محمد شاهر
مشرف ومراسل السنة الأولى
عدد الرسائل : 1981
الدولة : Syria
الكلية : Faculty of Arts
السـنة الدراسية : second
النشاط : 2739
تاريخ التسجيل : 10/02/2011
 |  موضوع: Drama terms  2011-12-15, 22:35 | |
| USEFUL DRAMATIC TERMS
ACTION -- A series of physical and psychological events having unity and significance.
ANTAGONIST -- A character or force in opposition to the main character (protagonist).
ASIDE -- A line delivered directly to the audience; presumably unheard by the others on-stage -- a device.
BOX SET -- Stage setting built to look like a room (missing 4th wall)
CATHARSIS -- The effect, at the end of a tragedy, of having been cleansed and uplifted by the experience.
CLIMAX -- The strongest point of emotional tension.
CONVENTION -- An unrealistic device that the audience agrees to accept. (Conventions are stage techniques and conditions, varying from one age to another and from play to play, which are taken for granted by the audience. Conventions include such things as: devices to acquaint the audience with a character s thoughts (soliloquies, asides, interior monologues); the type of stage and theatre used (the box set, an open air theatre with an altar-like stage); costumes, including stylised make-up or masks; language, which may be lyrical or prosaic; and the observance or lack of observance of the unities.")
DENOUEMENT -- the untying" - after the climax - mysteries revealed.
DOWN STAGE -- Area of stage closest to audience.
UPSTAGE -- Back of stage.
DRAMA -- The imitation by one or more actors of one or more events. From the Greek word dran, meaning to do, to act, to make.
DRAME -- Serious plays which don t end tragically.
DRAMATIC IRONY -- The irony produced when the audience is aware of something a character or characters in the play do not yet know.
SOPHOCLEAN IRONY -- Another name for dramatic irony. Often refers to a deliberate ambiguity of language which arises when a character says something that has an opposite or fuller meaning than he himself is not aware of -- but which the audience is fully aware of.
EXPOSITION -- Portion of the play normally in Act I, in which the author gives the audience needed information to understand the play or situation (locale, setting, time, etc.)
FOIL -- A character who defines certain characteristics in the protagonist by exhibiting opposite traits or the same traits in a greater or lesser degree.
PARADOX -- A statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.
PROPERTIES (Props) -- Any article, piece of furniture, or object used in the decor of a play.
PROTAGONIST -- The leading character.
PATHETIC VS. TRAGIC -- Suffering experienced by the passive and innocent is pathetic; suffering experienced by persons who act, struggle, and are in some measure responsible for their suffering is tragic. (pathetic - melodrama; tragic - tragedy)
STAGE RIGHT, STAGE LEFT -- From the actor s point of view, not the audience s.
SYMBOL -- Something - an object, word, character, idea, incident - that stands for something else.
THESIS PLAY -- A play whose message" can be summed up in a single sentence. A debased form; t.v. movie of the week, popular for the last 150 years. Written for the Nouveau Riche, to re-establish the status quo. Okay to marry for money. Catered to mercantile Victorian hypocrisy.
TAG -- The last line in a play.
THEME -- The major idea in a play, but not its subject matter.
PRESENTATIONAL -- Little or no attempt to create the illusion of reality. (Such as Surrealism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Pure Form)
REPRESENTATIONAL -- Deliberate attempt to create the illusion of reality. (Such as Realism, Naturalism)
UNITIES -- Time, place, action. (Aristotle: action and time. French classical theorists added place.)
Unity of Time: action takes place in one day.
Unity of Place: one location.
Unity of Action: one plot.
TRUTH OF CORRESPONDENCE -- The truth concerned with the similarity between the events in a play and the events in real life.
TRUTH OF COHERENCE --The truth concerned with the internal consistency of a play. The parts of a play must cohere into a total meaningful pattern. Play must make sense in its own terms and not have to rely on truth of correspondence. A character is not valid because he reminds us of someone we know in real life. A character must make sense in the context of the play.
WELTANSCHAUUNG -- A world-viewing; a comprehensive philosophy of life.
WELL-MADE PLAY -- Now a derogatory term for a play that is smoothly plotted and neatly resolved with all loose ends gathered and everything explained. An essentially artificial and shallow drama first made popular by the French playwright Eugene Scribe (1791-1861) - who wrote according to a formula - (thesis plays).
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