Fundamentals Note
This Greek performer stepped away from the chorus and became known as the first actor.
Who is Thespis?
Moving toward the audience means traveling in this stage direction.What is downstage?
What is downstage?
A statement or action that gives a scene partner information to use is called this.
What is an offer?
This simple raised acting surface may stand in a room without a permanent theatre structure.
What is a platform stage?
The spoken exchange between characters is called this.
What is dialogue?
Facts supplied by the script about time, place, history, and situation are known by this term.
What are given circumstances?
Ancient Greek theatre festivals honored this god associated with wine and celebration.
Who is Dionysus?
While facing the audience, an actor moves to the actor’s right. Name the direction.
What is stage right?
This skill helps an improviser notice a partner’s words, emotions, and physical choices before responding.
What is active listening?
This performance space presents theatre outdoors rather than inside a traditional building.
What is an open-air stage?
At the start of a scene, this information identifies where and when the action occurs.
What is the setting or scene heading?
Posture, gesture, pace, pitch, and volume belong to these two areas of performance choices.
What are physical and vocal choices?
Within Aristotle’s six elements, this term means the ordered sequence of events in a play.
What is plot?
This acting area is closest to the audience and centered between left and right.
What is downstage center?
At the beginning of an improvised scene, performers should quickly establish these three basic circumstances.
What are who the characters are, where they are, and what they are doing or want?
This large oval or circular performance space takes its name from ancient venues used for races and spectacles.
What is a hippodrome stage?
A short instruction placed beside a character’s line may suggest tone, movement, or who receives the line.
What is a parenthetical or character direction?
A person, condition, or belief that prevents the character from reaching an objective is called this.
What is an obstacle?
A pantomime actor struggles to push an invisible heavy door. This principle makes the audience believe the door has weight.
What is resistance?
An actor crosses diagonally from the far back corner on the actor’s right to the front corner on the actor’s left. Name both areas.
What are upstage right and downstage left?
One character behaves like a supervisor while the other asks permission. The actors have established this important character connection.
What is status or relationship?
A director wants the audience close on three sides while keeping a strong backstage entrance at one end. This stage type best fits the plan.
What is a thrust stage?
A brief remark spoken to the audience that other characters do not hear is called this.
What is an aside?
A character says, “I’m fine,” while avoiding eye contact and gripping a chair. The meaning beneath the spoken words is called this.
What is subtext?
An actor’s lines sound clear but the performance lacks focus and believable reactions. Identify two actor tools that need more attention and explain how each would help.
What are concentration for sustained attention and imagination for believing and responding to the circumstances? Body or voice may also earn credit with a sound explanation.
A director places every important moment upstage behind a sofa. Explain the staging problem and give one correction.
What is a blocked sightline or weak focus? Move the actors or sofa, use a lower set piece, or restage the moment in a visible acting area.
Two improvisers keep introducing unrelated ideas and never respond to each other. Describe two corrections that would create a unified scene.
What are listening closely, accepting and building on offers, keeping the same relationship and location, or pursuing connected objectives? Any two.
Compare a black box with a proscenium stage. Give one artistic advantage of each.
What are flexible seating and staging in a black box, and a framed view with strong scenery control and hidden backstage areas in a proscenium?
A script inserts a pause just after a character learns a secret. Explain what the pause signals and how an actor might use it.
What is a beat or change in thought? The actor can let the discovery affect focus, breath, body, and the next line before continuing.
A student character wants a lead role, fears disappointing the family, and auditions despite intense nerves. Identify the objective, motivation, obstacle, and one playable tactic.
What are: objective, earn the lead role; motivation, meet personal or family expectations; obstacle, fear or competition; tactic, impress, connect, command attention, or another playable action?