Taking the Stage
An area on either side of the stage, often used to technical elements and actors waiting to enter from the audience view.
What are the "wings?" (or offstage areas)
A brief pause given by the actor, often to change emotional focus.
What is a beat?
Responsible for realizing the character, bringing them "to life" as a living, breathing person.
Who is an actor?
Credited as the "first actor," his name gives us a modern nickname for stage players.
Who was Thespis?
Staging setup in the center of venue, with audience seating on all sides. Special challenges for actors include sight lines, limited set, no offstage areas.
What is an arena?
From Italian, a term referencing the spoken dialogue of a production, particularly used in music theater and opera.
What is a libretto?
Responsible for interpreting the text of a play through the vehicle of the acting.
Who is the director?
Founder of "The Method," a Russian acting coach and director known for his encouragement of an internal, psychological approach to understanding character.
Who was Constantin Stanislavski?
A projection surface at the rear of the stage used for special lighting and set effects, often abbreviated to one syllable.
What is the "cyc"/cyclorama?
Theater style popular in the ancient world, often built into the topography of a hill, featuring a low, circular stage and audience seating in a semicircle above.
What is an amphitheater?
Responsible for creating the source material (text) for the play.
Who is the playwright?
Created a stylized approach to expressing emotion through stock gestures and postures.
Who was Francois Delsarte?
Staging setup which protrudes into audience space, seating on three sides of the action.
What is a thrust stage?
Payments made to a credited author to honor their copyright in order to secure permission for performance.
What are royalties?
A researcher, serving as a resource for director and cast on a particular production. Often well-versed in historical and cultural elements.
Who is the dramaturg?
Known for his epic "Angels in America," set in the challenging times of the 1980s AIDS crisis in New York City.
Who is Tony Kushner?
Ent. USR - L3, XDSC, Ex. DSL - L1
What is enter upstage right, leg 3 -- cross downstage center -- exit downstage left, leg 1
The name of the dimensional arch framing most typical stages, keeping the audience and actors separate by presenting the stage's "fourth wall."
What is the proscenium?
Responsible for the "business" side of theatre, often taking charge of finding funding to make the play a reality.
Who is the producer?
Greek God of wine and revelry, subject of early dramatized religious rites with costumes and mask and chorus singing hymns of praise.
Who was Dionysus?