Week 1.1
The study of preparing for and performing in the theatre.
Theater Arts
Variety of vocal pitch
Inflection
Instruction in a text of a play; usually in italics and/or parenthesis
Signal to begin something
Cue
Acting technique where actors use personal experiences to trigger emotions in a scene
Emotional Recall
An actor or actress, its origins comes from Thespis, credited with being the first actor
Thespian
A rich, warm speaking quality
Resonance
Verbal command to stop the dialogue and movement in a scene; to become motionless
Freeze
To forget your lines
Drop
“little things” that make everybody different (can be physical, verbal or psychological)
Mannerisms
To ability to relate to feelings that are expressed by someone else
Empathy
Muscle below the ribcage, aids in inhaling and exhaling
Diaphragm
Imaginary line indicating visibility of stage areas
Sight Line
To speed up your response to the line before yours
Pickup
What a character wants to accomplish during a scene
Objective
To work jointly with another person or group to produce something
Collaborate
Area of the throat that contains the vocal chords, the voice box
Larynx
When an actor draws the audience attention when it should be focused on another character
Dialogue for a play
Lines
Putting all the aspects of a character together so that he’s believable
Characterization
Lasting only a short time
Ephemeral
A combination of rising and falling inflection
Circumflex
A stage picture – usually seen in a freeze
Tableaux
Text of a musical comedy
Libretto
Info that’s implied but never stated in the dialogue
Subtext