Final Exam Theater Vocabulary

Front 1

playwright

Back 1

the man or woman who writes the play

Front 2

director

Back 2

a person who supervises the production of a show on stage

Front 3

actors

Back 3

people who represent characters in a dramatic production

Front 4

dramaturg

Back 4

the person who acts as an expert on the play and consults with the director and actors
theater scholar who is part of the production staff
familiar with historical context, biography of the playwright, characters, themes, production history, etc.

Front 5

technical crew

Back 5

individuals backstage who control the technical aspects of play creation (lighting, audio, set design, etc.)

Front 6

foreshadowing

Back 6

representing, typifying, or indicating a future event beforehand

Front 7

discovery
recognition

Back 7

a character's realization

Front 8

reversal

Back 8

a change in fortune

Front 9

tragic flaw
hamartia

Back 9

a flaw or mistake of a character that proves to be his/her downfall in a tragedy

Front 10

spine
superobjective

Back 10

the needs and characteristics of a character that drive his/her every action

Front 11

soliloquy

Back 11

a dramatic monologue that represents a series of unspoken reflections

Front 12

stock or type character

Back 12

an easily recognizable variety of character that fits a particular play genre (e.g. crafty servant, domineering father, etc.)

Front 13

protagonist

Back 13

the principal character in the play

Front 14

denouement

Back 14

untying of the knot
the resolution of the plot's events

Front 15

verisimilitude
lifelikeness

Back 15

the quality of being realistic (i.e. believable as a real life event)

Front 16

the fourth wall

Back 16

division between stage and audience
broken when actors acknowledge the presence of an audience

Front 17

hypotyposis

Back 17

describing something so vividly that it is almost set before the audience

Front 18

mise-en-scène

Back 18

all of the visual elements that go into putting a text on the stage

Front 19

arena theater

Back 19

in-the-round
spectators on all sides

Front 20

thrust theater

Back 20

Elizabethan stage
area that juts out from the main stage with people around it
[think of it as like the letter "T" (for "thrust") with the audience on all sides of the stem]

Front 21

proscenium theater

Back 21

standard stage setup
audience only on one side

Front 22

blocking

Back 22

movement/positioning of the actors

Front 23

delivery

Back 23

the way in which actors deliver their lines

Front 24

aural elements

Back 24

the auditory part of play production including actors' speaking parts, music, and sound effects

Front 25

visual elements

Back 25

components such as scene design, blocking, lighting design, costume design, and props

Front 26

exposition

Back 26

the setting forth of the play's plot
the first part of plot structure
point of attack

Front 27

complication

Back 27

the part of the plot between exposition and denouement
includes inciting incidents, crises, and climax

Front 28

tragedy

Back 28

lofty linguistic register
literary
higher class characters
good -> bad fortune

Front 29

comedy

Back 29

old- satire, obscene, lewd
new- more polite social comedy of situation, convoluted series of events
face- heavily reliant on slapstick, crude humor
colloquial language
middle class characters
problem -> happiness (typically marriage)

Front 30

heroic drama

Back 30

tragedy without the sad ending
upper class setting

Front 31

domestic drama

Back 31

comedy setting (middle class, colloquial) with tragic plot

Front 32

melodrama

Back 32

extreme characterizations
dramatic situations
happy ending