Drama Technical Terms Flashcards
Plot
The storyline of a play
Playwright
The person who creates a play as text, the author (note ‘wright’ here means ‘craft’ not ‘write’)
Act
Major subdivision of a play
Scene
Minor subdivisions of a play
Stage directions
Playwright’s instructions to actors and director
Characters, actors
Main people in a play, speaking and non-speaking parts
Aside
Words spoken by a character secretly, usually to the audiences
Monologue
Usually a long speech, not necessarily alone
Soliloquy
A speech given alone on the stage by a character
Stage
Performance area
Proscenium arch
With a traditional border to the stage (like the stage in the school’s Main Hall)
Thrust or Semi-Round
A stage often on a platform built out into the auditorium
In-the-Round
A stage in which seating is around the performance area (often just open flooring with banks of seating around)
Up-stage
At the back of a stage
Down-stage, front-of-stage
At the front of a stage
Cross-stage
From side to side of a stage
Mis-en-scène
What the audience sees on the stage at any one time, as if you were stage a snap-shot
Wings
The areas to the side of the stage where actors wait to come on
Backcloth
The cloth at the back of the stage, often with scenery painted on it
Curtains
Which shield the stage from view
Spotlight
Strong light that ‘spots’ a character or space
Limelight
The old type of lights at the front of the stage; to be in the limelight is therefore to be noticed, out in front
Coloured gels
Coloured shield for lights to create effects
Houselights
The light for the auditorium
Costume
Clothes for the actors to wear on stage
Props
Any moveable item (other than costume) on the stage
Auditorium
Where the audience sits
House
The theatre, usually more specifically all the patrons i.e. the audience
Front-of-house
The area (the lobby) before the audience enters the auditorium
