Ê




 



A lengthy segment of a play, comprising several scenes.A major division in a play. Each act may have one
or more scenes. Greek plays were performed as continuous wholes, with interpolated comment from the Chorus.
Horace appears to have been the first to insist on a five-act structure. At some stage during the Renaissance the
use of five acts become standard practice among French dramatists.
Plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries have natural breaks which can be taken as act divisions.
  are usually divided into  
, and these acts are themselves divided into individual
numbered scenes. Much of this division is the work of individual editors, rather than being explicit in the
original editions of the plays. The playwright Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) was the first editor to divide
Shakespeare¶s plays systematically into acts and scenes, and to indicate locations for each scene; his six-volume
edition of Shakespeare's works was published in 1709. Various attempts have been made to work out a
consistent pattern for the five act play, such as by saying that
 

sets the scene and provides
background information,

and
 
 move the action forward at ever-increasing speed,




provides the turning point in the action, and
 

concludes the story with a fierce climax and
provides the À

.
In shaping their plays Elizabethan dramatists were influenced by Roman models (e.g. Seneca). The act
divisions were marked as such by later editors. Ben Jonson was largely responsible for introducing the five-act
structure in England. From the second half of the 17th century the vast majority of plays were in five acts. the
introduction of the 
  (arch shaped stage) and the 
  (unknown in the Elizabethan theatre)
during the Restoration period had some influence on structure. In the Restoration period

  rose at the
end of the prologue (which was spoken on the forestage) and stayed out of sight until the end of the play. By u
1750 the curtain was dropped regularly, marking the end of an act.



(1) the main story (in cinematic jargon 'story-line') of a play, novel, short story, narrative poem, etc.: (2)
the main series of events that together constitute the plot or what a character does to overcome an obstacle to
achieving his objective;



A person who performs a role in a play or film.



 
‘ ‘degree of emotional detachment from or non-identification with
the characters or circumstances of a work of art, permitting the
formation of judgments based on aesthetic rather than extra-aesthetic criteria.; the proper ³aesthetic distance´
gives the audience the most rewarding experience of a performance.


The portion of the stage that protrudes closer to the audience than the proscenium arch. Apron is the part
of the stage visible once curtains are drawn.


A cage that stage weights are placed into as part of the counterweight system for lowering scenery from
the fly loft to the stage.



A theatre with seats completely surrounding a stage that is circular, oval, square, or rectangular;
sometimes referred to as theatre-in- the-round.


  (GK. 'back-timing): A historically inaccurate episode or event in a film or play. In literature

  
 

 



     


  - to prevent something being 'dated'. Shakespeare adopted this device several times. Two classic
examples are the references to the clock in ·
  and to billiards in 



À
  - (when a
c
clock chimes in ·
  , clocks had not been invented in Roman times, in which the play is supposedly
set).


   (GK 'recognition') A term used by Aristotle in ¦u to describe the moment of recognition (of
truth) when ignorance gives way to knowledge. According to Aristotle, the ideal moment of anagnorisis
coincides with peripeteia, or reversal of fortune



 
 In drama or fiction the antagonist opposes the hero or protagonist. In o Iago is antagonist to
the Moor.


 : A drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or important idea or situation to a trivial
one or a descent from something sublime to something ridiculous. In fiction and drama, this refers to action
which is disappointing in contrast to the previous moment of intense interest or anything which follows the
climax. The effect may be comic and is often intended to be. According to Samuel Johnson, who first recorded
the word, it is ³A sentence in which the last part expresses something lower than the first.´


 An innovation by Ben Jonson in 1609. It took the form of either a buffoonish and grotesque
episode before the main masque or an interlude, similarly farcical, during it.

 


  Aristotle was a Greek philosopher of the fourth century BC who endeavoured to deduce
what were the essential ingredients for theatrical success. Later defined as the Unities, his studies incorporated



 

  
 

 and
 

 ! Three rules for
dramatic structure had been derived from the writings of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). They
were: "



, which stated that a play should consists of a single united action, with no sub-plots;
"

# , which stated that the action of a play should not last more than about twenty-four hours; and
"

$ , which stated that the action should all happen in the same place. Plays written up to, and
including, the Elizabethan era were, more often than not, constructed on an Aristotelian model. An Aristotelian
pattern demanded consistency with the three Unities: Action. Time and Place. From Action there had to be an
absence of confusing subplots, Time must portray events taking place within a constricted period, probably no
more than a day, and the setting throughout needed to be restricted to one Place. These "
 were considered
vital ingredients for a dramatist in his endeavour to maintain audience credibility.. The French dramatists of the
sixteenth century adhered closely to these rules, considering that to break them would confuse the audience and
make it more difficult for them to suspend their disbelief.

 


 a Greek philosopher (384-322 BC), whose Poetics (observations about # collected by his
followers) in an early and influential example of empirical criticism. By the examination of examples Aristotle
attempts to analyze those features that make some tragedies more successful than others. He focuses on the
nature of the plot and its connections with a moral pattern, the typifying features of the tragic hero, and the
play's intensity of focus in time and place (later called the Unities).

  device in common use in drama whereby a character addresses the audience whilst other characters are
still on stage. (It contrasts with soliloquy when a character on stage alone addresses the audience.) It is normally
the playwright's intention that what is said is said sincerely. An aside is a common dramatic convention in
which a character speaks in such a way that some of the characters on stage do not hear what is said, while
others do. It may also be a direct address to the audience, revealing the character's views, thoughts, motives and
intentions.

å


 The portion of a theatre where the audience sits or stands; derived from ³the hearing place´ in
ancient Roman theatres.


 During the reign of the Emperor Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) many distinguished writers
flourished, notably Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Tibullus. Originally a golden age of Roman literature a hundred
years before and after the time of the birth of Christ. The term is now usually applied to a period of % 
&
 
final decades of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century, notably of Goldsmith,
Addison, Steele, Pope and Swift. The style common to both periods is one of taste, refinement and patriotism.
So the phrase suggests a period of urbane and classical elegance in writing, a time of harmony, decorum and
proportion. Goldsmith contributed an essay to 
 on 'the Augustan Age in England', but he confined it to
the reign og Queen Anne (1702-14). In French literature the term is applied to the age of Corneille, Racine and
Molière.

 

 
Large, two-dimensional painted scenery hung from battens in the flies.

 
The stage house space of a theatre that the audience does not see, and any support spaces in which
scenery and costumes are constructed and stored.

  
Seating on a level above the main-floor orchestra seats.

  (Welsh, a ÀÀ; Irish, a À) Among the ancient Celts a bard was a sort of official poet whose task it was
to celebrate national events - particularly heroic actions and victories. The bardic poets of Gaul and Britain were
a distinct social class with special privileges. The 'caste' continued to exist in Ireland and Scotland, but
nowadays are more or less confined to Wales, where the poetry contests and festivals, known as the
Eisteddfodau, were revived in 1822 (after a lapse since Elizabethan times). In modern Welsh a a ÀÀ is a poet
who has taken part in an Eisteddfod. In more common parlance the term may be half seriously applied to a
distinguished poet - especially Shakespeare.

 

 (GK 'depth') It is a sudden descent from the serious to the ludicrous. Bathos is usually unintentional,
whereas 
u is used deliberately by an author, often for comic effect. 

  &
&
 
  

  
  

  


!

In mock critical treatise called ¦ 

 
 
o

 






¦ 
(1728), Pope assures the reader
that he will 'lead them as it were by the hand... the gentle downhill way to Bathos; the bottom, the end, the
central point, the non plus ultra, of true Modern Poesy!'

 & A term used to describe coarse, low, sexual humour or dialogue. Bawdy is usually the preserve of
lower-class characters, but this can serve to make it even more startling when it comes from noble characters.
Hamlet is obsessed with corruption, sexuality, and the 'rank sweat' of copulation. He is frequently bawdy, as
when he says to Ophelia 'That's a fair thought to lie between maid's legs' and makes other suggestive remarks to
her. Sexual jealousy and fascination with sexuality infests almost every line Iago speaks about Desdemona in
o, and he announces the marriage of Desdemona to Othello by telling her father that a black ram is
'tupping' (having intercourse with) his white ewe. Bawdy, however, comes in more frequently where one might
expect to find it, in the low-life characters. Bosola's speech in 
u

  is bawdy when he speaks
with the Old Lady.

 
 Bear baiting in the 17th century, alternatively BULLBAITING, the setting of dogs on a bear or a
bull chained to a stake by the neck or leg. Popular from the 12th to the 19th century, when they were banned as
inhumane, these spectacles were usually staged at theatre-like arenas known as bear gardens.

In England many large groups of bears were kept expressly for the purpose. Contemporary records reveal, for
example, that 13 bears were provided for an entertainment attended by Queen Elizabeth I in 1575.When a bull
was baited, its nose was often blown full of pepper to further arouse it. Specially trained dogs were loosed
singly, each attempting to seize the tethered animal's nose. Often, a hole in the ground was provided for the bull
to protect its snout. A successful dog was said to have pinned the bull.Variations on these activities included
whipping a blinded bear and baiting a pony with an ape tied to its back. Dogfighting and cockfighting were
often provided as companion diversions.



Three-sided scenery used in a proscenium arch theatre to create the illusion of a real room with the
³fourth wall´ removed.

   The term derives from the Italian a  u, from a  'ridicule' or 'joke'. It is a derisive imitation or
exaggerated  


  &
  


 


 


! For the most part burlesque is associated with some form of stage entertainment. Aristophanes
used it occasionally in his plays. The satyr plays were a form of burlesque. Clowning interludes in Elizabethan
plays were also a type.

It sets out to ridicule a style or type of writing, by exaggerating the features of the original and making them
appear ridiculous. $
 ridicules a specific book or work by imitating it badly;  ridicules a whole
style or approach that might be found in several works.

'
' 
 a character whose personality is described in terms of a very small number of features, often
grossly exaggerated.

'
  The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of
tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe. (GK.
'purgation) Aristotle uses the word in his definition of tragedy in Chaper VI of Poetics, and there has been much
debate (still inconclusive) on exactly what he meant. The key sentence is: 'Tragedy through pity and fear effects
a purgation of such emotions'. So, in a sense, the tragedy, having aroused powerful feelings in the spectator, has
also a therapeutic effect; after the storm and climax there comes a sense of release from tension, of calm. It is
the effect of tragedy upon the audience: a purging of the emotions of pity and fear by their presentation on
stage. The word describes the purging of emotions (usually defined as pity or fear) that takes place at the end of
tragedy.

'


The action at the end of a tragedy that initiates the denouement or falling action of a play. One
example is the dueling scene in Act V of Hamlet in which Hamlet dies, along with Laertes, King Claudius, and
Queen Gertrude. It is the possible second high point in buiding of tension after the climax.


Œ
'
(1) The second in Aristotle¶s ranking of the six elements of theatre, which he described as ³the agent
for the action´; (2) a fictional being in a playwright¶s script. An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work.
Literary characters may be major or minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change). In
Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is a major character, but one who is static, like the minor character Bianca.
Othello is a major character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.

'
 (

The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although techniques of
characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress, manner, and
actions. Readers come to understand the character Miss Emily in Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" through
what she says, how she lives, and what she does.

'
 (1) The characters in ancient Greek drama who spoke, sang, and danced portions of the drama not
spoken by the main characters; (2) A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who
comment on the action of a play without participation in it. Their leader is the 

. Sophocles' Antigone
and Oedipus the King both contain an explicit chorus with a choragos.

'
    chronicle plays were primitive plays dealing with English history, popular in the latter half of
the sixteenth century, and a significant influence on Elizabethan dramatists.; also called 
    

, or
 

 , drama with a theme from history consisting usually of loosely connected episodes chronologically
arranged. Plays of this type lay emphasis on the public welfare by pointing to the past as a lesson for the
present. The genre is characterized by its assumption of a national consciousness in its audience. It has
flourished in times of intensely nationalistic feeling, notably in England from the 1580s until the 1630s, by
which time it was "out of fashion," according to the prologue of John Ford's play ¦ 

 au. Early
examples of the chronicle play include The Famous Victories of 


 , 
 

À


·u

 

 a 



·

!


"

À, and

 
 À

u À
###. The genre
came to maturity with the work of Christopher Marlowe ("À À
##) and William Shakespeare (

$#
 

%

À
&).

'   A theatrical style in which the artist strives to imitate an  (
) 

 
*
based on the power of reason; Classicism commonly is associated with the ancient Greek notion of ³the golden
mean,´ in which excess is considered improper and balance and proportion are considered desirable.

' The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest
tension in the work. The climax of John Updike's "A & P," for example, occurs when Sammy quits his job as a
cashier.

'
 

 An intensification of the conflict in a story or play. Complication builds up, accumulates, and
develops the primary or central conflict in a literary work.

'
The genre of play that makes you laugh, has plots that end happily, and reaffirms the values you hold
to be important. A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better.
In comedy, things work out happily in the end. Comic drama may be either romantic--characterized by a tone of
tolerance and geniality--or satiric. Satiric works offer a darker vision of human nature, one that ridicules human
folly.

'
    The use of a comic scene to interrupt a succession of intensely tragic dramatic moments. The
comedy of scenes offering comic relief typically parallels the tragic action that the scenes interrupt. '
 
     Ê
, but occurs regularly in Shakespeare's tragedies. One example is the opening
scene of Act V of Hamlet, in which a gravedigger banters with Hamlet’ Comic episodes or interludes, usually in
Î
tragedy, aimed to relieve the tension and heighten the tragic element by contrast. They are or should be an
essential and integral part of the whole work. If not actually extended into an episode or interlude, the relief
may take the form of a few remarks or observations (or some form of action) which help to lower the emotional
temperature.

'

A comic play that derives its humor from the language and behavior of the characters; see
also ³high comedy.´

'
 

A plot that interweaves more than one story, that includes ³subplots.´

'


 

The arrangement and 
  

 
 
 
 

 


 
 instead of by a chronological or cause-and-effect logic.

'


 

A plot with a linear structure that unfolds without any gaps in the chronology of events.
Opposite of  
  


'
 
 The tension in a situation between characters, or the actual opposition of characters (usually in drama
and fiction but also in narrative poetry) OR- A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually
resolved by the end of the work. The conflict may occur within a character as well as between characters.

'


A rule or procedure in the theatre that is understood by actors and audience alike, in the same way
that the rules of a sport are understood; the ³convention of the fourth wall´ is a good example.#he use of a
chorus in Greek tragedy, the inclusion of an explicit moral in a fable, or the use of a particular rhyme scheme in
a villanelle are all conventions. Literary conventions are defining features of particular literary genres, such as
novel, short story, ballad, sonnet, and play.

'
 Open-air theatres in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Spain that were similar to the public theatres
used in Shakespeare¶s England.

'  The moment in the unfolding of the plot when a change happens that leads inevitably to the resolution of
the dramatic question; also called the ³turning point.´

'
Someone who analyzes, describes, and offers an evaluation of a play or performance.

'
  A post-performance ritual in which the actors bow and the audience applauds.




  A philosophy that holds that 
 

 
!


The resolution of the plot of a literary work.

 A Latin phrase meaning ³god from the machine,´ used to describe the resolution of the plot
of a play by external means, OR A god who resolves the entanglements of a play by supernatural intervention.
The phrase refers to the use of artificial means to resolve the plot of a play.

 
The speeches the characters say; the playwright¶s primary material.

^
 
The Greek word for ³the process of thought,´ used by scholars to name the third-ranked of Aristotle¶s
six elements of theatre.

 

The choice and arrangement of &
 by the playwright that   
 



; not to be
confused with ³articulation,´ the preciseness of an actor¶s speech.




A comic play with a domestic setting and middle-class characters.

& 




A category of play that is serious but not tragic.



 Latin for the characters or persons in a play.




The 

 posed early in a play¶s plot that 
  



 
&



+


!

  A name for the first balcony of seating; commonly used in England.


A large painted cloth hung from a batten as part of the scenery.


& a mimed dramatic performance whose purpose was to prepare the audience for the main action of
the play to follow

%
%


A theatre with the stage at one end of a large space but without a proscenium arch formally
separating the stage from the auditorium; commonly built in rooms not originally intended for performance.
% 

 

A kind of theatrical performance popularized by Richard Schechner, two traits of
which are multiple actions happening simultaneously and continual readjustment of the performers¶ and the
audience¶s spaces.
% 
  

A plot with a linear structure made up of a sequence of scenes that have time lapses
between them. Opposite of a 


 

%

,
 A daunting word for a simple concept: an eponymous hero is a hero whose name is the title
of the play, as in 
ua and o.

%


Background information revealed in the dialogue to help the audience understand the unfolding
plot.

%
 Theatrically it was a reaction against Realism especially in Germany early in the 20th century
(1905) and aimed to show inner psychological realities. Expressionism can be seen as a reaction against a
comfortable, unthinking, uncaring and increasingly mechanized society. Central characters, particularly in the
work of Austrian novelist Franz Kafka, are trapped inside a distorted vision of the world that either reflects their
own psychological conflicts or those of the society in which the original readers lived. The artist strives to


-

 as it is experienced in nightmares and in & 
  &
   











&

 
 


; example LWFC ± Tita¶s cooking
expresses her views through magical instances. As a literary genre, %
 







u


 
+ 

!%
 
 


 , syntax
and so on. Any formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose.

Expressionist dramatists tended to 




 instead of individualized characters, to
 

 
   of intense and rapidly oscillating emotional states, often to 


 
 into exclamatory and seemingly incoherent sentences or phrases and to employ masks and abstract or
lopsided and sprawling stage sets.

.
. 

The portion of the plot that follows the crisis.

.A play that makes you laugh a lot and 
  

&   

 
 

!

. A scene in a film or play that takes place in an earlier virtual time than its placement in the structure
of the plot.

. 
A standard piece of theatrical scenery with a wood frame, usually covered in canvas.

. 

The space in the stage house above the proscenium arch where scenery is flown.

.


The name for a performance space that was not intended for that use; for example, the
steps of a government building, the courtyard in a mall, a railroad station.

.



The portion of the theatre used by the audience.


Ê
Ê A name for the third or highest balcony in some theatres.

ÊCategorization of dramas on the basis of their emotional impact on an audience; there are also literary
characteristics of each genre; the six most common genres are tragedy, comedy, farce, melodrama, drama, and
tragicomedy.
Ê
‘The physical movement of a character during a play. Gesture is used to reveal character, and may
include facial expressions as well as movements of other parts of an actor's body. Sometimes a playwright will
be very explicit about both bodily and facial gestures, providing detailed instructions in the play's stage
directions. Ibsen¶s Doll¶s House includes such stage directions.

Ê

The actors¶ backstage waiting room, perhaps named after the green waiting room in London¶s
Drury Lane Theatre.

Ê
 This form of tragedy had a definite structure which was more or less prescribed. There were
four main parts to a play:

(a) The ¦


 or $

 an introductory scene of monologue or dialogue. This exposition established the
subject and theme of the play and portrayed one or more characters.

£
(b) ¦ 
 the entrance of the Chorus; the choral song provides further exposition and foreshadows
subsequent events.

(c) ×

 episodes (perhaps four or five) which constitute the main action of the play. One or more
characters take part in these with the chorus. Each eposode is separated by a choral ode or  
. In some
plays, a part of the episode may involve a  - a kind of lamentation in which both characters and Chorus
take part.

(d) ×
 the conclusion, which follows the last ode sung and danced by the Chorus. The ×

 includes
two features: the messenger's speech and the À

u
; but the À

u
 was used only by
Euripides.

Ê A network of steel beams high above the stage floor.


Ê
 The name for the audience in Elizabethan theatres who stood to watch performances; this
audience paid the smallest entrance fee and is thought to have favored broad comedy.

Ê 

Theatre of a political nature performed in unexpected public places.

,
, 
 Either a gap in a sentence so that the sense is not completed, or a break between two vowels coming
together where there is no intervening consonant. The indefinite article takes an 'n' - as in 'an answer'.

In 
u

  in Act I, Scene ii, when the brothers interrupted her sentence in mid-flow and hear the
Duchess say 'I'll never marry - ' (line 223)

,
 (GK 'error') Primarily, an error of judgement which may arise from ignorance or some moral
shortcoming. Discussing tragedy and the tragic hero in ¦u , Aristotle points out that the tragic hero ought to
be a man whose misfortune comes to him, not through vice or depravity, but by some error. For example:
Oedipus kills his father from impulse, and marries his mother out of ignorance. Antigone resists the law of the
state from stubbornness and defiance. [See
  &ƒ

, 
A comic play that derives its humor from the language and behavior of the characters; see also
³comedy of manners.´ - Which is a form of High comedy.

, The Greek word for excessive pride, which was considered to be a flaw in the character of an otherwise
ideal person; the common flaw in the tragic heroes of ancient Greek dramas This shortcoming or defect in the
Greek tragic hero leads him to ignore the warnings of the gods and to transgress their laws and commands.
Eventually hubris brings about downfall and nemesis, as in the case of Creon in Sophocles's 

 and
Clytemnestra in Aeschylus's o   trilogy.

The pride that allows a tragic hero to ignore the warnings from the gods, and so bring about his  
(downfall)

/ (
An artistic expression of the artist¶s vision of truth based on either an intellectual or an
emotional ideal of how the world ought to be; the reality of the theatrical styles of Classicism and Romanticism.


/ 

)

+*The aspect of the actor¶s craft that exploits an actor¶s ability to think and feel as the
fictional character.


/ 
 Scene design that explores visual metaphors and striking images rather than representing
observed reality; frequently associated with the theatrical style of Postmodernism.(¦ 'u
 #¦)

/

The moment in the plot when the dramatic question is asked; it marks the end of the introduction
and the beginning of what is often called the rising action.

/



A term used in play analysis to describe the first scene or scenes of a play in which characters are
introduced, exposition is provided, and the status quo is established.

/
  in theatre, early form of English dramatic entertainment, sometimes considered to be the transition
between medieval morality plays and Tudor dramas. Interludes were performed at court or at "great houses" by
professional minstrels or amateurs at intervals between some other entertainment, such as a banquet, or
preceding or following a play, or between acts. Although most interludes were sketches of a nonreligious
nature, some plays were called interludes that are today classed as morality plays.

0
0 A highly stylized form of Japanese theatre.




Description of the plot of a play that progresses without flashbacks to jumble the chronology;
the action progresses ³along a line.´


&
A comedy about characters we laugh at more because of what they do than because of what they
say.

1
1   the Machiavel was a villainous stock character in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, so called
after the Florentine writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), author of 
¦ 
u (written 1513), a book of
political advice to rulers that recommended the need under certain circumstances to lie to the populace for their
own good and to preserve power. Embellishment of this suggestion (which was only one small part of his
analysis of political power and justice) made Machiavelli almost synonymous with the Devil in English
literature. 1  
  

 


 
 &
 
 
 
&
  
 ! The topic of dissembling and disguising one's true identity amount almost to an obsession in
plays in the early seventeenth century.

1

A platform stage used in medieval Europe that consisted of a wide rectangular stage with a
number of separate houses attached to the back of it, each depicting a unique location; see ³simultaneous stage.´

1 (F. 'mask') (Poe ±  (


À
) A lavish form of dramatic entertainment relying heavily on
song, dance, costumes, extravagant spectacle and special effects. The genre flourished in the first part of the
seventeenth century, having been imported from Italy. Ben Jonson is sometimes seen as the greatest of masque

c

writers.  (1634) by John Milton is a particularly famous masque;also spelled MASK, festival or
entertainment in which disguised participants offer gifts to their host and then join together for a ceremonial
dance. According to Ben Jonson, masques were formerly called 'disguisings'. A masque was a fairly elaborate
form of courtly entertainment which was particularly popular in the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I,
as it was in Italy (where the masque first acquired a distinctive form), and in France. In fact,  u (1581), first
produced in Paris, had a considerable influence on English masque.

The masque combined poetic drama, song, dance and music. The costumes were often sumptuous. The
structure was usually simple. A Prologue introduced a group of actors known to the audience. They entered in
disguise or perhaps in some kind of decorated vehicle. Plot and action were slight. Usually the plot consisted of
mythological and allegorical elements. Sometimes there might be a sort of 'debate'. At the end there was a dance
of masked figures in which the audience joined. In short, it was a kind of elegant, private pageant.

1 The single dominant idea expressed by the plot of a play.

1  (GK 'imitation') A form of drama in which actors tell a story by gestures, originating in Sicily and
southern Italy. Sophron of Syracuse (5th c. BC) composed mime plays. So did Herodas (3rd c. BC) who later
influenced Plautus, Terence and Horace. Dumb acting continued as a very popular form of entertainment
throughout the Middle Ages and achieved a considerable revival in Italy in the 16th c. when it was much
practised in uÀ
À) . The influence spread through Europe and in varying degrees mime has been
part of the European dramatic tradition ever since. [See 
&.ƒ

1  A basic theoretical principle in the creation of art. This is a Greek word for ³imitation´ though in the
sense of re-presentation rather than copying. Plato and Aristotle spoke of   as the representation of
nature. According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation ; that which really exists is a creation of
God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal type.
Therefore the painter, the tragedian and the musicians are imitator of an imitation, twice removed from the
truth. Aristotle, in ¦u , states that tragedy is an ³imitation of an action¶, but he uses the term
comprehensively to refer to the construction of a play and what is put into it.

1   : also called /2#$3, one of three principal kinds of vernacular drama of the European
Middle Ages (along with the mystery play and the morality play). A miracle play presents a real or  







     



 
. The genre evolved from liturgical offices developed
during the 10th and 11th centuries to enhance calendar festivals. By the 13th century they had become
vernacularized and filled with unecclesiastical elements. They had been divorced from church services and were
performed at public festivals. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas,
the 4th-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. Both Mary and Nicholas had active cults during the Middle
Ages, and belief in the healing powers of saintly relics was widespread. In this climate, miracle plays
flourished.

# 1   consistently 
  

 

      
 


  
   &


  be they worthy or wanton. She saves, for example, a priest who has sold his soul to the devil, a
woman falsely accused of murdering her own child, and a pregnant abbess. Typical of these is a play called St.
John the Hairy. At the outset the title character seduces and murders a princess. Upon capture, he is proclaimed
a saint by an infant. He confesses his crime, whereupon God and Mary appear and aid John in reviving the
princess, which done, the murderer saint is made a bishop.

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1


 A term used in a number of senses, with the basic meaning of a single person speaking alone -
with or without an audience. Most prayers, much lyric verse and all laments are monologues, but, apart from
these, four main kinds can be distinguished:

(a) monodrama, as in Strindberg's 

 
 .

(b) soliloquy, for instance, common in Shakespeare¶s plays.

(c) solo addresses to an audience in a play, for instance, Iago's explanations to the audience (in o) of what
he is going to do.

(d) dramatic monologue - a poem in which there is one imaginary speaker addressing an imaginary audience, as
in Browning's 
À 
À
 

 
u 

1

  The successor to Miracle and Mystery plays. Morality plays were simpler, and mounted on a
primitive stage. A famous example is "* 
(u 1500), which in common with many morality plays is in the
form of an allegory.

Basically, a Morality Play is   
  

 
. Its dramatic origins are to be found in the
Mystery and Miracle Plays of the late Middle Ages; its allegorical origins in the sermon literature, homilies,
, romaces and works of spiritual edification. In essence a Morality Play was a dramatization of the
battle between the forces of good and evil in the human soul; thus, an exteriorization of the inward spiritual
struggle: man's need for salvation and the temptations which beset him on his pilgrimage through life to death.
The main characters in "* 
(u 1500) are God, a Messenger, Death, Everyman, Fellowship, Good Deeds,
Goods, Knowledge, Beauty and Strength. Everyman is summoned by Death and he finds that no one will go
with him except Good Deeds.

In other plays we find the forces of evil (the World, the Flesh and the Devil, the Seven Deadly Sins and
various demons) deployed against Man, whose champions are the forces of good (God and his angels, and the
four moral and the three theological virtues). Nearly all the Moralities are didactic illustrations of and
commentaries on a 


 &  
 
 ' 







 

 1  
  
&
&Ê

 .

1A large crane used to ³fly´ actors into the air in ancient Greek theatres.

1
A genre of play that provides entertainment that has the appearance of being serious but ends with
the protagonist victorious; melodramas usually have highly emotional scenes alternating with comic scenes.

1
 

Description of a play that tells more than one story.

1 The fifth-ranked of Aristotle¶s six elements of theatre; describes everything that is heard, from musical
accompaniment to sound effects to the actors¶ voices.

1  Description of the mature form of musical theatre that evolved in the middle of the twentieth century
and that integrates song and dance with characters and plot.

1  
Description of American musical theatre prior to the midtwentieth century.


cå
2
 A theatrical style developed in the nineteenth century that is based on the philosophy of
Determinism and that strives to present on stage an exact imitation of everyday life; Naturalism and Realism are
closely linked, and sometimes the terms are used interchangeably.
o-

A theatrical style, expressed in Realism and Theatricalism, that imitates the way things
appear on the surface..

oA form of musical theatre developed in Italy during the Renaissance that is entirely sung, is serious in
subject, and is musically complex.

o

A form of musical theatre that developed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that is
4

 in subject, has scenes of spoken dialogue, and is less musically complex than opera.


(1) The flat circle of earth at the center of an ancient Greek theatre where the chorus sang and
danced; the word means ³dancing place´; (2) the main-floor audience seating in a proscenium arch theatre; (3)
the musicians who play during a musical theatre performance and who usually sit in front of and below the
stage in a place called the ³orchestra pit.´




Theatre performed in outdoor theatres, usually in the summer.

$
 Originally the movable stage or platform on which the medieval Mystery Plays were presented, it was
built on wheels and consisted of two rooms: the lower was used as a dressing room, the upper as a stage. Later,
the term was applied to plays acted on this platform. In modern usage it describes any sort of spectacular
procession which presents tableaux and includes songs, dances and dramatic scenes.

$

 (Gk. 'suffering', feeling, grief') Moments in works of art which evoke strong feelings of pity are said to
have this quality. Tragic drama is full of moments of pathos. That quality in a work of art which evokes
feelings of tenderness, pity or sorrow. For example: in , Gertrude's speech describing the death of
Ophelia; in o, the death of Desdemona.

$
&
A wagon used by traveling actors in medieval Europe.

$
(1) The passage between the audience seating area and the skene in ancient Greek theatre that was
used by the chorus for entrances and exits; (2) the descriptive name for the choral ode sung by the chorus when
it entered at the beginning of an ancient Greek play.

$
The presentation of a play or musical before an audience.

$
5
 (L. 'mask') Originally a mask or false face of clay or bark worn by actors. From it derives
the term À 
 
 and, later, the word  
. In literary and critical jargon  
 has come to
denote the 'person' (the 'I' of an 'alter ego') who speaks in a poem or novel or other form of literature.

Person or persons who have imposed on them points of view expressed in the written work which are not
necessarily those of the author. In novels, the persona might be a first person narrator; in drama each character
fulfils that role when the speaking is with them.

$

 The plan, design, scheme or pattern of events in a play, poem or work of fiction; and, further, the
organization of incident and character in such a way as to induce curiosity and suspense in the spectator or
reader. In the space / time continuum of plot the continual question operates in four tenses:

(1) Why did that happen? (2) Why is this happening?(3) What is going to happen next - and why? (4) Is


 going to happen?
c
 In ¦u , Aristotle includes plot as one of the six elements in tragedy. For Aristotle it is the  
   


 

! He calls plot 'the imitation of the action', as well as the arrangement of the
incidents. He required a plot to be 'whole' (that is, to have a beginning, a middle and an end) and that it should
have unity, namely 'imitate one action and that a whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any
one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed'.

This is the ideal, well-knit plot which Aristotle distinguished from the episodic plot in which the acts succeed
one another 'without probable or necessary sequence', and which he thought was inferior. Aristotle also
distinguished between simple and complex plots: in the simple the change of fortune occurs without  
and without 

    whereas in the complex there is one or the other or both. Aristotle also emphasized the
importance of plot as opposed to character.

$

-
 Thomas Rymer devised this term in 
 À


 


À À (1678) to
describe the idea that literature should always depict a world in which virtue and vice are eventually rewarded
and punished appropriately. The deaths of the evil characters in 
u

  can be viewed as
examples of poetic justice.

$


 A theatrical style that evolved from Surrealism in the late twentieth century and that 
 
 




-


 &


-


#
  6
Postmodernism is sometimes associated with imagistic theatre.

$


 
A style of performance in which the actors acknowledge
the presence of the audience and sometimes speak directly to them; that is, the actors ³present´ the characters. ±
Anouilh¶s 




$
-

Images projected by lights and used as part of a play¶s scenery.

$
 

A theatre building that has a frame like arch around the stage; the most common kind
of theatre today, it was developed in the seventeenth century; ³proscenium arch´ is the name for the
architectural separation between the stage and the auditorium, frequently decorated very ornately; the audience
looks through the arch at the performance on the stage the way you look through a picture frame at a painting.

A platform attached to the front of the skene in ancient Greek theatres on which actors stood.

$
6 Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. The Christmas tree in 
)
 
and Laura's
collection of glass animals in 
+

  are examples’
$ A term describing all the parts of a theatre building the public uses.


4
Plays performed for radio broadcast only.

4The tilt of a stage from the lowest level, near the audience, to a higher level upstage; introduced when
audiences sat on a flat floor, but still in use today to give a performance an unrealistic and dynamic quality.

4 A style of theatrical production and dramatic writing that imitates selected traits of the language and
appearance of everyday life; a slice of life ± also a literary movement ± (refer to class discussions on the topic. )

4 


Scenery that creates the illusion of a real place outdoors.
cŒ

4


The moment in a play¶s plot when the dramatic question is answered.

4 A point in a play¶s plot when the protagonist suffers a temporary defeat.

4 &A person who writes or speaks an analysis and opinion of a play or performance; usually applied to
a newspaper or television journalist who works against a deadline.

4
 
A turntable used to move scenery around in a circle.

4
 a special form of tragedy which concentrates on the protagonist¶s pursuit of vengeance
against those who have done him wrong. These plays often concentrate on the moral confusion caused by the
need to answer evil with evil. OR, Drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined
injury;

4  The cables, ropes, pulleys, and winches used to fly scenery.

4  

The segment of the plot between the point of attack and the crisis in which events complicate the
plot and heighten suspense.

4
The entirety of a character¶s part in a play.

4

 A theatrical style in which the artist strives to imitate an idealized reality based on the importance
of emotion; Romanticism evolved in the early nineteenth century as a reaction to Classicism, and it values
excess emotion.



A short segment of the plot of a play.

The time and place of a literary work that establish its context. The stories of Sandra Cisneros are set in
the American southwest in the mid to late 20th century, those of James Joyce in Dublin, Ireland in the early
20th century.

 It is sometimes difficult to realise that in Shakespeare's theatre, with no set to change, scene
changes took place with great speed, and there was hardly any time lapse between scenes. The result is that
Shakespeare can frequently play one scene off against another, and gain significant effects of contrast by the
quick changeover between scenes.


: Body of nine closet dramas (i.e., plays intended to be read rather than performed), written in
blank verse by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca in the 1st century AD. Rediscovered by Italian humanists in
the mid-16th century, they became the models for the revival of tragedy on the Renaissance stage. The two
great, but very different, dramatic traditions of the age--French Neoclassical tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy--
both drew inspiration from Seneca.

  

A plot without any subplots.

cÎ
 


A platform stage used in medieval Europe that consisted of a wide rectangular stage with a
number of separate houses attached to the back of it, each depicting a unique location; see ³mansion stage.´

  



The six elements listed by Aristotle in 
¦u
as the constituents of theatre; in
order: 


 


 

   
 !

A freestanding building that was a part of an ancient Greek theatre; located behind the orchestra; actors
made entrances from it and changed costumes in it; the word ³scenery´ is derived from ³skene.´

 
(1) 
 used in the uÀ
À, 
made from two boards fastened together at one end and
loose at the other so they could be slapped together to make a loud noise when an actor was hit by it; A
slapstick consisted of two pieces of wood which, when applied, for instance, to somebody's buttocks, produced
a cracking or slapping sound. It was used by the Harlequin in uÀ
À) . There 
be some
connection between this and the tradition of the Vice cudgelling the devil; and, further back, the demons of the
medieval Mystery Plays coming on with fire-crackers exploding from their tails.
(2) term used to  
  

. Low, knockabout comedy, involving a good
deal of physical action and farcical buffoonery like the throwing of custard pies.

 
A specially built stage floor that has narrow sections that slide sideways into the wings carrying
actors or furniture on or off the stage.



 A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage.
If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud. Hamlet's "
a




ae" speech is an example. The speech to an audience by a character alone on the stage. The convention is
that this 'speaking aloud' is a reliable reflection of the persona's true inner thoughts and feelings. In this way the
audience is given information in a form of dramatic irony not revealed to the other characters in the play. Critics
cite Bosola as a master of the craft. Perhaps craft is an apposite word. We should beware the reliability of what
is said in apparent intimate confidence to the audience in soliloquy when the actor is aware of not being alone.
A dramatic convention which allows a character in a play to speak diretly to the audience about his motives,
feelings and decisions as if he were thinking aloud. Part of the convention is that a soliloquy provides accurate
access to the character's innermost thoughts: we learn more about the character than could ever be gathered
from the action of the play alone. See  .

½
‘   ‘ A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with
information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Modern playwrights, including Henrik Ibsen,
Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, and TennesseWilliams tend to include substantial stage directions, while earlier
playwrights typically used them more sparsely, implicitly, or not at all’  Ê
 ’

½
 ‘The spectacle a play presents in performance, including the position of actors on stage, the scenic
background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects. Tennessee Williams describes these in
his detailed stage directions for 
+

  and also in his production notes for the play.




The exterior door used by actors to enter and exit the theatre.



The portion of a theatre building that includes the stage and all backstage spaces.


 English term for the main floor seats in a proscenium arch theatre.




The stable situation at the beginning of a plot, before the dramatic question is asked.

c^


Description of the arrangement of the incidents of a play¶s plot.


 (1) A categorization of artistic works by their literary or theatrical characteristics; (2) a categorization of
plays by 
&
 


; the six main theatrical styles are 4  #
   %
  
  '    4

 !

-

The truth of human experience as abstracted in the unconscious, the primitive, and the
irrational, expressed in the theatrical styles of Surrealism and Expressionism.



A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot. The story
of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern forms a subplot with the overall plot of .



  A form of musical theatre that tells the entire story through the song lyrics and has no
spoken dialogue or ³book.´

 A theatrical style in which the artist strives to imitate subjective reality as it is experienced in
whimsical dreams; surrealism uses associative logic instead of cause-and-effect logic to move from one incident
to the next.

#
#
The playwright¶s script, particularly as a source of the actor¶s performance.

#


A genre and style of European theatre that evolved in the mid-twentieth century and
expresses the meaninglessness of the human condition in laugh-producing tragicomedies;

#
  A theatrical style in which the artist strives to imitate objective reality as it is traditionally
presented in the theatre; theatricalism is based on the belief that we are all self-conscious creatures who ³act´
our lives.

#
  
 7 & 





!

#

The seating area in ancient Greek theatres; we get our word ³theatre´ from this word, which means
³seeing place.´

#An intellectual idea examined in a play.

#

The third-ranked element of Aristotle¶s elements of theatre; see ³dianoia.´

#
Organizing traits of a play as interpreted in the Italian Renaissance from Aristotle¶s 
¦u -

unity of   
 

.

#


A theatre without a proscenium arch in which the stage thrusts forward so the audience is seated
on three sides;

#(Gk 'goat song') A serious play that makes you feel exhilarated because the hero¶s experience teaches
you some profound truth about your life; a tragedy guides you toward feeling a sort of calm affirmation that
your worst expectations about life are true, and you feel wiser for reaching this certainty.

cu
 In the first place it almost certainly denoted a form of ritual sacrifice accompanied by a choral song in honour
of Dionysus, the god of the fields and the vineyards. Out of this ritual developed Greek dramatic tragedy. The
derivation of this word from a Greek word meaning 'goat-song' is not very helpful. Tragedy developed from
ancient rituals, worked through to Greek drama, and has been a lasting presence in literature ever since, though
as with so many of the terms used in literature its precise meaning is very difficult to arrive at. In its simplest
terms, a tragedy is usually a play with an unhappy ending, though both poetry and novels can contain strong
elements of tragedy. The Greek scientist and philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) wrote that tragedy had to be
serious, wide in its scope, and complete in itself. The tragic hero was high-born, and neither particularly good
nor particularly bad, merely normal in his balance of the two. Due to some tragic flaw (a weakness or mistake
on his part) the tragic hero goes from happiness to misery and death. There is often a supernatural element in
tragedy, and the feeling that the tragic hero has somehow aroused the anger of the gods or controlling powers of
the universe. There is also frequently a sense of waste at the death of the tragic hero, a feeling also of relief that
he or she is spared more pain and suffering, and a moment of tragic recognition where the tragic here recognises
both his fate and his weaknesses. '
 occurs at the end of a tragedy, often with a sense of final peace and
regeneration. All authors,including those from Greek times, have rung the changes on these features, which
should not be viewed as in any way binding.

In his ¦u 
Aristotle defined tragedy as:





 
 

 
    

 

 

  
 

 




  
  
 
 
  



  
 
 


  

   

 

 

    

 





Later he spoke of the 



¦



 


 
 







  

 



  






  






 


  


  
 







 

¦





 
 












 



 


 




 



¦













 




 




Subsequently, Aristotle spoke of the

 
:




 

 


 




 



  
  









 
 
 
 
 





 










 








 



  

 








 





¦

  
 
 








  
 











  



  


 


 





  
  





   

  


 

 
 

 






   . (By water's translation).

There is little of note between him and the writers of the Renaissance period. 
 (4th c. AD), for
example, remarks that tragedy is a narrative about the fortunes of heroic or semi-divine characters. / 


  (u 6th-7th c.) observes that tragedy comprises sad stories about commonwealths and kings. John og
Garland (12th c.) describes tragedy as a poem written in the grand style about shameful and wicked deeds; a
poem which begins in joy and ends in grief. And ', in the prologue to 

)

gives a
representative medieval view:

Tragedie is to seyn a certeyn storie,

c£
As olde bookes maken us memorie,

Of hym that stood in greet prosperitee

And is yfallen out of heigh degree

Into myserie, and endeth wrecchedly.

Later,  $   eloquently refers to 'high and excellent Tragedy' that opens the greatest wounds and
displays the ulcers covered with tissue; tragedy which makes kings fear to be tyrants and tyrants to 'manifest
their tyrannical humours'. Sidney goes on to say that it stirs 'the affects of admiration and commiseration,
teacheth the uncertainty of this world, and upon how weak foundations gilden roofs are builded.'

In the end it becomes fairly clear, from both theory and practice, that, hitherto, tragedy has tended to be a form
of drama concerned with the fortunes and misfortunes, and, ultimately, the disasters, that befall human beings of
title, power and position. For example: oÀ 






ua


À
·




À

 


u

 
 

¦.À 
· 

À
*À 



  
 
À

 À ... What makes them tragic figures is that they have qualities of excellence, of nobleness, of passion;
they have virtues and gifts that lift them above the ordinary run of mortal men and women. In tragedy these
attributes are seen to be insufficient to save them either from self-destruction or from destruction brought upon
them. And there is no hope for them. There is hope, perhaps,  
the tragedy, but not À 

it. The
overwhelming part about tragedy is the  


  
 

. This aspect of tragedy is
nowhere better expressed than by the Chorus at the beginning of Anouilh's play 

:

... 
 
 



 





 


    




 

 




   


 







 



 

 



  

   
 




 
 
 


  










 
  
  












   

   


 



 

 




   
   .

Tragedy is the disaster which comes to those who represent and who symbolize, in a peculiarly intense form,
those flaws and shortcomings which are universal in a lesser form. Tragedy is a disaster that happens to other
people; and the greater the person, so it seems, the more acute is their tragedy. Put at its crudest - the bigger
they are the harder the fall.

In a way, also, tragedy is a kind of protest; it is a cry of terror or complaint or rage or anguish to and against
whoever or whatever is responsible for 'this harsh rack', for suffering, for death. Be it God, Nature, Fate,
circumstance, chance or just something nameless. It is a 'cry' about the tragic situation in which the tragic hero
or heroine find themselves.

On the plane of reality, the life and death of Christ have all the basic traditional elements of tragedy -especially
inevitability. His death was foreseen and forecast, and was a 'foregone conclusion'. And even Christ was very
nearly without hope. His cry of agony and despair from the Cross was the final proof, so to speak, of the
authenticity of his human nature.

By participating vicariously in the grief, pain and fear of the tragic hero or heroine, the spectator, in Aristotle's
words, experiences pity and fear and is purged. Or, again crudely, he has a good cry and feels better. But then,
comedy purges, too - through laughter. And laughter and tears are so closely associated physically and

c
physiologically that often we do not know whether to laugh or to cry. And comic relief in tragedy serves many
purposes, not least preventing the spectator from being overcharged with tragic emotion.

Classical Greek tragedy is almost wholly devoid of comedy (though the occasional grim observation or
rejoinder might raise a laconic smile), but the Greek tragedians made up for this by having a satyr play to make
the fourth part of the tetralogy and this was a kind of palliative burlesque after the full cathartic experience of
pity and fear.

The Greeks were the first of the tragedians and it was upon their work only that Aristotle formed his
conclusions. Unhappily, owing to Aristotle immense prestige and authority, his theories were later misapplied
and misused: either by trying to make them fit all forms of tragedy; or by doing the opposite and excluding all
those works which did not fit his descriptions. Both misapplications were equally harmful.

#  &

A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Othello's jealousy and too trusting
nature is one example. See  À and  u
 .

# 

A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory
into suffering. Sophocles' Oedipus is an example. See  À and  u
.

# 
A genre of play that dominated mid- to late twentieth century drama and that inspires agitation,
frustration, and anxiety; tragicomedies deal with serious topics but provoke laughter and express the lack of
coherent values in the world.

#

A room beneath the stage floor from which scenery and actors can rise to the stage through a trap
door.

# 

The moment in the unfolding of the plot when a change happens that leads inevitably to the
resolution of the dramatic question; also called the ³crisis.´ The observable moment when, in a story or play (or
indeed in many kinds of narrative), there is a definite change in direction and one becomes aware that it is now
about to move towards its end. This is a change of fortune; what Aristotle described as  , or reversal. It
is the equivalent of reaching a peak and beginning the descent beyond. In tragedy, especially, one is conscious
of this crucial or fulcral point

#&
 
  

Scenery, particularly cloth backdrops, painted to suggest three dimensions
though obviously two-dimensional.

8 
  The fictional place in which the action of a play takes place.

8 
 
The fictional time in which the action of a play takes place.
&
Rolling platforms used to move scenery onto a stage.
& 

  A phrase coined by the nineteenth-century English poet and critic Samuel
Taylor Coleridge to explain the convention by which an audience can enjoy a theatrical performance by
knowingly setting aside its objectivity.

å