Theatre Glossary (Mike Green)

Action without words; nonverbal communication through body movement, gesture, and facial expression.

The process by which people receive, recognize, integrate, and interpret sensory stimuli.

The imitation of life in front of at least one other person. In a broad sense, performance refers to the presentation of any kind of entertainment--from play to rock concert, from solo presentation to ensemble collaboration.

Improvising or acting out characters in a scene or story.

A technique used by the creative drama leader during the playing, in which the leader enacts a role that allows for some authority and control, to heighten and advance the playing.

An area for dramatic activities. This may be simply the space surrounding a student's desk or a cleared space in a classroom without a designated place for observation by an audience. Theatrical production clearly establishes an acting area, or stage, and a designated audience area: proscenium (one side), thrust (three sides), area (four sides).

Playmaking is a term used to describe dramatic activities that lead to improvised drama with a beginning, middle, and end employing the general form and some of the elements of theatre. The product may or may not be shared with others.

Playwriting is the act of creating the plot, theme, characters, dialogue, spectacle, and structure of a play and organizing it into a playscript form. It involves the ability to imagine the entire production scene by scene and to put it into written form so that others may interpret it for the stage.

Plot is the structure of the action of the play; it is the arrangement of incidents that take place on the stage as revealed through the action and dialogue of the characters. Plot structure usually includes a beginning, a middle, and end with a problem, complications, and a resolution.

The process of representing a character.