Drama Terminology
FORMS (sometimes known as “techniques”)
ELEMENT
Areas which must be developed to ensure understanding by both the actor and the audience
EXPLORATIVE STARTEGY
A physical/mental performance technique used in drama to explore a theme or text and often used in the
final performance to communicate a deeper meaning.
MEDIUM
Anything that helps to communicate the SCENARIO (location, situation, character)
OTHER KEY WORDS
Corpsing
Unintentionally coming out of character or laughing on stage
Performance
What the actor uses when performing and in order to create a character.
Skill
This includes: Voice, Body Language, gesture, facial expression, use of space
Scenario
MEDIUM
Artaudian
Techniques
Location, Situation, Character
Use of MEDIUM which help us to feel
Back stage
Blocking
The choreographed movements and
gestures decided that each character
makes when saying a particular line or at
a particular moment. Key language often
used as in picture.
Body language
Non-verbal communication through facial expression, gesture (use of hands/arms),
posture and proxemics
Used to help visually suggest character and their PREVIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES
Costume/makeup
Lighting
Masks
Movement
Can be used from a variety of genres including Commedia dell Arte, Neutral,
Character, Greek etc. The character would only talk in half masks or masks where
there is a large mouth hole. Otherwise the actor must rely on body language, space
and gesture to communicate meaning.
Collage
An improvisational technique where movements are combined to create effect or
atmosphere
Melting
A stationary position (like a freeze-frame) disintegrates and ends with everyone lying
on the floor. This can also be done in reverse.
Mime
Using body, gesture, facial expression and space to suggest objects. Sometimes
done without speech, other times to represent key props.
Sculpture
An individual models volunteers into a shape which expresses a particular aspect of
the theme or issue being addressed.
Prop
Space
Slow Motion
The performer moves at half the speed if not slower. The moves are controlled.
An item which the actor uses on stage
The drama space is carefully marked out into different locations or times. A key
space in the drama such as a particular room is reconstructed using available props
and furniture.
Proxemics
The physical distance individuals place between themselves and others/objects.
Decisions made can influence and communicate a deeper meaning to the audience
including sub-text
Sound/Music
Spoken Language
Levels
Collage
An improvisational technique where sounds are combined to create effect or
atmosphere
Canon
Words or lines imitated.
Choral
A written text is divided up and spoken by a group. The text may be dramatic or
otherwise. The construction of the choral speak should comment on or develop the
original text rather than literally follow the line divisions or allocation of lines to single
characters.
Collage
An improvisational technique where voices are combined to create effect or
atmosphere
Monologue
One person speaking. This is longer than Thought-tracking.
Duologue
Where two characters are talking
Dialogue
Where more than two people are talking
Theatre Set/Design
Voice
Collage
An improvisational technique where voices are combined to create effect or
atmosphere
THE ARTAUDIAN MEDIUMS
IMAGINED
LIGHTING
MASKS/MAKEUP
SOUND CRAFT
The audience would be blinded by lights and which would move around the space
and affect the audience on a subconscious level – like a rock concert.
Unfortunately he was limited technically at the time.
Used to create a dreamlike quality to his shows and to move them away from
realism. Elaborate masks would encourage the performers to find a way of
expressing emotions physically and shocking bold make-up could challenge and
disturb the audience.
Preferred how sounds communicated more than words. Screams specifically as an
actor was working to uncover raw emotions. Recorded sounds played at a very
STAGE
BUILDING
high volume to assault the senses of the audience. Instruments also used in this
way as well as helping to create mood and atmosphere
Believed the stage should be a big empty space and that the action should happen
all around the building. Wanted to break the actor/audience boundary and the
actors would often invade the audience’s space
ELEMENTS
Audience/stage
positioning
Climax/Anti-climax
Defining the space
Genre
(usually related to cultural
or historical features)
Promenade: Where the audience moves
fluidly from one scene to another. Different
scenes might take place in different rooms.
The actors stay still, not the audience.
The highest or most intense point in the performance. An Anti-climax is where tat
intense moment is suddenly destroyed.
Making the LOCATION clear through suitable use of props or set to suggest
surroundings. Also see Audience/stage positioning
Action/Adventure
Disaster
Costume drama
Commedia dell Arte
Educational (Theatre In Education)
Domestic drama
Comedy
Tragedy
History
Slapstick
Horror
Thriller
Flash drama
Folk play
Legal drama
Melodrama
Monodrama
Mystery play
One act play
Political drama
Radio drama
Verse drama and dramatic verse
Well-made play
Medieval
Indian
Juxtapositioning
Pace,
Rhythm,Tempo
Plot
Rehearsal
Semiotics
STRUCTURE
Chinese
Opera
Greek
Rom/com
Pantomime
Putting together different ideas or situations to create the idea of contrast to make a
point or give a message.
Using the punctuation of the text and breath to help communicate meaning and
character intension.
The story
The practicing of the performance where changes and refinements are made to
ensure it will be clearly communicated to the audeince
See symbolism
Act
An act is a division of a drama which will
contain further, smaller divisions called
scenes. The number of acts in a
production can range from one to five or
more, depending on how a writer
structures the outline of the story. Acts
usually used to suggest breaks in time,
change of place, atmosphere or tension.
Scene
Many scenes can appear in each act.
Scenes usually used to suggest breaks
in time, change of place, atmosphere or
tension. Scenes can be further divided
into UNITS (see Stanislavskian
Explorative Strategies)
Back-tracking/Rewind
Replaying a key moment or moments to
focus on form and content; this may be
continuous
Circular Drama
Groups are given different scenes
involving a central character. The groups
prepare the scene and then one student
or the teacher in role joins each scene as
the central character and improvises
briefly with each group before moving
on. A good technique for showing
passing of time or different locations.
STYLE
(usually related to particular
movements historically and
culturally)
Representational acting
Where you use your acting
skills to represent a
character. It imitates a
characters behaviour but is
not necessarily truly
believable (panto, Political,
Brechtian, mime, period
drama, melodrama,
possibly even bad acting).
Presentational acting
Where you become the
character. It is when the
actor reveals human
behaviour through an
understanding of himself
and the character. The
actor BECOMES the
character. This can relate
to “method acting”.
Examples include
Naturalism and Realism.
Naturalism: A movement in European drama and
theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Portraying life on stage with a close attention
to detail, based on observation of real life.
Realism: Portraying characters on stage that are close
to real life, with realistic settings and staging.
Expressionism: Anti-realistic in seeing appearance as
distorted and the truth lying within man. The outward
appearance on stage can be distorted and unrealistic
to portray an eternal truth.
Absurdism: Presents a perspective that all human
attempts at significance are illogical. Ultimate truth is
chaos with little certainty. There is no necessity that
need drive us.
Modernism: A broad concept that sees art, including
theatre, as detached from life in a pure way and able to
reflect on life critically.
Post-modernism: There are multiple meanings, and
meaning is what you create, not what is. This approach
often uses other media and breaks accepted
conventions and practices.
Classical: A type of theatre which relies upon
imagination (and therefore limited props) to convey the
setting and atmosphere of the play. Classical theatre
usually contains lofty, grand prose or free verse
dialogue. Good examples are the Elizabethan
dramatists William Shakespeare
Symbolism
When deeper meaning and sub-text is shown and made clear to the audience
through objects, actions and through other key visual forms
EXPLORATIVE STRATEGIES
(sometimes known as “acting/performance techniques” or “dramatic conventions”)
Alter-ego
This involves a student, other than the one playing the character, as an extension of
that character. The alter-ego’s main function is to express the feelings or ‘inner
speech’ of the character.
Brechtian
Explorative strategies which help us to think
Techniques
Body Propping
Where actors use their bodies to create props and set.
Chat show
Provide an alternative form of HOT-SEATING. Often used in Forum, Brechtian,
Theatre in Education and Political Theatre
Conscience
Characters are offered conflicting advice as to what to do about a given situation.
Sometimes through the personas of angel and devil or through other characters.
Often used in Theatre In Education and Political Theatre.
Conscience Alley
At a critical moment in a character’s life when a dilemma, problem, or choice must
be made, the character walks between two rows of students who offer advice as the
character passes. The advice may be from the students themselves or from other
characters. The advice may include words or lines spoken earlier in the play.
Cross-cutting/Split
Scene
This strategy can also be used with THOUGHT-TRACKING where a variety of the
character’s thoughts at that moment are collaged together.
Two scenes are played at once in opposite parts of the stage but only one has
sound. Sometimes FREEZE-FRAMES are used to help to cut from one scene to
another. Good for building tension as the changes between scenes get quicker and
more often.
Devising
Where a performance is created over a period of time through discussion and rehearsal.
Material is created through a variety of stimuli-based improvisations that are either kept or
altered over time.
Distilling/Reduction The drama is compressed into a moment to get to the essence or true meaning of
the play. Relates to Stanislavski’s SUPER-OBJECTIVE
Docudrama
A collection of material selected around an issue-based theme and shaped into a
dramatic performance. Some of the selected content is grounded in fact and slanted
to express a particular point of view.
Dream Sequence
What the character is thinking about. Can be done through abstract
movement/dialogue/sound
Essence machine
Performed in a line, with voice and actions repeated. When put together we get an
essence of a SITUATION, LOCATION or CHARACTER
Flashback
The relationship between present and past is reinforces by showing “flashback”
scenes whilst the present scenes unfold. Ensure when performing a flashback that
the changing of time is suggested through lighting, sound or movement and not
through turning in circles flaring out the arms.
Forum Theatre
Originally created by Augusto Boal and sometimes used in Brechtian theatre. A
small group act out a drama for the rest of the group as ‘observers’. Both the
‘performers’ and the ‘observers’ have the right to stop the drama at any point and
make suggestions on how it might proceed; ask it to be replayed with changes
designed to bring out another point of view or focus; deepen the drama by using
any other conventions. An important feature is that all the participants, ‘performers’
and ‘observers’, take responsibility for the crafting of the drama – the responsibility
does not lie solely with the ‘performers’, in fact they are more like puppets
responding to their puppeteers.
Freeze-Frames
Also known as Frozen/Still image. A point in the drama is frozen, just like pressing
pause on your Sky Plus. The still image is like a photograph where the location,
situation and characters can be clearly recognised. SLOW MOTION and MELTING
often used to move from one FREEZE FRAME to another
Gossip
The private and public behaviour of the characters is commented on in the form of
Circle/Rumours
rumours and gossip circulating in the community; as the rumours spread around the
circle they become exaggerated or distorted
HotCharacters are questioned about their values, motives, relationships and actions by
seating/Interviews
other members of the group. This is a very effective rehearsal technique that helps
an actor to flesh out and discover new facets of their character through the
responses they make to the questions. The questioners may also be in role as
Iceburg
Improvisation
witnesses, historians, detectives etc. there can be added tension if the character is
questioned at a moment of stress or at a turning point in their lives.
A reflective device in which a diagram of an iceburg is drawn. Actors have to
consider what is text and what is sub-text in a scene and then to note text above the
waterline of the iceburg and sub-text beneath the waterline.
A performance with a clear SCENARIO created on-the-spot without discussion.
Stimuli often used as a starting point.
Stimuli used often includes:
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Line Stories
Mantle of the
Expert
Marking the
Moment
Narrating
Pop-up books
Reportage
Role on the Wall
Seven Levels of
Tension
Stanislavskian
Techniques
Thought-tracking
Transmogrification
Poetry
Artefacts: photographs, pictures, masks, props, costume, sculpture, objet d’art
Music
Play scripts
Live theatre performance
Television, films, DVDs and videos
Newspaper and magazine articles
Extracts from literary fiction and non-fiction
Collective Character
A character is improvised by the whole group. Any one of them can speak as the
character so that all become involved in the dialogue.
A visual way of telling a story. Actors stand in a line and mime a story on the spot
whenever their character appears. When they are not acting they have their backs
to the audience. Usually a narrator who does all the voices.
When in role as a character, the actor is able to use appropriate movements and
language to suggest to an audience that they are an expert of a specific field. EG:
police, pilot, doctor.
Allows the actors to highlight key dramatic and pivotal moments of the story to the
audience. They use any of the other conventions suitable for sharing the moment
with the audience. EG: slow motion, freeze-frame, music, thought-tracking, lighting
etc
A performer tells the story whilst others act it out. Sometimes the narrator has an
opinion and comments on the action. They break the FOURTH WALL
A visual way of telling the story. The actors stand in a line crouched and pop up in a
freeze-frame to tell a story. Usually a narrator. Can also have moving tabs and
sound buttons.
The reporting of news or information of general interest. Often to the audience
A character is drawn and facts about them are written in and around the diagram.
This is then used for reference or put up on a wall to help the actor remember key
details about the role they are playing.
Created by theatre company Complicite, who believe that any character or reaction
can be generated from one of their 7 Levels of Tension. The actor must change
voice, face, body, gesture and space to suit. 1 = jelly 2 = relaxed Californian 3 =
neutral 4 = curios 5 = is there a fire? 6 = there is a fire! 7 = shock
Explorative strategies which help us to believe
The performance freezes and one or more characters step forward and briefly tell
the audience what they are thinking at that moment in the role of their character.
Often used for Political and TIE performances.
Where props and objects are used creatively on stage to represent other objects.
E.g. a chair could become a cave, computer, backpack, lawn mower etc.
STANISLAVSKIAN EXPLORATIVE STRATEGIES
Emotional
Memory
Fourth wall
Magic if…
Method acting
Objectives
Previous/Given
Circumstances
Where the actor can use personal memories to relate to the thoughts, feelings of the
character (EG: the actor may have never had a close relative die but may have lost
their pet dog as a child)
Using the audience as if they are part of the play. For example, as a mirror or a
window. You are ignoring them in order to help make the play look like real life on
stage.
Rules
 Plan out where everything is
 Ignore the audience
 Add in the detail – specifically for miming (facial expression, gesture, body
language)
 Timing
 Voice
 Pick specific points to look at
Where the actor considers how he/she might react if he/she was in the same situation
as the character for real
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of explorative strategies used
by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as
to develop lifelike performances. This could include the actor visiting the location in
which the play is set or literally putting him/herself into a similar situation.
Examples of famous method actors include:
Renee Zellweger on the set of “Bridget Jones”, continued to talk with a British accent
in between takes.
Heath Ledger’ method acting affected his health while filming
“The Dark Knight.” In an interview with the New York Times, he said he felt exhausted
and refused to let his mind stop. He filled notebooks with strange, off-the-wall writings
as he buried himself in the persona of The Joker. His hard work paid off; he
posthumously won an Oscar for the performance.
Marlon Brando received eight Oscar nominations from 1952 to 1990, winning two for
“The Godfather” and “On the Waterfront.” An example of the method actor’s training
includes spending a full month confined to a veteran’s hospital in preparation for his
debut film “The Men.”
Christian Bale dropped to 120 pounds for the film “The Machinist” before working out
and gaining almost 100 pounds six months later for his role as Batman in Christopher
Nolan’s 2005 film “Batman Begins.”
What the character wants at that moment
The actor is aware of where the character has just been and what has just happened
to them when walking on stage
 Where they have just come from (location)
 Emotions – how they feel
 How they’ve got there – travel, what it was like
 What’s previously happened
 Current relationship with other characters
Sense memory
Where the actor can use previous experiences (eg: being hot/cold/hungry) to relate to
the thoughts, feelings of the character
Super-Objectives What the character wants throughout the play
Units
A way of separating a scene into smaller parts whenever there is a change of
action/atmosphere
BRECHTIAN EXPLORATIVE STRATEGIES
Breaking the Illusion
Captions/Placards/Headlines
Direct Address
Epic Structure
Multi-role
Spasz
Brecht did not want the audience to become too emotionally attached
with his characters and therefore employed Representational acting,
direct address, as well as ensuring the audience were constantly
reminded that they were watching a play by having few costumes or
key props which would be swapped in front of the audience, leaving
the lights on stage, placards, multi-roling etc.
Distancing/Alienation/verfremdungsffect
Brecht wanted the audience to think about what was happening so
would often juxtapose emotional states. EG: dramatic death scene
with happy music playing
Facts, scene titles or other key information is written on a sign and
held up by a performer. This could happen during or in between
scenes. Used in TIE and Political Theatre.
Actors would talk to the audience out of role
Lots of separate scenes presented rather than just Act1, Act 2.
Scenes did not follow in time order
Two or three actors would play the same character, stopping the
audience from becoming too attached emotionally. The character
would have a symbolic item of costume or prop which would be
passed over when roles swapped.
Comic moments (like a Commedia Dell Arte LAZZI) that were a break
from the play and lighten the mood