Take the Stage
The Room Where it Happens
Who's the Boss?
Lights, Camera, Acting!
Are You Talking to Me?
200

On the right side of a stage from the point of view of a performer facing the audience.

Stage Right

200

The space reserved for the musicians playing the music for an opera, musical, or ballet, immediately in front of or below the stage.

The Pit

200

Responsible for the design, installation, and operation of the lighting and special electrical effects used in the production.

Lighting Designer

200

The location of actors on the stage and the movements that they make.

Blocking

200

A speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud

Monologue

400

Moving away from the audience towards the back of the stage

Upstage

400

The creation of the physical space in which the action of a performed event takes place.

Set

400

Auditions and cast actors; assemble and oversee the production team; provide design directives; lead rehearsals; and manage the production schedule of the project, ensuring that all the moving parts connect.

Director

400

To turn your face or entire body either out to the audience to be seen better without completely turning

Cheat Out

400

A short comment that a character delivers directly to an audience

Aside

600

On the left side of a stage from the point of view of a performer facing the audience.

Stage Left

600

The seating area for the audience during a performance

House

600

Plan and supervise the creation of the costumes and outfits worn by characters in a play or musical.

Costume Designer

600

The ability to use your voice loudly, powerfully, and clearly while acting, singing, or speaking

Vocal Projection

600

The story that has been written for actors to perform

Script

800

The area of a theater, usually behind the set/curtain but still on the stage, where the actors wait until it's time to walk onstage and play their parts.

Backstage

800

A convention that imagines an invisible wall existing between actors and their audience.

Fourth Wall

800

Creates the dance elements in a play or musical, and often teaches them to actors, singers, and dancers.

Choreographer

800

The activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found.

Improv

800

A written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people

Dialogue

1000

A series of lines drawn on plan and section to indicate the limits of the audience vision from extreme seats.

Sightlines

1000

The process of tearing down the set at the conclusion of the show’s run

Strike

1000

Their primary task is to support the play's development by asking key questions, starting conversations, researching, providing context, and helping the artists as they work together to tell the intended story.

Dramaturg

1000

Something another performer says or does that is a signal for them to begin speaking, playing, or doing something

Cue

1000

An actor or cast who has memorized their lines

Off Book