Theatre 120
terms from chapters 13-18
Terms
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- Opera
- form of Italian Renaissance drama where dialog is sung and the text is often second to music, thought to be the recreation of Greek tragic style (only surviving form of written Italian Renaissance drama)
- Plot
- the sequence and patterned arrangement of events in a drama, with incidents selected and arranged for maximum dramatic impact
- Cazuela
- gallery above the tavern in the back wall of the theatres of the Spanish golden age;the area where unescorted women sat
- Comedy of manners
- for of comic drama that become popular in 17th century France and English Restoration, emphasizing sophisticated atmosphere and witty dialogue
- Liturgical Drama
- early midieval church drama, written in Latin and dealing with biblical stories
- Thespian
- synonym for performer, from Thespis, who is said to have been the first actor in ancient Greek theatre
- Morality Play
- Medieval drama designed to teach a lesson. The characters were often allegorical and represented virtues or faults
- Symbolism
- movement of the late 19th century and early 20th century that sought to express inner truth rather than represent life realistically
- Chorus
- a group of performers in Greek theatre who sang and danced, sometimes participating in the action but usually simple commenting on it. In modern times, performers who sing and dance in a musical
- Unit Set
- single setting that can represent a variety of locales with teh simple addition of properties or scenic elements
- Biomechanics
- Meyerhold's theory hat a performer's body should be machinelike and that emotion could be represented externally
- Dominus
- leader of a Roman acting troupe
- Gallery
- in theatre bilding, the undivided seating area cut into the walls of the building
- Comedia
- full-length (3 act) nonreligious play of the Spanish golden age
- Soliloquy
- speech in which a character who is alone onstage speaks inner thoughts
- Satyr Play
- one of the three types of classical Greek drama, usually a ribald takeoff on Greek mythology and history that included a chorus of satyrs, mythological creatures who were half-man, half-goat. Presented as the final play following 3 tragedies at dramatic festivals in Athens
- Parodos
- scene in Classical Greek Drama where the chorus enters, also the entrance way for the chorus in Greek theatre
- Vernacular Drama
- Middle ages drama performed in the everyday speech of the people and presented in town squares or other parts of cities
- Happening
- nonliterary or unscripted theatrical even using a scenario that allows for chance occurrances
- Old Comedy
- classical Greek comedy that pokes fun at social, political, or cultural conditions and at particular figures
- Masque
- lavish, spectacular court entertainment primarily during the late english renaissance
- Pole and Chariot
- Giacomo Torelli's mechanize means of changing sets made of flat wings
- Environmental Theatre
- branch of avante garde theatre stressing the environment in which a performance takes place
- Alienation
- Bertolt Brechts' theory that, in his epic theatre, audiences' emotional involvement should be minimized to increase their intellectual involvement with the political message
- Regisseur
- continental European term for a theatre director; often denotes a dictatorial director
- Romanticism
- movement of the 19th century that sought to free the artist from rules and considered unfettered inspiration the source of all creativity
- Stanislavski System
- Konstantin Stanislavski's techniques and theories about acting which promote a naturalistic style stressing "inner truth" as opposed to conventional theatricality
- Tiring House
- Elizabethan Stage house
- Minstrel Show
- Type of 19th century production featuring white performers in blackface
- Companias de parte
- acting troupes in the spanish golden age, organized according to a sharing system
- Drame
- 18th century French term usually denoting a serious drama that dealt with middle class characters
- Well-made play
- Dramatic form popular in the 19th century and early 20th century that combined apparent plausiblility of incident and surface realism with a tightly constructed plot
- Private Theatres
- indoor theatres in Elizabethan England
- Parabasis
- scene in classical Greek old Comedy in which the chorus directly addresses the audience members and makes fun of them
- Poor Theatre
- term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his theatre, which was stripped to the bare essentials
- Epic Theatre
- form of episodic drama associated with Bertolt Brecht and aimed at the intellect rather than the emotions
- Exposition
- imparting of information necessary for an understanding of the story but not covered by the action onstage;events or knowledge from the past, or occurring outside the play, which must be introduced so that the audience will understand the characters or plot
- Futurism
- art movement, begun in Italy around 1909, which idealize mechanization and machinery
- Storm and Stress
- antineoclassical 18th century German movement that was a forerunner of romanticism (Sturm und Drang)
- Dada
- movement in art between the world wars, based on presented the irrational and attacking traditional artistic values
- Musical Theatre
- broad category that includes opera, operetta, musical comedy, and other musical plays (sometimes called lyric theatre)
- Wagon Stage
- low platform mounted on wheels or casters by means of which scenery is moved on and offstage
- Orchestra
- a circular paying space in ancient Greek theatres, in modern times the ground floor seating in a theatre auditorium
- City Dionysia
- the most important Greek festival in honor of the god Dionysus, and the first to include drama
- Surrealism
- departure from realism that attempted to present dramatically the working of the subconsious
- Existentialism
- term applied to plays illustrating a philosophy whose modern advocate was Jean-Paul Sarte and which holds that there are no longer any fixed standards or values
- Expressionism
- movement in Germany at about the time of WW1, characterized by an attempt to dramatize subjective states through distortion;striking, often grotesque images; and lyric, unrealistic dialogue
- Intermezzi
- short plays written in Renaissance Italy depicting mythological tales, performed between acts of a full length play, usually with the same theme of the play
- Hireling
- member of an Elizabethan acting troupe who was paid a set salary and was not a shareholder
- Melodrama
- dramatic form, made popular in the 19th century, which emphasized action and spectacular effects and also used music; is had stack characters and clearly defined villains and heroes
- Amphitheater
- large oval, circular, or semicircular outdoor theatre with rising tiers of seats around an open playing area;also, an exceptionally large indoor auditorium
- Box
- small private compartment for a group of spectators built into the walls of traditional proscenium-arch and other theatres
- New Comedy
- Hellenistic Greek and Roman comedies that deal with romantic and domestic situations
- Unities
- term referring to the preference that a play's plot occur within on day (time), in one place (place), and with no action irrelevant to the plot (action)
- Apprentice
- young performer training in an Elizabethan acting company
- Platform stage
- elevated stage with no proscenium
- Burlesque
- satire of a serious form of literature
- Slapstick
- a type of comedy or comic business that relies on exaggerated or ludicrous physical activity for its humor
- Mystery Play
- also called cycle plays. Short middle age dramas based on biblical events and often organized into historical cycles
- Theatron
- where the audience sat in ancient Greek theatre
- Theatre of Cruelty
- Antonin Artaud's visionary concept of a theatre based on magic and ritual, which would liberate deep, violent, and erotic impulses
- Mansions
- individual scenic units used for the staging of religious dramas in the Middle Ages
- Gesamtkunstwerk
- Richard Wagner's theory of a unified work of theatrical art
- Trilogy
- three tragedies in Greek drama written by the same playwright and presented in a single day, usually connected by story or thematic concerns
- Yard Pit
- standing area in Elizabethan public theatres
- Ballad Opera
- 18th century English form that burlesqued opera
- Patio
- in the theatre of the Spanish golden age, the pit area for the audience
- Box set
- interior setting using flats to form the back and side walls and often the ceiling of a room
- Corral
- theatre of Spanish golden age, usually located in the courtyard of a series of adjoining buildings
- Pantomime
- originally a roman entertainment in which a narrative was sung by a chorus while the story was acted out by dancers. Now used loosey to cover and form of presentation that relies on dance, gesture, and physical movement without dialogue or speech
- Theatricalism
- exposes the elements of theatre to make the audience members aware that they are watching theatre
- Naturalism
- special form of realism developed in Europe in the late 19th century, not carefully plotted or constructed but was meant to present a "slice of life"
- Constructivism
- post WW! scenedesign movement in which sets--frequently composed of ramps, platforms, and levels--were nonrealistic and were intended to provide greater opportunities for physical action
- Book
- spoken (as opposed to sung) portion of the text of a musical
- Groove system
- system in which tracks on the stage floor and above the stage allowed for the smooth movement of flat wings onto and off the stage
- Public Theatres
- outdoor theatres in Elizabethan England
- Neoclassical Ideals
- rules developed by critics during the Italian Renaissance, supposedly based on the writings of Aristotle
- Zanni
- comic male servants in Italian commedia dell'arte
- Sides
- script containing only a single performer's lines and cues, used by Elizabethan actors
- Pastoral
- Italian Renaissance drama based of Greek Satyr Plays (short, ribald, comic pieces), characters where usually shephards and mythological creatures, told a romantic story that wasn't bawdy or lewd, the action was serious but the ending was happy
- Shareholders
- members of Elizabethan acting troupes who received part of the profits as payment
- Verisimilitude
- Neoclassical belief that drama should be "true to life"
- Choregus
- wealthy person who financed a playwright's works at an ancient Greek dramatic festival
- Lazzi
- comic pieces of business used repeatedly by characters in Italian commedia dell'arte
- Repertory, repetoire
- acting company that at any given time can perform a number of plays alternately;also, the plays regularly performed by a company
- Scaena
- stage house in a Roman theatre
- Agon
- In classical Greek Old Comedy, a scene with a debate between the two opposing forces in a play
- Perspective
- illusion of depth in painting, introduced into scene design during the Italian Renaissance
- Pageant Master
- person who supervised the mounting of mystery plays
- Multimedia
- use of electronic media, such as slides, film, and videotape, in live theatrical presentations