Technical
Playwright's Craft
Actor's Directions
Directors Do This
Potpourri
100
An imaginary wall that makes up the space in which a play takes place. It prevents the actor's directly addressing the audience.
What is the fourth wall?
100
What the play means, as opposed to what happens (plot); the deeper meaning behind the plot.
What is theme?
100
This is a word or phrase or action signaling an actor's line, entrance , or exit.
What is a cue?
100
Directors hold these in order to pick a cast for a production.
What is an audition?
100
This actor studies another actor's lines, ready to step in if needed.
What is an understudy?
200
The term for this part of the stage.
What is an Apron?
200
This type of play ends with the main character of characters suffering disastrously.
What is a tragedy?
200
This happens when an actor loses concentration and is not in character.
What is Break character?
200
Directors decide the movements of the actors when they do this.
What is block the scene or blocking
200
He was the first recorded winner of the Greek theater competitions. Today we call actors a term similar to his name.
Who was Thespis?
300
This is done to a set at the end of a play.
What is Strike the set?
300
This type of drama is over the top. Emotions are EXAGGERATED.
What is melodrama?
300
This kind of turn results in an actor's back to the audience/
What is a closed turn?
300
This person helps the director backstage during a production.
Who is the stage manager?
300
At the beginning of Greek theater there was only one actor and one of these made up of 15 people on stage.
What is a Chorus?
400
This part of the stage is farthest away from the audience.
What is upstage?
400
Here is an actor doing a very famous Shakespeare scene from Hamlet placed in a modern setting. This type of one-person scene is called a ________.
What is a soliloquy?
400
Skilled actors can do this type of silent acting.
What is pantomime?
400
Directors remind actors to use this so that they can be understood, especially if they are not properly pronouncing words.
What is articulation?
400
This term describes what drives the behavior of a character. All actor's need to know this in order to portray their character well. ( you also need it to make yourself study or clean your room sometimes)
What is motivation?
500
This type of theater has a floor which slopes up away from the stage so that audience members can better see the stage.
What is a raked house?
500
This French word means the solution to the play; the wrapping up of events at the end.
What is denouement?
500
These are the thoughts an actor has that are unspoken. (Usually portrayed non verbally)
What is subtext?
500
Directors must make sure an actor delivers his/her lines and moves at the exact right moment. This has to be right so that the play does not move too fast or drag along.
What is timing?
500
These are stage pictures created by actors posing motionless.
What are tableaus?