Acting Vocab

Front 1

aside

Back 1

a character's brief remark, often witty, delivered directly to the audience. other characters on stage are presumed not to hear it. a presentational technique, most often used in comedies from the sixteenth to nineteenth century.

Front 2

beat

Back 2

the section of script during which a single objective is played

Front 3

blocking

Back 3

the physical ingredients of storytelling onstage--movement, gestures, and business.

Front 4

cheating out (or cheating)

Back 4

angling the body slightly toward the audience, while still presuming to face the character you are in conversation with.

Front 5

cold reading

Back 5

an audition in which you are asked to read from a scene without having the opportunity to fully prepare.

Front 6

cue

Back 6

in general, the line preceding your own that "cues" you to speak.

Front 7

cue-to-cue

Back 7

a rehearsal where actors are asked to play only the moment leading up to and during a section of the play where lighting, sound, or set elements are added or taken away.

Front 8

fourth wall

Back 8

the imaginary separation between the actors onstage and the
audience watching a production. The actors do not acknowledge the presence of the audience.

Front 9

gesture

Back 9

a specific physical action that communicates emotion, information, or attitude

Front 10

given circumstances

Back 10

the who, what, when, where of a play.

Front 11

goal

Back 11

what the character wants to achieve.

Front 12

inciting incident

Back 12

an event that is the catalyst for the action of a play.

Front 13

inner monologue

Back 13

the subtext that an actor goes through while acting a role; the
thoughts and feelings that may be as important to role as the dialogue itself.

Front 14

intention

Back 14

another word for acting objective, or action, that an actor pursues while onstage.

Front 15

monologue

Back 15

a sustained speech delivered by an actor without interruption,
or a sustained speech delivered by an actor spoken without the physical presence of another actor.

Front 16

motivation

Back 16

the reason a character pursues a particular super objective. The motivation cannot be played directly; rather, it can be used as a detective device to find the need.

Front 17

objective

Back 17

the needs an actor playing a character pursues at all times while onstage.

Front 18

obstacles

Back 18

the things in a scene or play that keep a character from fulfilling his or her objectives. They provide conflict and heighten the stakes of a situation by creating conflict and upping the risk factor.

Front 19

pace

Back 19

the speed at which you pick up your cue and deliver the next line of your dialogue.

Front 20

practical props

Back 20

props that actually have to work during performance.

Front 21

props or properties

Back 21

small and usually hand-carried objects used by actors during performance.

Front 22

sense memory

Back 22

the use of our strong powers of recall relating to smell, sound,
taste, touch as well as sight to enhance the emotional power of an acting moment or situation.

Front 23

soliloquy

Back 23

a speech given directly to the audience, ordinarily with no one else on stage. Common in ancient and Elizabethan drama and in modern drama as well. Usually played as a direct address to the audience, sometimes played as a character thinking aloud in the audience's presence.

Front 24

stage business

Back 24

hand or other small movements that actors make, often with
props, that although normally incidental to the plot convey lifelike behavior.

Front 25

stage left

Back 25

in a proscenium theatre, the actor's left, while facing the
audience.

Front 26

Stanislavsky, Konstantin

Back 26

the Russian theatre director, actor, and teacher most responsible for the manner and technique in which acting craft is taught. (1863-1938) Co-founder/director of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1897.

Front 27

Strasberg, Lee

Back 27

Austrian-born (but American) acting teacher, artistic director of
the Actor's Studio, and developer of what came to be known as "Method acting," an approach based on early writings of Stanislavski.

Front 28

subtext

Back 28

the meaning of a line of dialogue in terms of the acting objective being pursued.

Front 29

superobjective

Back 29

the overall need that an actor as character pursues during the course of a play--Stanislavski.

Front 30

tactics

Back 30

the means by which a character seeks to achieve his or her goal. Tactics can be inductive or threatening.

Front 31

Take *

Back 31

a quick quizzical or comical look at another actor or the audience. A presentational technique, often used in farce or commedia dell'arte.

Front 32

three-quarters (Actually ¼)

Back 32

a stage position in a proscenium theatre, where the actor is facing half-way toward the actor to his or her side and half-way toward the audience. Thus the audience is essentially seeing a three-quarter view of the actor.

Front 33

throughline

Back 33

the combined series of actions that are mapped out in a script
by an actor in working out his or her character's story moment by moment, scene by scene.

Front 34

upstage

Back 34

the opposite of downstage; the back part of stage in a proscenium theatre; the farthest part from the audience. Derives from the eighteenth century, when the stage was slanted ("raked") toward the audience, with the rear of the
stage higher than the front.

Front 35

upstaging

Back 35

to deliberately go upstage of an actor with whom you are sharing a scene, in order to make that actor face upstage to maintain the illusion of eye contact, or even a genuine conversation. Considered--if done for this purpose--selfishbehavior worthy only of a prima donna.