Drama Terms

1. Drama- Literature written to be performed.

2. Playwright -Author of a play.

3. Script- Text of the play which includes dialogue and stage directions.

4. Act- A division or unit of a drama.

5. Scene- A subdivision of an act. A scene changes when the location or time of the action shifts.

6. Dialogue- The lines spoken by the characters (2 or more).

7. Monologue- Extended speech by one character with others on stage.

8. Soliloquy- A speech in which a character, alone on stage, addresses himself or herself; it is a dramatic means of letting the audience know the character's thoughts and feelings.

9. Aside- brief comments by an actor who addresses the audience but is assumed not to be heard by the other characters on the stage.

10. Stage Directions- Words in a script --generally italicized--that define an actor's (apart from his/her dialogue) actions, movements, attitudes and so forth throughout the play.

11. Allusion- An indirect reference by casually mentioning something that is generally familiter (In literature we find many allusions to mythology, the Bible, history, etc.).

12. Comic Relief- A bit of humor injected into a serious play to relieve the heavy tension of tragic events.

13. Dramatic Irony- When the audience or another character knows something that, usually, the main character needs to know, but does not.

14. Foils- contrasting characters.

15. Theme- universal idea in a literacy work.

16. Motif- a repeated pattern—an image, sound, word, or symbol that comes back again and again within a particular story, that supports the theme. 

17. Foreshadowing- Lines that give a hint or clue to future events.

18. Props- Short for "properties,"-- the pictures, furnishings, historical nuances, and so on, that provide the stage's background.

19. Set- Constructions that show where the drama takes place. Set could include painted backdrops, wooden frames, or city sidewalks.

20. Meter- pattern of rhythmic accents in verse form.

    1. Monometer- 1 foot line

    2. Diameter- 2 foot line

    3. Trimeter- 3 foot line

    4. Tetrameter- 4 foot line

    5. Pentameter- 5 foot line

    6. Hexameter- 6 foot line

    7. Heptameter- 7 foot line

    8. Octometer- 8 foot line

21. Foot- A metrical unit composed of stressed and unstressed syllables.

    1. Iamb- two syllable foot pattern of unstressed, stressed

    2. Trochee- two syllable foot pattern of stressed, unstressed 

    3. Anapest- three syllable foot pattern of unstressed, unstressed, stressed

    4. Dactyl- three syllable foot pattern of stressed, unstressed, unstressed

22. Rhymed Verse- verse with end rhyme and usually with a regular meter. 

    1. Rhyme Scheme- the pattern or sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first sound is represented or designated as “a”, the second as “b”, and so on. When the first sound is repeated, it is designated again as “a”. 

       1. Couplet- 2 lines of verse that rhyme “a”- “a”.

       2. Triplet or Tercet- 3 line stanza or three lines of verse within a larger unit that usually rhymes “a”- “a”- “a”

       3. Quatrain- 4 rhymed lines that take various forms (a-a-a-a, a-b-a-b, a-b-b-a, a-b-c-a). This is the most common stanza form in English verse.

23. Blank Verse- lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Free Verse- lines of verse that do not have a regular meter and do not contain rhyme.’