HSC Drama flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Stimulus

The starting point for creating drama, such as an image, text, object, issue or piece of music, from which ideas, improvisations and eventually a performance are developed.

Dramatic tension

The quality that makes an audience want to keep watching, created through conflict, mystery, surprise, task pressure or uncertainty about what will happen next.

Dramatic elements

The building blocks of drama: tension, contrast, space, time, sound, rhythm, mood, symbol and focus, which makers select and combine to shape meaning.

Theatrical conventions

Agreed techniques understood by performers and audiences, such as direct address, aside, soliloquy, tableau, chorus, mask, slow motion and split stage.

Dramatic arc

The shape of a story in performance: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution, which non-linear works deliberately reorder.

Devised theatre

Performance created by the ensemble rather than from a pre-existing script, built through research, improvisation, selection and scripting, and documented as it develops.

Improvisation

Unscripted performance in which performers respond in the moment to a stimulus, offering or each other, used both to generate material and to build spontaneity.

Stock character

A fixed, recognisable role type with set traits and physical patterns, as in commedia dell'arte, where masked figures repeat predictable behaviours and routines.

Logbook

The working record of a drama process, containing stimulus research, improvisation notes, drafts, rehearsal decisions and evaluation that evidences how the work developed.

Given circumstances

The facts a performer establishes about a character's world: who they are, where and when they live, their relationships, history and present situation.

Objective

What a character wants in a scene, expressed as an active verb such as to persuade or to humiliate, which drives the performer's choices and actions.

Obstacle

The force or person preventing a character from achieving their objective, which generates conflict and gives the performer something concrete to play against.

Diaphragmatic breathing

Breathing in which the diaphragm descends and the lower ribs expand, providing the supported airflow that underlies projection, sustained phrasing and vocal control.

Projection

Carrying voice audibly to the furthest audience member through supported breath and open resonance rather than force, while retaining clarity and tonal quality.

Articulation

The precise shaping of speech sounds by tongue, lips and palate so that words remain intelligible at volume and at speed in a large performance space.

Vocal elements

The controllable qualities of voice: pitch, pace, pause, volume, tone, emphasis, inflection and articulation, each chosen deliberately to communicate character and meaning.

Blocking

The planned pattern of movement and position on stage, recorded in rehearsal so that entrances, exits, crosses and groupings are repeatable and visible to the audience.

Status

The relative power between characters, communicated through eye contact, posture, height, who speaks first, who interrupts and who holds silence.

Ensemble

A group of performers working as one unit, sharing focus, listening, timing and spatial awareness so that the production reads as coherent rather than as separate turns.

Fourth wall

The imagined boundary between performers and audience in realistic staging, where actors behave as if unobserved and the audience watches a self-contained world.

Upstaging

Taking focus unfairly by moving upstage of another performer, moving during their speech or drawing attention away from the intended centre of the scene.

Dress rehearsal

A full run under performance conditions with costume, set, lighting, sound and cues, used to integrate technical elements before an audience is present.

Dramaturgy

The study and shaping of a production's structure, text and meaning, including research, editing, sequencing and ensuring coherence between concept and performance.

Production elements

The design and technical components of a production: set, costume, lighting, sound, direction, casting and staging, each analysed for its contribution to meaning.

Diegetic sound

Sound whose source exists within the world of the play, such as a radio a character switches on, as opposed to underscoring added for the audience.

Proxemics

The use of distance and spatial arrangement between performers and audience, including staging configuration, which shapes intimacy, scale and the audience's sense of involvement.

Proscenium staging

A staging configuration where the audience faces one direction through a framed opening, favouring pictorial design and a clear separation of performers and spectators.

Theatre in the round

Staging with the audience surrounding the performance area on all sides, requiring movement and design that read from every angle and removing a single front view.

Thrust staging

Staging where the performance area projects into the auditorium with audience on three sides, combining a picture-frame back wall with intimate side sightlines.

Directorial concept

The unifying interpretation a director applies to a text, such as a period relocation or governing image, which coordinates design, casting and acting choices into one meaning.

Theatre criticism

Written evaluation of a production that describes specific moments, analyses how production and performance choices created effects, and judges their success with evidence.

Indigenous protocols

The principles governing representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories, including consultation, cultural authority, permission and acknowledgement of Country and community.