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part of the stage closest to audience in front of proscenium. extends past proscenium. Elizabethan theater has no proscenium so the entire stage is basicallt an apron stage.
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| audience sits on all sides of the stage |
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| emotional cleansing initiated by tragic experience; for the character it is the recognition and acceptance of his or her error; for the audience it is the sum total of the pity and fear created by the play. |
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| action performed formally and meant to sanction a religious, social, or political contept. Lacks the deeper significance of a ritual. Ex) graduation or swearing in |
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| arrangement and movement of performers onstage. orchestrated movement of actors, dancers, stage combat |
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| spoken by a group; describes offstage action |
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| group (usually 12-15) of singer-dancers in greek drama. participate in or comment on the action of the play. In elizabethan theater, the chorus was one person who spoke prologue, epilogue, and commented on action |
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| spring festivals held in honor of Dionysus in reek city-states; tragic and comic plays were presented there |
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| primary dramatic genre that ends happily and treats subject matter lightly |
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| one of Aristotle's six elements of drama; language of the play and the manner in which it is spoken; also refers to clarity with which actors speak |
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| greek for "the natural order of things" |
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| communal celebrations in ancient Greece held in honor of the god Dionysus; central to event was a three day theatrical competition |
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| Greek god of wine and-by extension-creativity, passion, and irrational behavior |
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| hymns sung in honor of Dionysis in ancient greece; according to Aristotle, these hymns gradually developed into plays |
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| composition in verse or prose that portrays the actions of characters in conflict; the literary form of a play; a series of events involving intense conflict |
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greek for "to act" or "to do"
"drama" derives from this term |
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advance storyline
equivalent of an act in a greek play |
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| lyric poem sung by greek chorus in tragedy; one of three parts of stasimon |
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| formal song of exit for greek chorus; sums up meaning of the play. Ex) last choric speech in Oedipus |
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| comic genre depends on an elaboritely contrived, usually improbably plot, broadly drawn stock characters, and physical humor. exist to entertain. amoral. |
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| hint at events or actions to come. creates suspense. |
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category of play characterized by form, style, and content
ex) tragedy, comedy, melodrama, farce |
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| greek. means "missing the mark". refers to the tragic flaw or error in judgment that leads to downfall of tragic hero |
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| tragic flaw. usually ascribed to excessive pride or arrogance. Ex) Oedipus thought he could escape fate, Creon thought he could go against the gods, prometheus stole fire from the gods |
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| originl greek term for "actor" meant "answerer" |
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| representing another person through voice and gesture. one of the founding principles of theatrical arts. |
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| unexpected reversal of fortune in a drama in which characters expect exact opposite of what occurs. 2. dramatic irony is when a character is deprived of knowledge that other characters and the audience share |
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| comedy that usually relies on physical humor or cruel wordplay. less sophisticated |
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| dramatic genre that purposefully blurs the distinction between a play-as-a-work-of-art and life itself to establish a link between the artificial world of the stage and the real world of the audience |
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| greek for imitation through physical and vocal means |
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| song sung by chorus in greek play; usually between episodes of the plot. comment on action. strophes,antistrophes,epodes |
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| the large circle in a greek thetaer in which the chorus sang, danced, and stood during a play. located between audience and logeion. |
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| aristotles term for reversal, when the fortunes of a protagonist dramatically change. |
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technique used by sceneic designers of representing on a flat surface the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye.
Sebastiano Sterlio. Bright painted scenery for comedy, dark toned scenery for tragedy. |
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| seating (or standing) area immediately in front of the stage in restoration and 18th c theaters |
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| literary genre in which a story (plot) is presented by actors imitating characters before an audience. |
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| brief play inserted into the agtion of a larger play, often to comment on or illuminate the other play. EX) NOTHING ON in Noises off. Mousetrap play in Hamlet |
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| first of aristotles six elements. structure of a play's storyline |
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| moral doctrine that requires that the good be rewarded and the bad be punished. influential on the resolution of melodramas and sentimental comedies |
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| aristotles treatise on dramatic theory and stage practice; defines and discusses tragedy |
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| action of a story, arrangement of events of the story calculated to bring about a desired respinse from the audience |
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| opening action of a greek play. usually a dialogue between two or three characters. establishes problem of play. it now refers to an opening section that is not part of the first scene or act. |
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| picture frame stage. separates the stage from the auditorium and provides the arch that frames it. Ex) pineapple on proscenium arch in peter and the star catcher |
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| a character discovers a truth previously unknown. in tragedy it is the awareness of the error in judgment that leads to the character's downfall |
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| dramatic change of fortune. in tradgedy its what leads to the character's downfall, in comedy, it brings about a happy ending |
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| formal and customarily repeated act that holds more significance than a ceremony. ex) baptism, wedding |
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| secondary division of a play. acts may be divided into scenes |
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| backdrops, furniture, other visual accessories that help define locale and mood of a play |
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| scenery constructed fo a play, usually 3 d |
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| locale of a plays action and scenic elements that help define it |
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| hut or buliding that served as scenic background for greek theater. provided area for actors to change, masked their entrances, and denoted locale. 3-5 doors |
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| physical humor; beatings, pratfalls, chases. Ex) Noises Off, 3 stooges |
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| one of 6 aristotlean elements of drama; refers to visual elements of play--scenery, costume, movement, gesture, etc. |
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| scapegoat or sacrificial victim who takes on suffering for the greater good of the tribe or community. tragic hero. ex) Oedipus |
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| greek for "the seeing place" ; area of greek theater where audience sat |
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| surrounded by the audience on 3 sides |
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| central character is conflicted by external or internal force. conflict ends disastrously for character and provokes fear and pity in audience |
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| Anything from the business end of the theater. Open to the public |
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| Area from the door to the curtain |
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| glass room where stage manager calls the show |
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| supervisor of stage and actors |
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| Closes the proscenium and serves as an indication of the beginning or end of an act or scene |
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| everything behind the curtain |
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| area immediately adjacent to the stage |
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| long, narrow curtains. mask backstage |
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| Piece of MASKING that runs above the SCENERY horizontally, across the stage. Usually made of black velour. |
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| holds lights, legs, flies, or drops |
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PLOT- the soul of tragedy
CHARACTER- moral fiber of the protagonist/ major characters
THOUGHT- theme/ how a moral or ethical choice is presented in the play, debated, talked about, explained, demonstrated
DICTION- the language, appropriateness of language to character who is speaking
SONG- the chorus
SPECTACLE- everything we see other than plot, character, thought, diction, song. Spectacle includes scenery, costumes, make-up, masks, kothourni, etc. |
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| appeals to simpletons, character meets his/her doom through obvious obstacles. ex) disaster movies |
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occurs when protagonist has a scene of recognition (right before the climax, protagonist understands that he/she is responsible for his/her own doom)
Recognition takes place at the same time as the reversal (characters fortunes completely flip) |
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| explores audience-actor relationships. most flexible theater space. can be redesigned for each production |
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| doing theater in a space not designed for theater |
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| attempts to recreate a photographic representation of the real world on stage |
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| a 3-sided revolving apparatus painted with scenery and used at each side of the stage in ancient Greek theaters. |
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wheeled platform rolled out through a skênê in ancient Greek theatre. used to bring interior scenes out into the sight of the audience.
used in tragedies for revealing dead bodies because it was sacrilegious to show a character dying on stage. |
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| a proscenium arch stage and three walls. create the illusion of an interior room on the stage. Attributed to Tom Robertson |
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| Crane used in Greek theatre,made of wooden beams and pulley systems, used to lift an actor into the air, deus ex machina |
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| extreme representational theater |
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| 3D characters, 3D scenery, levels, opposition to realistic scenery |
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| overwhelming, towering sets. Sets extend up past proscenium arch. opposition to realistic scenery. |
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| Objectives of scene design |
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1. create environment for actor
2. set tone and style of production
3. establish and evoke locale and period of play
4. provide central image or metaphor for production |
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| Objectives of Lighting Design |
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1. provide visibility
2. enhance actors
3. has element of surprise and discovery
4. illuminates subject of play
5. use shadows for effect |
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imitates sun (brightness)
yellows, pinks |
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darkness, mystery, night time
blues, magentas |
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| whole stage lit at same level |
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| various areas lit to focus audience attention |
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| Combined General and specific illumination |
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1. identify status and personality
2. separate chaarcters visually
3. meet the needs of individual performers
4. evoke and indicate time&place
5. express mood and style of play |
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1. highlight features that wash out under bright light
2. indicate age and age progression
3. should observe style and mood of play |
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Mythic: the characters are infinitely above us (gods)
Heroic: characters are human, still above us. have flaws/ weaknesses and qualities we want to emulate (tragedy)
Realistic: we see ourselves in the characters (good comedy, good serious play)
Ironic: characters are below us, we look down on them and usually find them funny ex) farce |
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Principles of Comedy
Bergson's "On Laughter" |
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1. Strictly HUMAN. We laugh at animals because they are exhibiting human characteristics. We laugh at hats because of the way they were made by people.
2. ABSENCE OF FEELING. All logos. aesthetic distance.
3. SENSE OF COMMUNITY. We laugh in a group. implies a secret complicity with others. fuller the theater the more uncontrollable the laughter of audience.
4. LACK OF ELASTICITY: When a person falls, we laugh because it was unintentional and because it was due to a rigidity of momentum or inelasticity. HUMAN BODY must remind us of a MACHINE. |
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| Aristotle's Poetics says... |
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immitation is an essential part of being a human being.
Tragedy is better than comedy because it appeals to our best instincts of imitation. We look up to characters in a tragedy and strive to imitate them |
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| piece of gauze cloth that appears opaque until lit from behind, used as a screen or backdrop. |
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| curved backdrop at the rear of a theater stage, extends around to the proscenium arch in a U-shape; usually painted to simulate the sky. |
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| curtain that can be lowered and raised onto a stage from the flies; often used as background scenery |
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| backstage room for performers to rest when not on stage |
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| high-intensity spotlight used to follow action |
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| strong beam of light that illuminates only a small area, used especially to center attention on a stage performer. |
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