THEATRE TERMS

Question 1

9 Stage Positions/Area

Answer 1

The areas upstage right, upstage center, upstage left, center right, center stage, center left, downstairs right, downstage center, downstage left

Question 2

ACT

Answer 2

A Major division of a play

Question 3

act

Answer 3

To portray a character on stage

Question 4

Ad-lib

Answer 4

To invent additional dialogue not found in the script

Question 5

Antagonist

Answer 5

The character or force opposing the main character in a play

Question 6

Apron of the stage

Answer 6

On the proscenium stage area in front of the main curtain and audience

Question 7

Beat

Answer 7

A pause

Question 8

Blackout

Answer 8

Light cue — All lights out

Question 9

Blocking

Answer 9

When and where you move on stage

Question 10

Business(stage)

Answer 10

Activities an actor employs to expand and clarify your character

Question 11

Call back

Answer 11

Second art of the audition process where actor returns to continue

Question 12

Catharsis

Answer 12

The main character’s purging of emotions

Question 13

Character

Answer 13

The part or role in a play

Question 14

Cheat out

Answer 14

Turning the body toward the audience while conversing

Question 15

Cold reading

Answer 15

Presenting written material (such as a monologue), that you have never seen for an audition

Question 16

Convention,Theatrical

Answer 16

The style of a production sometimes contrived by the playwright/director

Question 17

Counter weight system

Answer 17

Rigging system used to move scenery, lights, stage equipment; cables and batten

Question 18

catwalk

Answer 18

Narrow walkway above the stage/audience to work lights and scenery

Question 19

crossover

Answer 19

the upstage space behind the acting area that allows preformers to move from one side of thr stage to the other without being seen by the audience

Question 20

cue

Answer 20

Dialogue, movement, or stage business signaling a performer or techie to perform the next action.

Question 21

Cross

Answer 21

An actor’s movement from one point to another, denoted with an X in the script

Question 22

Cyc or cyclorama

Answer 22

A large thin drape, usually white, hanging from banters on an upstage plane

Question 23

Dimmer

Answer 23

Device that controls intensity of lights in the circuit

Question 24

Denouement

Answer 24

Clarification of plot/resolution

Question 25

Deus ex machina

Answer 25

Literally “God of the Machine”, the tidy ending or tidy-up loose ends in a story; save the day; device

Question 26

Dionysus

Answer 26

The Greek God of wine and fertility

Question 27

Dramaturgy

Answer 27

The sociological research perspective of the play

Question 28

Emotional recall

Answer 28

Bringing back to memory of an event of the past to trigger certain emotions to use on the stage

Question 29

Ellipsodial

Answer 29

Lamp used in spotlights and floodlights, has a cuved surface like an ellipse

Question 30

Exposition

Answer 30

The who, what, when, and where information at the beginning of the play

Question 31

Farce

Answer 31

Type of play with exaggerated actions and ridiculous humorous situations

Question 32

Floor plan

Answer 32

A scale drawing of the set

Question 33

Focus

Answer 33

Concentration directed into attention

Question 34

Fourth Wall

Answer 34

The imaginary wall between actors and the audience

Question 35

Fresnel

Answer 35

lamp casts short short edged