Production Roles/Stages
An actor or stage manager hired to read lines opposite an auditioning actor during a casting session
What is a Reader
This is when the full cast meets and reads the script for the first time
What is a Read-through
Phosphorescent tape placed on the stage floor, stairs, and backstage obstacles to guide actors safely during blackouts
What is Glow Tape
I have all my lines/blocking/music/choreography memorized!! I don't need my script anymore
What is Off-Book
A form of documentary theate where the script is created entirely from the exact spoken words of real interviewed people
What is Verbatim Theater
What is a Bloodline
I am yelled out usually in a rehearsal/tech setting when something goes wrong/it is not safe to continue the rehearsal
What is Hold
A technical rehearsal focused entirely on executing cues and transitions without the actors on stage
What is a Dry Tech
By putting me on the stage floor, I help actors/techies know exactly where to put set pieces
What is Spike Tape/Spike Marks
I am a stage design that extends into the audience on three sides creating a more intimate viewing experience
What is a Thrust Stage
This is the thing that breaks when you talk directly to the audience
What is the Fourth Wall
What is Subtext
I am a meeting before tech rehearsals where the director, stage manager, and designers go through the script to log every cue without actors present
What is a Paper Tech
This is when actors are given material in an audition/callback setting that they haven't seen before. This is to see actors chemistry and what choices they make with new material
What is a Cold Read
The peas and carrots of it all,,,
What is an Ad-lib
Specific pages or excerpts from a script handed out to actors at an audition to read for a particular role
What are Sides
This occurs when the cast sings with the pit for the first time. This is for orchestra members to get acclimated to the space.
What is Sitzprobe
The total environmental, historical, and situational facts writen into the script that dictate a character’s reality
What are Given Circumstances
This person on the production team is responsible for all blocking and direction that has to do with public displays of affection. This is to ensure safety of actors and quality of work
What is the Intimacy Coordinator
A Stanislavski-based technique where an actor recalls a personal memory to evoke a specific, genuine emotion on stage
What is Emotional/Affective Memory
A short, repeating musical phrase played by the orchestra while waiting for an actor to finish a spoken line, change a costume, or complete a stage piece before moving on
What is a Vamp
I am a thin metal or glass template placed inside a lighting instruemnt to project a specific pattern, shape, or texture onto the stage
What is a Gobo
A technique of composition and movement training developed by Mary Overlie and Anne Bogart that focuses on time and space
What are Viewpoints