Visual and Performing Arts: Theatre Glossary
The theatre terms defined in this section include only those terms that are blue text in the standards. The meaning of the terms is specific to their use in the standards and the artistic discipline. The definitions included here are not meant to be an exhaustive list or used as curriculum.
The following defined terms are commonly accepted definitions, most of which are provided by the National Coalition for Core Arts at https://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/glossary. acting techniques: Specific skills, pedagogies, theories, or methods of investigation used by an actor to prepare for a theatre performance.
character traits: Observable embodied actions that illustrate a character’s personality, physicality, values, beliefs, and history.
conflict: The problem, confrontation, or struggle in a scene or play; conflict may include a character against him or herself, a character in opposition to another character, a character against nature, a character against society, or a character against the supernatural. creative processes: The application of performance, production, and technical theatre elements (see the definition) to a theatrical production. cultural context: The characteristics of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time, including: behaviors, ideas and beliefs, race, religion, social group, geography, identity, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status, and language. . devised drama: Creation of an original performance piece by an ensemble.
dramatic play: Play where children assign and accept roles, then act them out. genre: Relating to a specific kind or type of drama and theatre such as a tragedy, drama, melodrama, comedy, or farce.
gesture: An expressive and planned movement of the body or limbs. given circumstances: The total set of environmental and situational conditions which influence the actions that a character undertakes. guided drama experience: A leader guides participants during a process drama, story drama, or creative drama experience (see the definitions) through side-coaching, narration, and prompting; the action of the drama does not stop in order for the leader to support the students; facilitator may guide participants in or out of role. improvise: The spontaneous, intuitive, and immediate response of movement and speech; a distinction can be made between spontaneous improvisation, which is immediate and unrehearsed, and prepared improvisation, which is shaped and rehearsed.
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motivation: Reasons why a character behaves or reacts in a particular way in a scene or play.
non-representational materials: Objects which can be transformed into specific props through the imagination.
objective: A goal or particular need or want that a character has within a scene or play.
plot: A narrative as revealed through the action and/or dialogue; traditionally, a plot has the elements of exposition, inciting incident, conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution or falling action.
script analysis: The study of a script to understand the underlying structure and themes of the play’s story, and the motives and objectives of its characters.
scripted drama: A piece of writing for the theatre that includes a description of the setting, a list of the characters, the dialogue, and the action of the characters. staging: The arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a theatrical production, sometimes known as mise-en-scène. story elements: Characters, setting, dialogue, and plot that create a story. style: The use of a specific set of characteristics or distinctive techniques such as realism, expressionism, epic theatre, documentary theatre, or classical drama; style may also refer to the unique artistic choices of a particular playwright, director, or actor. tactic: The means by which a character seeks to achieve their objective; the selection of tactics is based on the obstacle presented. In acting and directing, a tactic refers to a specific action verb.
technical theatre elements: The elements of spectacle used to create a unified and meaningful design for a theatrical production, such as sets, sound, costumes/make-up, lighting, music, props, and multimedia, as well as elements specific to the production, e.g., puppets, masks, special effects, or other story-telling devices/concepts. theatrical conventions: Practices and/or devices that the audience and actors accept in the world of the play even when it is not realistic, such as a narrator, flashback, or an aside. theme: The aspect of the human condition under investigation in the drama; it can be drawn from unifying topics or questions across content areas. |