Theatre Glossary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from the glossary pages covering fundamental theatre terms, definitions, styles, and stagecraft concepts.

Aesthetic distance

Physical or psychological separation or detachment of audience from dramatic action, usually considered necessary for artistic illusion.

Allegory

Symbolic representation of abstract themes through characters, action, and other concrete elements of a play.

Alley theatre space

A stage arrangement where the audience faces the stage on two separate sides, much like the catwalk used by models in fashion shows.

Antagonist

Opponent of the protagonist in a drama.

Arena

Stage entirely surrounded by the audience; also known as circle theatre or theatre-in-the-round.

Auteur

French term for “author.” When used to describe a director it suggests one who makes drastic alterations and transformations to a traditional script.

Automated scenery

Set pieces that move by commands from computerized software rather than by stagehand or mechanization.

Black box

A theatre space that is open, flexible, and adaptable, usually without fixed seating, making it economical and suited to experimental work.

Blocking

Pattern and arrangement of performers’ movements onstage with respect to each other and to the stage space, usually set by the director.

Bourgeois or domestic drama

Drama dealing with problems—particularly family problems—of middle- and lower-class characters.

Box

Small private compartment for a group of spectators built into the walls of traditional proscenium-arch and other theatres.

Build

To create a costume from scratch in a costume shop.

Burlesque

A ludicrous, comic imitation of a dramatic form, play, piece of literature, or other popular entertainment.

Co-producer

In the commercial Broadway theatre, the individual who helps generate or themselves invests a certain percentage of the money needed to stage a production and usually receives payments only if the show makes back its initial investment.

Comedy of ideas

A comedy in which the humor is based on intellectual and verbal aspects of comedy rather than physical comedy or comedy of character.

Comedy of manners

Form of comic drama that became popular in the English Restoration, set within sophisticated society while poking fun at its characters’ social pretensions, usually through verbal wit.

Commedia dell’arte

Form of comic theatre, originating in Italy in the sixteenth century, in which dialogue was improvised around a scenario involving a set of stock characters.

Computer-assisted design (CAD)

Designs created by computer. All features of a set design, including ground plans, elevations, and walls, can be indicated and easily altered.

Corral

Theatre building of the Spanish golden age, usually located in the courtyard of a series of adjoining buildings.

Deus ex machina

Literally, “god from a machine,” a resolution device in classic Greek drama; in modern drama, an arbitrary and coincidental solution.

Director

In American usage, the person responsible for the overall unity of a production and for coordinating the work of contributing artists.

Directorial concept

The controlling idea, vision, or point of view that the director feels is appropriate for the play to create a unified theatrical experience.

Distressing

Making a costume look weathered or worn.

Documentary drama

Term encompassing different types of drama that presented material in the fashion of journalism or reporting, supposedly based on factual occurrences.

Dramaturg

On the staff of a theatre, a person who consults with and advises authors and directors, writes program notes, and edits scripts.

Emotional recall

Stanislavski’s exercise that helps the performer present realistic emotions by thinking of the conditions surrounding an event in his or her own life.

Environmental theatre

A type of theatre, made popular in the 1960s, that attempts to eliminate the distinction between audience and acting space and emphasizes a multiple focus.

Executive producer

An expert in commercial Broadway theatre who helps the lead producer with budgeting, marketing, locating theatre space, and providing advice.

Expressionism

The attempt in drama to depict the subjective state of a character or group of characters through nonrealistic techniques such as distortion and striking images.

Fourth wall

Convention, in a proscenium-arch theatre, that the audience is looking into a room through an invisible fourth wall.

Ground plan

A floor plan of the stage indicating the placement of scenery, furniture, doors and windows, and various levels of the stage.

Hamartia

Ancient Greek term usually translated as “tragic flaw,” literally meaning “missing the mark,” suggesting an error in judgment.

Heightened realism

Also known as selective realism, refers to plays in which characters and actions resemble real life but license is allowed for other elements.

Hubris

Ancient Greek term usually defined as “excessive pride” and cited as a common tragic character flaw.

Immersive theatre

Theatre where the audience plays an active role, moving through performance space and engaging in a complete sensory experience.

Magic if

Stanislavski’s acting exercise that requires the performer to ask, “How would I react if I were in this character’s position?”

Mediated arts

Performances captured or recorded through the use of other media, including radio, film, television, and digital streaming.

Melodrama

Nineteenth-century dramatic form emphasizing action, spectacular effects, and music, featuring stock characters with clear villains and heroes.

Performance art

Experimental theatre incorporating elements of dance and visual arts, often based on the vision of an individual performer or director.

Postmodernism

A contemporary concept suggesting artists and audiences have gone beyond modernist movements of realism, departures from realism, and high/popular art categories.

Proscenium

Arch or frame surrounding the stage opening in a box or picture stage.

Rake

(1) To position scenery on a slant or angle relative to the curtain line. (2) An upward slope of the stage floor away from the audience.

Romanticism

Nineteenth-century dramatic movement imitating Shakespeare's episodic structure, focused on the gulf between spiritual aspirations and physical limitations.

Scrim

Thin, open-weave fabric that is transparent when lit from behind and opaque when lit from the front.

Site-specific theatre

Theatre presented in a nontraditional setting so that the chosen environment helps illuminate the text.

Spine

Also known as main action, determined by the goal or primary objective of all characters in a play, both collectively and individually.

Technical director

Staff member responsible for scheduling, construction, and installation of equipment, ensuring designs match specifications.

Thrust stage

Stage space that thrusts into the audience space, surrounded on three sides by audience seating.

Tragicomedy

Historically a Renaissance play with tragic themes and noble characters but a happy ending; today, a play integrating serious and comic elements.

Well-made plays

Nineteenth and early twentieth-century play type combining surface realism with a tightly constructed, highly causal, and contrived plot.