C,'h .a,pl't,e',.i

ga:r llS: rnrATRE? The *oril, comest from:ite'h'at: Is

h.ertre?Greek rliiatian, 'or 'lgeeing place." A thiaire,is' ar place

where,iomethingisseelr. : i' 'i' '

Today we use the,word theatre in,many way.l.,,Iilh

use it',to desiribe the,buil,alingrrwrlele p14ts are put on:

the architectufe, ihe,structure, the sp4ce fu ilramatic

perforyqce;the plaea', wherirr 'leomething, is seen."

We, also use,,,it',tor'iadicrte, whaie'fi1ms ate,'shown, as inlmovie riheatre,u,lhdr,We.ruse:riL.rretapholidy .to,iefer,

to, .a,plae,,*hefe:,w.,afs, and sur$eries,occw:,&eritheeti,e

of ,4erations', "t a''tha, |'opiraun$:, theatr,a;1,,?hese are

il.,',&amplas:, 0f, ile'llhaidwartli' definition,'lof rihec'rr€iiy66,,lsef1wa*],&finitionr$e',rait tl:t ]ffiolved in

,the *ib,farr,moreimpor nt.',iF6i tficrtns abo,,.@rs

lt*ltne,pqyrets &nA, owaeri; mintgers;limd,iiihnlcians)who,parform ia iuih a,spaedand to' playi,t&at such

a io.mpgny,iiodruies:. u/,lien wti qpeak of.::1thir:1,Gu${e

Th€rtre;1r.,Wa.are, iefus44grnot mere-ly :to' n,buildin$1.in'

X4i4neipotist bAt:alrar,to'$e .stigA,arH-'s.''.ts,rnd,rd nihi$;

iiatorS,,who ,worh,,!A,,661 buiiding,,erd' to,: tha,,body gfpays froduceJlrrei;r,we ;ro,*, iifat*;'io i boay or

ideai,;.--,a:r vlsion;ttrai,' animat"s',tt a ",,Guthrfe,' r Theimi,artists,,', ..,the,, plays.,,r,ihe;,.,E"ara'.... f*at';;1] .m'.. iiii;iinie;, is,,a, ta*60;::l.of ,pe;pii..1nd,,ideit;and the*i;Li r sf' ait ' ihit t;sult', fiom :thiJ' iollabor;iim: " ">i

We also use the word theatre to summon the pro-fessional occupation-and often the passion-of thou-sands of men and women all over the world. It is avocation and sometimes a lifetime devotion. A life in theTheatre is the title of one theatre artist's autobiography(Tyrone Guthrie, in fact, for whom the Guthrie Theatrein Minneapolis is named), as well as the title of a playabout actors by the contemporary American dramatistDavid Mamet. But A Life in the Theatre could also be thetitle for the unrecorded biographies of the theatre art-ists who have dedicated their professional lives to per-fecting the special arts of acting, directing, designing,managing, and writing for "the theatre" in all the sensesdescribed above.

Theatre as a building, a company, an occupation-let's look at all three of these usages more closely.

TL.iT TF{TATRT MUILD'NGA theatre is not always an enclosed structure. The mostancient Greektheatrorz was probably no more than a cir-cle ofbare earth, where performers chanted and dancedbefore a hillside of seated spectators. The requirementsfor building such a theatre were minimal: finding aspace to act and a space to watch and hear.

As theatre grew in popularity and importance,however, its simplicity required further elaboration.Attention had to be given to seating larger and largernumbers of people, so the hillside soon became anascending bank of seats, each level providing a goodview of the acting area. And as the theatron grew, atten-tion had to be paid to acoustics (from the Greekacoustos,"heard"), so the sounds coming from the stage would

National theatre buildings in many European countries, generally supp0rted by their 0overnments, are often palatial. The NationalTheatre in Cluj, Romania, is regarded as the most beautiful building in this Transylvanian capital, inthlch indicates ihe prominenceof live theatre in that country.

8 Chapter t What ls Theatre?

be protected from the wind and directed (or reflected)toward the audience (from the Latin audientia, "thosewho hear").

Often these spaces-for performing and for seeingand hearing-can be casually defined: the audience isup there, the actors are down there. Occasionally, thespaces are merged together, with the actors mingling-and sometimes interacting-with the watchers andlisteners. When the practice of selling tickets and pay-ing actors began (more than twenty-five hundred yearsago), these spaces became more igidly separated.

Theatre buildings may be elaborate structures. Greektheatres of the fourth century B.c.-the period imme-diately following the golden age of Greek playwrights-were gigantic stone edifices, some capable of holdingup toseventeen thousand spectators. Magnificent three-storyRoman theatres, complete with gilded columns, canvasawnings, andintricate marble carvings, were often erectedfor dramatic festivals in the later years of the Republic-orrlylo be dismantled when the festivities ended. Grandfree-standing Elizabethan theatres dominate the Londonskyline in illustrated sixteenth-century pictorial mapsof the tor,rrn. Opulent proscenium theatres were builtthroughout Europe and in the major cities of the UnitedStates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Manyremain in full operation today, competing with splendidnew stagehouses of every description and serving as cul-tural centers for metropolitan areas around the world.Theatres (the buildings) are fundamental to urban archi-tecture, just as theatre (the art) is to contempotarylife.

T}{M CfrMPANY, *[T TRTUI}H.OF PLAYTR$Theatre is a collaborative art, usually involving dozens,even hundreds, of people working closely together on asingle performance. Historically, therefore, theatre prac-titioners of various specialties have teamed up in long-standing companies, or troupes. Since the fourth centurye.c., such troupes of players (actors or, more literally,"playrnakers") have toured the countrysides and settled incities to present a repertory ofplays as a means of earninga livelihood. Generally such players have included actor-playwrights and actor-technicians, making the companya self-contained production unit capable of writing, pre-paring, and presenting whole theatrical works that tendto define the company itself. Some of these troupes-andthe works they produced-have become legendary: forexample, the Lord Chamberlain's Men of London, which

This watercolor depicts the opulent interior of Booth's Theatre in New York

at its 1869 opening. This grand "temple o{ theatre" irias bu lt by America's

finest aclor of the time, Edwin Booth (the brother of Ltncoln's assassin).

Booth staged and performed in a cJassical repertory of Shakespearean

plays at his theatre for four years. The side boxes, similar to those that stillexist in older Broadway theatres, had p00r sight lines: spectators electing

t0 sit there were interested more in being seen than in seeing the play. The

luxurious seating in the orchestra made this a particularly c0mfOrtable and

elegant place to see classic theatre. Charles Witham, Booth's original stage

designer, painted this watercolor; part oi Witham's scenery (a street scene)

is visible onstage.

counted William Shakespeare as a member; and the IIIus-trious Theatre of Paris, founded and headed by the greatactor-writer Molidre. The influence of these theatre com-panies has proven more long-lasting than the theatrebuildings that, in some cases, physically survived them.They represent the genius and creativity of theatre in a

way that stone and steel alone cannot.

Theatre 9

Shakespeares Globe has been meticulously reconstructed near its sixteenth-century location on the south bank of Londons Thames

River. The reconstruction was spearheaded by the late Sam Wanamaker, an American actor who labored many years to acquire the

funding and necessary permits (the theatre has the first thatch r00f laid in London since the Great Fire of 1666). This is scholarshipsbest guess as to the specific dimensions and features of lhe Globe in Shakespeares time. Since its 1 997 opening this Globe hasproduced a summer repertoire ol the plays of Shakespeare's age, seen on a stage much like the stages they were written f0r.

Tr"-{r eilcLjpATrcr'i or- TFi[ATR[Theatre is also the occupation of its practitioners. Itis a vocation for professionals and an avocation foramateurs, yet in either case, theatre is work. Specifi-cally, it is that body of artistic work in which actorsimpersonate characters in a live performance of aplay. Each aspect of theatre as occupation-work, art,impersonation, and performance-deserves individ-ual attention.

Io Chapter r What ls Theatre?

fd*ri".The "work" of theatre is indeed hard work. Rehearsalsalone normally take a minimum of four to six weeks,which are preceded by at least an equal amount of time-and often months or years-of writing, researching,planning, casting, designing, and creating a productionensemble. The labors of theatre artists in the final weeksbefore an opening are legendary: the seven-day work-week becomes commonplace, expenditures of money and

i

Games and seri0us theatre have always been related, and some plays combine these ditferent "playing" motifs. Richard Greenbergs

Take Me Outlakesplace in a baseball locker room in America, David Storey's The Changing Room in a rugby locker room in

England. Pictured here, Andrew Lloyd Webbels musical The Beautiful Ganelakes place in Northern Ireland, on a soccer field,

r,vhere it portrays contemporary violence and religious intolerance rampant between English and lrish teenagers in recent decades.

spirit are intense, and even the unions relax their regu-lations to allow for an almost unbridled invasion of thehours the ordinary world spends sleeping, eating, andunwinding. The theatre enterprise may involve hundredsof people in scores of different efforts-many more back-stage than onstage-and the mobilization and coordi-nation of these efforts are in themselves giant tasks. Sowhen we think of the "work" embodied in the theatri-cal arts, we must think of work in the sense of physicaltoil as well as in the loftier sense of oeuvre, by which theFrench designate the sum ofan artist's creative endeavor.

The work of the theatre is generally divisible into anumber of crafts:

Producing, which includes securing all necessarypersonnel, space, and financing; supervising allproduction and promotional efforts; fielding allIegal matters; and distributing all proceeds derivedfrom receiptsDirecting, which includes controlling and developingthe artistic product and providing it with a unified

vision, coordinating all of its components, andsupervising its rehearsals

Acting, in which actors perform the roles ofcharacters in a play

Designing, in which designers map out the visualand aural elements of a production, including thescenery, properties, costumes and wigs, makeup,lighting, sound, programs, advertising, and generalambience of the premises

Building, in which carpenters, costumers, wig-makers, electricians, makeup artists, recordingand sound engineers, painters, and a host of otherspecially designated craftspeople translate thedesign into reality by constructing and finishing, indetail, the "hardware" ofa show

Crewing, in which technicians execute in propersequence and with carefully rehearsed timing thelight and sound cues and the shifting of scenery,as well as oversee the placement and return of

Theatre II

properties and the assignment, laundering, repair,and changes of costumesStage managing which includes the responsibilityfor "running" a play production in all its complexityin performance after performanceHouse managing, which includes the responsibilityfor admitting, seating, and providing for the generalcomfort of the audience

And, above all, there is playwriting-and for musicaltheatre, composing-which are in a class by themselves.These crafts of theatre are normally executed awayfrom the theatre building and its associated shops.Indeed, they may take place continents and centuriesaway from the productions they inspire.

Of course, the work of the'theatre need not bedivided exactly as the preceding list indicates. In anyproduction, some people perform more than one kindof work; for example, many of the builders also crewAnd it is not uncommon for playwrights to direct whatthey write, for directors to act in their own productions,and for designers to build at least some of what theydesign. On some celebrated occasions multitalentedtheatre artists have taken on multiple roles at the sametime: Aeschylus, in ancient Greece, and Molidre, in sev-enteenth-century Paris, each wrote, directed, and actedin their own plays, and probably designed them as well;William Shakespeare was a playwright, actor, and co-owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men in Elizabethantimes; Bertolt Brecht revolutionized both playwrit-ing and acting when writing and directing his plays inBerlin after World War II; and Mel Brooks, in our owncentury, wrote the text and lyrics, composed the music,and produced his 2001 Broadway show, The Producers.

Theatre is also work in the sense that it is not "play."This distinction is more subtle than we might at onceimagine. First, of course, recall that we ordinarilyuse the wordplay in describing the main product of the-atre work: while children "play games," adults may "playroles" or "put on a plaf' This is not merely a peculiar-ity of the English language, for we find the French jeu,the German Spiel, the Hungarian jdtdk, the Chinese xi,and the Latin ludi all share the double meaning of theEnglish play, referring both to children's games and todramatic plays and playing. This association points to arelationship that is fundamental to our understandingof theatre: theatre is a kind of playing, and it is usefulfor us to see how and why this is so.

Theatre and games have a shared history. Both weredeveloped to a high level of sophistication in Greek fes-tivals: the Dionysian theatre festivals and the Olympian

12 Chapter t What ls Theatre?

game-or sport-festivals were the two great culturalevents of ancient Greece, each embodying the legendaryGreek competition for excellence. The Romans mergedsports and theatre in public circuses, where the two wereperformed side by side, often in competition with eachother. And more than a millennium later, the London-ers of Shakespeare's time built "playhouses" that couldaccommodate dramatic productions on one day and bear-baiting spectacles (somewhat akin to bullfights) on thenext. The association-and popularity-of dramatic andsports entertainment continues today, where dramatiza-tions (sitcoms, detective and courtroom dramas, even TVcommercials) and games (spectator sports, quiz shows,reality shows) dominate television fare around the world.Meanwhile, professional athletes and stage entertainersare among the foremost (and most highly paid) celebri-ties of the modern age. Many a retired sports hero haseven found a second career in the other type of play:acting.

This link between games and theatre is formedearly in life, for "child's play" usually manifests bothgamelike and dramalike aspects. Much child's playincludes dressing up and acting out, where childrencreate improvisations they may call "playing cops androbbers." Like drama, this kind of play is also educa-tional as it helps children prepare for the necessaryrole-playing of adult life. Structured games are simi-larly instructional: hide-and-seek, for example, a play-ful and engrossing game, also offers an opportunity toact out one of childhood's greatest fears-the terror ofseparation from the parent, or "separation anxiety," aspsychologists term it. Hide-and-seek affords the childa way of dealing with separation anxiety by confront-ing it "in play" until it loses much of its frighteningpower. Such "child's play" is grounded in serious con-cerns, and through the act of playing the child gradu-ally develops means of coping with life's challengesand uncertainties. The theatre's plays and playingoften serve the same role for adults.

Drama and games are likewise linked in that they areamong the very few occupations that also attract largenumbers of wholly amateur "players," individuals whoseek no compensation beyond sheer personal satisfac-tion. This is because both drama and games offer won-derful opportunities for intense physical involvement,friendly competition, personal self-expression, andemotional engagement, all within limits set by preciseand sensible rules. And both sport and drama gener-ate an audience for their activities because the energiesand passions expressed by each-common enough onchildren's playgrounds but rarely seen in daily adult

life-can prove immensely engaging to nonparticipat-ing spectators.

Nevertheless, the theatre must be distinguished fromchild's play, and from sports as well, because theatre isby its nature a calculated act from beginning to end.Unlike adult games, which are open-ended, every theatreperformance has a preordained conclusion. The Yankeesmay not win the World Series next year, but Hamletdefinitely will die in the fifth act. The work of the the-atre, indeed, consists in keeping Hamlet alive up to thatpoint-brilliantly alive-to make of that foreordainedend a profoundly moving, ennobling, and even surpris-ing climax.

We might say, finally, that theatre is the art of mak'ing play into work-specifically, into a work of art. It isexhilarating work, to be sure, and it usually inspiresand invigorates the energies and imaginations of allwho participaty it tuanscends more prosaic forms oflabor just as song transcends grunts and groans. But itis, ultimately, work. That is its challenge.

ArtThe word art brirrgs to mind a host of intangibles:creativity, imagination, elegance, power, aestheticharmony, and fineness of form. We expect a work of artto capture something of the human spirit and to touchupon familiar, but intellectually elusive, meanings inlife. Certainly great theatre never fails to bring togethermany of these intangibles. In great theatre we glimpsenot only the physical and emotional exuberance of play,but also the deep yearnings that propel humanity'ssearch for purpose, meaning, and a life well lived.

Art, of course, is a supreme pursuit of humanity,uniquely integrating our emotions with our intellectsand our aesthetics with our revelations. Art is empow-ering both to those who make it and to those whoappreciate it. Art sharpens thought and focuses feeling;it brings up reality against imagination and presses cre-ativity to the ever-expanding limits of human poten-tial. Although life may be fragmented, inconclusive,and frustrating, a beautiful painting, choralhymn, jazzrendition, or dance recital can provide us with near-instant integration, synthesis, and satisfaction. Wemight find similar values in religion as well, but art isaccessible without subscribing to any particular set ofbeliefs; it is, for everyone, an open-ended response tolife's unendingpuzzles.It is surely for this reason thatall great religions-both Eastern and Western-haveemployed art and artworks (including dramatic art) intheir liturgies and services from the earliest of times.

ImpersonationThe theatrical art involves actors impersonating charac-ters. This feature is unique to the theatre and separatesit from art forms such as poetry, painting, sculpture,music, performance art, cabaret acts, and like activities.Further, impersonation is the single most importantaspect of the theatre; it is its very foundation.

Try to imagine what extreme conceptual difficultiesthe ancient creators of the theatre encountered in lay-ing down ground rules for dramatic impersonation.How was the audience to distinguish the characterbeingportrayed from the actor playrng the character?Even today, TV fans write letters to characters in theirshows, asking how they could possibly have fallen inlove with some other character, and film buffs swap the-ories on what befalls Leonardo DiCaprio's character atthe end of. Inception. Given this confusion between thereal actor and the fictional character he or she plays-even now, in what we like to think of as a sophisticatedage-it is easy to see why the ancients had to resolvethe problem of actor-character separation before thetheatre could become a firmly established institution.

The solution the ancient world found was the mask.Western theatre had its true beginning that day inancient Greece when an actor first stepped out of thechorus, placed an unpainted mask over his face, andthereby signaled that the lines he was about to speakwere "in character." The mask provides both a physi-cal and a symbolic separation between the imperson-ator (the actor) and the impersonated (the character),thus aiding onlookers in temporarily suspending theirawareness of the "real" world and accepting in its placethe world of the stage. In a play, it must be the charac-rers who have apparent life; the actors themselves areexpected to disappear into the shadows, along withtheir personal preoccupations, anxieties, and careerambitions. This convention of the stage gives rise towhat Denis Diderot, an eighteenth-century French dra-matist (and author of the world's first encyclopedia),called the "paradox of the actor": when the actor hasperfected his or her art, it is the simulated character, themask, that seems to live before our eyes, while the realperson has no apparent life at all. The strength of suchan illusion still echoes in our use of the word person,which derives from the Latin word (persona) for mask.

But of course we know the actor does not diebehind the mask, and herein lies an even greaterparadox: we believe in the character, but at the end ofthe play we applaud the actor. Not only that-as wewatch good theatre we are always, in the back of our

Theatre 15

Masks were fundamental t0 ancient theatre and ofien appear in contemporary productions, particularly in revivals of suchclassic works. Christina Uribe's masks, sculpted in the ancient Greek tradition, were employed in this Greek/French produclionof Sophocles' Antigzne diecled by Philippe Brunet f0r his Demodocos company, which since 1 995 has been devoted to thepursuit of what Brunet calls "Dionysian mystery theatre." The production, with costumes by Florence Kukucka, was featured atthe "ofl" schedule of France's 2008 Avignon Theatre Festival; shown here are two chorus members.

minds, applauding the actor. Our appreciation of the-atre rests largely on our dual awareness of actor andcharacter and on our understanding they live insidethe same skin.

Masks were used throughout the ancient Greek the-atre period, and as we shall see in the pages that follow,they were also staples of many other theatres of the past,including the masquerade dramas of Nigeria, the no andl<yagen drama of Japan, and the commedia dell'arte ofItaly. They are still seen onstage today, not only in stag-ings of these historic forms but in expressionist andavant-garde productions. But beyond the mask's physicalpresence, the idea of masking-of hiding the performer

11 Chapter r What ls Theatre?

while displaying the character-remains at the heart ofimpersonation. As such, the mask endures-often as theback-to-back masks of comedy and tragedy that adorn atheatre company letterhead-as the most fundamentalsymbol of theatre itself.

Perform*ne eTheatre is performance, but what, exactly, does per-formance mean? Performance is an action or series ofactions taken for the ultimate benefit (attention, enter-tainment, enlightenment, or involvement) of someoneelse. We call that "someone else" the audience.

Presentational styles make little pretense of mimicking ordinary 1ife. Here, director Susan Stroman creates a wonderful farcical

moment in The Producersas "theatre queen" director Roger De Bris (played in drag by Gary Beach) desperalely trtes to keep

his wig on. Facial expressions around the room focus the action and intensify the hilarity. lMatthew Broderick and Nathan

Lane (at leffl are the producers of the musical's title. De Bris's hangers-on (with the gaping Roger Bart as his "common-law

assistant," Carmen Ghia) are perfectly arranged on the stairs by director Stroman to capture every possible droll expression.

Scenic design is by Bobin Wagner, costumes by William lvey Long, and lighting by Peter Kaczorowski.

A strictly private conversation between two peopleis simply "communication." If, however, they engage ina conversation to impress or involve a third person whothey know is in a position to overhear it, the communi-cation becomes a "performance" and the third personbecomes its "audience."

Obviously, performance is a part of everyday life;indeed, it has been analyzedas such in a number of psy-chological and sociological works. When two teenageboys wrestle on the schoolground, they may well be per-forming their physical prowess for the benefit of theirpeers. The student who asks a question in the lecturehall is frequently "performing" for the other students-and the professor performs for the same audience inproviding a response. Trial lawyers examining witnessesinvariably perform-often drawing on a considerablerepertoire of grunts, snorts, shrugs, raised eyebrows,and disbelieving sighs-for the benefit of that ultimatecourtroom audience, the jury. Politicians kiss babies for

the benefit ofparents (and others) in search ofa kindlycandidate. Even stony silence can be a performance-if, for example, it is the treatment a woman metes outto an overly eager admirer. We are all performers, andthe theatre only makes an art out of something we alldo everyday. The theatre expands our everyday perfor-mances into a formal mode of artistic expression.

The theatre makes use of two general modes of per-formance: presentational (or direct) and representa-tional (or indirect). Presentational performance is thebasic stand-up comedy or nightclub mode. Presenta-tional performers directly and continuously acknowl-edge the presence of audience members by singingto them; dancing for them; joking with them; andresponding openly to their applause, laughter, requests,and heckling. Dramatic forms of all ages have employedthese techniques and a variety of other presentationalmethods, including asides to the audience, soliloquies,direct address, and curtain calls.

Theatre 15

I tnis production of Bertolt Brecht's sharply satirical Threepenny Opera,directed by Robert Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble

i theatre (which Brecht founded in 1949), follows Brecht's representati0nal c0ncepts, with its bold colors, super-white faced

actors facing front, and deliberate y artificial lighting. The production played in New York City in 201 1.

Representational performance, however, is the morefundamental mode of drama that certainly makesdrama "dramatic" as opposed to simply "theatrical." Inrepresentational performance, the audience watchesbehavior that seems to be staged as if no audiencewere present. As a result, the audience is encour-aged to concentrate on the events that are beingstaged, not on the nature of their presentation.This allows members of the audience to "believe in"the play and forget the characters are really actorsand the apparently spontaneous events are really aseries of scripted scenes. This belief-or, to borrowSamuel Taylor Coleridge's famous double negative,this "willing suspension of disbelief"-attracts audi-ence participation through empathy: our feeling ofkinship with certain (or all) of the characters, whichencourages us to identify with their aspirations,sympathize with their plights, exult in their victories,and care deeply about what happens to them. Whenempathy is present, the audience experiences what isoften called the "magic" of theatre. Well-written andwell-staged dramas make people feel, not just think;they draw in the spectators' emotions, leaving them

t6 Chapter t What ls Theatre?

feeling transported and even somewhat changed. Thisis as much magic as our current world provides.

Occasionally, presentational and representationalstyles are taken to extremes. In the late nineteenth cen-tury, the representational movement knourn as realismsought to have actors behave onstage exactly as realpeople do in life, in settings made as lifelike as possible(on one occasion, a famous New York restaurant wascompletely disassembled and reconstructed on a stage,complete with its original moldings, wallpaper, furni-ture, silverware, and table linens). At times the repre-sentational ideal so dominated in certain theatres thatactors spoke with their backs to audiences, directorsencouraged lifelike pauses and inaudible mumblings,playwrights transcribed dialogue from fragments ofrandomly overheard conversations, and house manag-ers timed intermissions to the presumed time elapsingin the play's story.

Rebelling against this extreme representationalism,the twentieth-century German playwright-directorBertolt Brecht created its opposite: a presentationalstyle that, seeking to appeal directly to the audience ona variety of social and political issues, featured openly

visible lighting instruments; signs, songs, slide projec-tions, and speeches addressed directly to the audience;and a "distanced" style of acting intended to reduceemotional empathy or theatrical "magic." Thoseextremes, however, exist more in theory than in prac-tice. During naturalistic performances, we are alwaysaware that we are watching actors perform for us,and the plays of Brecht and his followers, despite histheories, generate empathy when well performed. Forthe fact is that theatrical performance is always bothpresentational and representational, though often indifferent degrees.

Two other aspects of performance distinguish the-atre from certain other forms of performance: theatreif live performance, and in most cases it is a scripted andrehearsed event.

l-ive Ferformance In contrast to video and cinema(although sometimes employing elements of both), thetheatre is a ilving, real-time event in which performersand audience mutually interact, each fully aware of theother's immediate presence. This distinction turns outto be extremely important. Distinguished film stars,particularly those with theatre backgrounds (as mosthave), routinely return to the live dramatic stage despitethe substantially greater financial rewards of film work,and they invariably prefer stage acting because of theimmediate audience response theatre provides, withits corresponding sensations of excitement and "pres-ence." Beyond question, fundamental forces are at workin live theatre.

The first of these forces is the rapport existingbetween actor and audience. Both are breathing thesame air; both are involved, at the same time and inthe same space, with the stage life depicted by the play.Sometimes their mutual fascination is almost palpable:every actor's performance is affected by the way theaudience yields or withholds its responses-its laugh-ter, sighs, applause, gasps, and silences. Live theatricalperformance is always-even in naturalistic theatre-atwo-way communication between stage and house.

And second, live theatre creates a relationshipamong the audience members. Having arrived at thetheatre as individuals or in groups of two or three,audience members quickly find themselves fused toa common experience with total strangers: laughingat the same jokes, empathizing with the same char-acters, experiencing the same revelations. This broadcommunal response is never developed by televisiondrama, which is played chiefly to solitary or clusteredviewers who (because of frequent commercials) are

Some actors prefer t0 act only on stage, and others 0nly 0n camera, butmost actors seek to do both. The lure of the stage is hard f0r actors t0resist, despite its significantly lower pay. Katie Holmes and John Lithgow,embracing joyously in this 2008 Broadway revival of Arthur Milleis WorldWar ll drana All My Sons, have extensive film and TV credentials-Holmeswith more than 150 TV episodes and films, and Lithgow with more than250, but they came with unequal stage experience. This was Lithgow'stwentyJirst Broadway role, and Holmes's first, Nevertheless, "Holmes

makes a fine Broadway debut," said the New York Daily ffeus reviewer (as

did your author), even playing 0pposite Lithg0w and many distinguishedveterans of the stage.

only intermittently engaged; nor is it likely to happenin movie houses, where audience members essentiallyassume a one-on-one relationship with the screen andrarely (except in private or group-oriented screenings)break out in a powerful collective response, much lessapplause. In contrast, live theatrical presentations gen-erate audience activity that is broadly social: audiencemembers arrive at the theatre at about the same time,they mingle and chat during intermissions, and they alldepart together, often in spirited conversation about

Theatre 17

the play. Moreover, they communicate during the play:laughter and applause build upon themselves and gainstrength from the recognition that others are laughingand applauding. The final ovation-unique to live per-formance-inevitably involves the audience applaud-ingitself, as well as the performers, for understandingand appreciating the theatrical excellence they have allseen together. And plays with political themes can evengenerate collective political response. In a celebratedexample, the Depression-era Waiting for Lefty wasstaged as if the audience were a group of union mem-bers; by the play's end the audience was yelling "StrikelStrike!" in response to the play's issues. Obviously, onlya live performance could evoke such a response.

Finally, live performance inevitably has the quality ofimmediac). The action of the play is taking place rightnow, as it is being watched, and anything can happen.Although in most professional productions the changesthat occur in performance from one night to the nextare so subtle only an exper(would notice, the fact isthat each night's presentation is unique and every-one present-in the audience, in the cast, and behindthe scenes-knows it. This awareness lends an excite-ment that cannot be experienced while watching filmsor video, which are wholly "in the can" before they areviewed. One reason for the excitement of live theatre, ofcourse, is that mistakes can happen in its performance;this possibility occasions a certain abiding tension, per-haps even an edge of stage fright, which some peoplesay creates the ultimate thrill of the theatre. But just as

disaster can come without warning, so too can splendor.On any given night, each actor is trying to better her orhis previous performance, and no one knows when thiscollective effort will coalesce into something sublime. Inthis way, the immediacy of live performance creates a"presentness," or "presence," that embodies the funda-mental uncertainty of life itself. One prime function oftheatre is to address the uncertainties of human exis-tence, and the very format of live performance presentsmoment-to-moment uncertainty right before our eyes.Ultimately, this "immediate theatre" helps us define thequestions and confusions of our lives and lets us grap-ple, in the present, with their implications.

Scripted and Rehearsed Per{ormance Theatreperformances are largely prepared according to wdt-ten and well-rehearsed texts, or play scripts. In this waythey are often distinguished from other forms of perfor-mance, such as improvisation and performance installa-tions. Although improvisation and ad-libbing may playa role in the preparation process, and even in certain

18 Chapter r What ls Theatre?

actual performances, most play productions are basedon a script that was established before-and modifiedduring-the play's rehearsal period, and most of theaction is permanently set during these rehearsals as well.Mainstream professional play productions, therefore,appear nearly the same night after night: for the mostpart, the Broadway production of Wicked that you see onThursday will be almost identical to the show your friendsaw on Wednesday or your mother saw last fall. And if youwere to read the published text, you would see on the pagethe same words you heard spoken or sung on the stage.

But the text of a play is not, by any means, the playitself. The play fully exists only in its performance-inits "playing." The script is merely the record the playleaves behind after the audience has gone home. Thescript, therefore, is to the play it represents only what ashadow painting is to the face it silhouettes: it outlinesthe principal features but conveys only the outer mar-gins of the complexity, color, smell, and spirit of the liv-ing person.

And published scripts are an imperfect record at that:Often they carry over material left out of the actualproduction, or they include new material the authorthought ofafter the production was over. The publishedtexts of Shakespeare's plays include differing versionsof many of his plays, including two versions of KingLearwritten several years apart. When American dramatistTennessee Williams published his Cat on a Hot Tin Roofafter the play's premiere, he included both the third acthe originally wrote and the third act written at directorElia Kazan's request, which was actually used, and heinvited readers to select their preferred version. More-over, even a fixed script is often as notable for what itlacks as for what it contains. Plays published before thetwentieth century rarely have more than rudimentarystage directions, and even now a published play tells usalmost nothing about the play's nonverbal components.How can a printed text capture the bead of sweat thatforms on Hamlet's brow as he stabs Polonius, or Romeo'snervous laugh as he tries to part dueling adversaries, orthe throbbing anxiety in Beatrice's breast when she firstadmits to Benedick that she loves him? The publishedtext gives us the printed, but not the spoken, word: itlargely fails us in providing the sounds and inflectionsof those words, the tones and facial expressions of theactors, the color and sweep of costumes, the play of lightand shadow, the movement of forms in space-and theaudience response to all this-that come together in aliving production.

What, then, is the chief value of play scripts?They generate theatrical productions and provide an

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play.-ASHLEY JUDD, EXPLAINING WHY SHE TURNED DOWN THE TITLE

ROLE IN HOLLYWOOD'S CATWOMANTO BE ONSTAGE IN A NEW']i,i i,r yonr RrvrvlL,oF car,oNx l-loT tiN ROOF .,

invaluable, albeit imperfect, record of performances past.Two-and-a-half millennia of play productions have leftus a repository of thousands upon thousands of scripts,some awful, many ordinary, a few magnificent. This richstore puts us in touch with theatre history in the makingand allows us a glimpse back at the nature of the originalsin production. It also suggests ways in which the plays ofyesterday can serve as blueprints for vital theatre today.

This, then, is the theatre: buildings, companies, andplays; work, art, impersonation, and performance; Iiv-ing performers and written, rehearsed scripts. It is aproduction; an asserpblage of actions, sights, sounds,ideas, feelings, words, light, and, above all, people. Itconsists of playing and, of course, plays.

What is a play? That question deserves a separatechapter.

Theatre 19

ffi&ffissffinld

Within the definitions, terms that are defined in this glossary appear initalic.

absuril The notion that the world is meaningless, derived from an essay,"The Myth of Sisyphus," by Albert Camus, which suggests that humanbeings have an unquenchable desire to understand but that the worldis eternally unknowable. The resulting conflict puts individuals in an"absurd" position, like Sislphus, who, according to Greek myth, was con-demned for eternity to push a rock up a mountain, only to have it alwaysroll back dom before it reached the top. The philosophical term gave thename to a principal postwar dramatic genre: theatre of the absurd.

act (verb) To perfom in a play. (noun) A division within a p1ay. Acts inmodem plays ue separated by an intemission. FullJength modem plays arecustomarily divided into two acts, sometimes three. Roman, Elizabethan,and neoclassic plays were usually printed in five acts, but the actual stageproductions were not necessarily divided by intemissions, only stageclearings.

ad-lib A line improvised by an actor during a performance, usuallybecause the actor has forgotten his or her line or because somethingunscripted has occurred onstage. Sometimes an author directs actors toad-lib, as in crowd scenes during which individual words cannot be distin-guished by the audience.

aesthetic distance The theoretical separation between the created arti-fice of a play and the "real life" the play appears to represent.

agon 'Action," in Greek; the root word for "agony." Agon refers to themajor struggles and interactions of Greektragedy.

amphitheatre In Rome, a large elliptical outdoor theatre, originally usedfor gladiatorial contests. Today the term is often used to designate a largeoutdoor theatre of any type.

anagnorisis "Recognition," in Greek. Aristotle claimed that every finetragedy tras a recognition scene in which the protagonist discovers eithersome fact unknom to her or him or some moral flaw in her or his charac-ter. Scholars disagree as to which of these precise meanings Aristotle hadin mind. See also hamartia.

angle wiug A flat wing to which is hinged a second flat wing at an angle-usually between 90 and 115 degrees. Used extensively in seventeenth-century scenery, where it was painted to represent, among other things,diagonal walls on either side of the stage or exterior corners of buildings.See flat; wings.

antagonist In Greek tragedy, the "opposer of the action"; the opponentof the protagonist.

Apollonian That which is beautiful, wise, and serene, in the theoriesof Friedrich Nietzsche, who believed drama sprang from the junction ofApollonian and Dionysian impulses in Greek culture.

apron The part of the stage located in front of the proscenium; thefomard-most portion of the stage. The apron was used extensively in theEnglish Restoration period, from whence the term comes. Today, it is usu-ally cafi,ed, the forestage.aragoto The flamboyant and exaggerated masculine style of actingemployed in certain kabuki roles.

arena stage A stage surrounded by the audience; also knom as "theatre-in-the-round." Based on a Latin term meaning "sand," the arena originalTyreferred to the dirt circle in the midst of an amphitheatre.

aside A short line in a play delivered directly to the audience; by dramaticconvention; the other characters onstage are presumed not to hear it.Popular in the works of William Shakespeare and dramatists of the Res-

toration peiod., the aside has made a comeback and is used to good effect,in coniunction with the longer direct address, by contemporary Americanplaywrights such as Margaret Edson and Neil LaBute.

audition The process whereby an actor seeks a role by presenting to adirector or casting director a prepared reading or by reading from the textof the play being presented.

avant-garde Artists who abandon conventional models and create worksthat are in the forefront of new movements and styles.

backstage The offstage area hidden from the audience that is used forscenery storage, for actors preparing to make entrances, and for stage tech-nicians running the show. "Backstage p1ays," such as The Torchbearers andNoises Offi "turn the set around" and exploit the furious activity that takesplace backstage during a play production.biomechanics Al experimental acting system, characterized by expres-sive physicalization and bold gesticulation, developed by the Russian direc-tor Vsevolod Meyerhold in the 1920s.

black musical See black theatre.

black theatre In America, theatre that is generally by, with, and aboutAfrican Americans.

black-box theatre A rectangular room with no fixed seating or stagearea; this theatre design allows for a variety of configurations in stagingplays.

blocking The specific staging of a play's movements, ordinarily by thedirector. Often this is worked out ("blocked out") on paper by the directorbeforehand.book ln a musical, the dialogue text, apart from the music and song lyrics.

border A piece of flat scenery, often black velour but sometimes a flat,which is placed horizontally above the set, usually to mask the lightinginstruments. Borders are often used with side wings, in a scenery systemknom as "wing and border."

bu set A stage set consisting of hard scenic pieces representing the wallsand sometimes the ceiling of a room, with one wall left out for the audienceto peer into. This set design was developed in the nineteenth century andyemains in use today primarily in realistic plays.

Broadway The major commercial theatre district in New York, roughlybordered by Broadway, Eighth Avenue, 42nd Street, and 52nd Street.

bunraku A Japanese puppet-theatre, founded in the sixteenth centuryand still performed today.

burlesque Literally, a parody or mockery, from an ltalian amusementform. Today the term implies broad, coarse humor in farce, particrtlarly inpatodies and, vaudeville-t)?e presentations.

business The minute physical behavior of the actor-fiddling with a tie,sipping a drink, drumming the fingers, lighting a cigarette, and so forth.

G-r

Sometimes this is controlled to a high degree by the actor or the directorfor precise dramatic effect; at other times the busines s is improvised to con-vey verisimilitud.e.

call An oral command, normally whispered over an intercom by the stagemanager to the appropriate operator, to execute a specific lighting, sound,or scene-shift cue as, for example, "Sound cue number 121-go!" See alsocue sheet; tech run-through.call book or calling book See promptbook.

callbaclt After the initial audition, the director or casting director will "callbacr- for additional-sometimes many-readings by the actors who seemmost promising. Rules of the actors' unions require that actors be paid forcallbacks exceeding a certain minimum number.caricature A character portrayed very broadly and in a stereoQpical fash-ion, ordinarily objectionable in realisric dramas. See afso character.

catharsis In Aristotle's Poetics, the "purging" or "cleansing" of the terrorand pity that the audience feels duringthe climax of atragedy.

character A "person" in a p1ay, as performed by an actor. Hamlet,Oedipus, Juliet, and Willy Loman are characters. Characters may or maynot be based on real people.

chiton The full-length gom worn by Greek tragic actors.choral ode See ode.

chorus (1) In classic Greek plays, an ensemble of characters representingthe general public of the play, such as the women ofArgos or the elders ofThebes. Originally, the chorus numbered fifty; Aeschylus is said to havereduced it to twelve and Sophocles to have increased it to fifteen. Morerecent playmights, including Shakespeare and Jean Anouilh, have occa-sionally employed a single actor (or a small group of actors) as "Chorus,"to proyide narration between srenes. (2) In musicals, an ensemble of char-acters who sing or dance together (in contrast to soloists, who mostly singor dmce independently).chou In xi4a, clom characters and the actors who play them.clatBic dfatna Technically, plays fvom classical Greece or Rome. Now usedfrequently (if incorrectly) to refer to Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Frenchneoclassical maste:rpieces. See also m odern classic.

climax The point of highest tension, when the conflicts of the play are attheir fullest expression.comedy Popularly, a funny play; classically, a play that ends happily; meta-phorically, a play with some humor that celebrates the eternal ironies ofhuman existence ("divine comedy").comic relief It a tragedy, a short comic scene that releases some of thebuilt-up tension of the play-giving the audience momentary "relief"before the tension mounts higher. The porter scene in ShakespearetMacbeth is an often-cited example; after the murder of Duncan, a porterjocularly addresses the audience as to the effect of drinking on sexualbehavior. In the best tragedies, comic relief also provides an ironic counter-point to the tragic action.commedia dellhrte A form of largely improvised, masked street theatrethat began in northem Italy in the late sixteenth century and still can beseen today. The principal characters-Arlecchino, Pantalone, Colombina,Dottore, and Scapino among them-appear over and over in thousands ofcommedia stories.cotapany A group of theatre artists gathered together to create aplay pto-duction or a series of such productions. See also troape.

convention A theatrical custom that the audience accepts without think-ing, such as "when the curtain comes dom, the play is over." Each periodand culture develops its own dramatic conventions, which playmights mayeither accept or violate.cue The last word of one speech that then becomes the "signal" for thefollowing speech. Actors are frequently admonished to speak "on cue" or to"pick up their cues," both of which mean to begin speaking precisely at themoment the other actor finishes.

G-2 Glossary

cue sheet A numbered list of lighting, sound, or scene-shift changes coor-dinated with precise moments marked in the stage manager's promptbook-

curtain call The last staged element, in which the actors, after the playends and the audience has begun to applaud, come forward to graciouslyaccept the applause by bowing.

cycle plays In medieval England, a series of mystery plays that, per-formed in sequence, relate the story of the Judeo-Christian Bible, from theCreation of the Universe to the Crucifixion to Doomsday. The York Cydeinciudes forty-eight such plays.

cycloranra In a proscenium theatre, a large piece of curved scenery thatwraps around the rear of the stage and is illuminated to resemble the skyor to serve as an abstract neutral background. It is usually made of fabricstretched between curoed pipes but is sometimes a permanent structuremade of concrete and plaster.

dada A provocative and playful European art movement that followedWorld War I and is characterized by seemingly mndom, unstructured, and"anti-aesthetic" creatMty. It was briefly but deeply influential in poetry,painting, and theatre.d.an Inxiqu, the female roles and the actors who play them.

denouement The final scene or scenes in a play devoted to tlnng rpthe loose ends after the climax (although the word originaily meant "theuntying").deus ex madrina In Greek tragedy, the resolution of the plot by the deviceof a god ("deus") flying onstage by means of a crane ("machina") and solvingall the characters'problems. Today, this term encompasses any contrivedplay ending, such as the sudden arrival of a long-1ost husband or father.This theatrical element was considered clumsy by Aristotle and nearly allsucceeding critics; it is occasionally used ironically in the modern theatre,as by Bertolt BrechtinTheThreepenny Opera.

dialogue The speeches-delivered to one another-of the characters in apiay. Contrast with monologue.

diction One of the six important components of drama, according toAristotle, who meant by the term the intelligence and appropriateness ofthe play's speeches. Today, the term refers primarily to the actor's need forarticulate speech and clear pronunciation.didactic drama Drama dedicated to teaching lessons or provoking intel-lectual debate beyond the confines of the play; a dramatic fom espousedby Bertolt Brecht . See ilso distancing effect.

dim out To fade the lights gradually to blackness.

dimmer The electrical device that regulates the amount of light emittedfrom lighting instruments.Dionysia The weeklong Athenian springtime festival in honor of Dionysus;after 534 s.c., it was the maior play-producing festival of the ancient Greekyear. Also called "Great Dionysia" and "City Dionysia."Dionysian Characterized by passionate revelry, uninhibited pleasure-seeking; the opposite o{ Apollonian, according to Friedrich Nietzsche,who considered drama a merger of these two primary impulses in Greekculture.Dionysus The Greek god of drama as well as the god of drinking and fertil-ity. Dionysus was knom as Bacchus in Rome.

direct addreeg A character's speech delivered directly to the audience,common in Greek Olil Comedy (see parabasis), in Shakespeare's work (see

soliloquy), in epic theatre, and in some otherwise realistic modern plays(such as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie).

discovery A character who appears onstage without making an entyance,as when a curtain opens. Ferdinand and Miranda are "discovered" playingchess in Shakesp eare's The Tempest when Prospero pulls away the curtainthat was hiding them from view.

distancing effect A technique, developed by German plaimrightBertolt Brecht, by which the actor deliberately presents rather than repre-sents his or her character and "illustrates" the character without trying to

embody the role fully, as naturalistic acting technique demands. This effectmay be accomplished by "stepping out of character"-as to sing a song orto address the audience direcdy-and by developing a highly objective anddidactic mode of expression. The actor is distanced from the role in orderto make the audience more directly aware of current political issues. Thistechnique is highly influential, particularly in Europe.

dithyramb A Greek religious rite in which a chorus of fifly men, dressedin goatskins, chanted and danced; the precursor, according to Aristode, ofGreektragedy.divertissenrent A French tem, now accepted in English, for a frothy enter-tainment, intended to "divert" the audience from more serious matters.

documentary drama Drama that presents historical facts in a non-fictionalized, or slightly fictionali"ed, manner.doggerel Coarse, unsophisticated poetry usually with short lines andoverly obvious rhymes, often used comically by Shakespeare to indicatesimplistic verse mitten or performed by characters in his p1ays, such as

Orlando's amateurish love poems to Rosalind in As You Like lt or the playof "Pyramus and Thisbe" presented by inexperienced perfomers in the lastact of AMid.summer Night's Dream.

donestic tragedy A tragedy abort ordinary people at home.

double (uerb) To play more than one role. An actor who plays two ormore roles is said to "doub1e" in the second md following roles. Ordinarilythe actor will seek, through a costume change, to disguise the fact of thedoubling; occasionally, however, a production with a theatricalist stagingmay make it clear that the actor doubles in many roles. (noun) To AntoninArtaud, the life that drama reflects, as discussed in his book The Theatreand l* Double. See also theatre of cruefuy.

downstage The part of the stage closest to the audience. The term datesback to the eighteenth century, when the stage was raked so thatthe fuontpart was literally lower than the back (or upstage) portion.drama The art of the theatre; plays, playmaking, and the whole body ofliterature of and for the stage.

dramatic Plays, scenes, and events that are high in conflict and believ-ability and that would command attention if staged in the theatre.

dramatic criticism A general term that refers to witings on &ama,ranging from journalistic play reviews to scholarly analyses of dramaticgenres, periods, styles, and theories.

dramatic irouy The device of letting the audience know something thecharacters don't, as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, when King Duncan remarkson his inability to judge a person's character-while warmly greeting theman (Macbeth) who we already know plans to assassinate him.dramaturg (also spelled "dramaturge") A specialist in play con-struction and the body of dramatic literature, dramaturgs are frequentlyengaged by professional and academic theatres to assist in choosing mdanaTyzing plays, to develop production concepts, to research topics per-tinent to historic period or play production style, and to Mite programessays. The dramaturg has been a mainstay of the German theatre sincethe eighteenth century and is becoming increasingly popular in theEnglish-speaking world.drarnaturgy The art of play construction; sometimes used to refer to playstructure itself.drapery Fabric-often biack-mainly used as neutral scenery to mask(hide) actors when they leave the lit (active) area of the stage. Also refers toa front curtain (a "main drape"), which is often red.

dress rehearsal A rehearsal in full costume; usually also with full scen-ery, properties, lighting, sound, and technical effects. Such rehearsals areordinarily the last ones prior to the first performance before an audience.

drop A flat piece of sceneryhungfrom the fly gallery, which can "drop" intoplace by a flying system.

emotion memory A technique in which an actor stimulates emotionby remembering the feelings he or she experienced during a previous,

real-life event. Employed since ancient times, it was developed and namedby Konstantin Stanislavslry (who, however, subsequently disomed it)and was promoted in America by Lee Strasberg. Also called "affectivememory."

empathy Audience members' identification with &amatic characters mdtheir consequent shared feelings with the plights and fortunes of thosecharacters. Empat\ is one of the principal effects of good drama.

ensemble Literally, the group of actors (and sometimes directors anddesigners) who put a play together; metaphoricalln the rapport andshared sense of purpose that bind such a group into a unified artisticentity.environmental theatre Plays produced not on a conventional stage butin an area where the actors and the audience are intemixed in the same"environment" and there is no precise line distinguishing stage space fromaudience space.

epic theatre As popularized by Bertolt Brecht, a style of theatre in whichthe play presents a series of semi-isolated episodes intermixed with songsand other forms of direct address, all leading to a general moral conclusionor set of integrated moral questions . Brecht's Mother Courage is a celebratedexample. See also ilistancing effect.

epilogue lnGreektragedy, a short concludingsene of cextaiaplays, gen-erally involving a substantial shift of tone or a deus ex machina. Today, theepilogue is a concluding scene set substantially beyond the time fvame ofthe rest of the play, in which characters, now somewhat older, reflect onthe preceding events.

episode In Greek trageily, a srene between characters and between choralodes. The word literally means "between odes."

existential drama A play based on the notions of existentialism, particu-larly as developed by playwright/philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Existential-ism, basically, preaches Sartre's principal tenet in No Exit that "you are youracts, and nothing else" and that people must be held ftrlly accountable fortheir om behavior.

exodos In Greek tragedy, the departve ode of the chorus at the end of theplay.

exposition In play construction, the conveyance, throtgh dialogue, olstory events that occurred before the play begins.

expressionism An artistic style that greatly exaggerates perceived real-itf in order to express inner truths directly. Popular mainly in Germanybetween the world wars, expressionism in the theatre is notable for itsgutsy dialogue, piercing sounds, bright lighting and coloring, bold scenery,and shocking, vivid imagery.

farce Highly comic, lighthearted, gleefully contrived drama, usuallyinvolving stock situations (such as mistaken identity or discovered lovers'trysts), punctuated with broad physical stunts and pratfalls.

flat A wooden frame covered by fabric or by a hard surface and thenpainted, often to resemble a wall or portion of a wall. The flat is a tradi-tional staple of stage senery, particularly in the realistic theatre, becauseit is exceptionally lightweight, can be combined with other flats in variousways, md can be repainted and reused many times over several years.

fly (verb) To raise a piece of scenery (or an actor) out of sight by a systemof ropes or wires. This theatre practice dates back at least to ancient Greektimes. See also deus ex machina.

fly gallery The operating area for flying scenery, where fly ropes are tiedoff (on a pinrail) or where ropes in a countemeight system are clamped ina fixed position.follow-spot A swivel-mounted spotlight that can be pointed in any direc-tion by an operator.

footlights ln a proscenium theatre, a row of lights across the front of thestage, used to light the actors' faces from below and to add light and colorto the setting. Footlights were used universally in previous centuries but areemployed only on special occasions today.

Glossary G-5

fofectage Seeapron.

found obiect In scene or costume design (and art in general), an item tlatis foud (rather than created) and is incorporated into the finished design.full house Audience seatingfilled to capacity. See also house.

gel Short for "gelatin," a sheet of colored plastic placed over a light sourceto color the beam emitted from a lighting instrument. Also used as a verb:to insert gels into the instruments.genre A French noun meaning "kind"; a term used in drmatic theory tosignify a distinctive class or category of play-tragedy, comedy, farce, atd_so on,geza The stage right, semienclosed musicians' box in kaluki theatre. Thisterm also refers to the music that is played in this box.gidayu The tra&tionai style of chattingin kabuki and. bunraku theatre.gobo A perforated sheet of metal that, when placed in front of the lens ofa sharply focused lighting instrument, projects designs on the floor or wal1the light falls on.greelroom A room near the stage where actors may sit comfortablybefore and after the show or during scenes in which they do not appear.This room is traditionally painted green; the custom arose in England,where the color was thought to be soothing.gromd plan A schematic drawing of the stage setting, as seen fromabove, indicating the location of stage-scenery pieces and furniture on(and sometimes above) the floor. Avital working document for directors inrehearsal, as well as for technicians in the ins tallation of scenery.

hamartia In Aristotle's Poerlcs, the "tragic flaw" ol the protagonist. Schol-ars differ as to whether Aristotle was referring primarily to a character'signorance of certain facts or to a charactert moral defect.hanarnichi In the kabuki theatre, a long narrow runway leading from thestage to a door at the back of the auditorium that is used for raised andhighly theatrical entrances and exits through the audience. For some plays,a second hanamichi may be added.

Hellenistic theatre Ancient Greek theatre during the fourth and thirdcenturies s.c. The suruiving stone theatres ofAthens and Epidaurus datefrom the Hellenistic period, which began well after the great fifth-centurytragedies and comedies were witten. The Hellenistic period did produce animportant form of comedy (New Comedy),however, and Alexandrim schol-ars during this period collected, edited, and preserved the masterpieces ofthe golden age.

high cornedy A comedy of verbal wit and visual elegance, primarilypeopled with upper-class characters. The Restoration comedies of WilliamCongreve (7670-L729) and the Victorian comedies of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) are often cited as examples.

hildmaku The traditional striped curtain of the kabuki theatre.himation The gomlike basic costume of the Greek tragic actor.house The audience portion of the theatre building.hubrig In Greek, "an excess ofpride"; the most common character d.efect(one interpretation of the Greek ha martia) of the protagonist ia Greek trag-edy. "Pride goeth before a fall" is a Biblical expression of this foundationof tragedy.

irnprovisation Dialogue or stage business invented by the actor, oftenduring the performance itself. Some plays are wholly improvised, even tothe extent that the audience may suggest situations that the actors mustthen create. More often, improvisation is used to "fill in the gaps" betweenmore traditionally memorized and rehearsed scenes.inciting action In play construction, the single action that initiates themajor conflict of the p1ay.

ingenue The young, pretry and innocent girl role in certain plays; alsoused to denote an actress capable of playing such roles.interlude A scene or staged event in a play not specifically tied to the p1o6in medieval England, a short moral p1ay, usually comic, that could be pre-sented at a court banquet amid other activities.

G- Glossary

intermission A pause in the action, marked by a fall of the curtain ora fade-out of t1le stage lights, during which the audience may leave theirseats for a short time, usually ten or fifteen minutes. Intemissions dividethe piay into separate acts. In England, knom as "the interval."

iing lnxiqu, the "painted-face" roles, often ofgods, nobles, or villains.jingiu "Capital theatre" in Chinese; the Beijing (Peking) opera is the mostfamous form of xiqu.

kabuki One of the national theake styles of Japan. Dating from the sev-enteenth century, kabuki features magnificent flowing costumes; highlystylizedscenery, acting, and makeup; and elaborately styled choreography.kakegoe Traditional shouts that kabuki enthtsiasts in the audience cryout to their favorite actors during the p1ay.

kathakdi Literally, "story play"; a traditional dance-drama of lndia.k6ken Black-garbed and veiled actors' assistants who perfom variousfunctions onstage and off in kaluki theatre.kunqu (sometiraes kunju) The oldest form of Chinese xiqu still per-formed, dating from the sixteenth century.ky6gen A comic, often farcical, counterpoint to Japanese nA drama, towhich it is, surprisingly, historically related.lazzo A physical joke, refined into traditlonal business and regularlyinserted into performances of ommedia dell'arte. "Eating the fly" is afamots lazzo-

LED The recently developed light-emitting diode is a light source that,because of its extremely long life, is beginning to replace incandescentsources in a variety of stage lighting instruments.Lenaea The winter dramatic festival of ancient Athens. Because therewere fewer foreigners in town in the winter, comedies that might embar-rass the Athenians were often performed at this festival rather than at thespringtime Dmnysia.

light plot The layout-on paper-showing the positions where stagelights are to be hung and how they are wired (connected) into the numberedelectrical circuits of the theatre facility.Iiturgical dtama Dramatic material that was Mitten into the officialCatholic Church liturgy and staged as part of regular church seryices in themedieval period, mainly in the tenth through twelfth centuries. See alsomystery play.

low comedy Comic actions based on broad physical humor, scatology,crude punning, and the argumentative behavior of ignorant and lower-class characters. Despite the pejorative connotation of its name, lowcomedy can be inspired, as in the "mechanicals" scenes in Shakespeare,sAMidsummer Night's Dream. Good plays, such as this one, can mix low com-edy with high comedy in a highly sophisticated pattern.mask (noun) A covering of the face, used conventionally by actors in manyperiods, including Greek, Roman, and. commediailell'arte. The maskwas alsoused in other sorts of plays for certain occasions, such as the masked ballsin Shakespeare's R omeo and Juliet and Much Ado aboutNothing The mask isa slmbol of the theatre, particularly the two classic masks of Comedy andTrugedy. (verb) To hide backstage storage or activity by placing in front ofit neutrally colore d, flats or drapery (which then become "masking pieces").

maeque A minor dramatic form combining dance, music, a short allegori-cal text, and elegant scenery and. costuming; often presented at court, as inthe royal masques written by Ben Jonson, with scenery designed by InigoJones, during the Stuart era (early seventeenth century).melodrama Originally a term for musical theatre, by the nineteenth cen-tury this became the designation of a suspenseful, plot-oriented. dramafeaturing all-good heroes, all-bad vi11ains, simplistic dialogue, soaringmoral conclusions, and brarura acting.metaphor A literary term designating a figure of speech that implies acomparison or identity of one thing with something else. It permits concisecommunication of a complex idea by use of associative imagery, as withShakespearet "morn in russet mantle clad."

metatheatre Literally, "beyond theatre"; plays or theatrical acts that areself-consciously theatrical, that refer back to the art of the theatre andcall attention to their om theatrical nature. Developed by many authors,including Shakespeare (in plays-within-plays in Hamlet atd A MidsummerNight's Dream) and particularly the twentieth-century Italian playwrightLuigi Pirandello (SixCharacters in Search ofanAuthor,TonightWe Improvise),thus leading to the term "Pirandellian" (meaning "metatheatrical"). See

also theatricalist and, play -within- the -play.

mie A "moment" in kabuki theatrein which the actor (ustally it an aragotorole) suddenly "freezes" in a tense and symbolic pose.

mime A stylized art of acting without words. Probably derived from thecommedia d.ell'arte, mime was revived in France during the mid-twentiethcentury and is now popular again in the theatre and in street performancesin Europe and the United States. Mime performers traditionally employwhiteface makeup to stylize and exaggerate their features and expressions.

modern A difficult term to pin down because it literally refers to workof "the present"-which, however, is always changing. The term popularlymeans "up-to-date," but arts scholars employ it mainly in reference toworks created between approximately 1890 and 1945, which were calledmodern in their om time (e.g., "Modern art") and now-in contrast topostmod.em works-can be roughly categorized into identified variousartistic sq/les (e.g., realism, naturalism, expressionism, absurdism, epic the-atre) of those years.

modern classic A term used to designate a play of the modern era thathas nonetheless passed the test of time and seems as if it will last into thecentury or centuries beyond, such as the major works of Anton Chekhov,George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. Contrast with classic drama.

monologue A long unbroken speech in a play, often delivered directly tothe audience (in which case it is more accurately called a soliloquy).

morality play An allegorical medieval play in which the characters repre-sent abstractions (Good Deeds, Death, and so on) and the overall impactof the play is moral instruction. The most famous in English is the anony-mous Everyman (fifteenth century) .

motivation That which can be construed to have determined a persont(or a character's) behavior. Since Konstantin Stanislavsky, actors have beenencouraged to study the possible motivations of their characters' actions.See ilso objective.

mueic theatre. A drmatic genre lhat employs, nomally in addition to spo-ken dialogue ftlut see sung-through), a musical score with a dozen or moresongs md dmces. Also called "musical theatre."

mugical (noun) A single work of mu sic theatre-stch as Oklahoma! or TheProducers.

musical comedy A musical intended mainly as light comic entertainment,emphasizing comedy and youthful romance as well as singing.

mystery play The most common term referring to medieval plays devel-oped from liturgical drama that treated Biblical stories and themes. (Theywere also knom as "pageant p1ays" in England, as "passion plays" whendealing with the Crucifixion of Jesus, and as "Corpus Christi plays" whenperformed in coniunction with that particular festival.) Unlike liturgicaldramas, whichwere in Latin, mystery plays were written in the vernacular(English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian versions exist) andwere staged outside the church.

naturalism A version of realism advancing the notion that the naturaland social environment, more than individual willpower, controls humanbehavior. Its proponents, active in the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies, sought to dispense with all theatrical convention in the searchfor verisimilitude-or, as the naturalists would say, a slice oflife.neoclassicism Literally, "new classicism." A renewed interest in the liter-ary and artistic theories of ancient Greece and Rome and an attempt toreformulate them for the current day. A dominant force in seventeenthcentury France, neoclassicism promoted restrained passion, balance,artistic consistency, and formalism in all art forms; it reached its dramaticpinnacle in the tragedies of Jean Racine.

New Comedy Greek comic dramas-almost all of which are now lost-of the late fourth to the second centuries r.c. Considerably more realisticthan the Old Comedy of Aristophanes, New Comedy employed' stock charac-ters and domestic scenes; it strongly influenced Roman author Plautus and,through him, Renaissance comedy.

nd The dassical dance-drama of Japan. Performed on a bare wooden stageof fixed construction and dimensions and accompanied by traditionalmusic, nd is the aristocratic forebear of the more popular kabuki and hasremained generally unchanged since its fourteenth-century beginnings.

objective The basic "goa7" of a character. Also called "intention," "goal," or"victory." Since Konstantin Stanislavsky, the actor has been urged to dis-cover his or her character's objectives and, by way of "living the life of thecharacter," to pursue that character's objective during the course ofthe play.

ode In Greek tragedy, a song chanted or sung by the chorus and oftenaccompanied by dance. Also called "choral ode."

off-Broadway The New York professional theatre located outside theBroadway district; principally in Greenwich Village and around the UpperEast and West Sides. Developed in the 1950s, when it was consideredavant-garde, the off-Broadway theatre is now more of a scaled-dom ver-sion of the Broadway theatre, featuring musicals and commercial revivals as

much as (or more than) original works.

off-off-Broadway A term designating certain theatre activity in NewYork City, usually nonprofessional (although with professional artistsinvolved) and usually experimental and av ant- garde. Off-off-Broadwaydeveloped in the 1970s as a supplement to the commercialism of bothBroadway and, increasingly, off-Broadway.

Old Comedy Ancient Greek comedy of the fifth century n.c., mainlyknom to us through the bawdy, satirical, and even slapstick comedies ofAristophanes.

onnagata "Women-type" roles in kabuki, which, like all the roles, areplayed by men.

"Open the house!" A direction to admit the audience. See also hoase.

orchestra (1) In the ancient Greek or Roman theatre, the circular (inRome, semicircular) ground-1evel acting area in front of the stagehouse, orskene. It was used primarily by the chorus. (2) In modern U.S. theatre build-ings, the ground-leve1 section of the au&ence, which usually slopes upwardat the rear. Distinct from the mezzanine and balconies and ordinarily con-taining the more expensive seats. In England, knom as "the stalls."

parabasis The "coming-forward" of a character in Greek Old Comedy whothen gives a direct address to tl,e atdience in the middle of the play. In Aris-tophanes'plays, the parabasis is often given in the author's name and mayhave been spoken by Aristophanes himself. The parabasis was often unre-lated to the plot and dealt with the author's immediate political or socialconcerns.

parados (1) The ode sung by the chorus entering the otchestra in a Greek

tragedy. (2) The space between the stage-house (skene) and audience seat-ing area (theatron) through which the chorus entered the orchestra.

paroily Dramatic material that makes fun of a dramatic genre ot mode otof specific literary works; a form of theatre that is often highly entertainingbut rarely has lasting va1ue.

passion play A medieval play about Jesus and his trial and crucifiion, stillperfomed in many toms andvillages around the world during Easterweek.

pathos "Passion," in Greek; also "suffering." The word refers to the depthsof feeling evoked by tragedy; tl is at the root of our words "sympathy" and"empathy," which also describe the effect of drama on audience emotions.See also empathy.

peripet€ia The change of course in the protagonist's fortunes that, accord-ing to Aristotle, is part of the climax of a tragedy.

platform A tablelike construction of any height, built to be stood upon,that creates raised flooring for a designated portion of the stage

play-within-the-play A play "presented" by characters who are alreadyin aplay, like "The Murder of Gonzago," which is presented by the "Players"

Glossary G-5

in Hamlet- Many plays are in part about actors and plays and containsuch plays-within-plays; these include Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, JeanAnouilh's Tlre Rehearsal, and Shake speare's A Midsummer Night's Dream andTheTamingofthe Shrew.

plot The events of the p1ay, expressed as a series of linked dramaticactions; in common terms, the story of the play. Plot is the most importantcomponent of a play, according to Aristotle.postmodern A wide-ranging term describing certain post-World War IIartistic works characterized by nonlinearity, self-referentiality if not self-parody, and multiple,/simultaneous sensory impressions.

Practical Aproperry thatworks onstage the way it does in 1ife. For enm-ple, a "practical" stove, in a stage setting, is one on which the characters canactually cook. A "nonpractical" stove, by contrast, is something that onlylooks like a stove (and may in fact be a stove without insides).preview A performance prior to a production's formal opening, primarilyintended to allow the director and cast to make final changes in response toau&ence reactions. There may be one preview or many; the musical Spider-Man had 183 of them before its opening night.problem play A realistic play that deals, ofien narrowly, with a specificsocial problem. George Bemard Shawt Mrs. Warren's Profession, fpr exam-ple, is virtually a dramatic tract on prostitution. The term was most popu-Iar around the beginning of the twentieth century.producer (1) In America, the person responsible for assembling theingredients of a play production: financing, staff, theatre, publicity, andmmagement. Not ordinarily involved in the day-to-day aytistic directionof the production, the American producer nonetheless controls the aytis-tic pyocess through her or his authority over personnel selection and bud-geting. (2) Until recendy in the English theatre, the theatre artist whomAmericans refer to as the director.prologue In Greek tragedy, a speech or brief scene preceding the entranceof the choms and the main action of the play, usualiy spoken by a god orgods. Subsequently, the tem has referred to a speech or brief scene thatintroduces the play, as by an actor in certain Elizabethan plays (often calledthe chorus) and in tt,e Restoration. The prologue is rarely used in the mod-em theatre.

promPt book The annotated script maintained by the production stagemanager dwing rehearsal identifying the cues-chiefly lighting, sound,and scene changes-tole implemented during the production. When per-fomances begin, this book is often rcnamedthe mllbookor the callingbook.

properties Or "props"; the furnitue and handheld objects Qrand props)used in play productions. These are often real items (chairs, telephones,books, etc.) that can be purchased, rented, borrowed, or brought up fromtheatre storage; they may also, particularly in period or stylized plays, bedesigned and built in a property shop.

proscenium The arch separating the audience area from the main stagearea. The term derives from the Roman playhouse, in which the prosce-nium (iterally, pro skene, or "in front of the stage") was the facing wall ofthe stage. Modern thrust and, arena stages have no proscenium.

prosceniurn theatre A rectangular-roomed theaffe with a prosceniumarch separating the audience on one end from the stage at the other. Theproscenium theatre was first popular in the late seventeenth century andreached its apogee in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Still the basic theatre architecture of America's Broadway and of majorEuropean theatre companies.

protagonist In Greek trageily, the "carrier of the action"; in my drama,the princtpal characfe4 often oppose d.by an antagonist.

raked stage A sloped stage, mgled so that the rear (upstage) area is higherthan the forward (downstage) area. A raked stage was standard theatrearchitecture in the seventeenth century and is often used today in scenedesign but rarely in a theatre's pemanent architecture.

realism The general principle that the stage should portray, in a reasonablefacsimile, ordinary people in ordinary circumstances and that actors should

G-6 Glossary

behave, as much as possible, as real people do in life. Although the rootsof realism go back to Euripides, it developed as a deliberate contrast to thefloid, romanticism that swept the European theatre in the mid-nineteenthcentury. See also n aturalism, whichis il qtreme version of realism.recognition See anagnorisis.

rehearsal The gathering of actors and director to put a play into pro-duction; the period in which the director stages the play and the actorsdevelop and repeattheir dialogue and actions; egmologically, a "reharrow-ing," or repeated digging into. In French, the comparable termis rdpdtition.repertory The plays a theatre company produces. A company's curentrepertory consists of those plays available for production at any time.Restoration In England, the period following the restoration of the mon-archy in 1660. In the theatre, the period is particularly noted for witty andsalacious comedies, through to William Congreve's brilliant The Way of theWorld in7700.revival The remounting of a play production after its initial dosing.rising action In play construction, the escalating conflict; events andactions that follow the inciting action.

ritual A traditional cultural practice, usually religious, involving precisemovements, music, spoken text, or gestures, that serves to communicatewitlr deities. Ritual is often incorporated into plays, eithet as onventions ofthe theatre or as specific dramatized actions.romanticism A nineteenth-century European movement away from neo-classfc formalism and restraint and toward out-sized passions, uotic andgrotesque stories, florid miting, and all-encompassing worldviews. Sup-planted late in the centuryby realism, romanticism survives today primar-ily in grand opera md nineteenth-century-based musirals.

rotating repettoty The scheduling of a series of plays in nightly rota-tion. This is customary in most European theatres and in many AmericanShakespeare festivals; it is otherwise rare in America. See also repertory.samisen The three-stringed banjolike instrument used in kabuki andbunraku.

satire A play or other literary work that ridicules social follies, beliefs,religions, or human vices, almost always in a lighthearted vein. Satire isnot usualiy a lasting theatre form, as summed up by dramatist George S.

Kaufman's classic definition: "Satire is what cioses on Saturday night."satyr Amythological Greek creature, half man andhalf goat, who attendedDionysus and represented male seruality and drunken revelrf goatskin-clad followers of Dionysus who sered as the cfroras of the satyr play.

satyr play The fourth play in a Greek tetralogy. Satyr plays were shortbawdy farces that parodied the events of the trilogies that preceded them.acansion The study of verse for pattems of accented and unaccented syl-lables; also knom as "metrics."

scene (1) The period of stage time representing a single location duringa continuous period of time, now usually marked by a stage clearing and anoticeable change in the lighting; the subdivision of an act. (2) The localewhere the events of the play are presumed to take place, as representedby scenery (as in "the scene is the Parson's living room"). (3) Of scenery,as "scene design."

scenery Physical constructions that provide the specific acting enyiron-ment for a play and that often in&cate, by representation, the locale wherea scene is set; the physicaT setting for a scene or p1ay.

scenography Scene design, particularly as it fits into the moving patternof a play or series of p1ays. Scenography is four-dimensional, comprisingthe three physical dimensions plus time.

scrim A theatrical fabric woven so finely that when lit from the front itappears opaque and when lit from behind it becomes tnnsparent. A scrimis often used for surprise effects or to create a mysterious mood.

script Th€ wdtten version of a play.

semiotics The study of signs, as they may be perceived in literary works,including plays. Semiotics is a contemporary tool of dramaturgical anaTysis

that offers the possibility of identifying all the ingredients of drama (stag-

ing as well as language) and determining the conjunctions between them.

set piece A single piece of scenery that represents a fixed obiect, such as

a tree or a bathtub.setting Or "set"; the fictional location where the playt action is presumedto take place, e.g., "a forest."

sheng In xi4u, the male roles and the actors who play them.

shite The princip a\ character (the "doer") in nri.

skene The Greek stagehouse (and root word of scene). The skene evolvedfrom a small changing room behind the orchestra to a larger structure witha raised stage and a back wall during the Greek period.

slapstick Literally, a prop bat made up of two hinged sticks that slap

sharply together when the bat is used to hit someone; a staple gag of thecommedia dell'arte. More generally, slapstick is any sort of very broad physi-ca1 stage humor.

slice of life Prte naturalism: stage action that realistically represents anordinary and arbitrary "slice" of the daily actMty of the peoPle portrayed.

soliloquy Amonologue dekvered by a single actor with no one else onstage,sometimes played as the character "thinking aloud" md sometimes as aseemingdialogue with the (silent) audience.

sound effects A term referring to single sounds, normally played fromoffstage and often prerecorded, that represent specific (and usualiy real-istic) sounds, such as a telephone ringing, a car braking, or a cannonfiring. Today, such effects are mostly incorporated into a play's overallsound design.

stage business See business.

stage ilirections Scene descriptions, blocking instructions, and generaldirectorial comments ffiitten, usually by the playwright , in the scrtpt.

stage left Left, from the actor's point of view.

stage machinery A variety of mechanical devices, including hoists,cranes, rolling carts, and turntables, used to move or change actors or scen-

ery. Many, though now electric, date from ancient Greek times.

stage right Right, from the actor's point of view.

stasimon A choral ode between scenes (episodes) in a Greek tragedy.

stock character A character recognizable mainly for his or her conformityto a standard ("stock') dramatic stereot)4)e: the wily servant, the braggartsoldier, the innocent virgin, and so on. Most date from at least Roman times.

stock situation One of a number of basic plot situations-the lover hid-ing in the closet, twins mistaken for each other, md so on-that, like stock

characters, have been used in the theatre since Plautus and before.

storyboard A series of rough preliminary drawings that, when looked atin sequence, visually illustrate an imagined order of stage moments-thesequencing of the scenery and'the flow of the action-in a play being pre-pared for production.style The specific manner in which a play is shaped, as determined by itsgenre, its historical period, the sort of impact the director wishes to con-vey to the audience, md the skill of the artists involved. The term generallyrefers to these aspects inasmuch as they differ from naturalisu, although itcould be said that naturalism is a style.

stylize To deliberately shape a play (or a setting, a costume, etc.) in a spe-

cifi cally non-naturalistic manner.

subplot A secondary plot, usually related to the main plot by play'send. The Gloucester plot in King Lear and the Laertes plot tn Hamlet ateexamples.

subtext According to Konstantin Stanislavsky, the deeper and usuallyunexpressed "real" meanings of a character's spoken lines. Of particularimportance in the acting of realistic plays, such as those ofAnton Chekhov,where the action is often as much between the lines as in them.

summer stock Theatre companies, located mostly in vacation areas

of the American Northeast, that produce a season of plays (often one

per week) during the summer months. Particularly popular in thethree decades following World War II, when they mainly offered light,Broadway-styled comedies and provided pleasant entertainment forvacationers, salaries for unemployed New York actors, and break-inopportunities for student apprentices. The surviving companies, such as

the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, have since becomemuch more artisticdly ambitious.sung-through (noun) A musical that has no spoken dialogue'

surrealism An art movement of the eariy twentieth century in which theartist sought to go beyond.realisminto superrealism.

symbolism The first maior antirealistic movement in the arts md in thetheatre. Symbolism, which emphasizes the symbolic nature of theatricalpresentation and the abstract possibilities of drama, flourished as a sig-nificant movement from the late nineteenth century to the early twentiethcentury, when it broke into various submovements; expressionism, surreal-ism, theatricalism, and many others.

tableau A'frozen moment" onstage, with the actors immobile, usuallyemployed at the endof a scene, as the curtain falls or the lights dim.

technical rehearsal A stop-and- statt rehearsal, in which a play's technical elements-mainly scene shifts, lighting, and sound cues-are preciselytimed and integrated with the acting. See also cue sheet-

tech run-through A nonstop rehearsal of the play with all technical ele-

ments called by the stage manager and executed. See also call; cue sheet.

tetralogy Four plays performed together in sequence. In ancient Greektheatre, this was the basic pattem for the tragic playwrights, who pre-sented, a trilogy of tragedies, follow edby a satyr play.

text A play script. This term is sometimes used to indicate the spokenwords of the play only, as apart from the stage directions md other mate-rial in the script.theatre-and drama These words are often used interchangeably, yetthey also have distinct meanings. "Theatre" is the broader term and can

denote all of the elements of theatrical production (plays, scenery, staging,acting) . "Drama" mainly focuses on plays performed in a theatrical environ-ment. This difference in meaning reflects the words' separate etymologies:theatre is that which "is seen," and drama is that which "is done." So "the-atve" can mean a building, but'drama' cannot. And "dramatic" suggests

actions, in both plays and life, that are compelling; but "theatrical," whenreferring to realJife behavior, implies overly showy or sensationalistic.

theatre-and th eatet Theatre is tlrre French and British spelling; theaterthe Geman. Both spellings are common in the United States.

theatre of alienation See distanring effect; epic theatre.

theatre of cruelty A notion of theatre developed by the French theoristAntonin Artaud (1896-19€). Artaud's goal wtr to empioy language more forits sound than for its meaning and to create a shocking stream of sensations

rather thm a coherent plot md cast of charaaers. NthoughArtaud's practicalachievement was slight, his theories have proven extraor&narily influential'

theatre of the abcurd A theatrical style, named by Martin Esslin in his1961 book of that title, that has been applied to the post-World War IIplays of Samuel Beckett, Eugine Ionesco, Jean Genet, and others, mostlyEuropems. Esslin employed the term, derived from an essay by AlbertCamus (see absurA, to describe plays with unrealistic and illogical plots,repetitious and disconnected language, and unclear themes, reflecting a

world in which humans "absurdly" seek meaning but never find it.theatre-in-the-toand See arena stage.

theatricalist A contemporary style that boldly exploits the theate itselfand calls attention to the theatdcal contexts of the play being perfomed.This tem is often used to describe plays about the theatre that employ a

play -within-the-play. See also metatheatre.

theatricdity A quality of particularly vivid and attention-grabbingshowmanship, either on stage or in daily life.theatron The original Greek theatre; from the Greek for "seeing place."

thespian Actor; after Thespis, the first Greek actor.

Glossary G-l

thrust stage A stag€ that prcjects into the seating area and is surroundedby the audience on three sides.

tragedy From the Greek for "goat song," originally meaning a seri-ous play. Tragedy was later refined by Greek playvwights (Thespis, sixthcentury 8.c., being the first) and subsequently the philosopher Aristotle(384-322 B.c.) into the most celebrated of dramatic genres: a play thattreats, at the most uncompromising level, human suffering. The reason forthe name is unclear; a goat may have been the prize, or the cftorus may haveworn goatskins.tragic flaw See hamartia.tragicomedy A play that begin s as a tragedy btt includes comic elementsand ends happily. Tragicomedy was a poptlar genre in the eighteenthcentury but is rarely employed, at least under that name, in the moderntheatre.traveler A curtain that, instead of flying out (see fly), moves horizontallyand is usually opened by dividing from the center outward.trilogy Three plays perfomed in sequence; the basic pattern of ancientGreek tragedies, of which one-Aeschylust The Oresteia (Agamemnon, TheLibation Bearers, and.The Eumenides)-is sti11 extant.trope A mitten text, usually in dialogue form, incorporated into theChristian worship service. In the tenth centuryA.D. tropes became the firstliturgkal dramas.

troupe A group of actors who perform together, often on tour. See alsocompany-

unit set A set that, by the moving on or off of a few simple pieces andperhaps with a change of lights, can represent all the scenes from a play.The unit set is a fluid and economical staging device, particularly useful forShakespeare productions.

unities The unity of place, unity of time, unity of action, and unity of tonewere the four "unities" that neoclassic critics of the seventeenth centuryclaimed to derive from Aristotle; plays said to 'bbserve the uniti€s" wererequired to take place in one locale, to have a duration ofno more than oneday (in an extreme interpretation, in no more time than the duration of theplay itself), and to concern themselves with no more than a single action.Aristotle made no such demands on plapwights, however, and very fewauthors have ever succeeded in satisfying these restrictive conventions.

upstage (noun)Inaprosceniumtheatre, the part ofthe stage farthest fromthe audience; the rear of the stage, so called because it was in fact raised("up") in the days o f the raked stage. (uerb) To stand upstage of another actor.Upstaging is often considered rude, inasmuch as it forc es the dwnstage actorto face upstage (md away from the audience) in order to look at the actor towhom she or he is supposed to be speaking. Figuratively, the tem may beused to describe any sort of acting behavior that calls unwananted attentionto the "upstaging" actor and away from the "upstaged" one.

vaudeville A stage variety show with singing, dancing, comedy skits, andanimal acts; highly popular in America from the late 1880s to the 1930s,when it lost out to movies, radio, and subsequently television.verisimilitude Lifelikeness; the appearance ofactual reality (as in a stagesetting).

wegoto Inkabuki, "soft-style" acting performed by certain male romanticcharacters-

waki The secondary characterinn6.well-made glay Piice bien faite in French; in the nineteenth century, asuperbly plotted play, particularly by such gifted French plapwights asEugdne Scribe (1791-1861) and Victorien Sardou (1831-1908); today,generally used pejoratively, as to describe a play that has a workable p/otbut shallow characterization and trivial ideas.

West End The commercial theatre district of London, England.wings In a proscenium theatre, vertical. pieces of scenery to the left andright of the stage, usually parallel with the footlights.working drawings Designert drawings that show how a prop or apiece of scenerylooks, and indicate how it should be constructed. See alsoproperties.

xiqu Chinese for "tuneful theatre"; the general term for all varieties of tra-ditional Chinese theatre, often called "Chinese opera."zadacha Russian for "task" (though commonly translated as "objective");according to Konstantin Stanislavsky, a character's (fictional) tasks (orgoals), which the actor must pursue during the play.

G-8 Glossary