THEATRE TERMS

KINDS OF THEATRES

Proscenium - "Picture Frame" Theatre. Action takes behind the proscenium, which is the arch or frame surrounding the stage opening. The frame provides a strong, central focus. This kind of theatre allows lavish use of scenery and spectacle. Realistic scenery is possible. Distance between audience and performers creates detachment. "Fourth wall."Thrust - Audience sits on three sides of playing area. At back of playing area is some form of stage house that provides for the actors’ entrances and exits and for scene changes. More intimacy is achieved through the immediacy of the actor/performer arrangement. The back wall of the stage can be used to provide a focused background for the action in the playing area.Arena - Stage completely surrounded by the audience. Also known as theatre in the round. Little or no scenery is possible in this configuration.

THEATRE BUILDING TERMS

Wings - Left and right off-stage areasGreen Room - A room where the actors can gather before and/or after the play to chat and to meet with friends. Possibly so named because the original room was painted green. This term came into use during the Restoration. Fly Space - Space above the stage where scenery may be lifted out of sight by means of ropes and pulleys.Grid - Metal framework above the stage from which lights and scenery are suspended.Trap - Opening in the stage floor, normally covered, which can be used for special effects or allows for a staircase, ostensibly leading to a lower floor.

PLAY PRODUCTION TERMS

Playwright - Writes script. In an original production, playwright usually is available for consultation and rewrites.Producer - Producer decides what kind of theatre, where production will be mounted. Mainly concerned with financial aspects of play: finds backers (investors), makes up the budget, oversees publicity, chooses director and designers, and has a say in casting of actorsDirector - Mainly concerned with artistic aspects of play. Has final say on design elements, the cast, and how script is to be interpreted. He supervises rehearsals, explains his concept of the script, critiques performances, and makes suggestions for improvements. The director assumes the role of the ideal audience. The director creates the stage pictures, directs the use of movement, gesture, and business; and the use of voice and speech. Stage Manager - Oversees all of the elements of the production, coordinating director’s work with that of the actors and the technical and design departments. Schedules rehearsals, records blocking of actors, organizes basic "calling" of the show (lighting, sound, scene-shift cues are given by stage manager). Runs the show during the performance. Has final authority over entire onstage and backstage operation. (Sometimes this position is split between assistant director and stage manager).Scene Designer - Create set designs for production. Must give director either a working model of set or a scale drawing of proposed set. Also must provide shop foreman or technical director with a set of working blueprints. Must decide on colors, furniture, draperies, and all props used as set dressing.Lighting Designer - The two major preparations required of the lighting designer are the light plot and the cue sheet. A light plot is a plan or series of plans showing the placement of each lighting instrument; its type, wattage, and size; its wiring and connection to an appropriate dimmer; its color; and any special instructions as to its use. A cue sheet is a list of the occasions, referred to by number and keyed to the script of the play, when lights change, either in intensity or in their use. Costume Designer - Designs the costumes and submits color sketches with fabric swatches to the director. Also submits a costume plot, listing each character's costumes scene by scene. Supervises construction of costumes, fittings, alterations, and approval of all costume accessories (such as jewelry, hats, gloves, shoes, canes, fans, etc.), hairstyles, wigs, hairpieces, beards, and mustaches. Make-up Designer, Sound Designer, Special Effects Designer

Technical Director - In charge of the building and operation of the scenery and stage machinery. May also have charge of the lighting crews and of all technical scheduling.Business Manager - Handles the budgetBox Office Manager - Handles ticket salesHouse Manager - In charge of ushers. Handles audience, providing for admittance, seating, and their general comfortActors

ACTING/DIRECTING TERMS

Blocking - The actor’s movements on stage, such as crossing the stage and sittingBusiness - stage actions, such a dialing a telephoneCue - the words or actions that let an actor know that he is to enter, move, give a line, etc.Kinds of rehearsals - Read-through, blocking, technical, dress (costume parade).Beat - unit of the script which has a beginning, middle, and ending.Throughline/Super-Objective - What the character wants over all in the playObjective - What the character wants at any given moment in the play4^th Wall - The invisible wall created by the proscenium. It is the concept that the actors are inhabiting a world and are not aware of the audience. Directly addressing the audience is called "breaking the 4^th wall."Areas of the stage - Give diagramOff-book - The point in rehearsal in which the actor has memorized his lines and blocking. Theme - The author’s underlying message in the play.Main Action - What is happening on the surface in the play.Protagonist - The main character. This character has a problem which must be solved. He is the one who changes the most during the play.Antagonist - The blocking character. Keeps the protagonist from getting what he wants. Not necessarily the villain.

SCENE DESIGN TERMS

STANDING UNITS

Flats - canvas or muslin stretched over a wooden frame and then painted. Generally used to indicate vertical walls (realistic or abstract) and to define space. Can be pierced with windows, doors, arches, can be adorned with molding, fireplaces, etc.Platforms - serves the function of giving the actor an elevated space from which to perform, making him or her visible over the heads of other actors and/or furniture; permits a large number of actors to be seen simultaneously. Various acting levels creates interest, focuses attention, etc.Stairs, Steps, Columns, Ground Rows

HANGING UNITS

Curtains/Draperies - the great neutral background of stage settings; often used to bridge the gap between the setting itself and the permanent features of the theatre buildingDrops- Muslin or canvas attached to battens on top and bottom and painted with a sceneScrim - A loosely woven fabric, usually gauze that looks opaque when lit from the front and transparent when lit from behindCyclorama - a continuous, hanging fabric stretched taut suspended on U-shaped battens that curve around the back and sides of the stage. It is usually neutral or grayish-blue so its appearance can be changed through lighting.

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ORAL INTERPRETATION POEM CHOICES - Choose a poem from your literature book. 

Make two xeroxed copies of it (NOT handwritten) and bring them with you to class.

Red McDougal Littell Literature Book

"Abuelito Who" by Sandra Cisneros

"One Perfect Rose" by Dorothy Parker

"Song for an April Dusk" by Dorothy Parker

"maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings

"The Names" by Billy Collins

"The Earth is a Living Thing" by Lucille Clifton

"Sleeping in the Forest" by Mary Oliver

"Gold" by Pat Mora

"Scaffolding" by Seamus Henry

"The World Is Not a Pleasant Place to Be" by Nikki Giovanni

"Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes

"Fireflies" by Paul Fleischman

"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" by Shel Silverstein

"My Mother Enters the Work Force" by Rita Dove

　

Green McDougal Littell Literature Book

"Barbara Frietchie" by John Greenleaf Whittier

"John Henry"

"Mi Madre" by Pat Mora

"Canyon de Chelly" by Simon J. Ortiz

"My Mother Pieced Quilts" by Teresa Palomo Acosta

"Quilting" by Lucille Clifton

"Lineage" by Margaret Walker

"Willow and Ginkgo" by Eve Merriam

"Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins

"Macavity: The Mystery Cat" by T.S. Eliot

"The Lesson of the Moth" by Don Marquis

"Identity" by Julio Noboa

"It’s all I have to bring today—" by Emily Dickinson

"We Alone" by Alice Walker

"Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward" by Gwendolyn Brooks

"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes

"On the Grasshopper and Cricket" by John Keats

"Ode on Solitude" by Alexander Pope

"One More Round" by Maya Angelou

"An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie" by Vachel Lindsay

"The Sunflowers" by Mary Oliver

"O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman

"Western Wagons" by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét

Orange McDougal Littell Literature Book

"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe

"Incident in a Rose Garden" by Donald Justice

"Rosa" by Rita Dove

"The Sharks" by Denise Levertov

"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry

"Poem on Returning to Dwell in the Country" by T’ao Ch’ien

"My Heart Leaps up" by William Wordsworth

"The Sun" by Mary Oliver

"Not in a Silver Casket . . ." by Edna St. Vincent Millay

"I Am Offering This Poem" by Jimmy Santiago Baca

"My Papa’s Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

"I Ask My Mother to Sing" by Li-Young Lee

"Grape Sherbet" by Rita Dove

"Spring is like a perhaps hand" by e.e. cummings

"Elegy for the Giant Tortoises" by Margaret Atwood

"Today" by Billy Collins

"Bodybuilders’ Contest" by Wislawa Szymborska

"For Poets" by Al Young

"Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda

"egg horror poem" by Laurel Winter

"O What Is That Sound" by W.H. Auden

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

"To Be of Use" by Marge Piercy

"‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers—" by Emily Dickinson

"Luxury" by Nikki Giovanni

"Kidnap Poem" by Nikki Giovanni

"The Butterfly" by Pavel Friedmann

"The Vietnam Wall" by Alberto Ríos

 

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PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS

Directions for Performance Questions

Be as specific as you can. Give as many details as you can. The more detailed you

answers, the clearer your scenario. This will make it easier for you to actually visualize what you are talking about. In number 1, for example, do not just say, "I am." Describe your character. Only give pertinent details. You are creating a scenario that your selection will logically fit into.

1. Who am I?

2. What do I want (Why am I speaking)?

3. To whom am I speaking?

4. What is my relationship?

5. Where am I (geographic location--be specific)?

6. When (time of day, year) am I speaking?

7. What are the previous circumstances?

8. What is my character=s secret? This should be something that you have never told anyone and that is important to you. It is not revealed in the play.