Drama Terminology
This is to be used for written work
e.g Theatre reviews
- Created by: Hannah Boxen
- Created on: 31-10-11 10:46
Main Terminology
1. Act - a major division of a play.
2. Anagnorisis - a recognition or discovery, especially in tragedy - for example, when the hero understands the reason for his or her fall.
3. Catharsis - Aristotle’s term for the purgation or purification of the pity and terror supposedly experienced while witnessing a tragedy.
4. Climax - the culmination of a conflict; a turning point, often the point of greatest tension in a plot.
5. Comedy - a literary work, especially a play, characterized by humor and by a happy ending.
6. Conflict - a struggle between a character and some obstacle or between internal forces, such as divided loyalties.
7. Crisis - a high point in the conflict that leads to the turning point.
8. Dénouement - the resolution or the outcome (literally, the "unknotting") of a plot.
9. Exposition - a setting-forth of information. In fiction and drama, introductory material introducing characters and the situation.
10. Farce - comedy based not on clever language or on subtleties of characters but on broadly humorous situations.
11. Gesture - a physical movement, especially in a play.
12. Hamartia - a flaw in the tragic hero, or an error made by the tragic hero.
13. Hubris (hybris) - a Greek word, usually translated as "overweening pride," "arrogance," "excessive ambition," and often said to be characteristic of tragic figures.
14. Peripeteia - a reversal in the action.
15. Plot - the episodes in a narrative or dramatic work - that is, what happens - or the particular arrangement (sequence) of these episodes.
16. Protagonist - the chief actor in any literary work. The term is usually preferable to hero and heroine because it can include characters - for example, villainous or weak ones - who are not aptly called heroes or heroines.
17. Scene - a unit of a play, in which the setting is unchanged and the time continuous.
18. Soliloquy - a speech in a play, in which a character alone on the stage speaks his or her thoughts aloud.
19. Tragedy - a serious play showing the protagonist moving from good fortune to bad and ending in death or a deathlike state.
20. Tragicomedy - a mixture of tragedy and comedy, usually a play with serious happenings that expose the characters to the threat of death but that ends happily
Terminology For Rehearsal
RESEARCH - diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications,
ROLE/CHARACTER - a part or character played by an actor or actress.
BRAINSTORMING - spider diagrams
HOTSEATING - interviewing a character to find out background or unusual facts
TABLEAUX OF KEY MOMENTS - a representation of a picture, statue, scene, etc., by one or more persons suitably costumed and posed.
ROLE SWAPPING - swapping roles with another person in your performance
Terminology For Staging
GENRE - a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like: the genre of epic poetry; the genre of symphonic music.
PERIOD - a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social unrest in Germany.
MOOD - a distinctive emotional quality or character:
ATMOSPHERE - this medium at a given place.
THEMATIC - of or pertaining to a theme.
REPRESENTATION - the expression or designation by some term, character, symbol, or the like.
SYMBOLISM - the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.
Terminolgy For Dialogue
EXPOSITION
STYLE
ATMOSPHERE
PURPOSE
TONE
PACE
PITCH
TIMING
RHYTHM/PULSE
SOCIAL CONTEXT
DIALECT/ACCENT
PAUSE
SILENCE
SUB-TEXT/NON-VERBAL
TEMPO
IRONY
PROJECTION/VOLUME
SONG
SOUND TRACKING
NARRATION
VERSE
Termiology For Lighting
TIMING
COLOUR
INTENSITY
ATMOSPHERE
SPECIAL EFFECTS
ESTABLISHMENT OF CONVENTIONS
INFLUENCE ON PACE
ISOLATING AREAS
CREATING FOCUS
LANTERN CHOICE
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