Drama Terms

Question 1

Act

Answer 1

A major division in a play. An act can be subdivided into scenes. (See scene). Greek plays were not divided into acts. The five-act structure was originally introduced in Roman times and became the convention in Shakespeare’s period. In the 19th century, this was reduced to four acts and 20th-century drama tends to favor three acts

Question 2

Antagonist

Answer 2

A character or force against which another character struggles

Question 3

Apron

Answer 3

The part of a proscenium (the part of a theater stage in front of the curtain) stage that sticks out into the audience in front of the proscenium arch

Question 4

Aside

Answer 4

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not “heard” by the other characters on stage during a play

Question 5

Blocking

Answer 5

Movement patterns of actors on the stage. Planned by the director to create meaningful stage pictures

Question 6

Box set

Answer 6

A set built behind a proscenium arch to represent three walls of a room. The absent fourth wall on the proscenium line allows spectators to witness the domestic scene. First used in the early nineteenth century

Question 7

Catharsis

Answer 7

The purging of the feelings of pity and fear. According to Aristotle, the audience should experience catharsis at the end of a tragedy

Question 8

Character

Answer 8

An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Dramatic characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change)

Question 9

Chorus

Answer 9

A traditional chorus in Greek tragedy is a group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participating in it. A modern chorus (any time after the Greek period) serves a similar function but has taken a different form; it consists of a character/narrator coming on stage and giving a prologue or explicit background information or themes

Question 10

Climax

Answer 10

The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work

Question 11

Comedy

Answer 11

A dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. (http://dictionary.reference.com). Comedy can be divided into visual comedy or verbal comedy. Within these 2 divisions, there are further sub-divisions. For example, visual comedy includes farce and slapstick. Verbal Comedy includes satire, black comedy, and comedy of manners

Question 12

Comic Relief

Answer 12

Comic relief does not relate to the genre of comedy. Comic relief serves a specific purpose: it gives the spectator a moment of “relief ” with a light-hearted scene, after a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments. Typically these scenes parallel the tragic action that they interrupt. Comic relief is lacking in Greek tragedy, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Question 13

Conflict

Answer 13

There is no drama without conflict. The conflict between opposing forces in a play can be external (between characters) or internal (within a character) and is usually resolved by the end of the play

Question 14

Complication

Answer 14

An intensification of the conflict in a play

Question 15

Convention

Answer 15

Literary conventions are defining features or common agreement upon strategies and/or attributes of a particular literary genre

Question 16

Denouement / Resolution

Answer 16

Literally the action of untying. A denouement (or resolution) is the final outcome of the main complication in a play. Usually, the denouement occurs AFTER the climax (the turning point or “crisis”). It is sometimes referred to as the explanation or outcome of a drama that reveals all the secrets and misunderstandings connected to the plot. (See Appendix 1: Freytag’s Pyramid)

Question 17

Deus Ex Machina

Answer 17

When an external source resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention. The Latin phrase means, literally, “a god from the machine.” The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play

Question 18

Dialogue

Answer 18

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In plays, characters’ speech is preceded by their names

Question 19

Diction

Answer 19

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, diction is “the manner in which words are pronounced.” Diction, however, is more than that: it is a style of speaking. In drama diction can (1) reveal character, (2) imply attitudes, (3) convey action, (4) identify themes, and (5) suggest values. We can speak of the diction particular to a character

Question 20

Dramatic Irony

Answer 20

A device in which a character holds a position or has an expectation reversed or fulfilled in a way that the character did not expect but that the audience or readers have anticipated because their knowledge of events or individuals is more complete than the characters

Question 21

Dynamic Character

Answer 21

Undergoes an important change in the course of the play- not changes in circumstances, but changes in some sense within the character in question – changes in insight or understanding or changes in commitment, or values. The opposite is a static character who remains essentially the same

Question 22

Exodos

Answer 22

The final scene and exit of the characters and chorus in a classical Greek play

Question 23

Exposition

Answer 23

“The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided” (highered.mcgraw-hill.com). (See Appendix 1: Freytag’s Pyramid). In most drama, the characters have to expose the background to the action indirectly while talking in the most natural way. What any person says must be consistent with his character and what he knows generally. Exposition frequently employs devices such as gestures, glances, “asides” etc. (See Prologue for explicit exposition)

Question 24

Falling Action

Answer 24

This is when the events and complications begin to resolve themselves and tension is released. We learn whether the conflict has or been resolved or not

Question 25

Flashback

Answer 25

An interruption of a play's chronology (timeline) to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of the play's action

Question 26

Flat Characters

Answer 26

lat characters in a play are often, but not always, relatively simple minor characters. They tend to be presented through particular and limited traits; hence they become stereotypes. For example, the selfish son, the pure woman, the lazy child, the dumb blonde, etc. These characters do not change in the course of a play

Question 27

Foil

Answer 27

A secondary character whose situation often parallels that of the main character while his behavior or response or character contrasts with that of the main character, throwing light on that particular character’s specific temperament

Question 28

Foreshadowing

Answer 28

Anton Chekhov best explained the term in a letter in 1889: "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." Chekhov's gun, or foreshadowing, is a literary technique that introduces an apparently irrelevant element introduced early in the story; its significance becomes clear later in the play

Question 29

Fourth Wall

Answer 29

The imaginary wall that separates the spectator/audience from the action taking place on stage. In a traditional theatre setting (as opposed to a theatre in the round) this imaginary wall has been removed so that the spectator can “peep” into the fictional world and see what is going on. If the audience is addressed directly, this is referred to as “breaking the fourth wall.”

Question 30

Gesture

Answer 30

The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character and may include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body

Question 31

Hubris

Answer 31

The Greek term hubris is difficult to translate directly into English. This negative term implies both arrogance, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities. This overwhelming pride inevitably leads to a downfall

Question 32

In medias res

Answer 32

"In the midst of things" (Latin); refers to opening a plot in the middle of the action, and then filling in past details by means of exposition or flashback

Question 33

Inciting Incident

Answer 33

The first incident leading to the rising action of the play. Sometimes the inciting incident is an event that occurred somewhere in the character’s past and is revealed to the audience through exposition

Question 34

Irony

Answer 34

In general, a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving some sort of discrepancy or incongruity between what is expected or understood and what actually happens or is meant. Irony is used to suggest the difference between appearance and reality, between expectation and fulfillment, and thus, the complexity of experience

Question 35

Verbal irony

Answer 35

the opposite is said from what is intended. It should not be confused with sarcasm which is simply language designed to wound or offend. Verbal irony, also called rhetorical irony, is sometimes viewed as a figure of speech since it is a rhetorical device that involves saying one thing but meaning the opposite. Verbal irony is the most common kind of irony and is characterized by a discrepancy between what a speaker (or writer) says and what he or she believes to be true. More specifically, a speaker or writer using verbal irony will say the opposite of what he or she actually means

Question 36

Dramatic irony

Answer 36

the contrast between what a character believes and/or says and what the audience knows to be true. Dramatic irony (sometimes referred to as tragic irony when it occurs in a tragedy) may be used to refer to a situation in which the character’s own words come back to haunt him or her. However, it usually involves a discrepancy between a character’s perception and what the audience (or reader) knows to be true. The reader possesses some material information that the character lacks, and it is the character’s imperfect information that motivates or explains his or her discordant response

Question 37

Irony of situation

Answer 37

discrepancy between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate. This includes both dramatic & cosmic irony

Question 38

Dramatic irony

Answer 38

(sometimes referred to as tragic irony when this occurs in a tragedy) may be used to refer to a situation in which the character’s own words come back to haunt him or her. However, it usually involves a discrepancy between a character’s perception and what the audience (or reader) knows to be true. The reader possesses some material information that the character lacks, and it is the character’s imperfect information that motivates or explains his or her discordant response

Question 39

Cosmic irony, Irony of fate

Answer 39

characterized by four elements. First, it involves a powerful deity (or fate itself) with the ability and desire to manipulate events in a character’s life. Second, the character subject to this irony believes in free will. Thus, whether or not the character acknowledges the deity’s existence, he or she persists in attempting to control, or at least affect, events. Third, the deity “toys” with the character in such a way that the outcome is clear to the d observer, but the character hopes for escape. The deity may permit—or even encourage—the character to believe in self-determination, thereby raising false hopes that the audience knows will be crushed. Fourth, cosmic irony always involves a tragic outcome. Ultimately, the character’s struggle against destiny will be in vain

Question 40

Linear Plot

Answer 40

A traditional plot sequence in which the incidents in the drama progress chronologically; in other words, all of the events build upon one another and there are no flashbacks. Linear plots are usually based on causality (that is, one event "causes" another to happen) and occur more commonly in comedy than in other forms

Question 41

Monologue

Answer 41

A speech by a single character without another character's response. The character however, is speaking to someone else or even a group of people

Question 42

Motivation

Answer 42

The thought(s) or desire(s) that drives a character to actively pursue a want or need. This want or need is called the objective . A character generally has an overall objective or long term goal in a drama but may change his or her objective, and hence motivation, from scene to scene when confronted with various obstacles

Question 43

Plot

Answer 43

The sequence of events that make up a story. According to Aristotle, “The plot must be ‘a whole’ with a beginning, middle, and end” (Poetics, Part VII). A plot needs a motivating purpose to drive the story to its resolution, and a connection between these events

Question 44

Point of attack

Answer 44

The point in the story at which the playwright chooses to start dramatizing the action; the first thing the audience will see or hear as the play begins

Question 45

Proscenium Arch

Answer 45

An architectural element separating the performance area from the auditorium in a theatre. The arch functions to mask stage machinery and helps create a “frame” for the stage action. First used in Europe during the Renaissance, the arch developed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries into the “picture frame” stage of the late 19th century

Question 46

Prologue

Answer 46

In original Greek tragedy, the prologue is either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry of the chorus. Here, a single actor's monologue or a dialogue between two actors would establish the play's background events. (2) In later literature, the prologue serves as explicit exposition introducing material before the first scene begins

Question 47

Props: [Property]

Answer 47

Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. Props can also take on a significant or even symbolic meaning

Question 48

Protagonist

Answer 48

The main character of a literary work

Question 49

Repertory

Answer 49

A system of producing plays in which a company of actors is assembled to stage a number of plays during a specific period of time. The repertory company included actors, each of whom played roles in several plays throughout a theatrical season and who often specialized in a specific type of role

Question 50

Resolution

Answer 50

The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story

Question 51

Reversal or Peripeteia

Answer 51

The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist- from failure to success or success to failure

Question 52

Rising Action

Answer 52

An event, conflict or crisis or set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's plot leading up to the climax

Question 53

Round Characters

Answer 53

A round character is depicted with such psychological depth and detail that he or she seems like a "real" person. The round character contrasts with the flat character who serves a specific or minor literary function in a text, and who may be a stock character or simplified stereotype. If the round character changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change, the character is also dynamic. In longer plays, there may be several round characters

Question 54

Satire

Answer 54

A literary work that criticizes human misconduct and ridicules vices, stupidities, and follies

Question 55

Scene

Answer 55

A traditional segment in a play. Scenes are used to indicate (1) a change in time (2) a change in location, (3) provides a jump from one subplot to another, (4) introduces new characters (5) rearranges the actors on the stage. Traditionally plays are composed of acts, broken down into scenes

Question 56

Scenery

Answer 56

The physical representation of the play's setting (location and time period). It also emphasizes the aesthetic concept or atmosphere of the play

Question 57

Strophe (& Antistrophe)

Answer 57

A portion of a choral ode in Greek tragedy followed by a metrically similar portion, the antistrophe. The words mean “turn” and “counter-turn,” suggesting contrasting movements of the chorus while the ode was being sung. These two parts are sometimes followed by an epode, during which the chorus may have remained stationary

Question 58

Soliloquy

Answer 58

A speech meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage (as opposed to a monologue which addresses someone who does not respond). In a soliloquy only the audience can hear the private thoughts of the characters

Question 59

Stage Direction

Answer 59

A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (as well as actors and directors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Modern playwrights tend to include substantial stage directions, while earlier playwrights typically use them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all

Question 60

Staging

Answer 60

The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects

Question 61

Static Character

Answer 61

A dramatic character who does not change

Question 62

Suspension of Disbelief

Answer 62

Samuel Taylor Coleridge first used the term in 1817. In its most basic form the term means that we accept something as real or representing the real when it obviously is not. In drama this is a crucial condition, as we must put aside our disbelief and accept the premise presented as real for the duration of the performance

Question 63

Stock Character

Answer 63

A recognizable character type found in many plays. Comedies have traditionally relied on such stock characters as the miserly father, the beautiful but naïve girl, the trickster servant

Question 64

Subplot

Answer 64

A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot that coexists with the main plot

Question 65

Theatre of the Absurd

Answer 65

A type of drama and performance that conveys a sense of life as devoid of meaning and purpose. The term was coined by the critic Martin Esslin, who described and analyzed a group of mid-twentieth-century play in his book, The Theatre of the Absurd, including the work of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco

Question 66

Theme

Answer 66

A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work. The theme can take the form of a brief insight or a comprehensive vision of life; it is not a message or a moral. A theme must be expressible in the form of a statement - not "motherhood", but "Motherhood sometimes has more frustration than reward", and as such is the author's way of communicating and sharing ideas, perceptions, and feelings with readers. A theme must be stated as a generalization about life; names of characters or specific situations in the plot are not part of the theme. It must account for all the major details of the play and be reflected in its core aspects of character, setting and plot. The theme reflects the author’s perspective of what it means to be human in the circumstances of the play, unifying and controlling it. There is no one “correct” way of expressing the theme of a play

Question 67

Tragedy

Answer 67

A type of drama in which the characters experience reversal of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, suffering awaits many of the characters, especially the hero

Question 68

Tragic flaw

Answer 68

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero

Question 69

Tragic hero

Answer 69

A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and/or fate, suffers a fall from a higher station in life into suffering

Question 70

Unity of time, place, and action ("the unities")

Answer 70

Limiting the time, place, and action of a play to a single spot and a single action over the period of 24 hours