Drama | The art of composing, writing, acting or producing plays; a literary composition intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions exhibited through action and dialog, designed for theatrical performance |
Theater | The imitation/representation or life, performed for other people; the performance of dramatic literature; the milieu of actors and playwrights; the place that is the setting for dramatic performances |
Theater literacy | The ability to create, perform, perceive, analyze, critique, and understand dramatic performance |
Act | A section of a play. |
Scene | A small section of a play. Acts are usually divided into scenes |
Action | The core of a theater piece; the sense of forward movement created by the sense of time and/or the physical and psychological motivations of characters |
Dialog | Speech between two or more characters on stage |
Monologue | A long speech delivered by a character during a dialog |
Soliloquy | A stage conversation in which a character is not speaking to anyone but is thinking out loud and thus speaking the truth as far as he or she understands it |
Aside | Speech which only the audience can hear (a character’s thoughts out loud” and which the other characters on stage cannot hear |
Prose | Everyday speech, without specific rules of rhyme or rhythm |
Rhymed verse | Usually end rhyme, with a pattern of aa, bb |
Blank verse | Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter lines |
Iambic pentameter | Made of lines of poetry that have 5 sets of 2 syllables (10 syllables per line) with 2nd syllable of each “set” being the one that is stressed |
Pun | A play on words. Usually funny use of words that has more than one meaning |
Rhyming couplet | Two rhyming lines or verse next to each other; often SIGNALS THE END OF A SCENE |
Motif | The repetition of an idea or theme in a work of literature |
Medias Res | Actions on the stage begin “in the middle” |
Dramatic question | The central question that liners on the audience’s mind at the end of each scene. Based on the past events that have unfolded on stage, the audience is wondering how these events will affect the future of the play |
Tragedy | A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In —-, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero |
Tragic hero | A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering |
Tragic flaw | A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero (proof that no human is perfect) |
Free will | A character’s own action, the opposite of fate |
Hubris | The flaw of incredible arrogance, or an overwhelming egotism that blinds the hero to reality |
Dramatic irony | A time in the play when the audience possesses knowledge that the character does not |
Catharsis | A release of emotions that the audience experiences during a tragedy |
Pathos | A quality of a play’s action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well |
Rhetoric | The art of persuasive or emotive speaking1) Logos: an appeal to logic2) Pathos: An appeal to emotions3) Ethos: an appeal to trust the words, based on the speaker’s authority or qualifications |
Fate vs. free will (theme) | When the hero blames —- for their downfall, however —- is a vital aspect of a tragedy |
Tension | The atmosphere created by unresolved, disquieting, or inharmonious situations that human beings feel compelled to address |
Motivation | The reason why the character speaks and acts like he/she does |
Stage direction | A playwright’s descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialog, setting, and action of a play. |
Artistic choices | Selections by theater artists about situation, action, direction, and design in order to convey meaning |
Gesture | 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. |
Stage business | Incidental activity performed by an actor for dramatic effect |
Dramatic reading | A “performance” of a play in which the actors are script-in-hand. |
Improvisation | The spontaneous use of movement and speech to create a character or object in a particular situation |
Blackout | A common stage direction at the end of a scene or an act |
Center (stage) | The center of the performance space, used for placement of the actors and the set |
Downstage | The part of the stage closest to the audience |
Unified production concept | A brief statement, metaphor, or expression of the essential meaning of a play that orders and patterns all the play’s parts |
Othello Dramatic Terms
August 21, 2019