Theatre vocab

Planning

Initial exploration of the script

Reading, annotating, dramaturgy

Initial concepts, aim, creative and theatrical possibilities

Development

Rehearsing, trialling, experimenting

Refining initial concepts

Includes reflection and evaluation

Determining achievability, viability, suitability, sustainability

Presentation

Final stages of creative concept

Performance to a live audience

Refined through technical and dress rehearsals, during performance, and post-performance evaluation and feedback

Expressive skills

Voice - eg. diction, pitch, etc.

Movement - posture, stance

Gesture - using body/body parts, usually hands, to create symbols and meaning

Facial expression

Performance skills

Focus

Timing

Energy

Actor-audience relationship

Focus

Ability of actor to commit to performance

Ability to sustain character through concentration

Can be used to create implied character/setting through manipulating audience’s attention towards a specific place

Timing

Control + regulate pace of performance

Can be manipulated to build dramatic tension, evoke, feeling, coordinate effective synchronisation within an ensemble, and develop comic potential of a scene

Energy

Intensity actor brings to performance

Used to create dynamics throughout performance

Actor-audience relationship

Way actor deliberately manipulates audience’s emotions, moods, and responses to the action

Through placement of performer in relation to audience, way they address and engage with them, and the emotional and intellectual response to the character’s situation

Elements of theatre composition

Cohesion, motion, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, variation

Cohesion

Unity and balance of various aspects

Motion

Movement or implied movement of actors and design features

Includes position, pattern, arrangement, proportion, spatial flow

Rhythm

pace, timing, and tempo

Emphasis

Aspects of interpretation are given particular focus, importance or prominence

Contrast

Juxtaposition of seemingly different or opposing aspects or qualities

Variation

Changes to dynamics, as may be evident in the use of tension, conflict, intensity, energy, and use of space