Drama Vocabulary

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Across
  1. 2. The person who stages the production; their duties includes script analysis and conceptualizing, supervising and guiding actors’ performances, and collaborating with designers to effectively tell the play's story to an audience
  2. 7. The play’s central idea
  3. 9. When actors read through the entire script with all involved artists present; usually on the first day of rehearsal.
  4. 11. The way in which a character sees the world.
  5. 12. The structure of a story, built around a beginning (rising action), middle (climax), and end (falling action and resolution).
  6. 15. A level of meaning implicit or underlying the surface of a script.
  7. 16. A speech or portion of a play in which only one character speaks; oftentimes monologues are used in auditions.
  8. 17. Specific stage movements by actors, which includes entrances, exits, and any steps in any direction of the stage; developed through rehearsals under the leadership of a director.
  9. 20. A signal, such as a line, action, or sound, that alerts an actor to speak, move, enter, or exit.
  10. 22. Hints, delivered through the characters’ lines and/or actions, of events to come that help create an air of suspense in the play.
  11. 23. Many roles in theatre; at various points they can: serve as a company literary manager, ensure the play’s story is effectively communicated in production, serve as intermediary between a director and playwright, support new play development, research background and origins of the play; at all times, a dramaturg is focused on telling the story of the play successfully.
  12. 26. The particular time and place in which the play takes place.
  13. 27. What happens, the sequence of events that take place in a story.
  14. 28. A (usually brief) trial performance by an actor, dancer, singer, or musician to demonstrate one’s suitability for a role.
  15. 29. Spoken interchange or conversation between two or more characters, or, loosely defined, the speech of a single character.
  16. 30. 1) What happens in a play; the events that make up the plot. 2) The physical movement of an actor.
  17. 31. The set, as well as the furniture and other props, that suggest to the audience the environment in which a play’s action takes place
  18. 33. Reason(s) that drive a character to think, act or speak in a certain way.
  19. 34. The playwright’s attitude toward the characters and situations in the script.
  20. 35. A figure who undertakes the action of the plot.
  21. 36. 1) Division of an act of a play. 2) The term also refers to the physical surrounding or locale in which the play’s action is set.
  22. 39. An added element to a story that makes the main conflict more difficult for the main character.
  23. 40. Performing a monologue or scene in an audition without ever having read it prior to the audition.
  24. 41. 1) A character's style is established by the way he or she speaks and acts. 2) The playwright’s style is establish by the words and phrases he or she chooses to make up the characters’ actions, lines and setting in which they speak and act.
  25. 42. Often included at the beginning of a play, exposition is dialogue or stage directions that explains and introduces the major characters, settings, back story, events and problems that the play will address.
Down
  1. 1. All plays focus on a conflict, a struggle between opposing forces.
  2. 3. When an actor has memorized his or her lines enough to not carry his or her script in hand during rehearsals.
  3. 4. The conclusion or ending of the play.
  4. 5. A problem or complication that gets in the way of a character achieving his or her objective.
  5. 6. A play written in prose or verse that tells a story through dialogue and actions performed by actors impersonating the characters of the story.
  6. 8. Deepening or building a conflict for a character such that there is a dire consequence if they don't achieve their objective.
  7. 10. A performer creating a scene or elements of a scene (including movement, dialogue, characters, situations) with little or no preparation or rehearsal.
  8. 13. Music integrated into a play script has the power to move an audience.
  9. 14. Information included in the script by the playwright which provides: 1) Physical descriptions of characters; 2) Psychological descriptions of characters; 3) Characters' actions on stage; and 4) Descriptions of the setting which can help one envision, design and build the set.
  10. 18. A character's goal or desire in a scene or play.
  11. 19. Pages that contain only the lines or part of a scene that an actor is to use for an audition.
  12. 21. The sense that the events of play and the actions of the characters are progressing in a believable and psychologically motivated way.
  13. 24. When an actor improvises or makes up dialogue during a scene.
  14. 25. A major division in the action of a play
  15. 32. The point at which the conflict explodes.
  16. 35. A character’s clothing tells a great deal about him or her.
  17. 37. 1) Diction refers to the way language is used by the playwright and the actor. It is the playwright’s choice of words, as well as the play’s tone, imagery, cadence, verse, metaphor, etc. 2) Diction refers to an actor’s pronunciation of spoken dialogue--his or her phrasing, enunciation, and manner of speaking.
  18. 38. Objects used by an actor in a performance.