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

Glossary G-3
dan In xiqu, the female roles and the actors who play them.
dance-drama As its name suggests, this kind of performance
mixes the genres of dance and theatre by adding narrative and
dramatic elements to physically expressive movement.
denouement The final scene or scenes in a play devoted to
tying up the loose ends after the climax (although the word
originally meant “the untying”).
deus ex machina In Greek tragedy, the resolution of the plot
by the device of a god (“deus”) flying onstage by means of a
crane (“machina”) and solving all the characters’ problems.
Today, this term encompasses any contrived play ending,
such as the sudden arrival of a long-lost husband or father.
This theatrical element was considered clumsy by Aristotle
and nearly all succeeding critics; it is occasionally used
ironically in the modern theatre, as by Bertolt Brecht in The
Threepenny Opera.
dialogue The speeches—delivered to one another—of the
characters in a play. Contrast with monologue.
diction One of the six important components of drama,
according to Aristotle, who meant by the term the intelligence
and appropriateness of the play’s speeches. Today, the term
refers primarily to the actor’s need for articulate speech and
clear pronunciation.
didactic drama Drama dedicated to teaching lessons or provoking
intellectual debate beyond the confines of the play; a
dramatic form espoused by Bertolt Brecht. See also distancing
effect.
dim out To fade the lights gradually to blackness.
dimmer The electrical device that regulates the amount of
light emitted from lighting instruments.
Dionysia The weeklong Athenian springtime festival in honor
of Dionysus; after 534 b.c., it was the major play-producing
festival of the ancient Greek year. Also called “Great Dionysia”
and “City Dionysia.”
Dionysian Characterized by passionate revelry, uninhibited
pleasure-seeking; the opposite of Apollonian, according to
Friedrich Nietzsche, who considered drama a merger of these
two primary impulses in Greek culture.
Dionysus The Greek god of drama as well as the god of drinking
and fertility. Dionysus was known as Bacchus in Rome.
direct address A character’s speech delivered directly to the
audience, common in Greek Old 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 entrance, as when a curtain opens. Ferdinand and Miranda
are “discovered” playing chess in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
when Prospero pulls away the curtain that was hiding them
from view.
distancing effect A technique, developed by German playwright
Bertolt Brecht, by which the actor deliberately presents
rather than represents his or her character and “illustrates” the
character without trying to embody the role fully, as naturalistic
acting technique demands. This effect may be accomplished
by “stepping out of character”—as to sing a song or to address
the audience directly—and by developing a highly objective
and didactic mode of expression. The actor is distanced from
the role in order to make the audience more directly aware of
current political issues. This technique is highly influential,
particularly in Europe.
dithyramb A Greek religious rite in which a chorus of fifty
men, dressed in goatskins, chanted and danced; the precursor,
according to Aristotle, of Greek tragedy.
divertissement A French term, now accepted in English, for
a frothy entertainment, intended to “divert” the audience from
more serious matters.
documentary drama Drama that presents historical facts in a
non-fictionalized, or slightly fictionalized, manner.
doggerel Coarse, unsophisticated poetry, usually with short
lines and overly obvious rhymes, often used comically by
Shakespeare to indicate simplistic verse written or performed
by characters in his plays, such as Orlando’s amateurish love
poems to Rosalind in As You Like It or the play of “Pyramus
and Thisbe” presented by inexperienced performers in the last
act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
domestic tragedy A tragedy about ordinary people at home.
double (verb) To play more than one role. An actor who
plays two or more roles is said to “double” in the second and
following roles. Ordinarily the actor will seek, through a costume
change, to disguise the fact of the doubling; occasionally,
however, a production with a theatricalist staging may
make it clear that the actor doubles in many roles. (noun)
To Antonin Artaud, the life that drama reflects, as discussed
in his book The Theatre and Its Double. See also theatre
of cruelty.
downstage The part of the stage closest to the audience. The
term dates back to the eighteenth century, when the stage was
raked so that the front part was literally lower than the back (or
upstage) portion.
drama The art of the theatre; plays, playmaking, and the
whole body of literature of and for the stage.
dramatic Plays, scenes, and events that are high in conflict
and believability and that would command attention if staged
in the theatre.
dramatic criticism A general term that refers to writings
on drama, ranging from journalistic play reviews to scholarly
analyses of dramatic genres, periods, styles, and theories.
dramatic irony The device of letting the audience know
something the characters don’t, as in Shakespeare’s Macbeth,
when King Duncan remarks on his inability to judge a person’s
character—while warmly greeting the man (Macbeth) who we
already know plans to assassinate him.
dramaturg (also spelled “dramaturge”) A specialist in play
construction and the body of dramatic literature, dramaturgs
are frequently engaged by professional and academic theatres
to assist in choosing and analyzing plays, to develop production
concepts, to research topics pertinent to historic period or
play production style, and to write program essays. The dramaturg
has been a mainstay of the German theatre since the
eighteenth century and is becoming increasingly popular in the
English—speaking world.
dramaturgy The art of play construction; sometimes used to
refer to play structure itself.
drapery Fabric—often black—mainly used as neutral scenery
to mask (hide) actors when they leave the lit (active) area of
the stage. Also refers to a front curtain (a “main drape”), which
is often red.
dress rehearsal A rehearsal in full costume; usually also with
full scenery, properties, lighting, sound, and technical effects.
Such rehearsals are ordinarily the last ones prior to the first
performance before an audience.