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◊ AN ACTOR’S VOCABULARY ◊ “Define, define, wel-educatd infant” - Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594-5) “Every definiton is dangerous” - Erasmus, Adagio c. 1500

ASSIGNMENT: CREATE A THEATRICAL VOCABULARY JOURNAL

Introduction Theatre has a very large vocabulary— including the development and use of many slang, words and phrases created over thousands of years of theatre history. The origin of many words in a theatrical vocabulary owes a great deal not only to the country of origin of various theatrical forms (such as Roman “voms”) but also to the vocabulary of sailing ship terminology (especially technical phrases, such as: deck, bridge, loft, pin rail, rigger, etc.). Many expressions and technology overlap the nautical and theatrical. This began when many former sailors went to work in theatres in Rome and again in the Renaissance as riggers and technicians. In Rome sailors placed the first awning (“sails”) over the Coliseum amphitheatre.

Instructions Each student-actor will create and keep a vocabulary journal. A place to record unfamiliar theatrical words and phrases that you encounter to help make them a part of your working theatrical vocabulary. Write down new words that you hear or read; you can record the definitions later. Challenge yourself to record 10, 15, 20 new words in your journal each week. Neatness, completeness, and clarity are a must and will be graded.

century it was customary for the “well- (Samuel French, Dramatists Publishing ◊ ◊ made play” to have four or five acts. (2) Company (for plays), Tams-Witmark, A To perform a role. Musical Theatre International (for above: The area on stage the farthest musicals) are the main publishers of these away from the audience. The upstage act change: A change of setting, props, editions.) area is above the downstage area. An lights, and/or costumes between acts. actor walks above a piece of furniture by actor: Term now used for both men and walking between the furniture and the action: (1) What your character does in women performers. See character actor upstage wall of the set. order to try to get what he/she wants. To and personality actor. act is to do. (2) The progress of the play abstract stage: One in which the bare as made clear to the audience by actor proof: A play that bad acting can minimum of setting is used such as free- dialogue, movement, and development of not hurt. standing doors, free-hung windows, character and character relationships. limited furnishings; stylistic rather than That which happen on stage to hold the actor trap: A slang term assigned to any realistic. This phrases is not in general audience’s attention. (3) In Method technical situation that will trip up an use. terminology, action refers to the inner inattentive actor ,e.g., an uneven step on a motivation of the character, his or her staircase. Absurd, Theater of the: See Dadaism, reason for being on stage. (In this Surrealism, and Theater if the Absurd. context, see also Intention.) actress: A female actor. accent: (1) Emphasis placed on an action, acting area: That part of the stage used Actors Studio: A New York acting word, phrase, or phase of a play. (2) a by actors during the performance. Also school founded by Robert Lewis and Elia prominence given to one syllable in a called the Playing Area. Kazan in the 1940s, followed by the word or phrase, over the adjacent leadership of the controversial acting syllables. act curtain: Curtain usually closest to the teacher, Lee Strasberg, who developed proscenium, which when opened reveals his own version of method acting. An off- acoustics: The total effect of sound in a the scene of playing area to the audience. shot of the Group Theatre of the 1930’s, theatre, affected by size and shape of a Also called Front Curtain, Main Curtain, which introduced Stanislavski to America space as well as its furnishings and floor Working Curtain, or Grand Curtain. (with Kazan, Lee Strasberg, Lewis, coverings. Harold Clurman, and Stella Adler). acting edition: A play text or script act: (1) A section of a play, usually published after the original production Actors’ Equity Association (AEA): indicated by an intermission, a full-length which usually includes stage directions Usually called simply “EQUITY,” this is play has two or more acts. Acts are and notes from the original production. the union of professional actor’s and further divided into scenes. By the 19th Prepared for use in future productions. stage managers, founded in 1913. You

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 1 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages can join Equity is these ways, you can be agit-prop: Short for “agitational Angel Cards :A tradition at the Old Vic signed to an Equity contract by a propaganda.” Agit-Prop theatre is usually theatre in which actors draw from a deck producer, you can join by virtue of prior politically orientated and expressly of cards with random words on them and membership in one of our sister unions designed to “stir things up.” include whatever word is on the card in (the 4As, AEA, SAG-AFTRA, AGMA, their performance that evening. (Source: AGVA), or you can earn eligibility by AGMA: American Guild of Musical Kevin Spacey) completing the Equity Membership Artists. Sister Union of AEA. Candidate program.(logo below) angry young man: The "angry young AGVA: The professional union The men" were a group of mostly working American Guide of Variety Artists. and middle class British playwrights and Today, this union represents mainly novelists who became prominent in the theme park performers. Sister Union of 1950s. The group's leading members AEA. included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The phrase was originally coined alignment: Balanced arrangement of the by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer adjustment: A change in action or body from head to toe in a straight line. to promote John Osborne's 1956 play objective in relation to a change in given Look Back in Anger. circumstances. allegory: A form of storytelling that teaches moral concepts Annie Oakley: In traditional theatrical ad-lib: (ad libitum - literally, at pleasure) terms a complimentary ticket, named Movement or dialogue improvised and Allen Smithee: See Smithee, Allen. after the famous American rifle sharp- inserted by an actor in the production that shooter, because the actual ticket was is not in the script, often without all-nighter: ‘Pulling an all-nighter’ is punched with a number of holes approval. On occasion inserted to cover working or rehearsing a production well (resembling bullet holes, thus the name), fluffs. into the late evening or early morning. in the pre-rubber-stamp days, to designate that it was not purchased, but adaptation: A play taken from a novel, a allusion: Indirect reference to a person, free. movie or other literary material; updates place, or thing. of earlier plays; musical adaptations of antagonist: The character in the play straight plays. amateur: Someone who works in the most directly opposed to the main theatre for the love of it and is not paid character or protagonist. The person or advance: Refers to tickets sold before the for his efforts. force working against the protagonist in a production begins. play. ambiguity: Double meaning. advance man: Someone who travels anticipate: (or Prejudging) React to a ahead of any traveling production American Educational Theatre cue, action or thought that has not yet arranging for the theatre, publicity, Association (AETA): Organization in occurred (i.e., actor falls before shot is housing, etc. support of educational theatre found in fired; actor turns to door before knock, et universities, high schools, and cetera). Looking forward to something. aesthetic distance: Physical or community theatres. psychological separation or detachment anti-climax: A high point in the action of of the audience from the dramatic action, American Theatre Wing: See Tony a play which occurs after the main climax regarded as necessary to maintain the Awards. and is of lesser importance. artistic illusion in most kinds of theatre. Amphitheater: A large oval, circular, or antihero: A protagonist that doesn’t affective memory: The recalling of semicircular outdoor theatre with rising possess any of the traditional qualities of details surrounding an event in an actor’s tiers of seats around an open playing the hero. life to reawaken personal emotions. area; an exceptionally large indoor (Strasberg). See also Emotional Memory. auditorium. anti-pro(s): Stage lighting positions in front of the proscenium arch (or in the afterpiece: A short theatrical piece, like a angel (investor): In theatrical terms a auditorium or house). curtain-raiser but at the other end of the colloquialism for a benefactor who evening. In 18th Century London, a short supports the theatre with financial Antoinette Perry Awards: see Tony comedy performed after a five-act support, but does not expecting financial Awards. tragedy. rewards. Financial backer for a commercial production. Because of the apprentice: An individual who works in AFTRA: The professional union The high cost of mounting a commercial the theatre for the learning experience, American Federation of Television and production ($2 million for a “straight” usually not paid. Radio Artists. Sister Union of AEA. play and $5 million to $8 million for a musical), producers look to corporate apron: (also forestage) The portion of the agent: A professional representative who funding rather than to individual stage nearest to the audience and in front take care of bookings and negotiate investors. of the proscenium arch or house curtain. performance contracts. The extension of the stage in front of the proscenium.

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the secret thoughts of the speaker. (See upstage. Backlighting by itself produces a also Soliloquy).A line spoken directly to silhouette. (Pictured below.) the audience.

"as if": use of a person, place, event, or thing from the actor's life (or to which the actor can strongly relate) that parallels that of the actor's character.

ASM : See Assistant Stage Manager. backstage: The area in back or to the area(s): A portion of the stage that has assistant director: The person who acts sides of the setting not seen by the been designated for use during the as the Iiaison between the director, cast, audience, including the dressing rooms playing of a scene, The stage is divided and crew and takes charge of the and the green room. Also called Offstage. into specific areas, such as down right, up rehearsal when the director is absent. left, etcetera. (Pictured above.) assistant stage manager: The all- back wall: (a) The rear wall of the stage itself. (b) the rear wall of a box set. arena theatre, arena stage : A purpose technical assistant; the backstage performance space with the audience on entry-lever position. balance: The equalization of attention by all sides. Also called Theatre in the bringing actors, properties, set pieces, Round. (Pictured below.) at liberty: An actor’s euphemism for being between jobs or in other words, and other elements into harmony so as to unemployed. achieve the required physical equilibrium. Keeping sets symmetrical. at rise: An expression used to indicate what is happening on stage at the balcony: Second tier of seating. moment when the curtain rises or the lights come up at the beginning of the balloon: To forget one’s lines or business play, or who is on stage at that particular (go up in then air, make an ascension). moment. See discovered at rise. Aristotle’s six elements of drama/ ballyhoo: To arouse interest in an tragedy (ladder of drama): In his atmosphere: The environment of the entertainment through publicity geared to Poetics, Aristotle (pictured below) play created by staging and lighting. flamboyant display previous to opening defines and discusses the six elements night. that make up tragedy: plot, character, audition: A tryout performance for a thought, diction, music, and spectacle. position in a play before producers, bard: In medieval Gaelic and British Also see “The Poetics.” directors, casting agents, or others for the culture, a bard was a professional poet/ purpose of obtaining a part in a story teller, employed by a patron, such production. as a monarch or nobleman. In the modern period the term "bard" acquired generic auditorium: Area in which the audience meanings of an epic author/singer/ sits. Derivation: a place to “hear”, narrator, or any poets, especially famous Roman. ones. For example, William Shakespeare is known as the Bard or the Bard of avant-garde: A group of people who are Avon. articulate/articulation: The shaping of ahead of all others in using or creating sound into speech. Articulation is by new ideas. barn storming or barnstormer: In the means of vowels and consonants. Theater. to tour small country towns and rural areas to stage theatrical articulators: The organs of speech used performances, often in barns. The to produce speech sounds. The most ◊ B ◊ “stormer” part of the word is derived important are the lips, the front teeth, the backdrop: Usually a large piece of from the British meaning “rave” and had jaw, the tongue, and the velum (soft canvas or other material behind the stage a derogatory connotation similar to ham. palate). setting, sometimes with a detailed scene But, early airplane pilots also did barn painted on it. Also called a Drop. storming (performing at county fairs, artistic failure: A production that etc,) receives good reviews but does not backer: See Angel. succeed at the box office. base: The foundation color of makeup backing: Flats used behind door and used for the primary skin color. aside: A short speech intended only for window openings to mask the audience’s the ears of the audience, and by view of backstage. beat or beats of action: A term convention not heard by other characters employed by Method actors meaning the on stage. A typical device, for example, backlighting: Light thrown on the distance from the beginning to the end of of nineteenth-century melodrama, it may performers from above and slightly a continuing state of mind or intention of be used to impart information or expose ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 3 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages a character, whether or not it be explicitly proscenium to aid in masking lights, the stated in the dialogue. A unit of dramatic working rigging, and the fly space. action reflecting a single objective. bowdlerize: To remove or censor bedroom farce: A play that highlights material that is considered improper, sexual situations. offensive, vulgar or objectionable from a text, especially with the result that it “beginners”: The British phrases for blackout: Throwing the playing area into becomes weaker or less effective. After “Places Please!” called by the stage complete darkness by the sudden turning Thomas Bowdler, an English physician manager to bring those actors who appear off of all stage lights. and philanthropist, who published The first in the play to the stage. Also called Family Shakspeare, an expurgated “openers.” This does not mean those who blanked out, blanked: When an actor edition of William Shakespeare's work. have just started in the profession. The forgets a lime or lines in a play. Even famous Shakespearian actors, such formality of the pre-show calls: “Ladies as David Garrick, changed Shakespeare’s and gentlemen, this is your thirty minute blender: The edge of area where a bald tragedies to happy endings (Romeo and call. Thirty minutes please, ladies and wig meets the person’s skin. Juliet “live”, etc.) gentlemen.” Then the final call: “Ladies and gentlemen, beginners please. block, to: Standing in front of (covering) boxes: Audience seats on the sides of the Orchestra to the pit. Mr Bloggs, Mr. another actor. theatre that may hang over the edge of Smith, Miss Jones, ladies and gentlemen the audience. They usually have separate of the chorus, to the stage, please. blocking: Movement of actors in the entrances, and usually seat six to eight Beginners, please.” acting area, and the process of arranging people. They were originally seats moves to be made by the actors. The purchased to “be seen” rather than “see” below: A position or area nearer to the planned movement and stage the play. audience. The downstage area is below composition of the production as the upstage area. An actor walks below a developed during the early rehearsals. box office: The place where tickets are piece of furniture by walking between the sold. The name did not evolve because it furniture and the audience. blocking notation: Movement of actors at one time sold “box seats,” but from the in the acting area, which is recorded by practice of placing your admission fee in belt: To sing in a forceful manner using the actors in common theatre shorthand a box at the entrance to the Elizabethan the chest voice. in their scripts (in pencil). theatre, such as Shakespeare’s Globe. billing: The agreed upon (contractually) blocking rehearsal: A rehearsal at which box seats: Expensive seats located in size and position of names of performers, the movement and groupings on the stage front of and to the right of the balcony authors, directors, designers, et cetera in are planned. and separated from other seating areas. publicity and program materials. blooper: Error by some member of cast box set: Setting which encloses the biomechanics: A theory and technique of or crew. Sometimes called a “goof’ or acting area on three sides. Conventionally acting that uses certain patterns of “boo-boo.” in imitation of a room in which the fourth muscular activity to elicit a particular wall has been removed. Interior setting emotion. Developed by Vsevolod boards: The stage. “To walk the boards” consisting of three walls and often a Meyerhold in Russia in opposition to means to appear on stage. See also Deck. ceiling as well. One of the most common Stanislavski’s method. See of modern settings. (pictured below.) Constructivism. body language: Communication without the use of words. bit: A small piece of business or stage action performed by an actor, usually in body memory: Memory retained in the comedies. They might include little body at the point of past experience; foibles that a character develops due to physical memory as opposed to mind or being short-sighted, hard of hearing, or intellectual retention; sensory retention of clumsy. Quite often bits are added by the past experiences; “Let your body actors during the course of a run to keep remember!” (Spolin) their creative juices flowing at best and to “break a leg”: A theatrical superstition/ get a cheap laugh at worst. book: (1) Alternative term for the script tradition. Traditional phrase used in or play manuscript (2) the prompt book American theatre instead of wishing bit part: A small role in a production or script (3) in a musical the dialogue “good luck”, which is bad luck. SEE: with few lines of dialogue, such as a sections (the libretto) or plot line. merde. messenger or delivery boy. See Walk on. border: Hanging scenery piece or curtain breakaway: A costume, property or set black box theatre: A studio theatre that (another name for teaser) designed to piece that is constructed or rigged to be usually allows various stage-audience conceal the upper part of the stage (the ripped off or break when it comes into configurations. Called a “black box” fly loft) and its equipment. A curtain contact with the actor, usually in fight because no attention is paid to ‘house’ hanging behind but parallel to the scenes. decoration. (Pictured below.)

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 4 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages break(ing) character: To say or do business: Detailed pieces of action anything, as an actor, during a rehearsal developed to enhance characterization, call the show, cast call : the countdown or performance, which is not consistent establish mood, and so on. Not the same to curtain provided by stage management, with what the character portrayed would as the basic stage movement. usually half-hour call, fifteen minute call, say or do or “dropping out of character”. five minute call, and places. business manager: The person bring up: To increase the intensity of responsible for handling the financial part cameo: Important, but small, character lights, sound, volume, et cetera. of a production, printing and selling role. tickets; paying bills; keeping financial broad comedy: Slapstick boarding on records. canon: An entire body or collection of farce or burlesque. Overdone for the an playwright’s writings. sake of the groundlings and lacking busker (n.), busking (adj.), buskins (n.): subtlety. An old English word for a traditional cast: All the actors playing characters in a street performer. The name is derived play. Broadway: That area of New York City from a laced half boot worn by actors of on and adjacent to the street named Greek and Roman tragedies (buskins). cast by type: Actors cast in straight parts Broadway where the commercial theater Busking has been around for hundreds of who really play themselves. of the United States is concentrated. See years in almost every country and culture. West End. They can trace their roots back to the casting: Difficult task of matching the court jesters, early troubadours and actors who auditioned for the production bridge: A transition from one scene to minstrels. In fact, the earliest known with the roles in the play or musical. another, usually using music. busker image appears in an ancient Egypt illustration which includes a catastrophe: An unlucky event in a play brush-up rehearsal: A rehearsal called busker assistant passing the turban that may strike the leading character or after the production has opened to clean among the spectators. After Roman one of the major characters. up or keep fresh the performances. Emperor Justinian closed the theatres in Usually called if there are a number of the sixth century, street performers catharsis: A Greek word meaning a days off between performances, such as provided the only theatrical escape for purging or cleansing that comes as a in amateur productions. Usually done as the common people for the next several result of emotional release of fear and a speeded-through. centuries. For almost five hundred years pity of audience members as that the Gypsies, jesters and minstrels risked experience tragedy, which Aristotle uses build: The increase in energy, tension, or excommunication from church and even in his definition of tragedy. emotional key directed toward a climax, death to bring street level entertainment either in a specific scene or through the to the people. cattle call: An open audition where any progress of the play. Accumulation and and all can attend without appointments. gradual acceleration of tempo, emotional byplay: An action that takes place to the intensity, and action by the dramatist, side while the main action of the play center or centering: An actor’s term for actors, or director at any point in a play, goes on. The byplay usually catches the the point of convergence (an internal but particularly in the approach to the attention of the audience and adds to the point of concentration) of the muscular, climax. humor of the scene but does not respiratory, emotional, and intellectual completely distract from the main action. impulses within the body, that focuses building: The term used by costumers mental energy and from which all for making a costume. effective balance and movement derive. ◊ ◊ Bunraku: Japanese drama that features C center line: Imaginary line running down marionettes about four feet tall; also cacozelia: See Malaprops. the center of the stage from up center to called the Doll Theater. the stage apron. All objects placed on the call: (1) The announcement that warns stage are measured from the center line. Burlesque: Common form of low actors when they are to be needed for comedy, seen in television skits arid in rehearsals, performances, and individual center stage: The area in the center of the performances by stand-up comedians; scenes. (2) Posted announcements placed acting area. exaggerated acting often referred to as on a call-board, usually placed near a 'ham". stage entrance, telling actors or crew central axis: The deepest point onstage when they will be required to rehearse or that is just off-center. bus and truck company: In American work. professional theatre a “third level” Chamber Theatre: Is a method of touring company, usually performing in callbacks: The cast selection process by adapting literary works to the stage using medium sized cities for one or two which actors return for a second or third a maximal amount of the work's original performances only. Named thus, because tryout. text and often minimal and suggestive they traveled by truck (scenery) and bus settings. In Chamber Theater, narration is (cast and the crew). This practice has all call board: The bulletin board used to included in the performed text and the but disappeared today due to financial post announcements for actors and crew, narrator might be played by multiple considerartions. such as rehearsal schedules and costume actors . fittings, usually placed near a stage entrance. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 5 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages changing booth: A small temporary that normally has a single sound, booth in the wings where an actor can allowing the actor to stress a particular make a costume change without going to meaning- or to change a word’s meaning. the dressing room. Circumflex means "curved" or "bending," indicating that pitch rises and falls or Character(s): A character (or fictional falls and rises before sustaining. A character) is a person in a narrative work circumflex inflection can be used at any of arts (such as a novel, play, television time that a sustained inflection is series or film).[1] Derived from an ancient appropriate. Greek word, the English word dates from the Restoration, although it became clambake: An older term for a poorly Chinese Opera or Classical Peking widely used after its appearance in Tom constructed or rehearsed program that is Opera of China (formally traditionally Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of "a much below standard. called Peking Opera): Of the many major part played by an actor" developed. forms of regional theater in China, Character, particularly when enacted by claque: Paid members of an audience Peking opera is by far the most famous. It an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves hired to applaud so that audience is a dramatic form that blends dance, "the illusion of being a human person." members think the play or actor is theater, music, and acrobatics. Character popular, or a group of friends and types are associated with vocal styles. character actor: The true character actor relatives of the actors. Opera had a For example, main male characters sing alters his personality to fit the demands of tradition of paid claques. in the baritone range; secondary male any role. They try to become characters (usually unbearded scholars or unrecognizable in the role. Laurence clear please: Warning for everyone who lovers) sing in falsetto; and virtuous Olivier and Alec Guinnes are among the is not in the next scene to leave the acting female characters sing in high falsetto. best known. In contrast see personality area. The characters use make-up as mask. In actor. Chinese Opera the make-up is symbolic. climax: (1) The high point of interest The color red indicates uprightness and character-centered action: An approach and/or action in a play, act, scene, or loyalty. (drawing above from Macgowan to telling a story which places a character speech. The climax of a play will and Melnitz) Accompanying instruments or group of characters in different invariably occur in the second half of the include bowed and plucked lutes, drums, situations. piece. The turning point in a play in clappers, gongs, cymbals, bamboo flutes, which the major conflicts of the plot are and oboes. A Chinese actor impersonates characterization: Putting together all resolved. (2) a figure of speech a general (on a San Francisco stage in facets of a character to make that characterized by the arrangement of 1884) below. character a living, convincing human words, phrases, or clauses in an order of being. increasing importance, often in parallel structure. Also known as a build or a list. character parts: (1) Roles in which actors deal with traits that differ from clip cues or clipping: To cut short the their own to produce a desired character. end of another actors lines, to pick up (2) A term given to older actors and roles cues very quickly, to overlap the ends if in comparison to lead roles and ingènues. lines. When an actor begins to speak his lines before another actor finishes his cue cheat - cheat out -cheat open: To play phrase. toward the audience while seemingly conversing with others on stage. A stage close: To turn or adjust the body position technique where an actor pivots the torso so that the actor is turned away from the and turns the face toward the audience. audience.

Chekhov, Michael: See psychological closed audition: A tryout open only to gesture. union members. choreographer: Dance director. chew the scenery: To rant and rave on closed turn: A turn on stage in which the stage. choreography: Pattern of the dance as back of the actor is seen by the audience directed by the choreographer. during the turn. (See also Open Turn.) chiaroscuro: In makeup the use of highlight and shadow to create the face. Chorus: In ancient Greek drama, a group closet dramas: Plays meant to be read Also the interplay of light and shadows in of performers who sang and danced, rather than acted. stage lighting and scenic painting. sometimes participating in the action but ususally simply commenting on it. Also, closing: The last night of a show. performers in a musical play who sing and dance as a group rather than cold reading: A tryout when the actor individually. uses material never seen before. circumflex inflection: Using the voice to blend two or three sounds for a vowel ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 6 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages clown white: White foundation makeup Pantalone, one of the stock comic developed by the director Meyerhold in often used by clowns. characters of the Commedia dell’Arte in Russia in the 1920’s in opposition to the traditional costume of red tights and long Stanislavski method. See biomechanics. colorblind casting: See Nontraditional black coat. (Pictured above.) Setting by Lyubov Popova for casting. Meyerhold’s production of commercial theatre: A production where Crommelynck’s The Magnificent Cuckold color coding: Matching characters by risk capital is intended to be recovered, (1922) (below). color or pattern. plus profit, as distinct from non- commercial which implies that the come down: Instructions to an actor to performance is subsidies against loses by move towards the audience. organizations, contributors, and/or grants.

Comedy: A play that deals with treating community theatre: Amateur ,non-profit characters and situations in a humorous theatre that provides an opportunity for way. the non-professional to take an active part in all phases of theatre from acting to Comedy of manners: A play that laughs design. contact sheet: The address book of a at or satirizes the manners and mores of a production, comprised of sheets that particular segment of society, usually the comp: Short for a complimentary, or free, contain the phone and address of upper class. See also Restoration ticket. See: Annie Oakley everyone on a show. These sheets are Comedy. sometimes broken down and given out by company: The persons involved in the department. comic opera: Humorous or satirical production of a play. May also refer to a operettas. permanent group involved in a continental seating: An arrangement of succession of productions, as a "summer audience seating without a center aisle. comic relief: Humorous episodes in stock" company. tragedy that briefly lighten the tension contrast: differences emphasized by the and tragic effect. complication: In a play any incident that presence of the opposite. further tangles the plot. In acting the Commedia dell’Arte: Professional things that get in the way of a character control booth: (light booth/projection improvised comedy that dealt with stock achieving his goal, also called an booth) small, glass-enclosed room at the characters, called masks, and set bits if obstacle. back of the auditorium; used to house business, called lazzi. It developed and light and sound equipment. The stage flourished in Italy during the Renaissance composition: Arrangement of people in a manager often runs the show from the and continued till the 18th century. stage group through the use of balance control booth. and emphasis to achieve an aesthetic picture to promote mood. convention(s): A common practice that is generally accepted and understood by composite photograph: An actor’s audience and performers, developed publicity photograph made up of a through custom or usage. A special or number of headshots on one picture. traditional way of doing things, such as house lights dimming to indicate the start concentration: The ability to direct all of a play, or an idea, not necessarily true, "Razullo and Cucurucu," (pictured thoughts, energies, and skills toward a that the public accepts, for example: blue above) by Callot, Jacques (1592-1635), given goal. Focused attention. light for moonlight and yellow light for French engraver and etcher, an important sunlight (although in reality daylight is innovator in both the technique and concept musicals: A series of more blue). Something that has come to subject matter of printmaking, was one of independent scenes loosely tied together. be part of a style or form. the first artists to depict a complete cross section of society. Razullo and Cucurucu, conflict: Tension and a struggle between conversation piece: A comedy in which an engraving depicting Florentine two opposing forces in the dramatic there is much talk and little action. character masks, is in the Gabinetto dei situation. Disegni e Delle Stampi in Florence, Italy. coordinates: Costumes that are separates connotative meaning: the associations or interchangeable, sometimes reversible, and overtones of a word or phrase. See such as ties, vests, et cetera. Triggers in the text. copyright ©: The playwright, director, Conservatory: A school developed for and designer’s legal ownership and dramatic arts or one of the other fine arts. control over their own creative work. After 75 years, most works are in the Constructivism: An abstract style of public domain and can be performed stage setting and production that employs without the permission of the author. skeletal structures instead of realistic props. This non-realistic theatre was

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 7 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages corpsing: Corpsing is British theatrical piece of business. Often used deliberately technical personnel either verbally or on slang for unintentionally breaking so as not to make obvious the faking of a light, and "cues" actors by giving them character by laughing. In North American an extremely difficult piece of business, their line when they have forgotten it. TV and film this is commonly referred to as in a stage fight, stabbing, and so on. as breaking. The origin of the term is cue sheet: List of particular effects unclear, but may come from (provoking Craftsmen of Dionysus: The first known executed by one department in a an actor into) breaking character by actors’ guild, which originated in Athens production. laughing while portraying a corpse. in the 4th century B.C.E. The name was derived from the annual festivals held in cue-to-cue: A rehearsal of technical costume designer: The person who honor of Dionysus, the god of fertility, effects in a production with actors. The researches the costumes, decides which wine, and theatre. scenes is rehearsed in sections, beginning styles and fabrics to use, and then draws with a cue for standby and concluding or paints the costumes in renderings. crew: The backstage team assisting in when the effect is finished. mounting a production. costume fitting: The meeting where curtain: In addition to it's normal costume personnel measure actors and crisis: Turning point, a moment of definition relating to draperies, a term test-fit their costumes. decision for the leading character; the used to indicate the start or end of a highest point of unresolved conflict. performance such as "Five minutes to costume parade: An event held in the curtain" (five minutes to the start of the theatre where each actor walks onstage critic: A specialist in judging plays. performance). wearing his or her costumes, one at a Someone whose verbalized responses to time. Designed to show the costumes to the play or script are thought to enrich the curtain or “curtain up” or “curtain the director. experience for others. The response can going up”: The stage manager’s call to take the form of newspaper articles, start the play. costume plot : List of the cast in a show television reviews, or public talks. indicating what costumes they will wear curtain call: The receipt of applause by in each scene. Critic’s Circle: A group composed of all the cast as the curtain is raised at the end first-line New York critics from of the play. The appearance of a play’s costume props: Costume accessories newspapers and magazines, who by cast in response to an audience’s used by the actors in executing business - secret ballot award prizes, the Critic’s applause. Formerly actors were called fans, gloves, walking sticks, and Circle Awards, to the best American and before the curtain by the audience. handbags, for example. foreign plays and musicals each spring. curtain line: (1) The imaginary line costume silhouette: Each historic critique(s): Evaluations wherein both across the stage that marks were the period's own distinctive line arid form in strenghts and deficiencies are noted. A curtain closes. (2) The final line in the dress. positive or negative evaluation or play. Also called the Tag Line. suggestion. “cough and a spit” : a small or brief role curtain raiser: A one-act play presented in a play. cross: In blocking, a movement on stage before the main play of the performance. from one area to another. It may be something similar in tone to set counter or countercross: A shifting of the mood, or it may be something quite position to compensate for the movement cross above: To move upstage/behind a dissimilar to form a contrast. of another actor in order to reachieve a person or prop. balanced and pleasing stage composition. curtain sets: The use of curtains as a cross below: To move downstage/in front backdrop for a play. of a person or prop. curtain speech: An out of character crossfade: One effect fades out, lighting address to the audience by a cast member or sound, simultaneously with the new or participant. one’s being brought up. curved cross: While crossing to a person crossovers: When characters walk across or object above or below you to cross in a the stage together or enter from opposite curve so to arrive not above or below the sides and meet on the stage. person or object. (Pictured below.) Countercross Directions (pictured crowd scenes: Scenes involving a above) : When character A crosses from number of extras or bit parts. his UL position to DR, character B will move from UC to LC to balance the cue: The action or dialogue that signals stage, to offset the movement of A, and to that the next line is to be spoken or avoid being blocked by A’s new position. certain business, movement, or effect (lighting, sound, et cetera) is to take cut: (1) The order to stop whatever one is cover: To hide from the view of the place. As a verb, the word may be used doing. (2) to eliminating lines from a audience another actor, a property, or a by the stage manager, who "cues" all

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 8 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages script or (3) a character from a permanent floor. Many expressions and lips, others from lips to tongue. “How performance. technology overlap the nautical and now brown cow?” theatrical. Phrase comes, as many phrases cut-off lines: Lines interrupted by do, rigger, pin-rail, from sailing ship director: The person in charge of another speaker and indicated in the terminology. molding all aspects of production - the script by dashes (---) acting, scenery, costumes, makeup, delivery: The way an actor says his lines. lighting, et cetera - into a unified whole. cyclorama (also cyc): A curved backdrop His/her artistic decision is usually final, surrounding the setting on three sides. denouement: An element of the plot that except in the case of a commercial Occasionally used to represent the sky, it is the solution of a mystery and/or an production where the producer has this is nonspecific in detail. explanation of the outcome. right. cycle: (pronounced “syke”) The entire designer: One who designs scenery, director’s concept: Central idea, sequence of plays performed from costumes, lighting, or sound in metaphor, that forms the basis for all pageant wagons or stages on wheels by consultation with the director. artistic choices in a production. guilds in the twelfth century. Deus ex machina: Literally “the god director’s notes: The comments the from the machine.” In Greek classical director presents to the cast after a ◊ ◊ drama, an actual machine - a crane - that rehearsal or performance, either verbally D lowered the actor playing the god on to or in writing. Dadaism: An artistic-philosophical the stage. Now the term means any movement of the 1920’s that favored contrived ending to extricate the actors discovered (at rise): On stage when the disruption and unlikely combinations. the from impossible situations. curtain opens or lights come up. principal spokesman was Tristan Tzara of Switzerland. Dadaism developed into deuteragonist: A character in a play who discovery: Sudden knowledge— the Surrealism by 1924. It is also the ancestor is second in importance to the audience or a character realizes of the theatre of cruelty and the theatre of protagonist. A phrases not used often something about himself or another the absurd. The term derives from the today. person or a given situation that might French dada, meaning “hobbyhorse” alter the whole course of the action. which was said was chosen at random. dialogue: The words spoken by the actors in the play. The lines of a play dissolve: a cross-fade to another scene or dance captain: Nominated senior or spoken by characters. section, serves to connect scenes. “lead” member of dance team. diaphragm: A tough, double-domed “DLP” (“Dead letter perfect”): A dark or dark nights: Days when there muscle that separates the chest and phrase meaning to be word perfect in line are no performances. The actors day off. abdominal cavities. It is the main muscle memorization, used in the theatre in In professional theatre usually Monday or of breathing. Great Britain. Example: “You must be Sunday. DLP by dress rehearsal.” (Source: Hugh diction: The selection and pronunciation Grant, Inside the Actors Studio) dead spot: A place or area on the stage of words and their combination in that is in shadow or not lit properly or speech. The accuracy and clarity of dock: Area for scenery storage, often acoustically were actors cannot be heard speech. under the stage. properly because the setting or stage soaks up the sound. dilettante: A nonprofessional part-time domestic comedy: Play that explores the dabbler in the arts. contradictions and eccentricities both deck: The stage floor, derived from ship within and between individual characters. terminology. dim: To make the lighting less bright. Example: Life With Father by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crosse. decor: Furnishings, props, draperies, and dimming down: Gradually reducing decorations of a setting. light. domestic drama: Addresses the problems of ordinary, middle-, and lower- deadpan or deadpanning: Getting dimming up: Gradually increasing light. class people in a serious but nontragic laughs through using no facial manner. Example: The Diary of Anne expressions. Dionysus: The Greek god of fertility, the Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert harvest, wine, and since the first theatre Hacked and The Miracle Worker by dead spot: 1. Improperly lit stage area; 2. festivals to celebrate the harvest were to William Gibson. Place in the auditorium from which it is honor Dionysus (The Great Dionysia or particularly difficult to hear the actors. City Dionysia, held in the Theatre of double: To play two or more characters Dionysus), also the god of theatre. in the same production. debut: Player’s first appearance in public, in a new place, or in a new diphthongs: In voice, these are double double bill: Two short plays presented as production. combination vowels where the lips and an evening’s program instead of the more tongue move their position; some usual single full-length play. deck: The stage floor, or a temporary incorporate a transition from tongue to floor that has been built on top of the ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 9 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages double casting: The casting of two actors dramatist: Writer of drama (therefore the or sets of actors who alternate in play). dressing the house: The practice of performances of roles, usually only done scattering a small audience through-out in amateur and academic theatre. Dramatists Guild: The professional the house, leaving seats vacant here and association, not a union, for playwrights, there, to give the impression of a larger double take: To look and seem not to see composers, lyricists, and book writers audience than is actually present. See anything out of the ordinary and then nationwide. (Logo below) papering the house. look again with enhanced recognition and surprise, usually for comic effect. dress(ing) the stage: Keeping the stage picture balanced by moving actors, down ending: a vocal inflection that especially to prevent covering and occurs when the speaker lacks a clear upstaging. objective. In such a case the line drops off in every way— volume, pitch, and drop: A large cloth piece of scenery that (most importantly) intent. A down ending dramatization: To rewrite into a drama a may be lowered from overhead. should not be confused with a resolve work otherwise not written for the stage. inflection. dropping out: When an actor loses focus dramaturg and dramaturgy: One who and attention on “living the moment.” downstage: The general stage-area studies a play, the text, the language, the nearest to the audience. period, the manners and mores of the dried up: To forget one’s lines. See Go characters, the clothing and customs, to Dry and Went Up. downstage right/left: Acting area closest interpret it for a company of actors. He or to the audience and on the right/left side she shares in selecting plays, their dry tech: extended rehearsal, without of the stage as you face the audience (the revisions, or adaptations, choosing actors, devoted to setting (and, if time actor’s right). translations, and writing program notes. allows, practicing) the various technical elements of the production (lighting, Drama: A Literary composition in prose draw: To attract the public. sound, flying, set changes, trapping, and or verse, performed on stage. A so on). Basically a “cue-to-cue” without composition adapted to be acted, in drawing room comedy: A play dealing actors. Also called a “paper tech.” which a story is related by means of with the social life of people who are dialogue and action; a play. well off, usually set in a drawing or dumb show: A show-within-a-show sitting room and bordering on farce. conveyed entirely in gestures, or drama critic: One who attends a pantomime; for example, when the performance to criticize it for a DRC: Abbreviation for down right center players in Shakespeare’s Hamlet silently newspaper or magazine. (stage position). reenact a murder scene.

Drama Queen: A slang, usually dress: See Counter and Dressing the derogatory, term for a person who “acts” stage. ◊ ◊ more offstage than on stage. E dressers: The wardrobe crew members educational theatre: Theatre done by dramatic action: The movement of a who actually help actors in and out of schools, colleges, and universities in their play towards its superobjective. their costumes and assist with quick training programs for students. changes. dramatic devices: See: conflict, crisis, effect: Sound, visual, lighting cues resolution. dress parade: The final check of intended to enhance a production costumes before a dress rehearsal. The dramatic irony: Derived from the cast parade each of their costumes in elevation: A drawing to scale of the front audience’s understanding of a speech or order under stage lights before the view of the stage setting. situation not grasped by the characters in Director and Costume Designer so that the play. any final alterations, changes, or eleven o’clock number: A show tune improvements can be made. which provides a big finish shortly before dramatic poetry: verse language of a the musical ends. higher order that is in dialogue form and dress rehearsal: A rehearsal prior to is used to tell the story of a play through performance that unites all the elements Elizabethan drama: Written during the the words of the characters in that play. of the production exactly as they will reign of Elizabeth I of England function during actual performance. (1588-1603). dramatic time: The period of time that elapses in a script as opposed to physical dressing a set: The decoration of the set EMMY: Annual award for excellence in time which indicated the actual length of with items that are principally for all phases of television production. (From the production. aesthetic purposes only. “Immy”— an engineering term relating to the Image Orthicon Camera Tube.) dramatis personae: A historical name dressing room: A space for performers to for the listing of the cast of a play. hang costumes, put on makeup, and emotional or subjective: The playing of otherwise prepare for their show. roles in such a way that actors weep, suffer, or struggle emotionally. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 10 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages

environmental theater: Contemporary exit line: A line delivered just before or emotional life: an honest connection to theater space in which the audience space just as an actor leaves the stage. the primary emotion of one's character at and the playing space are intermixed, so explosive consonants: Like the word a particular point in a play. that the audience finds the action that’s used to describe them, these occurring all around them and may even consonants are an explosion of breath. emotional memory: One of the most have to choose where to look as they They are: B and P. C and G. D and T. famous aspects of the Stanislavski would in real life. system. By the development of a exposition: Material in the play that is technique through arduous training the enunciation: Accuracy and clarity of included to give the audience the actor is able to evoke the memory of an speech. background required in order to emotion similar to the one the character understand the development of the story. on stage is to feel. recalling specific Epic Theater: A leading theatre style Often refers to action that has occurred emotions, such as fear, joy, or anger. that developed in in Germany between prior to the beginning of the play. Hence the two World Wars that causes the the exposition in a play is most likely to emotional recall: See Affective Memory audience to think deeply about important occur in the opening scenes. The and Emotional Memory. social problems in order to correct them. information put before an audience that gives the where, when, why, and who empathy: The emotional identification Epilogue: A scene, speech, or poem that facts of a play. with someone or something outside follows the end of a play, usually oneself. Ideally, the audience develops addressed to the audience. Common in Expressionism: A highly symbolic and empathy with the characters in a play. classic plays. poetic type of playwriting, usually in revolt against realistic forms of drama. emphasis: The highlighting or accenting Equity: See Actor’s Equity. Expressionist are concerned with of a particular portion or feature of the producing an inner emotional, sensuous, production. The actor may give emphasis Equity waiver house: In California a or intellectual reaction. The inner to a specific action or to a key line and theatre with fewer than 100 seats in emotion is expressed, which does not even to one word. The focus of the which an equity member may work necessarily bear a relation to the outer audience's attention on some part of the without receiving minimum wage. aspects of life. Really an extension of stage. Impressionism as opposed to Realism or escape stairs: Stairs or steps , unseen by Naturalism. (From a school of thought encore: A request by an audience through the audience, that an actor uses to that developed in Germany in the late applause for a performer to repeat part of “escape” after an upper-level exit. Of 19th Century.) his performance in a musical or opera. course, used for entering from these levels also. exterior: An act or scene of a play in endow: to enrich or furnish with any which the locale is out of doors. "gift," quality, or power of mind or body; esprit de corps: The common spirit to invest (imaginatively) with a quality. pervading the members of a group. It externalization: When an actor shows See text for exercises. implies enthusiasm and devotion to the the audience a character's true personality group. through interpretation, nonverbal energy: The fuel that drives acting, expression, voice quality, pitch, rate, and enlivens performances, creates empathy, establishing number: Song providing physical action. and makes forceful characters. essential exposition to the audience about the locale, time period, plot, characters, extras: Actors who appear in a play with ensemble: Sense of “family” unity or theme. no lines and little or no characterization - developed by a group of performers more usually in films and television. during the course of a play; the exeunt: Latin word referring to an actor’s They are needed to perform a certain willingness of actors to subordinate exit function in the play, as in the case of a themselves to the production as a whole. member of a crowd scene. Used to be etiquette: Proper behavior. called Supers (Supernumaries. Still are ensemble acting/playing: A theatrical so called in opera productions). presentation in which the stress is on the exaggeration: An overstatement; an performance of the group rather than the enlargement of the truth. extreme sightline: The seat in the individual. auditorium that, by the nature of its existential theatre: Theatre that supports location, has the best view of back stage; entrance: Coming on stage in view of the philosophy that human beings do not used to determine masking requirements. the audience. Can also refer to the really begin to live until they define their opening in the setting that permits the existence. actor to make his or her way on stage. ◊ ◊ exit: Leaving the playing area of the F entr’acte: (1) Intermission, (2) short stage. It can also refer to the doorway or facial mask: A plaster casting taken of scenes performed before the curtain, (3) other opening in the setting through the face. in a musical the second act overture. which the actor leaves. fade-off lines: Lines that actors trail off because they do not finish them.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 11 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages fade in, fade out: Gradual dim up or out take part. Often leads directly to the of light or sound. curtain calls. focal point: The point of greatest interest on stage during the playing of a scene. fake, faking it: to ad lib, or to make up Fire Curtain: A non-flammable curtain actions because you haven’t rehearsed or hung directly behind the proscenium that focus: The direction of an actor's you forgot. protects the audience from fire or smoke attention, action, emotion, or line emitting from the stage. May be the same delivery to a definite target. falling action: The series of events as the Act Curtain. Also called Asbestos following the climax. Curtain or Fireproof Curtain. fold: If a show folds, it ends. “Fold” usually implies a very short run and falling inflection: Using the voice to fitting: A ‘call’ for an actor to attend for suggests a failure. signal the end of a statement or to express the purpose of trying on costumes or depression, finality, or firmness. wigs, et cetera. folk drama: Early drama performed by villagers usually during holidays and false blackout: A blackout that occurs flat: A scenic unit, a light wooden frame festivals. within a scene but does not call for a covered by canvas that constitutes the scenery or prop change. Usually denotes primary unit used to build such settings follow spot: A spotlight that is not a passage of time. as the box set. permanently focused on one position but can follow the movement of an actor false proscenium: A constructed piece flexible theatre: Seats can be arranged about the playing area. placed behind the real proscenium for for proscenium, arena, or thrust decorative or practical purposes (usually (horseshoe) staging. footlights: Lights located in the stage to make the proscenium opening floor at the edge of the forestage and smaller). floor plan: A scale drawing of the stage permitting general illumination of the as seen from overhead, showing where all stage. Being used less and less in modern Fantasy: A play that deals with scenery and props are placed. Also called theatre. Modern techniques in lighting unrealistic and fantastic characters a Ground Plan. (Pictured below) and makeup render footlights virtually unrestricted by literal and realistic obsolete. conventions of the theatre and usually distinguished by imaginative uses of the forestage: See apron. supernatural and the mythological. foreshadowing: Action or dialogue in Farce: A kind of comedy when one part of a play that gives hints to everything is done strictly for laughs with something that will happen in another little regard for probabilities or realities. part of the production. floodlight: A large lighting unit used for A play that aims to entertain and provoke illumination of broad portions of the laughter. Its humor is the result primarily Formalism: a stylized mode of stage, general rather than specific in the of physical activity and visual effects, production with strict adherence to, or area it lights, as it cannot be focused. and it relies less on language and wit than observance of, prescribed or traditional do so-called higher forms of comedy. forms. Scrupulous or excessive adherence flop sweat: When an actor becomes Violence, rapid movement, and to outward form at the expense of inner nervous because he believes his accelerating pace are characteristics of reality or content, performance is going badly. farce. Example: Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring. found space: Acting/audience space that fluff, or flub: A blunder during was designed for another purpose. performance, such as a missed line or one fast change: A costume change that must Productions in the streets, bus terminals, that is garbled in its execution. be done very quickly, and is therefore gymnasiums, parks, and the like are said done in the wings instead of in the to use found spaces. fluffed line: A stammer, stutter, twisting dressing room. of words, or other faulty delivery by an foundation: a base color in makeup. actor. fat part: A role with lots of good lines in fourth wall: Term that began with the fly or to fly: The process of bringing it. advent of the proscenium stage, scenery in and out of the stage area originally referring to the space occupied vertically. feed lines: Deliberately given so that the by the audience. Because only three of responding actor can get the maximum the four walls of the theatre consisted of fly loft or flies: The area immediately effect out of his return line. the set, actors needed to use their over the stage where scenery can be imaginations to complete the raised by a system of pulleys and fight director: The person who stages, environment in their mind's eye, counterweights. with an eye for safety, any fight scenes in transforming the space occupied by the a play. audience into the "fourth wall" of their fly catching: Movement, business, or set. The term is used in reference to the sound made by an actor to attract finale: Conclusion of a play or, more realistic box setting that comprises three attention to himself when emphasis commonly a musical, when all the cast walls. The audience, by convention, is should be elsewhere.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 12 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages permitted to look at the action through full stage: The entire area of the stage actor to communicate by physicalizing the fourth wall. Today, with the that can be used as the acting area. (showing). (Spolin) proliferation of thrust and arena stages, actors must often use their detailed give stage: To change stage position so as imaginations to fill in two, three, and ◊ ◊ to permit greater emphasis to be focused even all four walls. G on another actor. gaffer: Stage crew head. Foyer: Entrance hall into a theatre. giving the scene: Shifting audience gag: A line delivered to get a laugh. attention from one actor to another. freeze: To remain motionless on stage as if for a picture; especially for laughs. gagging: Slang for unauthorized given circumstance: A term utilized in improvisation or revision of lines by an the Stanislavski system referring to any French scene: In a play a section of a actor. dramatic occurrences that will affect the scene or act which begins and ends with actor’s playing a scene. Everything that the entrance or exit of each named gallery: Highest balcony in a theatre. In the playwright has written about your character and the number of characters is England called the heavens. character's past, present, and expected constant. A “French” scene is not marked future. The given circumstances of the in a script. A French scene is so named gel: A piece of colored medium, now play are all of the facts that the because the entrance or exit of a character made out of plastic, but originally of playwright provides in the dialogue of the designated a new scene in classical gelatin, thus the name, placed in front of characters. These may take place during French drama. Since the entrances or the lens of a lighting instrument to the play or may have occurred before the exits change the dynamics of the scene, it change the color of the light. beginning of the play. The death of is sometimes useful to break up the Hamlet's father be fore the play begins is action for rehearsal purposes, especially generalization or generalizing: Playing a given circumstance. blocking rehearsals, into French scenes. the general emotion (happy, sad, et cetera) rather than the objective. Acting glottal shock: A raspy little bark or a front or front of house (FOH): A the cliché comes out of generalizing. sharp click or pop on vowel sounds, colloquialism for the auditorium and/or which may result from extremely tense lobby, as distinguished from the stage. Genre: kind; sort; style. There are many vocal folds. Used in such terms as front of house and genres of theatre. A type or category of out front. “Playing front” means direct to drama such as comedy, tragedy, farce, glow tape: Tape that glows in the dark, audience. and so forth. Shakespeare's plays are of placed in small pieces around the set so the genre of Elizabethan drama or the actors and crew will not bump into front curtain: Also called the main Renaissance drama. anything during a blackout. drape, usually directly behind the proscenium arch. gesture: A movement of any part of the go: (1) A verbal instruction to perform an body to help express an idea. action or cue. (2) Word written in the front elevation: A scale drawing that prompt script to indicate the same. In a gives a front view of the set. (pictured George Spelvin: See Spelvin, George. cue light system Warnings are red and below.) Goes are green. the magic word; the ghoster: Slang for working an “all- universal way to tell someone to do their nighter”. thing. See also Warning

ghost light: A light left on when the goal: A long-term objective that explains theatre is locked up for the night for a character’s desire or need throughout a safety reasons. The phrase is derived complete play. from the superstition that since all theatres have ghosts that inhabit them, gods: In English theatre terminology they also must have a light to perform by. used to define the very highest gallery Monday night is Ghost Night. Most seating in a theatre. theatres are dark so the ghosts have a full back, full front: See illustrations night to perform their plays. go dry or go up: When an actor ‘loses’ or below. forgets his lines and must be assisted to ghost walk, the: A theatrical history resume. See also Went up. phrase meaning payday, or the somber, silent line the actors made to receive their go on: To enter on the stage. pay on that day. A theatrical tradition states that in Shakespeare’s time, the gopher or gofer: A production assistant actor playing the Ghost in Hamlet was who gets the title from the fact that he or also the stage manager who delivered the she is frequently sent to “go fer” pay to each actor. Thus, when it was something. payday the ghost walked among them. full house: Sold out performance. See SRO. gibberish: Meaningless sounds substituted for words so as to force the ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 13 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages greasepaint: The traditional name for hang the show: To hang all the flying stage makeup, so named because they grotesqueness: An unusual or distorted scenery and lights for a play. originally were made with an oil base. feature. hanging plot: A listing of all the flying Greek Theatre: The height of the Greek grounding: For an actor consists of scenery and lighting and what is on each Theatre was between the 6th and 5th connecting yourself firmly to the earth piece (pipe), prepared by the technical century B.C.E.. Tragedy, Comedy, the and maintaining a relaxed, secure director or the stage manager. Satyr play. physical stance, firmly resting on the floor. Heads Up! or Heads!: A warning indicating a piece of scenery or other groundling: A term used by Shakespeare object is falling or being lowered. in Hamlet (and in general use at the Elizabethan period) to refer to a spectator heavy: Role of a villain. who stood in the pit in front of the stage. Tragic Masks of the Greek Theatre These were the cheapest of tickets, and head shot: An 8” x 10” portrait (above). The large dignified masks made those who stood were often unruly. photograph of an actor which is attached a strong facial expression visible in the to a resume. (sample below) vast theatre. Between episodes they could ground cloth: A canvas covering the be changed to indicate a change of floor of a stage used as a padding for the emotion. Drawn by Martha Sutherland acting area usually painted to represent (Kernolde) grass, stones, etc.

ground plan: See Floor Plan.

groundrow: A low profile of scenery that can stand by itself and is used to mask the bottom of the backdrop or heroic drama: Period play written in background curtain. Greek Theatre in which the original wood verse. In contrast to tragedy, it is marked skene building has been replaced by a by a happy ending, or an ending in which grouping: Placing the cast about the stone structure. (Colyer) (pictured above) the deaths of the main characters are stage. considered a triumph and not a defeat. Green Room: Actor’s lounge backstage. Example: Cyrano de Bergerac by Traditionally the gathering place for Edmond Ronstand. actors in the backstage area, often serving ◊ H ◊ a social function as well and were cast half hour: Half hour call. Warning to high comedy: A play that includes members meet their public. It is not true company given 30 minutes before the comedy of manners and satire and uses that it got it’s name from the first green performance. In professional theatre all clever lines, word play, and allusions. A room, or the “retiring” room in Covent actors must report by half hour. play using a subtle type of comedy Garden Theatre in London, which was designed for an intellectual audience with said to have been painted green. Some ham/ham acting: Exaggerated characters who are often artificial and believe it got its name from Greek overacting. An actor who is bad or display false emotions. theatre, when actors would rest offstage pretentious, or both. in a leafy grove. Most professional highlighting: The term used when theatres do not have green rooms today. hamartia: A tragic flaw which is the applying lighter colored makeup to bring undoing of a particular character. out facial features. grid: (Gridiron) A framework of steel beams above the stage that supports the handbill: A printed announcement of a Hirschfeld, Al (caricaturing himself rigging required to fly scenery. forthcoming show (flyers and postcards below): Has been Broadway’s premier now do this also. caricaturist for 72 years. A Hirschfeld gridding: The process used to enlarge a drawing is theatre as surely as Shubert sketch to a drop. handle: A word that an actor adds to the Alley. His work has been appearing in begging of a line, that was not originally The New York Times since the late grips: Stagehands who move scenery. written in the script: Oh, gee, gosh, well, twenties. Has done caricatures for film, but, et cetera. T.V., dance, and theatre performances and gross (income): The money taken in for a personalities. He is most famous for performance before paying bills,salaries, hand-off: The action of a crew member “finding the Ninas?” The word “Nina” taxes, etc. handling a prop for an actor at a was introduced into all of his drawings in designated time and place during a 1945 to herald the arrival of his daughter Group Theatre, The: A New York acting performance. and which he kept as a brain-teasing company and school founded in the parlor game ever since. His trick of 1930’s which introduced Stanislavski’s hand prop: Any small prop handled by hiding the word Nina in the folds and techniques to America (with Elia Kazan, an actor, such as teacups, letters, books, sleeves and hairdos of his subjects has Lee Strasberg, Robert Lewis, Harold and candles. become a national obsession. If the name Clurman, and Stella Adler). appears more than once, Hirschfeld puts a

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 14 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages small number by his signature. Fans house seats: Audience seats retained by as a movement in the theatre, it gave rise become frantic if they cannot find all the the management to cover errors or to be to expressionism. Ninas. He’s on CD-ROM (Hirschfeld: given to distinguished guests. Released The Great Entertainers) and video (The just before curtain time. improv: Short for improvisation. Line King, a 1996 documentary). hue: The purity of color. Improvisation: The performance of dialogue and /or pantomime without any hues: Various colors seen in the spectrum determined plan from any source other of a beam of light that passes through a than the actor’s own creative spirit, often prism “on the spur of the moment.” The impromptu portrayal of a character or humanities: Branches of learning having scene without any rehearsal or primarily a cultural character, such as preparation. Many actors train in drama, music, literature, and art. improvisational theatre techniques. The Second City in Chicago is the most humor: An appeal to the heart, where the famous troupe of improvisational actors. audience feels tenderness, compassion, Viola Spolin is credited with being the hit: A successful play or performer. love, or pity. creator of modern improvisation techniques. hit the mark: A direction for an actor to go to a certain place onstage and deliver a ◊ I ◊ improvisational audition: A tryout at line, make an entrance, or perform some which the actor is assigned a character IATSE: The International Alliance of stage business. and given a brief description of a Theatrical and Stage Employees, the situation to perform with no preparation. union for stagehands. (Logo below) hokum: Deliberate simulation of emotion by artificial means, and also the improvising: Performing without means used. Sure-fire and time-worn preparation. theatrical tricks. in: To the center of the stage. hold: To stop the action of the play, incidental music: Music within a whether movement or dialogue, usually performance of a play used for dramatic because of applause or laughter. identification: A feeling that a character or atmospheric effect, not as a sound or situation is like someone or something effect. (to) hold book: To prompt, take blocking the actor or the audience has known or notation, and make notes on line readings experienced previously. and changes and cues during rehearsal. inciting incident: Incident near the beginning of a play that gets the main "illusion of the first time": Making the action started. holding for laughs: Actor and/or director audience believe that each performance is creating business to cover while waiting the first for audience laughter to diminish before in one, in two, in three: “In one” is the acting area just upstage of the main continuing dialogue. impresario: A producer and promoter of curtain line, that takes in the area musical shows such as opera. The term is between the main curtain and the first set hot spot: The brightest part of the center less used today. of a lighting area. of legs. “In two” is the area that runs parallel across the stage between the first impressionism: a type of play which set of legs and the second set of legs. house: The part of the theatre in front of seeks to make the audience react and see the footlights, as opposed to the stage and as a character does when stirred by inclination: Moving each body part one backstage areas Usually the auditorium, intense emotion. as in "How's the house tonight?'' meaning at a time. ''How many seats are filled?'' imaginary circumstances: those incongruity: That which seems out of circumstances invented by the actor to place, out of time, or out of character. house left/right: The left/right side of the help make a fuller connection with the auditorium, from the audience’s point of written material of the play. view. This is the opposite of stage left/ inconsistent consistency: That trait of a character that an actor chooses to right. Impressionism: Theory that productions emphasize such as a dialect. should be concerned with artistic houselights: Auditorium lights used interpretation, evoking a sensory indicating or indication: The external before and after the play and during response, rather than with reality. In display of a contrived emotion without intermission. design one strives for psychological inner justification or going through the reaction by use of color and light. The process of feeling it. The imitation of house manager: The person responsible term was borrowed from the French doing. for distribution of programs, seating of school of painting that flourished from the audience, and training the ushers. about 1870 to 1910. Although short-lived

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 15 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages inflection: Modulation, variety in pitch; in the moment: Living the actions and juvenile: A young romantic male lead any change in tone or pitch of the voice. words of a scene and not anticipating between the ages of 16 and 30. what comes next. ingènue: A young romantic female lead between the ages of 16 and 30. IPA: acronym for the International ◊ ◊ Phonetic Alphabet. The IPA provides a K initial incident: The first most important symbol for every vowel, diphthong, and event in a play from which the rest of the consonant in the English language as well Kabuki: Japanese drama from the plot develops. as other languages. sixteenth century, originally an imitation of both the No and Bunraku forms of inner action: See Objective, Subtext, and irrelevant: Unimportant. drama. All the actors are men, and some Problems. specialize in playing women’s parts. isolations: Separating parts of the body They wear very stylized makeup and instrument: A unit of lighting equipment for individual development and wigs. Stage pictured below. on the stage. expression. intensity: The brightness or dullness of a Italian rehearsal: Has nothing to do color. with Italy. The term refers to a run- through in which the actors run through intent: Inner force driving the character's their dialogue at a fast clip (which to behavior. someone, apparently, sounded like a foreign language). It’s normally used in intention: A term used in the Stanislavski educational and community theatre when system that refers to the actor’s real a cast has had several days off and then The actor below is playing a demon. reason for being in a scene, regardless of must gear up for the weekend. Also what he may be saying. If a character sometimes called a “speed run.” Some hates another character, but because of people don’t recommend “speed runs” others present is required to speak because they believe they effect the pleasantly to the person, the proper tempo of the next performance. I believe intention of the relationship must still be they are an effective method to keep the conveyed by the actor. (term used by performances fresh. Robert Lewis. See also Subtext, Objective, Inner Action and Problems.) Something a character wants to ◊ ◊ accomplish immediately. J jack: A triangular stage brace that holds interior(s): Set that represents indoor up scenery. scenes. key light: The main source of light. James-Lange Theory: A psychological internalizing: Getting within a character theory which holds that our emotion is a kill: (1) To spoil the planned to learn what the character is like. bodily manifestation. If the motor activity effectiveness of a line, a movement, a associated with an emotion can be piece of business,or a technical effect, intermission: A break in the action of a reproduced correctly, the emotion itself usually by a miscalculation in timing. (2) play during which the actors or will come. “fright-flight” In the 1980s instruction to cease use of a particular performers do not appear and the many teachers of acting found uses for element of the production (lighting, prop, audience members may leave their seats. this technique. William Ball of A.C.T.: sound, costume). It is now dead. “Do the act, and the feeling will follow.” intermission crasher: A person who This can be termed as working from the kinesthetic awareness: The sense of our enters a theatre without a ticket during outside in, in comparison to the body in space. the intermission of a performance. Stanislavski system, which advocates working from the inside out. (Developed knap: The second sound after landing a intermission dropout: A member of the separately by turn of the century blow - a sliding, slapping sound or clap. audience who does not return after psychologists, C. H. Lange, 1885, and intermission. William James, 1890) investor (angel): Financial backer for a jog: In technical theatre a narrow flat or ◊ L ◊ commercial production. Because of the piece of lumber attached at right angles to Laban, Rudolf: Creator of a movement high cost of mounting a commercial another flat to add a touch of variety and system based on theory consisting of production ($2 million for a “straight” interest to the straight walls of a box set. eight basic actions. play and $5 million to $8 million for a musical), producers look to corporate justification: The reason for a character’s lampoon: A satirical play aimed at funding rather than to individual behavior or actions. ridiculing a person or subject. investors.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 16 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages laugh curve: The audience's reaction that B, C, and D, according to their box office actors listen for in order to anticipate the lights up: To bring up full house lights receipts. Each LORT level has slightly length of time the audience will laugh. for intermission or at the end of a play. different rules.

Lazzi: In Commedia Dell’arte is an limelight: A greenish light created by Low comedy: A play that is quite improvised comic dialogue or action burning lime in lamps that were used on physical, sometimes vulgar, and highly Called today a schtick: a repeated bit of stage before the introduction of exaggerated in style and performance. comic business, routine, or gimmick used electricity. It was brighter than other light by a star performer. See Commedia sources at the time, so actors tried to dell’Arte. stand “in the limelight”, that was ◊ ◊ intended for the stars, that is, the center M leading center: A slight or exaggerated of attention. Macbeth: A theatrical superstition/ movement of a part of the body that tradition. Mention of this Shakespearean shows a character's personality, such as limited run: A play that is set to run for a play by name within a theatre is brave characters leading with their chests. prearranged length of time. considered bad luck by performers, who instead use the euphemism “the Scottish lead or leading roles: The main “line” or “calling line”: During the play” to refer to it. characters (leading lady, man) in a play. rehearsal process when actors are also called “Leads”. “coming off book” the word “Line” is magic if: In the Stanislavski method, the called to be prompted by the Stage ability to act as “if” the imaginary left stage: The area on stage at the actor’s Manager or prompter. No other dramatic circumstances were real. left as she stands center stage facing the communication is necessary to receive audience. Stage left. the forgotten line by the actor. make it larger: A direction to the actor to make the delivery of a line less subtle and leg(s): A tall, narrow drape used to mask line: An artistic value in staging that more energetic. the wings on a proscenium stage. alters proportion and affects the observer psychologically, such as the use of Malaprops (Malapropisms): These legit: Popular abbreviation for legitimate vertical lines in drapes to suggest dignity. mistakes in language use are named after theatre. Live theatre as opposed to Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s play The movies. line rehearsal: A rehearsal specifically Rivals, who muddled up her language. for running lines. Shakespeare would have known legitimate theatre: Originally, malapropisms by the Italian name professional stage plays; now the term lines: Either (1) the speeches of the ‘cacozelia’. that is applied to regional and community actors, an actors dialogue, or (2) the sets theatre, as well. of ropes supported by the grid that are mannerism: A gesture reflecting the used to fly scenery. psychology of character. level(s): Another name for a platform. Also called Risers, Platforms. line reading: A spoken action expressed mansions: A series of acting situations through the inflection, tone, rhythm, or placed in a line (the Miracle and Mystery libretto: The text of an opera or musical. tempo of a line in order to achieve an plays of medieval drama were performed Also called ‘the book’. From the Italian, objective. with mansions). meaning “little book.” listening: The process through which an manuscript (ms): Written or typed play, light comedy: a play written to entertain actor reacts to the other characters as if or the book of a musical. Usually used in rather than to leave any serious message. hearing their lines and meaning for the rehearsal. first time. light leak: Light that can be seen through marking or mark it: Order to record the a crack or opening in a set. liturgical drama: any religious drama. level of a cue or a position of an object on stage. light panel: A console from which the load-in/out: Process of bringing scenery, brightness of light is controlled. lighting, et cetera into or taking it out of a marking out: See spiking. theatre. light plot: A ground plan of the set is marquee: an overhanging canopy or drawn and superimposed on it are lobby: That part of the theatre between lighted billboard over the main entrance drawings of the locations of all the the theatre entrance and the auditorium. of a theatre which advertises the current required lighting, naming the type if lamp production. and its location and the area it is intended loge: A choice box seat in the balcony to illuminate. used for viewing a performance. mask or masking: (1) To conceal from the view of the audience any area of the light spill: Light that strikes the LORT: League of Resident Theatre. A stage not intended to be seen. (2) an proscenium or set and thus “spills over” group of Equity theatres around the U.S. artificial covering for the face, usually in a distracting manner, rather than that have joined together and created a with artificial features. striking just the area it is supposed to specific LORT contract. The theatres cover. categorize themselves into LORT A, B+, mask, in the: In voice using all the vocal cavities in the head to produce sound. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 17 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages

medieval drama: the simple religious milk it (dry): To squeeze the maximum mask characterization: An acting drama originating in the 10th century and curtain-calls or laughs out of a line, bit of technique in which a “character mask” or evolving over 600 years into the great business, or situation. persona is explored. European plays. mime: (1) An offspring of pantomime Masks of Tragedy & Comedy: These Meisner Technique: An off shot of the that gives the allusion to real-life action. masks represent the two sides of drama, work of the 1930s Group Theatre in New (2) A performer who works without the traditional figures of tragedy and York, developed by Stanford (Sandy) speech or props, usually with stylized comedy as developed in the Greek Meisner (1905-97) and taught at the makeup and costumes. Theatre of the 5th Century B.C.E. In Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Greek mythology two of the nine See: Actor’s Studio. minstrel show: a type of variety show daughters of Zues who watched over the popular in America between 1850 and arts (the muse) are Melpomene (Tragedy) Melodrama: A serious play in which the 1870. and Thalia or Thaleia (Comedy). In primary emphasis is on spectacle and Classical times, when the Muses were contrived action rather than logical minor part: a role with few lines assigned specific artistic and literary character development and relationships. necessary for advancing the plot or aiding spheres, Thaleia was named Muse of A type of drama that arouses intense other characters comedy and bucolic poetry. In this guise emotion and usually has a happy ending. she was portrayed with the attributes of Miracle and Mystery plays: Plays based comic mask, shepherd's staff and wreath Melpomene: The Greek Muse of on the lives of the saints or on Bible of ivy. Melpomene was named Muse of tragedy. stories. tragedy. In this guise she was portrayed holding a tragic mask or sword, and memorizing: Committing the lines of a miscast: a situation where an actor was sometimes wearing a wreath of ivy and script to memory. cast in a role that proved to be beyond his cothurnus boots. Her name was derived capabilities to perform. from the Greek verb meaning "to “merde”: A theatrical superstition/ celebrate with dance and song." tradition. Phrase used in dance companies mise-en-scène: From the French, and in English theatre instead of “good meaning the “action of putting on the luck”, which is unlucky. SEE: break a stage.” It refers to the total environment leg. of a play, the overall look and feel of a production. In France another name for Method, The: Refers to the Stanislavski the director. approach to acting. An American school of acting that stresses internal model: A scale representation of a set development of the actor’s resources for design which is usually shown to the cast the purpose of properly motivating at first reading and is then used by the acting, of whom Marlon Brando is technical crews for guidance. probably the best known exponent. It has grown out of the system devised by the moment: The smallest section of Russian actor-director, Constantin dramatic action reflecting a complete Stanislavski, although it is modified cycle of communication. somewhat from the original. Stanislavski founded the Moscow Arts Theatre in monologue: A long speech by a single mass: An artistic value in staging that Russia, and was one of the worlds most character without any interspersed takes into consideration bulk and weight. influential directors. He wrote several dialogue by other characters. books about acting, which are still master leading gesture: A distinctive studied today. (See also Moscow Art monotone: Monotony in pitch; speaking action that is repeated and serves as a Theatre.) continuously on one level; giving each clue to a character's personality, such as a sentence exactly the same inflection. peculiar laugh or walk. Mezzanine: (1) Sometimes the first balcony of a theatre having more than mood: The dominant atmosphere created matinee: A theatrical performance given one; (2) the first few rows of the balcony by the various elements of the in the afternoon. Traditionally matinees and separated from the balcony proper. production. The emotional feeling of the are performed on Wednesday and play. Saturday, or Sunday. Middle comedy: A kind of comedy that includes humor, such as romantic Morality play: A play dealing with right matte: The flat or dull makeup that is comedy, sentimental comedy, and wrong, usually in the form of an achieved by powdering. melodrama, and social drama. allegory.

M.C.: Master of ceremonies, introducer mike fright: Fear of performing, of acts or participants in a variety particularly with a microphone. program.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 18 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages

principles of the form was an absolute muff a line: To say a line wrong, either requirement. by mixing up the words or mispronouncing them. See fluffed line. neutral: (1) A ready state of the body that prepares the actor for action and reaction. mugging: Broad facial gestures designed (2) A physical state free of personal to entertain the audience at the expense of psychology that serves as a base for genuinely playing your part. characterization. Moscow Arts Theatre, The: Was multiple setting: A form of stage setting, founded in 1898 by Stanislavski and common in the Middle Ages, in which Nemirovich Danchenko. During the several locations are represented at the upheavals of the revolution, the theatre same time; also called simultaneous was saved from extinction. After a long setting. Used also in various forms in tour of Europe and America in 1922-1923 contemporary theatre. the “method” spread throughout the No (Noh) Theatre: A six-hundred-year- world. The theatre’s actors were trained Musical comedy: A form of musical old Japanese form of drama, the oldest in the theatre's own dramatic school, by theatre, a combination of operetta and form to be preserved in its exact form. Stanislavski's method. The actors/ musical revue - loosely connected Illustration is of a performance on the directors/acting coaches Richard production numbers. estate of a feudal lord (shown above) a Boleslavski and Michael Chekhov (the Noh mask (pictured below). playwright Anton’s nephew) both worked musical director (MD): In musicals and with Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre. revues the conductor is usually given this After the success of Chekhov’s The Sea title. During rehearsals the MD is Gull had won the Moscow public to the responsible for coordination of all the new playhouse and company, musical content. Stanislavsky and Danchenko, chose the design shown above as their emblem. It Musical play A form of musical theatre appeared on their programs and the front where the emphasis is on real people in curtain of the companies theatre. real situations. motif: recurring thematic element or a noises off: sounds of crowds, thunder, pattern of repetition of design elements in ◊ N ◊ and other effects made offstage (used a work of art. name part: A role bearing the name of primarily in English theatre). the leading character in a play. motivated sequence: The natural way in Nontraditional casting: Casting a play which a person responds to an external narrator: A character who explains with no regard to the ethnicity of the stimulus - the brain registers, the body background by speaking directly to the actors being considered, or casting a responds, and then reacts - as mirrored by audience. show multiethnically. Nontraditional an actor in an improvisation. casting may also include disregard for the nasality: The sound produced when actor’s race, gender, disability, body motivation: Reason behind all stage nasal passages are blocked, leaving the image, or other components of an actor’s action and speech. Skill with which the voice flat. identity. Also called “colorblind” casting. director and actors find the motivation for characters and incidents will determine Naturalism: A style of the late 19th nonverbal communication: the quality of the play. The reason behind century that grew out of realism that is Communicating without words, using a character's behavior; that which often sordid and shocking, presenting a facial expressions, gestures, and body "moves" or induces a person to act in a “slice of life.” Same external form as language. certain way. Realism but emphasizes the natural function in life, with great attention to notes: (1) Adjustments and/or critique move in: to cross toward the center of the detail, as opposed to Realism which is given by the director. (2) Also the time stage. more selective. Underlying naturalistic before or after a rehearsal or performance drama is the notion that environment at which the director gathers the cast to move out: to cross away from the center determines human fate. By the early 20th discuss the rehearsal or performance. of the stage. century, the movement had been absorbed into realism. notice(s): (1) The critical reviews of a move on: A movement on the same plane production published in newspapers. (2) toward the center of the stage, either from Nemesis: Forces set in motion by the A posted note on the call board that the stage left or stage right. character which cause his destruction. production will close on a particular date, thereafter all contracts will “cease.” movement: The displacement of the Neoclassicism: Drama imitative of Greek body through space. Passing of actors and Roman classical models. It was from place to place on stage. See popular in France in the 17th and 18th ◊ ◊ Blocking. centuries. Strict adherence to the O

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 19 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages objective: Something a character hopes to be "on book.” When either the stage to accomplish in a scene. Something a manager or an assistant is following the optimum pitch: The ideal highness or character wants to accomplish script in order to help actors when they lowness of the voice. immediately. The goal or purpose of a stumble overlies. character at any moment in the dramatic Orchestra: The Lower floor of an situation. What the character wants. A one-act play: A short play, running from auditorium with a balcony. reason or need to speak the words. See 15 minutes to 1/2 hour, that is performed also Intention, Subtext, Inner Action and without an intermission or a change of organic blocking: Process of blocking in Problems. scenery. It may be a curtain riser to which the director allows the actors to another, longer play. move at will and then uses their obligatory scene: The scene of the play movement as the basis for his blocking. which the playwright has led us to expect one-quarter left: An actor’s body and without which the audience would be position on stage in which he is standing originality: Freshness of acting style. disappointed. Sometimes referred to as at a diagonal facing stage left, between “Scène-à-faire.” full front and profile (1/2 left). Oscar: Annual award given by the Motion Picture Academy for outstanding observation: The noting carefully of one-quarter right: An actor’s body achievements in all phases of the cinema, people's emotions, physical position on stage in which he is standing (Named after Oscar Pierce, twentieth- characteristics, and voice and diction at a diagonal facing stage right, between century American wheat and fruit patterns from which characters are full front and profile (1/2 right). grower.) modeled. on stage: The playing space of the stage out: A direction away from the center of obstacle: What is in the way of a intended to be visible to the audience. the stage. character achieving his objectives and actions. Actors must determine what OP: The side of the stage opposite the out front: The audience area or the FOH obstacles are hindering their characters prompter. (Front of house). from getting what they want. operative word(s): The key or prominent overlap: To speak or move before the off book: The term used to describe when word(s) to be emphasized in a phrase, indicated cue, or before another speech or the actors put down the script in the sentence or speech that carry the imagery, movement is completed. tenuous but brave belief that they now meaning, and/or the emotion of a nether lines well enough to be "off- passage. In Shakespeare's dialogue, these overacting or overplay: To give to a book." Having memorized all of your words must be emphasized over other scene, dialogue, or action greater lines. words in a phrase, clause, sentence, and/ exaggeration and emphasis than is or paragraph. Operative words often required. Artificial acting. Pushing. Off Broadway: Commercial theatre include nouns, possessive nouns, verbs of productions away from the central action, adjectives and adverbs. theatrical district in New York City. ◊ ◊ open or open up: To play toward the P off-off-Broadway: very small audience. To turn or adjust the body PA: short for public address system. professional theaters with a capacity of position so that the actor can play more under 137 seats, often subsidized, which directly to the audience. pace or pacing: (1) The tempo of the are often set up in lofts, warehouses, or performance. Overall rate of production, churches and are usually characterized by open audition: Tryout open to nonunion including reading of lines, picking up of their experimental scripts and styles of actors. cues, movement, etcetera. (2) when productions. speaking, the rate of speed given to a open cold: (1) To open your first public sound, syllable, word, or phrase. offstage: The area of the stage not visible performance for critics without tryouts or to the audience. preview performances. (2) To open in a pad or padding “your part”: add lines play without the proper amount of to a script to expand your part. Olio: Usually variety acts following an rehearsal or dress rehearsals. old-fashioned melodrama. pageant: any elaborate display, often openers: See beginners. outdoors dealing in a historical or Olivier Awards: In London the religious presentation. equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards open turn: A turn on stage in which the for theatre. Named after the late Lord front of the actor is seen by the audience pancake: A traditional name for stage Laurence Olivier. he was knighted in during the turn. (see also Closed Turn.) makeup. 1947 and made a baron (Lord) in 1970, the first actor to receive this honor. Opera: A form of musical theatre, where pantomime: The acting out of an all conversations are sung. incident or story without words. The art on (or off) book: Unable (or able) to of acting without words. perform a scene without looking at a Operetta: A form of musical theatre in script; the stage manager fllowing along which the music is lighter than opera and pants part: A male role played by a in the script during rehearsal is also said conversation is spoken. female. In England called “breeches

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 20 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages part.” Shakespeare wrote many pants between the cue and the next line or parts. action, with no space between. papering the house: Giving out free picturization: the visual interpretation of tickets (usually for preview nights, nights a play by the audience in which actors are on which critics attend, or when business placed in such a way so as to suggest is slow) to fill the house for a their mental attitudes without having to performance and generate interest in the say anything to reveal their dramatic show. relationships to one another. period: Any time in history which is not the present. A ‘sense’ of period is paper tech: A crew-only technical pilot light: Dim light used by the stage invaluable to all theatre personnel. rehearsal to iron out the mechanical bugs manager to follow the prompt script. in which the crews write down all Some call the “Ghost light” a pilot light. period piece or plays: Costume plays of pertinent information. See also dry tech. other eras. Also, a modern play set in an pit or orchestra pit: The part of the earlier time. parallel movement: The movement house directly against the edge of the onstage of two or more characters in the apron of a proscenium stage; often it is permanent set: A set that never changes same direction at the same time. lower than the floor of the seating section during a play, except when a set piece, and is used for the orchestra in musicals. such as a stairway, is brought in. paraphrasing: Restating lines in your own words. pitch: (1) The relative highness or personal prop: Props that are carried by lowness of the voice. (2) the tone of the a particular character and used only by parody: a play which is a humorous or voice in speaking. him, such as eyeglasses, money, keys. satirical imitation of a serious piece. Places!: A command instructing the personalization: The process of making part: An actor’s role. company that an act, in rehearsal or the dramatic situation personally performance, is about to begin and each meaningful to an actor. part-whole memorization: Studying member is to take the proper position. cues or lines of script line-by-line until personality actor: In general it could be committed to memory. Places please: The final call to actor’s said that this type of actor creates a role and technicians before “Curtain” or within the framework of his own partial set: simple set pieces, “Curtain going up.” In England this is personality and mannerisms, or alters the fragmentary sets, screens or skeletal called “Beginners please” to bring those role to fit his personality. This does not scaffolding in front of curtains, draperies, actors who appear first in the play to the suggest that the personality actor distorts or the back wall of the stage. stage. the role. James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson would be passion play: represents the passion of plant: To call attention to an object or considered personality actors. In contrast Christ. fact that will have special significance see Character Actor. later in the play. Work, object, or idea pastiche: a dramatic piece imitating the deliberately set in to the action of the perspective drawing: Rendering of a work of another writer, usually as a play by either the playwright or the floor plan and elevations to perspective of parody. director so that the audience is lead to the audience. expect some further development from it pause: A lull, or stop, in dialogue or later on. photo call: A cast call made specifically action in order to sustain emotion. for the purpose of taking production Usually marked in a script as (pause). platform: A weight-bearing, raised photographs, whether posed or taken Pauses are used for expression (to structure that can be varied in height by while scenes are ‘run’. achieve clarity, emphasis, meaning, attaching sets of supporting legs. Also contrast, and variety) and for taking called risers, levels. phrase: A group of words expressing a breath. thought unit or an idea. A phrase need not be a complete sentence. pathos: The power to arouse feelings of pity and compassion in an audience. physicalization: The expression of a dramatic situation through the body and Peking opera: See Chinese opera. voice. “Showing and not telling,” “acting out” is telling, while physicalization is periaktoi: Sets made up of three flats, showing. (Spolin). shaped as equilateral or isosceles triangles mounted to a wheeled carriage pick up or picking up of cues: To that can be pivoted. Developed and used quickly begin a speech without allowing in classic Greek theatre. The below is a a pause between the first words of the 1583 drawing of the Italian use of speech and the cue. A command to periaktoi. (Macgowan and Melnitz from increase the pace of the playing, often in Sabbatini.) reference to the shortening of the interval

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Playbill: In the 16th century, a small flier stems from the same base as position: An actor’s place on stage as set given to audiences to announce some “wheelwright,” a craftsman who builds by the director. details of the production. It became plays. A playwright does playwriting. increasingly unwieldy and eventually was person who writes or adapts properties postmortem: A name given a discussion reduced in size to the program of today. known as play; in most traditions, the with cast and crew after the play has The larger playbills became posters. first and most creative artist of all those closed, which covers all aspects of the Below is a Covent Garden, London, who collaborate to make theatre. It is the production, so that improvements can be Playbill of 1758, “To begin exactly at Six playwright’s property that stimulates the made, and mistakes will not be repeated o’Clock.” and “Places for the Boxes to be impetus for a full-fledged production. In in the next production. It literally means taken of Mr. CRUDGE, at the stage-Door musicals, the writers include the writers an examination of the body after death, of the Theatre.” A contemporary New of the music, the lyrics, and the book. usually to determine the cause of death. York Playbill is pictured above. plosive: A constant sound made by practical: A functioning prop that can blocking the outgoing airstream. The actually be used by the actor rather than tongue is dropped or the lips opened one that is ornamental and cannot be suddenly, and the built-up air is released used, in the literal sense, a window that in a little explosion. The underlined opens, a tap that runs water are practical. sounds are plosives: pop, bib, fit, hid, lake. practice skirt: Long skirt worn by actresses during rehearsals to help plot: The story of the play that is familiarity with period movement, etc. developed by the playwright in a logical sequence of events. The series of related Practical Esthetics: An acting events that take place in a play. techniques developed by American playwright David Mamet, actor William plot, prop plot, costume plot, lighting H. Macy, and others, and detailed in the plot: Charts showing were these items books A Practical Handbook for the are placed, stored, or hung. Actor by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel plug: See Play Up. Pollack, Robert Previto, and Scott Zigler, play script: The copy of the play and David Mamet’s True and False: including the dialogue and author's stage “The Poetics”: Written by Aristotle Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. directions. (360-322 B.C.E.). The earliest critical These practical acting techniques were treatise extant dealing with dramatic developed at the Atlantic Theatre play up: to emphasize some aspect of a practice and theory. Company. “The idea is to not feel the play. To emphasize a key line, movement, lines, you have to just say them.” -Scott or piece of business so that it will have poetic drama: written in verse form Zigler. The actor’s job on stage is to greater significance. (Also Plug.) providing a greater economy than prose concern himself with the action of the in utilizing imagery. character, not to become the character. playing space: Stage space, inside the set, visible to the audience. pointing or pointing up: Emphasizing or pratfall: fall on the buttocks. stressing action or words. playing the conditions: The elements of precast: To choose actors for specific time, place, weather, objects, and the point of attack: The moment in the story roles before the tryout period is held. state of the individual that help actors to when the play actually begins. The interpret their characters. dramatists chooses a point in time along Prejudging: SEE: anticipate. the continuum of events which he or she playing the moment: Responding to judges will best start the action and preliminary situation: A clearly defined each line, action, and character in the propel it forward. explanation of the events in the lives of permanent present, such as an actor not the leading characters before the start of a opening a door before the knock. point of attention: What the actor is play's action. focusing on. playing the objectives: Methods used by premiere: First public performance of an characters to reach goals. polishing rehearsals: The final art work. rehearsals at which all parts of the play playing the obstacles: The ways a are brought together so that flaws can be prepared audition: A tryout when the character faces each crisis or obstacle. discovered before the opening. actor uses material that has been memorized and thoroughly worked out. play-within-a-play: A brief play portfolio: A folder containing presented during the action of another photographs, resume, reviews, and other preparation beat: The moment an actor play. In each case the play-within evidence of a performer’s work, takes to prepare himself before he starts comments ironically on the play-without. assembled for presentation at interviews his performance. with prospective employers. playwright: Why isn’t the person a “playwrite?” The word “playwright” ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 22 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages preproduction: The planning period that profile right: performer faces right with takes place before rehearsals begin. his/her profile to the audience. See prop list: the master list of all items that illustration below. could be considered props. Presentational: A play style in which the audience is recognized as an audience props: Short for Properties. All the and the play as a play; consequently, the furniture, set pieces, and objects that are actors may speak directly to the audience. seen on stage. Large pieces, or props that (See Kahan Chapter 1.) are not used by the actors, are called stage props. Small props used by actors preset: Scenery, props, costumes, or are called hand props. Props used only by lights set before the house opens. one character and brought on stage by the actor are termed personal props. profile sets: Two-dimensional pieces of preview: Performances given prior to the scenery, such as hedges or bushes. formal opening. Reviewers are not prop table, box, cabinet: A place in a allowed to attend these performances. convenient offstage area on which all project/projection: To make dialogue or properties are left prior to the movement clear to the audience by prima donna: any conceited or performance and to which they should be proper accentuation and intensification. temperamental performer. returned when dead. Controlling the voice's volume and quality so that it can be heard clearly. primary source: Observing a person's property chief: The person who is in posture, movements, habits, voice charge of getting the furniture and props, Prologue: A introduction to a play inflections, and mannerisms in order to storing them, arranging them on the set, spoken to the audience. Common in build a character. preparing the prop table, and giving the classic plays. actors the props they need. principals: The main characters in a play. prompt: To give lines to the actors when proportion: Taking the human being as they miss or forget them. problems: In Method terminology, the the unit measurement with regard to stage choice of certain small actions that will setting. promptbook or script: A script marked best help to project the intention of the with directions and cues for use of the character. (See also Objective, Intention, proscenium or proscenium arch: The prompter or stage manager; it contains all Subtext, and Inner Action.) wall and arch that set off the stage area the information for running the from the audience. The type of stage that production. (below) problem play: Play built around a has a proscenium arch. proscenium difficulty of society. opening. (illustration below) From the 6th C. B.C.E. Greek proskenium, the production: All the various elements that facade of the skene building. See also make up the finished play ready to be Fourth Wall. seen by an audience. production meeting: a meeting of production staff to discuss items of mutual interest. production number: large showtune with lots of singers and dancers, spectacular scenery, beautiful costumes proscenium stage: “peep-hole”; picture- and effective lighting. frame acting area with all of the audience sitting and facing the stage. production rights: permission granted to perform copyrighted pieces of dramatic prosthetics: Latex molded pieces of literature. prompter: The person who keeps the eyelids, cheeks, noses, and other features director's promptbook and makes which are attached to the skin with producer: The person who finds the penciled notes on cues, signals, et cetera. additional latex. financial investors, hires the director and The person who aids a forgetful actor by production staff, sets the budget, and reading aloud key words or lines protagonist: The central figure or hero of pays the bills. (Prompting) from off stage, usually from the play, from the Greek term meaning the wings. the first actor. The main character in a profile left: performer faces left with his/ play. her profile (that is, the right side of the prompt side “PS” or prompt corner: body) to the audience. See illustration The side of the stage on which the protection factor: When the audience is below. prompter is located. protected by knowing things are not really happening, such as when a pronunciation: Using the correct sounds character in a cartoon falls off a cliff and in words and placing the accent on the stressed syllables. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 23 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages reappears in the next frame without a seated in a circle without action. Usually scratch. ◊ R ◊ accompanied by discussion. psychophysical action: Purposeful rag: A crude colloquialism for a costume Realism: A style that presents life as it action that enables an actor to connect to (USA) and curtains (England). actually is. A selective form of the emotional content of the drama. Naturalism which need not adhere to a rake or raked stage: A stage with a philosophy of pessimistic determinism. psychological gesture: An archetypal slanted floor, higher up stage than down The movement toward realism began at gesture expressing a character’s main stage. the end of the 19th century with Ibsen. desire. This concept was developed by Realism spread rapidly and demanded a Michael Chekhov in To the Actor. new type of acting. This lead to the development of the Stanislavsky method public domain: See copyright. of actors’ training. publicity manager: The person who recognition: In tragedy, a scene in which handles the advertising and promotion of raked house or seating: A slanted floor the protagonist either achieves an inner the play in the press, radio, and other allowing each row of the audience to see awareness as a result of great personal media. over the heads of those in front. suffering or identifies a lost loved one or friend. Pulitzer Prize: The literary prize ramp: A sloping platform used to serve awarded according to the will of the the same functions as a step unit. regional theatres: Theatres that present newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer any type of play for as long as they wish, (1847-1911). In drama the prize is given rant: To deliver lines in a shouting, repeating plays when and if it is wise to to the “best American play performed in melodramatic and extravagant manner. do so New York.” Awarded first in 1918. Eugene O’Neill won it four times. raspberry: a jeer from the audience. rehearsal: The organized periods during which the cast prepares the play for punch: when speaking, the amount of rate: The speed at which words are production. "vocal force" given to a sound, syllable, spoken. word, or phrase. rehearsal (practice) skirt or costume: rave: an enthusiastic appreciate of a Clothes worn by actors (skirts, coats, punchline: line that should get a laugh. show by a critic. fans, canes, swords, et cetera) during rehearsals to help familiarity with put together (rehearsal): A rehearsal at Readers Theatre is a style of theater in specific period movement. which all elements of the production are which the actors do or do not memorize brought together in their appropriate their lines. Actors use only vocal relaxation: The absence of physical sequence. expression to help the audience tension that blocks movement, voice, or understand the story rather than visual feeling. storytelling such as sets, costumes, ◊ ◊ intricate blocking, and movement. The relief: An easing of pressure. A scene, Q original Readers Theatre was presented often comical, to relieve the audience quality: The sound of a particular voice. using only scripts and stools or chairs. from sustained emotional tension, after The material performed was plays, which the tension continues. queue: a line waiting to buy tickets at a poems, narrative fiction, and non- box office. dramatic literature. See also Chamber rendering: A pencil sketch or watercolor Theatre. that expresses the meaning of the play. quick change: Speedy change of scenery or costumes between scenes or acts. reading, a: (1) Process of examining repartee: short, funny replies in scripts for possible production. (2) A dialogue. quick change booth: Temporary staged reading of usually a new work in backstage dressing rooms used for quick which there is very little blocking and the repertoire or repertory: An artists changes of costumes, wigs, et cetera; it scripts are usually not memorized. The personal collection of performance may be used by different actors at first step in staging a new work. This works, such as a singers repertoire of different times during the show. style of performance of literature was songs or an actors repertoire of initially lauded because it emphasized monologues. French word for repertory. quick curtain: the rapid closing of the hearing a written text as a new way to curtain at the end of a scene to add understand literature. Repertory Company: Called Rep, a drama, humor, or impact of the situation. theatre company that performs several reading rehearsal: A rehearsal at which plays in alternating sequence, or that uses quick study: One who can memorize a the play is read by the director or by the same actors for several consecutive part rapidly, usually in an emergency. members of the cast. plays.

“quiet please”: Order for silence. read through: An early rehearsal at Repertory theatres: Theatres that which the play is read by the cast usually present plays at regular intervals that are

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 24 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages familiar to the actors. Repertory: originally a store house. rising action: The series of events following the initial incident. Representational: A play performed as if the audience is watching the action rising inflection: Using the voice to through an imaginary fourth wall. (See indicate questioning, surprise, or shock.A Kahan Chapter 1.) vocal inflection that rises in pitch. reprise: Repeat of a musical number. road company: company of performers who travel with a show that they present resident company: a non-touring group in essentially the same way it was using the same core of actors for the originally created in a theatre center such majority of its plays. as New York. resolution: highest of event that settles road show: A theatrical production that the conflict. tours several cities. resonators: The bony structures that resumè: A short account of a person's role: An actor’s character, lines, and vibrate and give tone to the voice, the career and qualifications prepared by the actions in a play. cavities of the mouth, throat, nose, and applicant for a position; in the theatre, an larynx (voice box). 8" x 10" headshot photograph is part of Romantic comedy: A play that presents the resumè. life as we would like it to be. resonance: The vibrant tone produced when sound waves strike the chambers of return: A flat set parallel to the footlights Romanticism: The style of romantic the throat, head, nose, and mouth. The and at the downstage edge of the setting comedies, showing life as we would like tonal quality of the voice. running off into the wings, just above the it to be. tormentor. rouge: Reddish makeup materials. Revenge play: A popular form of Renaissance play in which many bloody routine: A specially rehearsed sequence deaths take place. of actions, as a dance or song number.

reversal: A kind of incongruity that rotations: Moving each body part in enables the audience to enjoy seeing the smooth circles. tables turned. royalty/royalties: The fee paid to the reversible: a costume that is double- playwright or holder of the copyright of a faced so that by reversing, the illusion of work in return for the right to perform the a different costume is created work in public.

revival: to bring a show back on stage, run: The length of a stage engagement. usually an old favorite, after a lapse of time. running gag: comic business that is repeated throughout a musical. Restoration Comedy: Written during the Revue: A series of unrelated songs, skits, Restoration when Charles II was returned and dances, very loosely tied together by run lines: To recite the lines of a play to the throne of England, after 18 years of the title— usually some topical subject or without the accompanying blocking or no theatre in England. Women appeared tied together with a theme. stage business. This is often d`one to help on the English stage for the first time. actors get off book. One of the humorous devices employed rhythm: The overall blending of tempo, in Restoration comedy was naming the action, and dialogue. run-through: A rehearsal in which an characters in a way that described them, entire scene or act is played without any such as: Wilfull Witwound, Waitwell, right stage: The area on stage at the interruptions. In contrast to a “working Foible, Pinchwife, Sir Fopling Flutter. actor’s right as he stands center stage rehearsal.” See also Comedy of Manners. facing the audience. Stage right. Above Illustration is of the interior of the running time: T`he length of time it Duke’s Theatre. The apron stage, the ring down: A command to close the takes to perform a play. double proscenium doors, and the stager curtain. Based on an old theatrical boxes were characteristic of Restoration custom of ringing a bell to denote the Theatre. Note the musicians’ box above closing of the show. ◊ ◊ the proscenium arch. S SAG: The professional union the Screen ring up: A command to open the curtain. Notice dated 1647 ordering abolishment Actors’ Guild. Sister Union of AEA. of all stage plays in England. (below) risers: See platforms or levels.

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St. Genesius: The patron saint of actors, piece. (2) The proportion of one item to Commedia Dell’arte it is called a lazzi. whose Feast day is August 25 and motto another on stage. See Commedia dell’Arte. is “Saint Genesius guide our destiny.” He was hired to work in a play that satirizing scansion: The analysis of verse to show schwa: Pronunciation symbol with the the Christian baptism and sacrament. its meter, and therefore help discover its sound of "ub"; every vowel has a schwa During the stage performance, before meaning and possible pronunciations. sound. Emperor Diocletian in Rome in the year 300 A.D., he received the word and was scenario: A skeleton libretto explaining score/scoring: (1) The actor’s record of suddenly converted to Christianity. When the actions of each scene of a play, beats and actions that create a role. (2) presented to the Emperor, he declared his musical, or opera. the marking of a script for vocal Christianity. He refused to renounce his structure. new faith, even at the emperor's orders, scene: Either (1) a portion of an act, who had him tortured in an effort to force which by the nature of the action, or Screen Actors Guild: See SAG. him to sacrifice to the pagan gods. When some arbitrary division, is a distinct unit Genesius persisted in his faith, he was by itself; or (2) the locale indicated by the screens: Two-fold and three-fold flats beheaded. Though the legend is an setting, as in: "The scene is set in a small used either as walls against a drapery ancient one, it is no more than that. His living room." background or to cover openings or medal is considered good luck. Ideally, furnishings when changing scenes. the medal should be received as a gift; Scène-à-faire: See Obligatory scene. you don’t have to be Catholic to give or script: The written text of a play. receive it. scene breakdown: Careful annotations The prayer to Saint Genesius of each scene in a play, with all necessary scrim: A piece of loosely woven scenery goes: Dear Genesius, according to a very actors listed and some indication of the material that looks solid when light ancient story, when you were still a action and setting. shines on it from the front, but is pagan, you once ridiculed Christ while transparent when light is shown on acting on the stage. But, like Saul on the scene change: A complete change of something behind it. road to Damascus, you were floored by scenery to change location or minor Christ's powerful grace. You rose adjustments to denote passage of time, season: (1) Traditionally meaning the bearing witness to Jesus and died a great etc, theatrical season, usually autumn to martyr's death. Intercede for your fellow spring. Nowadays a season may be of actors before God that they may faithfully scene dock: See dock. almost any length. (2) The list of and honestly perform their roles and so productions being presented in that time. help others to understand their role in life scene-stealing: Calling attention to your and thus enabling them to attain their presence on stage and diverting attention secondary sources: Books that help in end in heaven. Amen. away from the main actors. characterization building.

scenic artist or designer: The person second banana: The stooge of the lead who designs the setting's, and sometimes comic in a show, the butt of his jokes. designs the costumes, makeup, and The term derives from an old burlesque lighting. Professional scenery, costume, routine about the distribution of a bunch and lighting designers are represented by of bananas. the United Scenic Artists. (logo below) seque: A musical term indicating that one number (or action, or line, or idea) should Satire: A type of comedy that uses a go immediately into the next. humorous attack on accepted conventions of society, holding up human vices, sense memory: In the Method, the follies and stupidity to ridicule process of recalling an experience through detailed attention to sensory data Satires: Literary works or form of (smell, touch, hearing, sight), such as comedy that ridicule or scorn human schemata: A Yiddish term meaning remembering a smell from your past that vices and follies. “rag.” In the theatre refers to any puts you in the same emotional state as costume. before. saturation: The brightness or dullness of a color. schmaltz: A Yiddish term meaning Sentimental Comedy: A play in which sentimental material or sentimental the need of people to have faith in others Satyr play: A Classic Greek play that treatment of material. It also refers to and to lose themselves in the lives of ends the evening in a Theatre Festival. overacting in a serious piece so that the others like themselves is met. performance is maudlin and corny. scale: (1) A drawing or model of items set: To make permanent the reading of made at a fixed ratio to their full size; for schtick: Slang, Jewish. stage business or lines or movement and business after a example, at a scale of 1/2” to 1’, the 1/2” a bit, usually comedy business, a repeated series of rehearsals. (Sometimes used as drawing will be 1’ in the finished set bit of comic business, routine, or an abbreviation for Setting.) gimmick used by a star performer. In

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 26 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages setting: The arrangement of the scenery side coaching: phrase developed by skene: A small hut in the Greek theatre, and properties that designate the locale of Viola Spolin, the creator and first used for concealment during a change of the action. The time and place when and practitioner of the use of improvisation in costume. It has given us the English where the play occurs. the theatre, to mean a verbal assist given word “scene.” by the coach/teacher (as fellow player) to set dressing: Items used to decorate a the actor/student during her work on sketch: a brief farcical bit found in setting. Also called trim props. stage to help her focus. The actor/student revues listens to these comments subconsciously set piece: A unit of scenery standing and makes the adjustments suggested as skit: A short scene of dialogue or alone. she continues. Subsequently side pantomime, usually in a satirical or coaching becomes part of the student’s humorous vein. set props: Props that stand on the stage unconscious, a message to the total floor, or other props not carried on by organism. slapstick: A double lathe stick with actors. Compare to hand props. handle which clowns beat each other. The sight cue: a non-verbal cue usually given two lathes striking together make a slap shades: Dark or deep colors. as stage business. sound. Derived from Commedia dell’arte. Gave its name to the sort of broad humor shadowing: Term used in applying sight gag: visual humor from a funny or comic business which relies on darker makeup to bring out facial prop, costume, makeup, hairstyle, or ridiculous physical activity called features. movement. Slapstick. shape: An artistic value that influences sight lines: The visibility of the playing slice of life: Naturalistic drama both mass and the psychological reaction area from the audience, usually from the purporting to offer a direct presentation to objects on the stage, by using seats on the extreme right and left sides of reality without selection or geometric or free-forms, such as a circle of the house. (Illustrated below.) arrangement. See Naturalism. symbolizing the infinite. slow burn: slow, comic realization that share a scene: Two actors standing or something bad has happened; the disgust sitting parallel to each other. and anger builds within the actor until he/ she explodes in rage. share: To take a position on stage so that equal emphasis is afforded two or more slow take: actor slowly looks out to the actors. Share (ing) a scene or the stage. audience as he/she slowly realizes what has been said or done. sign-in sheet: a list of performers and shift: To change or move scenery. crew that lives on the callboard; cast and S.M.: See Stage Manager. crew should check off their name when shoestring production: a show put they arrive. together with a bare minimum of Smithee, Allen: The fictitious name used financial help, by film directors when they do not want simultaneous staging: stage arrangement their real name attached to the credits of a in which more than one set appears on showcase theatre: A theatre whose main movie. the stage at once, often with a neutral purpose is to obtain paid work for playing area (plateau) in front that can be members of the cast. Usually presented snap out: an instantaneous blackout. used as part of which ever set is being for members of the industry and casting used at the time. agents. sneak:Tto bring in music, sound, or voices at an extremely low volume. sitting on their hands: Phrase used to show curtain: A drop or curtain behind describe an unresponsive audience. the front curtain that is painted to give social drama: A problem play which atmosphere to the particular play being seeks to right the wrongs of society. situation: A problem or challenge the presented. character or characters must face. A play Society of Stage Directors and may have a series of situations. The basic showmanship: A sense of what is Choreographers: Begun in 1959 the situation refers to the one problem that is theatrical effective. independent union for professional central to the play. directors and choreographers. show-within-a-show: A play-within-the- situation-centered action: An approach play. Dumb shows are usually performed soliloquy: A monologue spoken by the to telling a story which takes a single as a show-within-a-show. actor as an extension of his or her situation or series of situations and places thoughts and not directed to, or by characters into them. shtick:. See schtick. convention overheard by, any other actor. It is longer than an aside, and usually the situations: Circumstances that are sides: A typed script that includes only actor delivering the soliloquy is alone on presented in dialogue and action, such as the speeches of one actor and the relevant stage. Which usually reveal the moments of danger or emotional cues. character's inner- most thoughts aloud. upheaval.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 27 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages soubrette: A minor female part in stage picture: arrangement on a stage of comedies whose character calls for spotlight: A lighting unit used to light performers and the visual production pertness, coyness, coquetry, intrigue, et only a small section of the stage. elements. cetera, and is frequently a show part. stage struck: an overwhelming desire to sound patterns: all the sound qualities— break into theatre as a performer, often loud and soft, fast and slow, up and without regard to experience or ability. down, smooth and rough; strong and weak, pleasant and unpleasant that stage turn: a turn that keeps the actor’s characterize spoken speech. SRO: Short for “Standing Room Only”, face toward the audience. or a sold-out performance. sotto voce: (adv. & adj.) In soft tones, so stage wait: Period of time when there is as not to be overheard; in an undertone. stage: The entire floor space behind the no dialogue or action on stage, usually an In music very soft tones. Italian: sotto, proscenium arch. undesired situation caused by a late under + voce, voice. entrance or dropped line. stage business: all visual activity an Spear carrier: Slang expression for an actor does on stage other than personal stage whisper: A stage convention in actor who appears on stage just to fill out business that fills out the details of his which lines or words are spoken so that a crowd or plays a guarding soldier. The character. the audience is supposed to hear but it is term derives from grand opera where assumed to be heard only by those to such a character often carried a spear. See stage call: Meeting of the cast and whom it is intended, but other actors do bit player, supernumerary. director on stage to discuss problems not. See also sotto voce. before a performance or rehearsal. speed run or speed-through: See Italian stagger through: A runthrough at which rehearsal. A rehearsal that involves going stage convention: See convention. the production is pieced together, aiming through the whole play very quickly. at fluency but allowing for corrective stage combat: Any stage fight, from a stops. Spelvin, George: A theatrical tradition. slap to a battle. Fictitious named used on a program by stakes: Stakes are what the character an actor whose real name already appears stage directions: Instructions in the stands to win or lose in a particular in the program, concealing from the playscript relative to movement, situation. They are like rewards and audience that the actor is playing two business, and so on. punishments. Stakes are intimately roles. The name was thought to have connected to obstacles and actions. been first used by a minor actor who stage door: The door, usually at the back “Raising the stakes.” doubled in the cast of Brewster’s Millions or side, by which actors enter the theatre. in 1907. The play was so successful (and standby: An actor who is prepared to it was said George also got great reviews) staged reading: A performance, usually play a role in a production but does not that its author Winchell Smith, continued of a new work, which has had limited currently play a different role in that to have George Spelvin listed in the rest rehearsal, limited staging, and in which production and does not report to the of his productions for luck. Harry Selby the actors do not memorize lines, but theatre unless called to perform. (unlike is another name that is similarly used. carry scripts in hand. The next stage an understudy, who does). See also Alan Smithee. would be a workshop production. Stanislavski, Constantin, Method or spike, spiking, spike marks: To mark, stage fright: The nervous anticipation of Technique: See The Method and usually with various colored tapes, the going on stage to perform. Fear of Moscow Art Theatre. stage area to show the placing of scenery disapproval, indifference, or exposure. or props. Placing the audience as judges. static scene: A scene with little or no movement and often having a slow pace. spill: In technical theatre lLight leakage stagehand: An individual who is always from a stage light. present back stage to operate a status: In acting, the relationship of production. various characters in response to their spine: In the Stanislavsky method, a high/low status. Keith Johnstone of character’s dominant desire or Stage house: The stage floor and all the London’s Royal Court Theatre created motivation, which underlies his or her space above it up to the grid. the high/low improvisation status game, action in the play. See Superobjective. in which the status of the characters shifts stage left, stage right: To the left and throughout the exercise. Various status Spolin. Viola: See Improvisation. right of the actor when facing the relationships are: parent-child, teacher- audience. From the actor’s point of view. student, rescuer-victim, master-slave. spontaneity: Naturalness without preplanning. Freshness; as of the first stage manager: The person who is in steal or stealing the scene: The act of time. complete charge backstage during the having one actor assume emphasis by rehearsals and performances. drawing attention away from the spoofs: Literary works that poke fun at character to whom it would normally be certain subjects or time periods.

◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 28 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages paid. The term is often used in a style: The way in which a play is written, Surrealism: From the French derogatory sense. acted, and produced. surrealisme, coined in 1924, and meaning “above or beyond reality.” it was a step unit: One group of several steps stylization: A blending of script and movement attacking formalism in the arts used in the stage setting. production in a deliberately nonrealistic and brought dream material and the manner. experiences of the unconscious mind into stichomythia: Rapidly delivered dialog literature. Also sometimes called Theatre in which the characters speak alternate subordination: To treat any element of of the Absurd. lines. The effect is that each character the production as of minor or Secondary finishes the other’s thoughts. First used in importance so as to focus emphasis suspension of disbelief: The audience’s Greek Drama. elsewhere. willingness to accept the illusion and conventions of a theatrical performance. stock character: Not only a “flat” subplot: A second plot subsidiary to the character but a generic type found main one in a play. It may parallel and sustained inflection: Using the voice to throughout drama: jealous husband, comment on the main plot, it may be just suggest calmness, decisiveness, or clever servant, braggart soldier, a side issue, or it may help the main plot steadiness of purpose by staying on the hypocrite, miser. Most common to along. same note. A vocal inflection that neither comedy, but also found in serious plays. rises nor drops in pitch. It keeps the "ball substitution: The use by an actor of a in the air" and is used when the speaker is Stock Company: A permanent group of personal experience (people, events, or in mid-thought or when a caesura (pause) actors that puts on a number of different things) to relate the experience of a is either appropriate or necessary for an plays during a comparatively brief period character within a play. intake of breath in the middle of a of time, as in a summer season. “In thought or action. Stock”. subtext: A term used in the Stanislavski system that refers to the real or full swan song: an actor’s final performance, stooge: a performer placed in the meaning underlying the character’s lines originating from the idea that the swan is audience to act as a tool or butt of the of dialogue— the purpose for which the supposed to make a final utterance before comedian’s joke. words are spoken or their inner meaning. it dies. Subtext involves thought, intent, and stop the show: audience response for a emotion, all of which are derived from symbolic: The use of characters, props, character, scene or song which is so great detailed and imaginative attention to and sets to exemplify ideas, such as a that the action of the play must be given and imaginary circumstances. blue bird symbolizing happiness. literally stopped until the applause Hence, the lines are considered text, the subsides. underlying meaning the Subtext. (see also symbolist drama: a form of drama in Intention, term used by Robert Lewis, which subjectivity and spirituality is straight line: line that sets up a punch Objective, Inner Action and Problems.) considered a higher form of truth than line so it will get a laugh. Information implied but not specifically mere observance of outward appearance. stated in the script. Character straight man: one who delivers straight interpretations which are not in a script super, supernumerary: a performer lines to a comic. but are supplied by an actor. without a speaking part who appears in a mob scene. straight role: A role without marked Summer Stock: A stock company that eccentricities, usually a young man or operates only during the summer. woman. Roles in which the actor and the ◊ ◊ character are similar. super or supernumarary: Non-speaking T actor not specifically named in the text, tableaux: A grouping of performers to street theater: open-air spaces where usually in background scenes, such as make a stage picture, often used for acting troupes try to attract audiences, mobs, crowds, armies, townspeople, curtain calls. often for the purpose of social activism. choruses. tag line: The final line of a character stretching a character: Making a role superobjective: A term often utilized by when leaving the stage or just prior to the unique, individual, and interesting Method actors and the Stanislavski fall of the curtain. system to describe the motivating idea or stress: The relative loudness or force of theme that pervades the entire play. Every take-in: See Load-in. vocal utterance given a syllable or word major character has his or her own in a sound pattern, to emphasize a word objective deriving from the spine or take it down: An instruction from a or phrase in speaking. superobjective of the play. director to an actor to reduce the energy, volume, or intensity in his or her line strike: To remove or take down objects supporting roles: Those characters who reading or performance. from the stage. act as contrasts to others - characters with whom other characters, usually the tape the stage: the process of depicting strong: Having high attention value, as in protagonist, are compared. the outlines of the set on the rehearsal a strong position or area. room floor, using colored tape; generally done by the stage manager before the first rehearsal. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 29 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages

longer true. Others say that “theater” take stage: To assume a more prominent designates the buildings were films are body position or move to the most shown, and “theatre” where live emphatic area so as to receive the focus entertainment is featured. Again, this is of attention. Take stage, Taking a Scene. arbitrary. For more detail see AMERICAN THEATRE Magazine taking yourself out of a scene: The http://www.americantheatre.org/ actor's turning away from the audience 2015/07/20/re-the-re-in-theatre/ into a three-quarter back or full back three-quarter left: performer turns to a position. theatre-in-the-round: See arena theatre. position halfway between left profile and full back. teaser: A border drapery that masks the theatre of cruelty: 1930 movement fly space and determines the height of the designed to disrupt the logic of the three-quarter right: performer is in a stage opening. It is located behind the audience and free their subconscious position halfway between full back and house curtain and immediately in front of minds so that they might experience the right profile. the tormentors. mysterious forces of existence characterized by magic and myth. throw away: To underplay deliberately a technician or techie: An individual who line or business, often to achieve greater runs the technical elements of a Theater of the Absurd: A form of emphasis elsewhere in the scene or play. production. theatre in which language becomes the Or throw it away. unconventional, and in which political technical director: The person who and social problems are examined and through-line: The series of actions that executes the designs of the scenic artist presented to the audience in lead a character toward the fulfillment of with the help of a crew. unconventional ways. Most of these plays the superobjective. Also called through- deal with the senselessness of the human action or through-line of action. technical or objective acting: Use of condition. The most famous play of this learned skills of acting, movement, genre being Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for thrust stage: Type of stage which speech, and interpretation to create roles; Godot. The phrase was coined by Martin projects into the auditorium so that the no emotional response is allowed. Esslin with the publication of his book audience can sit on at least three sides. Theater of the Absurd. Below is an illustration of an Elizabethan technical rehearsals or tech rehearsal: thrust stage. Rehearsals at which lighting, scenery, and Theatre of Involvement: Theatre in props are used and integrated so that which the members of the audience changes go smoothly. participate in the action of the play. telegraph: a play or action or moment in Theatrical conventions: See which the audience is able to deduce Conventions. what the outcome will be. Theatricalism: The style that says "This telescope: To have two or more actors is the theatre. Accept it for what it is, as it overlap the reading of lines or execution is." The play as a staged work. A reaction of business. against the realism of the early 1900s. timing: The exact use of time, carefully tempo: The impression that audience theme: The basic idea of a play that planned to achieve maximum receives of the general rate of the gives unity to all elements. effectiveness in the reading of a line, production. Directly dependent upon execution of business, or movement. pace. Thespian: Actors are sometimes called Thespians after an Ancient Greek poet tints: In technical theatre light or pastel text: In Method terminology, the and playwright Thespis (550-500 colors. dialogue without reference to the B.C.E.), traditionally claimed to have underlying meaning of the lines. (See been the first person to step from the title role: Character whose name appears also Intention, Subtext.) Chorus to perform as a solo actor. in the title of the play, usually the most Although none of his plays remain, some important role. textual tryouts: Tryouts when actors use titles are known from ancient writings. monologues or scenes. Tony Awards: The Antoinette Perry Thespians: The International High Awards, named in honor of the actress, Thalia: The Greek Muse of comedy. See School Honor Society for actors is called director, and theatre activist of the 1930s Masks of Tragedy & Comedy The Thespians (logo). and 1940s, popularly called the Tonys, are awarded yearly by the American theatres or theaters: Buildings where Theatre Wing for the best work in the plays are performed. The spelling is New York theatre. The first Tonys were arbitrary. Some say the “theater” is the given in 1947. spelling used in the United States, and “theatre” is used in England. This is no

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turkey: In theatrical terms a unsuccessful production, a flop, a gobbler. Any badly uniqueness: The actor's ability to shape a castor badly produced show. The term character’s personality into itself and not originated when bad shows were opened make it a copy of someone else's on Thanksgiving Day to make money portrayal. with the two or three holiday performances before the reviews came unit set: A basic stage setting from out and killed box office business. which several settings can be created. A top: To so emphasize a line or an action set that can serve as several different that it is more emphatic than the line or settings by changing only one or two set action that precedes it. Top, Top it, pieces, or by adding different set Topping. dressing. top billing: the star of the show whose unity: When all elements of the set form name is most prominent on the marquee a perfect whole, centering on the main and at the top of the playbill. idea of the play. tormentors: Two matching flats, usually Unities: From Aristotle’s Poetics, the 3 black in color, located slightly upstage of classic principles of dramatic structure the teaser and serving to mask the wings required in a play - unities of time, place, or to vary the size or width of the playing action. area Together with the teaser they turn in: actor is to face upstage, away effectively serve as a ''picture frame'' for from the audience. unnatural: Machinelike or puppetlike. the stage setting. turn out: actor is to face downstage, unnatural sounds: Those sounds such as Total theatre: Theatre in which all the toward the audience. an undulating pitch that soars up and performing arts are fused into one down like a slide trombone, that draws presentation. turning point: The moment in a play laughter from an audience. when events can go either way; the tour: To travel a production to other moment of decision; the crisis. upstage: The area of a proscenium stage theatres away from “home.” farthest away from the audience. Why Up turning the scene in: Focusing audience Stage? Because at one time stages were trades: Newspapers or magazines attention on the actor who is the real literally pitched at an angle (See: raked). devoted to the entertainment industry. center of dramatic action. You had to indeed walk ‘up’ the stage to get to the back. tragedian: an actor who plays tragic turntable: Portion of the stage that roles. revolves. upstaging: When an actor, deliberately or accidentally, moves upstage of other Tragedy: A play in which the protagonist twist: The unexpected in a play or actors and makes them face “upstage” to fails to achieve desired goals or is performance. talk with him. overcome by opposing forces. (See Kahan Chapter 9.) twofer: A coupon that gives two tickets for the price of one. Usually issued near ◊ V ◊ tragicomedy: a play which is a blend of the beginning or end of a play’s run. value: In technical theatre a color's tragic and comedic elements. typecasting: Identifying and casting an lightness or darkness. Tragic flaw: The factor which is a actor in the same kind of role over and variety show: a program which may character’s cheif weakness and which over because they reflect in real life the contain songs, dances, skits, acrobatics, makews him or her most vulnerable; character. magic, and other entertainment. often intensifies in time of stress. An abused and often incorrectly applied vaudeville: a collection of variety acts theory from Greek drama. ◊ ◊ U also featuring sketches and short plays in undercut: to speak with a softer tone and which leading actors performed. trap (doors): An opening in the stage lower pitch than the previous line. floor that can be used for the ascent or velcro: Strips of material that adhere to descent of characters or objects. Usually underplay: to use a softer tone, less each other when pressure is applied. covered by a hinged, removable door. energy, and a more casual manner than previously. versatility: The ability to change style or troupe: a theatrical company. character with ease. understudy: An actor who is able to play tryout(s): The auditioning of actors for a given role in an emergency, appears verisimilitude: Creating the impression roles in the forthcoming production. only when the person playing that role is of reality in the mind of the audience so taken ill. In most instances is in the same that it will accept the characters and the cast playing a smaller role. actions as true to life. ◊ ACTING IS ACTION © Phillip Rayher, 2015 Page 31 ACTING IS ACTION — Web Pages

walk-on: A small role with or without right and stage left masking the offstage velours: velvet-like curtains used to dress any lines. (See also Extras.) area. Most frequently used with a a stage. They should not be touched by backdrop to enclose the playing area. actors on the facing as oil in the hands walk through: A rehearsal in which the tend to mat the fabric. actors do all the blocking and business wings: The offstage areas to the right and but do not say all the lines. to the left of the playing space. version: a script that has been altered or adapted from its original form. wardrobe: (1) Costumes and all articles wing space: the amount of space on the of dress of a play, (2) room in which stage that is not visible to the audience, villain: the antagonist in a play. costumes are stored or fitted. wooden : a dull and unemotional visual cue: a cue that the operator runs wardrobe mistress: The person in charge performance or performer which tends to when she sees something happen on of inventory, repairing and maintaining be stiff or inflexible. stage; warned, but not called by the stage costumes for an individual show or manager. theatre season. word play: Verbal fencing, punning, or mock bickering, usually between male vocal coloring: use of sound patterns to warm-up or warming up: Exercising the and female characters. express your character's "emotional body and/or voice prior to rehearsal or opinion" of a word or phrase. performance. A series of physical and work call: The time period during which vocal exercises that prepares the body to the crew is called to work on any voiced: Those consonants, such as b, d, act. technical elements of the production. and V, that cause vibration of the vocal folds when sounded. The underlined warn or warning: (2) A verbal working backwards: A technique in sounds are voiced: the, dip, azure, or, instruction to stand by. To notify that a which an actor prepares the audience for way, his, video. cue is approaching. (2) Word written in what a character will do later. the prompt script to indicate the same. In voiceless: Those consonants, such as p, t, a cue light system Warnings are red and working rehearsal: The rehearsal at and f, that do not cause vibration of the Goes are green. See also Go. which interpretation of the play is vocal folds when sounded. The developed and words and actions are put underlined sounds are voiceless: thick, weak: Having relatively low attention together. should, cat, chin, sill. value, as in a weak position or area. work lights: General lighting that does volume: The strength, force, or intensity well-made play: A pattern of tight and not go through the dimmer board, used with which sound is made. logical play construction that began with for rehearsals and technical work. French playwright Eugene Scribe Vomitorium, noun, pl.:toria. or Vom: A (1791-1861). It uses many now standard workshop performance: A performance passage providing entrance and exit in a theatrical plot devices, such as a secret in which maximum effort goes towards theater, stadium, or other public place. In withheld until the climax, and a logical acting and interpretation rather than sets a theatre with a thrust stage the actor’s ending (denouement) that accounts for all or costumes, usually with a limited tunnel entrance-ways which cut through, the threads of the plot, rehearsal period. or beneath the audience seating areas— which in some theatres double as “went up”: When an actor forgets his workshopping: The process of preparing audience entrances. Taken from the lines, he “went up” on his lines. Also a play through various workshop ancient Roman coliseum-ampitheatre called “dried up” or “gone up.” See also performances, which could extended over spectator entrances. The word has its Go Dry or Go Up. a number of years. origins in the Roman word “vomatorium” (meaning “To spew out.”) West End: The London equivalent of X (cross): notation in the prompt book New York City’s theatre district, that an actor crosses at that time vowel: A relatively open and continuous Broadway, where commercial plays are sound that is sonorous and free of friction produced. noise. In normal utterance (nonwhispered speech) all vowels are voiced. There are wet tech: extended rehearsal, with actors, fifteen vowels in American English. devoted to the integration and practice of all technical elements (light, sound, special effects, and set and prop ◊ WXYZ ◊ changes). See also dry tech. wagon: In technical theatre a platform on whole-part memorization: To commit wheels used to move scenery quickly. to memory individual lines of a script after whole units of the play have been wagon set: In technical theatre the uses read several times. rolling platforms to move pieces on and off the stage wing setting: Several hinged flats, often in matching pairs, set in sequence at stage

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