drama vocabulary

Drama Vocabulary

Drama

• Literature meant to be performed before an audience by actors on a stage

• Example: Romeo and Juliet

Act

• A major division of a play

• Shakespeare did not separate his plays into acts; each play was later divided into five acts

• Acts can contain one or more scenes

Scene

• A subdivision of an act in a play

• Each scene usually takes place in a specific setting and time

Diction

• Specific word choice that an author uses in writing.

“…This is a knavery of them to make me afeard.” Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Flashback

• A technique that allows a writer to present past events during current events.

• Dream sequences, memories, etc.

Screenplay

• The script for a screen, including instructions for sets and camera work.

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Verbal Irony

• A person says one thing and means another

• Example: When Mercutio is dealt a fatal wound but calls it only a “scratch”

Verbal Irony Examples

• “Oh great!” (when something isn’t really good)

• “Sure I don’t mind to wait until you finish your conversation, I know it’s way more important than what I am fixing to teach!”

• “Two households both alike in dignity…”

• “Lucky you!!” (when you get a teacher you don’t really want)

Dramatic Irony

•The audience has important information that characters in a literary work do not have

•Example: The audience knows that Juliet is only sleeping, but Romeo thinks she is dead.

Aside• A character’s

remark, either to the audience or another character, that others on stage do not hear; reveals the character’s private thoughts

Soliloquy

• A speech given by a character alone on stage that lets the audience know what the character is thinking or feeling

• Example: Juliet’s balcony speech

Pun

• A humorous play on two or more meanings of the same word or on two different words with the same sound

• Examples: He drove his expensive car into a tree and found out how the Mercedes bends.

A baker stopped making donuts after he got tired of the hole thing.

Pun

Examples: The raisin wined about how he couldn't achieve grapeness.

Once you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.

Stage Directions

• Instructions about the appearance and actions of characters, sets, props, costumes, sound effects, and lighting for a play

Staging

• The act of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space for a play.

Oxymoron

• A figure of speech that is a combination of seemingly contradictory words

• Examples from Romeo and Juliet: brawling love, loving hate, heavy lightness, sick health

• Can you think of one?

Oxymoron

• Examples:Anarchy rulesAwfully niceBooks on tapeCold sweatOnly choiceSad smileSeriously funnyWise fool

Icy Hot

Paradox

• A situation or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, contains a possible truth

• Examples:– “Cowards die many times before their death.”– “I must be cruel to be kind.”

Parallelism

• The repetition of a grammatical structure

• Example:– “of the people, by the people, for the people”

– "When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Parallelism

• "Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude."(Jesse Jackson)

Theme

• The author’s message or central idea of the story.

• Hint: Find the topic of the story (love, war, etc.) and then ask yourself, “What is the author trying to say about the topic?” (Love conquers all. War has no boundaries.)

Dialogue and Monologue

• Dialogue – conversation between 2 or more characters

• Monologue – a speech by one character

Comic Relief

• A humorous scene or speech intended to lighten the mood

Script

• The text of a play, including dialogue, stage directions, and scene changes.