Structure
An episode within a play
What is a scene?
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.
What are PROPS?
Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play
What is an ASIDE?
The physical movement of a character during a play, used to reveal character (may include facial expressions)
What is a GESTURE?
A weakness or limitation of character resulting in the fall of the tragic hero
What is a TRAGIC FLAW?
What is STAGE DIRECTION?
The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects
What is STAGING?
A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character
A speech in a play usually delivered when the character is alone on stage
What is a SOLILOQUY?
A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse
What is a TRAGEDY?
The conversation of characters - characters' speech is preceded by their names.
What is DIALOGUE?
The use of a scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments.
The imaginary wall of the box theater setting, supposedly removed to allow the audience to see the action and especially common in modern and contemporary plays
What is the FOURTH WALL?
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better, and things work out happily in the end - may be either romantic (characterized by a tone of tolerance and geniality) or satiric
What is a COMEDY?
A subsidiary, subordinate, or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot
What is a SUBPLOT?
A character who contrasts and parallels the main character
What is a FOIL?
The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic dram
What is CATHARSIS?
Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story
This is a type of play which contains the following elements: witty dialogue, use of sarcasm and irony, contrived situations, critiques of society - especially marriage, portrayals of class differences, contrasts between urban and rural
What is a COMEDY OF MANNERS?
The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist
What is a REVERSAL?
A speech by a single character without another character's response
What is a MONOLOGUE?
The following description is an example of _______?
The chorus is a group of characters that occurs frequently in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama) who comment on the action of a play without participation in it. Their leader is the choragos.
What is a DRAMATIC CONVENTION?
The idea that a play should be limited to a specific time, place, and story line; the events of the plot should occur within a twenty-four hour period and within a given geographic locale; and the play should tell a single story.
What is DRAMATIC UNITY?
The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or falling action of a play
What is a CATASTROPHE?