çw Vocab

Structure and Fundamental

100

Scene

• a division of an act in a play during which the action takes place in a single place without a break in time

200

Tension

• a growing sense of expectation within the drama, a feeling that the story is building up towards something exciting happening.

300

Plot

• the sequence of interconnected events within the story of a play, novel, film, epic, or other narrative literary work.

400

character

• a person portrayed in a drama, novel, or other artistic piece. characterization: how an actor uses body, voice, and thought to develop and portray a character.

500

act

A major division in a play. An act can be sub-divided into scenes.

Roles/Jobs/People

100

Playwright

• -a person who writes plays.

200

cast

• the group of actors who make up a film or stage play

300

Director

• someone who supervises the actors and directs the action in the production of a show.

400

company

• everyone associated with a production.

500

stage manager

• one who supervises the physical aspects of a stage production, assists the director during rehearsals, and is in charge of the stage during a performance.

Types of Theaters

100

black box-

• a simple, open space consisting of four walls, a floor, and a ceiling that are all painted black

200

in-the-round-form

• of theatrical staging in which the acting area, which may be raised or at floor level, is completely surrounded by the audience

300

proscenium

• the frame or arch separating the stage from the auditorium, through which the action of a play is viewed.

400

Dénouement

• conclusion after the climax of a narrative in which the complexities of the plot are unraveled and the conflict is finally resolved

500

Freytag’s Pyramid

• a paradigm of dramatic structure outlining the seven key steps in successful storytelling: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement.

The Production process

100

dress rehearsal

• a full rehearsal (as of a play) in costume and with stage properties shortly before the first performance.

200

Rehearsal

• a practice session or practice performance done prior to a real event or before viewing by an audience.

300

cold reading-

• an actor will be asked to perform a scene with very little preparation, and so they will still be reading from the script.

400

technical rehearsal-

A rehearsal, especially of a play, devoted to practising the use of technical elements such as lighting, sound effects, and scenery.

500

Blocking

• working with performers to figure out the actors' movements, body positions, and body language in a scene

General Terms

100

stage directions

an instruction in the text of a play, especially one indicating the movement, position, or tone of an actor, or the sound effects and lighting.

200

reader’s theater-

• Readers theater is a style of theater in which the actors present dramatic readings of narrative material without costumes, props, scenery, or special lighting.

300

Flashback

• interrupt the chronological order of the main narrative to take a reader back in time to the past events in a character's life.

400

Prologue

• - a preface or introduction to a literary work. In a dramatic work, the term describes a speech, often in verse, addressed to the audience by one or more of the actors at the opening of a play.

500

soliloquy

an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.