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| Physical or psychological separation or detachment of audience from dramatic action, usually considered necessary for artistic illusion. |
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| A director who believes that his or her role is to be the author of a production. An auteur director's point of view dominates that of the playwright, and the director may make textual changes and modifications. |
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| Criticism that attempts to describe as clearly and accurately as possible what is happening in a performance. |
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| Criticism that offers advice and sometimes suggests rules for what should be done in theater. |
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| Stage entirely surrounded by the audience; also known as theater-in-the-round.[image] |
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| Theater of the Spanish golden age, usually located in the courtyard of a series of adjoining buildings. |
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| Space not originally intended for theater use which is converted for productions. Avant-Garde artists often produce in found spaces. |
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| Space above the stage where scenery may be lifted out of sight by means of ropes and pulleys. |
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| Pretense that in a proscenium-arch theater the audience is looking into a room through an invisible fourth wall. |
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| Theater in which something is going on simultaneously in several playing areas. |
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| Theater in which something is going on simultaneously in several playing areas. |
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| Use of electronic media--such as slides, film, and videotape-- in live theatrical presentation. |
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| Ground-floor seating in an audience; also , a circular playing space in ancient Greek theaters. |
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| Elevated stage with no proscenium |
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Arch or frame surrounding the stage in a box or picture stage.
http://www.historylink.org/db_images/foxstage.jpg |
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| An upward slope of the stage floor away from the audience; also to position scenery on a slant or at an angle other than parallel or perpendicular to the curtain line. |
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| Operation of a show; also, the length of time a production is performed. |
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| Theater space in which the audience sits on three sides of the stage.[image] |
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| Low platform mounted on wheels or casters by means of which scenery is moved on and offstage. |
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| Stanislavsky's exercise which helps the performer present realistic emotions. The performer feels a character's emotion by thinking of an event in his or her own life which led to similar emotions. |
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| Acting that stresses the total artistic unity of a group performance rather than individual performances. |
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| Stanislavski's acting exercise which requires the performer to ask, "How would I react if I were in this character's position. |
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| Broadly, an attempt to present onstage people and events corresponding to those in everyday life. |
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| Bourgeois or domestic drama |
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| Drama dealing with problems--particularly family problem--of middle- and lower- class characters. There are serious and comic domestic dramas. |
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| Satire of a serious form of literature. |
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| In General, a play that is light in tone, in concerned with with issues that are not serious, has a happy ending, and is designed to amuse. |
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| Form of comic drama that became popular in seventeenth- century France and the English Restoration, emphasizing a cultivated or sophisticated atmosphere and witty dialogue. |
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| Idea or concept in a comedy that turns the accepted notion of things upside down. |
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| Dramatic genre usually regarded as a subclass of comedy, with emphasis on plot complications and with few or no intellectual pretensions. |
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| Category or type of play. |
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| Serious but basically optimistic drama, written in verse or elevated prose, with noble or heroic characters in extreme situations or unusual adventures. |
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| Dramatic form made popular in the nineteenth century that emphasized action and spectacular effects and also used music; it has stock characters and clearly defined villains and heroes. |
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| Dramatic form using techniques of comedy--such as wit, irony, and exaggeration--to attack and expose folly and vice. |
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| Type of comedy or comic business which relies on ridiculous physical activity--often violent in nature--for its humor. |
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| Plays expressing the dramatist's sense of the absurdity and futility of existence. |
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| Dramatic form involving serious actions of universal significance and with important moral and philosophical implications, usually with an unhappy ending. |
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| During the Renaissance, a play having tragic themes and noble characters but a happy ending; today, a play in which serious and comic elements are integrated. |
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| Generic term for a new type of lighting instrument that can tilt, pan, rotate, change colors, and change focus--all electronically by computerized remote control. |
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| Lighting that comes from behind. |
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| Pipe or long pole suspended horizontally above the stage, upon which scenery, drapery, or lights may be hung. |
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| Total darkening of the stage. |
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| How lighted areas are arranged onstage relative to each other. |
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| Any prearranged signal, such as the last words in a speech, a piece of business, or any action or lighting change, that indicated to a performed or stage manager that it is time to proceed to the next line of action, |
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| Device for changing lighting intensity smoothly and at varying rates. |
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| Lighting that comes from directly. |
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| Noises from every day life that provide background sound in a production. |
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| Slow dimming of lights, slanging from brighter to darker, or vice versa. |
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| Aiming light on a particular area of the stage. |
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| Large, powerful spotlight with a sharp focus and narrow beam that is used to follow principal performers as they move about the stage. |
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| Type of spotlight used over relatively short distances with a soft beam edge that allows the light to blend easily with light from other sources; also, the type of lenses used in such spotlights. |
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| Template in a theater lighting instrument that determines the shape and arrangement of the beam or pool of light thrown by the instrument. For example, a pattern created by a gobo or template could result in stripes, leaves on trees, the outline of a windowpane, or the like. |
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| Detailed outline or diagram showing where each lighting instrument is placed in relationship to the stage. |
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| Sounds called for in the script that usually come from recognizable sources. |
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| Term used in theater lighting when a beam of light from a lighting instrument moves horizontally, from side to side. |
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| Amplification of sounds in theater. |
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| The use of motivated or environmental sounds. |
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| Term in theater lighting used when a beam of light from an instrument moves vertically, up and down. |
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| Spoken (as opposed to sung) portion of the text of a musical play. |
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| Branch of avant-garde theater stressing the environment in which a performance takes place. |
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| Term applies to plays illustrating a philosophy whose modern advocate was Jean-Paul Sartre and which holds that there are no longer any fixed standards or values. |
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| Nonliterary or unscripted theatrical event using a scenario that allows for chance occurrences. |
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| Broad category which includes opera, operetta, musical comedy, and other musical plays. (sometimes called lyric theater). |
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| Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his theater, which was stripped to the bare essentials. |
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