public contests" , "What the Colosseum was" , "Scene of gladiatorial contest, perhaps" , "Ring; stage" .)