FTCE Drama 6-12 flashcards

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

Hamartia

Aristotle's term for the error or flaw in a tragic hero that contributes to their downfall. It is not necessarily a moral defect, but a misjudgment producing the tragedy.

Catharsis

Aristotle's concept that tragedy purges or clarifies the audience's emotions of pity and fear. It describes the emotional release produced by witnessing a tragic hero's reversal and suffering.

Peripeteia

A sudden reversal of fortune in a dramatic plot, often paired with anagnorisis (recognition). Aristotle identifies it as a key device for producing tragic effect in complex plots.

Freytag's Pyramid

A five-part model of dramatic structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Gustav Freytag based it on five-act classical tragedy.

Well-Made Play

A tightly plotted 19th-century form perfected by Scribe and Sardou. It features careful exposition, secrets, a climactic scène à faire, and a logically resolved ending.

Soliloquy

A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing inner thoughts to the audience. It differs from a monologue because no other character is present to hear it.

Aside

A brief remark spoken by a character that the audience hears but other characters on stage supposedly do not. It creates intimacy and reveals subtext.

Subtext

The unspoken meaning beneath a character's dialogue, conveyed through action, tone, and implication. Actors and directors analyze subtext to build layered performances.

Given Circumstances

The environmental, historical, and situational facts that surround a scene, including time, place, relationships, and prior events. Stanislavski used them to ground character work.

Objective

A character's specific want or goal in a scene, driving action and line delivery. Actors phrase objectives as active verbs and pursue them through tactics.

Alienation Effect

Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt, which uses visible stagecraft, direct address, and episodic structure to prevent empathy and encourage critical judgment in the audience.

Theatre of Cruelty

Antonin Artaud's theory of theatre as sensory assault that bypasses rational text. It uses gesture, sound, light, and ritual to reach the audience's unconscious.

Poor Theatre

Jerzy Grotowski's approach that strips away spectacle and focuses on the actor-audience encounter. The actor's body and voice become the essential theatrical means.

Forum Theatre

Augusto Boal's technique in which spectators become spect-actors and intervene in a performed scene to rehearse social change. It is central to Theatre of the Oppressed.

Theatre of the Absurd

A post-war movement (Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter) depicting meaningless, circular action and fractured language. It reflects existentialist views of human isolation and futility.

Commedia dell'arte

An Italian Renaissance form using masked stock characters, improvisation, and lazzi (comic bits). It influenced later comedy, mime, and character comedy.

Noh Theatre

A classical Japanese form codified by Zeami, using masks, slow stylized movement, chant, and sparse sets. It emphasizes suggestion and spiritual atmosphere.

Kabuki

A Japanese popular theatre form known for bold makeup, onnagata (male actors as women), mie poses, and the hanamichi runway. It emerged in the Edo period.

Proscenium Arch

A theatre stage framed by an arch, with the audience on one side. It supports realistic scenery and picture-frame staging but distances the audience.

Thrust Stage

A stage projecting into the audience with seating on three sides. It creates intimacy and requires staging that accounts for multiple sightlines.

Arena Stage

Theatre-in-the-round, with the audience surrounding the stage on four sides. Blocking must account for continuous sightlines and frequent entrances and exits.

Stage Right

The actor's right when facing the audience, which is the audience's left. Stage directions use the actor's perspective, so upstage and downstage follow suit.

Prompt Book

The stage manager's master copy of the script with blocking, cues, and production notes. It serves as the authoritative record for running the show.

Cue-to-Cue

A technical rehearsal that skips dialogue to run light and sound cues and transitions. It ensures technical elements align with onstage action.

Dramaturg

A production collaborator who researches context, analyzes the script, and supports the director and actors. The role bridges literary study and rehearsal practice.

Iambic Pentameter

A verse line of five iambic feet (unstressed-stressed), common in Shakespeare's plays. Scansion helps actors find rhythm, emphasis, and breath.

Method Acting

An approach derived from Stanislavski, associated with Strasberg, emphasizing affective memory and emotional truth. It aims for psychologically grounded performance.

Meisner Technique

Sanford Meisner's training built on repetition exercises, listening, and truthful impulse. It emphasizes responding genuinely to a partner in the moment.

Laban Effort Analysis

Rudolf Laban's system describing movement through weight, space, time, and flow. Actors use it to build character physicality and expressive gesture.

Viewpoints

A movement and staging framework (Anne Bogart) built on spatial and temporal elements like tempo, duration, and shape. It develops ensemble awareness and improvisation.

Process Drama

An educational approach (Heathcote) in which participants explore a topic through role play and sustained improvisation. It builds empathy, inquiry, and literacy.

Grand Rights

Licensing rights for full theatrical productions of plays and musicals, as opposed to small rights for individual songs. Producers must secure them before staging a work.