Drama Terminology

Drama Terminology This list of terms builds on the preceding lists you have been given at Riverside. It contains all the terms you were responsible for learning in the past, as well as newterms. The new terms are marked with an asterisk (*). All terms are arrangedalphabetically within each category. General Terms 1. Dramatis Personae - the list of characters in a play so the audience knows who is who before the action begins. Provided at the beginning of the play’s script. 2. Play – the performed dramatic production seen on stage in live theater 3. Script – the words printed on paper spoken by the actors 4. Act - A chunk of the play’s action. Shakespeare’s plays always have five acts which are noted with a large Roman numeral. 5. Scene - A division of action within an act. Shakespeare’s plays have a variety of numbers of scenes which are noted with a small Roman numeral. 6. Line - A single line of writing in a play which are noted with Arabic numbers. 7. Stage Direction - A direction by the playwright to the actors in the script. It indicates how the actor should speak and/or move during a particular line or scene. 8. Monologue –A single fictional speaker – usually a performance actor - gives an extended speech, either as if alone on stage (like a Shakespearian soliloquy) or as if speaking to a fictional audience. The personality of the character and significant events in his/her life are revealed by the speech. If the speaker delivers the monologue to a fictional audience, the reader also gets information about the audience itself, because the monologue comments and questions allow the reader to infer information in that area. Also known as monodrama. 9. Dialogue – When two or more speakers speak to one another; the spoken exchanges that comprise a play. 10. *Dramatic irony – When a character says something, but the audience knows more than the character does about other characters or events, so the statement comes across with a double meaning that the audience “gets” and the character doesn’t. It was dramatic irony when Juliet first saw Romeo and said if she couldn’t marry him, she would die, because the audience knows that by the end of the play she does marry him and dies anyway. The character’s expectations and the audience’s knowledge differ in dramatic irony. Terms Derived From Studies of Shakespeare 11. Soliloquy - When a character speaks his/her true thoughts and feelings while alone on stage. Soliloquies reveal the character’s real thoughts on a subject. 12. Aside - When a character says something privately to another character while other characters are also on stage. The line(s) are meant for one character’s ears alone. Sometimes asides are addressed to the audience. 13. *Comic Relief - a humorous scene, incident, or remark within an essentially serious or even tragic drama. It evokes laughter as a release from the tension of the serious action and follows scenes of intense emotion. 14. *Pun - this is a play on words in which a word or phrase can be taken to mean more than one thing. 15. *Iambic Pentameter - A line of poetry which is ten syllables in length. The syllables follow a pattern in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one (such as the word “giraffe”), so the line of poetry bounces gently along (soft hard soft hard soft hard soft hard soft hard. “O she does teach the torches to burn bright” from Romeo and Juliet is an example of iambic pentameter. 16. Blank Verse - Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare’s plays are mostly written in blank verse. 17. Tragedy - this is a drama that gives the audience an experience of catharsis or cleansing of emotions. The protagonist, a person of nobility, must make a moral decision that in turn influences the outcome of the drama.