Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

G-2 Glossary
border A piece of flat scenery, often black velour but sometimes
a flat, which is placed horizontally above the set, usually
to mask the lighting instruments. Borders are often used with
side wings, in a scenery system known as “wing and border.”
box set A stage set consisting of hard scenic pieces representing
the walls and sometimes the ceiling of a room, with
one wall left out for the audience to peer into. This set design
was developed in the nineteenth century and remains in use
today primarily in realistic plays.
Broadway The major commercial theatre district in New
York, roughly bordered by Broadway, Eighth Avenue, 42nd
Street, and 52nd Street.
bunraku A Japanese puppet-theatre, founded in the sixteenth
century and still performed today.
burlesque Literally, a parody or mockery, from an Italian
amusement form. Today the term implies broad, coarse
humor in farce, particularly in parodies and vaudeville-type
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. Sometimes this is controlled to a high
degree by the actor or the director for precise dramatic effect; at
other times the business is improvised to convey verisimilitude.
call An oral command, normally whispered over an intercom
by the stage manager to the appropriate operator, to execute
a specific lighting, sound, or scene-shift cue as, for example,
“Sound cue number 121—go!” See also cue sheet; tech
run-through.
call book or calling book See prompt book.
callback After the initial audition, the director or casting
director will “call back” for additional—sometimes many—
readings by the actors who seem most promising. Rules of the
actors’ unions require that actors be paid for callbacks exceeding
a certain minimum number.
Callbacks The second and more involved phase of auditions,
in which an actor is usually asked to read for a specific part.
caricature A character portrayed very broadly and in a stereotypical
fashion, ordinarily objectionable in realistic dramas.
See also character.
catharsis In Aristotle’s Poetics, the “purging” or “cleansing”
of the terror and pity that the audience feels during the climax
of a tragedy.
character A “person” in a play, as performed by an actor. Hamlet,
Oedipus, Juliet, and Willy Loman are characters. Characters
may or may not be based on real people.
chiton The full-length gown worn by Greek tragic actors.
choral ode See ode.
chorus (1) In classic Greek plays, an ensemble of characters
representing the general public of the play, such as the
women of Argos or the elders of Thebes. Originally, the chorus
numbered fifty; Aeschylus is said to have reduced it to
twelve and Sophocles to have increased it to fifteen. More
recent playwrights, including Shakespeare and Jean Anouilh,
have occasionally employed a single actor (or a small group
of actors) as “Chorus,” to provide narration between scenes.
(2) In musicals, an ensemble of characters who sing or dance
together (in contrast to soloists, who mostly sing or dance
independently).
chou In xiqu, clown characters and the actors who play them.
classic drama Technically, plays from classical Greece or
Rome. Now used frequently (if incorrectly) to refer to Elizabethan,
Jacobean, and French neoclassical masterpieces. See
also modern classic.
climax The point of highest tension, when the conflicts of the
play are at their fullest expression.
colorblind casting The controversial belief that race should
play no factor in casting decisions, so that an actor of any background
can play a part regardless of the character’s ethnicity.
comedy Popularly, a funny play; classically, a play that
ends happily; metaphorically, a play with some humor that
celebrates the eternal ironies of human existence (“divine
comedy”).
comic relief In a tragedy, a short comic scene that
releases some of the built-up tension of the play—
giving the audience momentary “relief” before the tension
mounts higher. The porter scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is
an often-cited example; after the murder of Duncan, a porter
jocularly addresses the audience as to the effect of drinking
on sexual behavior. In the best tragedies, comic relief also provides
an ironic counterpoint to the tragic action.
commedia dell’arte A form of largely improvised, masked
street theatre that began in northern Italy in the late sixteenth
century and still can be seen today. The principal characters—
Arlecchino, Pantalone, Colombina, Dottore, and Scapino
among them—appear over and over in thousands of commedia
stories.
company A group of theatre artists gathered together to create
a play production or a series of such productions. See also
troupe.
convention A theatrical custom that the audience accepts
without thinking, such as “when the curtain comes down, the
play is over.” Each period and culture develops its own dramatic
conventions, which playwrights may either accept or
violate.
cue The last word of one speech that then becomes the “signal”
for the following speech. Actors are frequently admonished
to speak “on cue” or to “pick up their cues,” both of
which mean to begin speaking precisely at the moment the
other actor finishes.
cue sheet A numbered list of lighting, sound, or scene-shift
changes coordinated with precise moments marked in the stage
manager’s prompt book.
curtain call The last staged element, in which the actors, after
the play ends and the audience has begun to applaud, come
forward to graciously accept the applause by bowing.
cycle plays In medieval England, a series of mystery plays
that, performed in sequence, relate the story of the Judeo-
Christian Bible, from the Creation of the Universe to the Crucifixion
to Doomsday. The York Cycle includes forty-eight
such plays.
cyclorama In a proscenium theatre, a large piece of curved
scenery that wraps around the rear of the stage and is illuminated
to resemble the sky or to serve as an abstract neutral
background. It is usually made of fabric stretched between
curved pipes but is sometimes a permanent structure made of
concrete and plaster.
dada A provocative and playful European art movement
that followed World War I and is characterized by seemingly
random, unstructured, and “anti-aesthetic” creativity. It was
briefly but deeply influential in poetry, painting, and theatre.