Drama Terminology

This is to be used for written work

e.g Theatre reviews

?

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

1 of 5

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

2 of 5

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.

3 of 5

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

4 of 5

Termiology For Lighting

TIMING

COLOUR

INTENSITY

ATMOSPHERE

SPECIAL EFFECTS

ESTABLISHMENT OF CONVENTIONS

INFLUENCE ON PACE

ISOLATING AREAS

CREATING FOCUS

LANTERN CHOICE

5 of 5

Comments

Heidi Scaife

Report

Thankyou very helpful :D 

Similar Drama resources:

See all Drama resources »