Drama Terminology Flashcards
(52 cards)
Theatre in Education (TIE):
A play that is created to teach a particular lesson. Often toured round schools and to young people. Often followed by a workshop or discussion about the topic.
Physical Theatre:
This means the performance is literally more
physical. To tell the story the performers focus on their bodies. E.g. Mask work, creating a forest using the bodies of the performers, Mime…
Naturalistic
The performance is as close to real life as possible.
Non-naturalistic:
The performance is more theatrical and stylised and tells the story using a variety of techniques such as flashbacks; direct address to the audience; multiple role-play.
Comedy
: The story shown is funny and ends happily. There are many
types of comedy…
Slapstick:
Physical comedy that centres around accidents, mock fights
and humiliation
Tragedy:
The story shown is sad and usually involves the death or
downfall of its main character/s.
Gritty Realism:
About real, usually working class, poor people.
Historical Drama
: Set in a particular historical period
Docudrama:
Looking like a documentary with reconstructions (like
‘Crimewatch’)
Soap:
Follows the format of a television soap; long interrelated
storylines; prologue at the beginning; follows the fortunes of the characters who live/work in a particular place.
Target Audience:
The sort of people the play is aimed at
Message:
What the play intends the audience to have learned or to
think about
Themes:
The general ideas that the play looks at.
Episodic:
A play is episodic when it shows particular events (episodes)
that happen in the course of a long period of time, not necessarily in the order that they happen. E.g. Blood Brothers shows the key events that happen to a pair of twins from the moment they are born to the moment they die
Linear Narrative:
A play has a linear narrative when the story is told in the order that events happen. Each scene normally links from the last one and the story is over a relatively short period of time.
Framing Device:
A scene that goes at the beginning and end to help the audience get into the theme of the play.
Holding Scene:
a scene that literally holds the rest of the play together. It is the most important scene in the play without which the rest would not make sense.
Flashback/ forward:
The scene shows an event that happens earlier in the story or later in the story.
Split Scene:
Two connected scenes going on at the same time. Uses a freezing devise to shift the focus of attention between them. Can be useful to show two points of view about the same event in the story
Narration:
Telling the story directly to the audience either from within a character (narration from within) or in the role of a narrator.
Monologue:
A character has a fairly long speech that gives the audience a lot more information about him/ herself or the story. A monologue can give information that you wouldn’t necessarily expect a person to say out loud.
Chorus:
A character or characters that talk about events that have happened and usually say what they think about it. This is another way of telling part of the story without having to act it out in full.
Freeze Frame/Thoughts Out Loud:
The performance is frozen and the characters break out of the action to tell the audience directly what they are thinking or to comment on what is happening.
