Literary Elements
The events that make up the story or the main part of the story.
What is plot?
Clothing and accessories worn by actors to portray character or period.
What is costumes?
The act of using the face, body and voice to portray a character.
What is acting?
Has a central, circular arena with concentric seating. Performers often enter through one aisle, rather than multiple.
What is a hippodrome?
The instructions in a play for technical aspects, like lighting, sound, costume, scenery, props and most importantly the movement of the actors on stage.
What are stage directions?
The people that watch the play.
What is the audience?
Also known as properties. An article that is used as a part of a dramatic production. Any moveable object that appears on stage during a performance.
What are props?
The process of examining how the elements of drama - literary, technical and performance - are used.
What is character analysis?
This type of stage creates a sense of intimacy between the performers and the audience.
What is the thrust stage?
An architectural frame separating the stage from the auditorium, through which the action of a play is viewed.
What is the proscenium arch?
The infamous, "Romeo, wherefore art thou?" and "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" speeches are examples of this element.
What is dialogue?
The theatrical equipment, such as curtains, flats, backdrops or platforms used to communicate the environment.
What is scenery?
Thanos' journey to find the infinity stones and gauntlet in an effort to "save" the universe is an example of this performance element.
What is character motivation?
The area that is often covered by the apron of the stage, where the musicians often sit.
What is the orchestra pit?
Typically these are masked with curtains known as "legs" and are used a space for performers to enter, storage for scenery and as a stagehand work area.
What are the wings?
The techniques and methods used by the playwright and director to create a stylistic effect.
What is convention?
The placement, intensity and color of the lights to help communicate environment, mood or feeling.
What is lighting?
A white or natural seamless flat muslin panel. It is always the piece that is hung furthest upstage. It can be used for traditional lighting or projection.
This performance area is often stripped straight down to the basics and often painted black.
What is a black-box theatre?
What is theme?
In the Phantom of the Opera, there is a scene where the characters think they hear the Phantom coming from all sides of the theatre. The designers use different speakers to play the Phantoms voice. This is an example of this technical element.
What is sound?
Sets are minimal in this type of stage.
What is theatre-in-the-round?
When an actor steps closer to the audience on the stage, they are moving in this direction.
What is downstage?