Vocabulary

Drama and performance vocabulary

Aesthetic

The look, sound and feel of a production.

Atmosphere

The emotional climate of a scene, built from light, sound, pace and ensemble energy. "Tense, oppressive atmosphere" beats "good atmosphere".

Beat

A small unit of action. One objective, one thought, one shift. Scenes are made of beats. Transitions between beats are where intention is most readable.

Blocking

Where performers stand and move on stage. Includes entries, exits, crosses and stillness. Blocking that has reasoning is staging. Blocking that does not is traffic.

Choreography

Patterned movement designed to be read as composition rather than realistic action. Often used for transitions, ensemble moments and motif passages.

Climax

The point of highest tension or stakes in a scene or piece. Should feel earned by what preceded it.

Composition

The arrangement of bodies, light and space at any given moment. What a still photograph of the stage would look like.

Convention

A theatre device the audience accepts as a rule of the form: direct address, narration, freeze frame, transformation scenes. Naming the convention names the choice.

Devising

Creating original theatre from stimulus material rather than performing a written script.

Ensemble

The group acting as one unit. Strong ensemble means every performer is always making a choice, even when not centred.

Fourth wall

The imaginary boundary between the audience and the staged world. Breaking the fourth wall means acknowledging the audience directly.

Freeze frame / tableau

A held still picture made by performers. A tableau is read as composition. The meaning is in arrangement, levels and gestus.

Gestus

A physical gesture or posture that shows social attitude or relationship rather than personal emotion. The body makes a statement, not a feeling.

Given circumstances

The facts of the scene: who, where, when, what just happened. Performers play the moment, but it is grounded in the circumstances.

Levels

Vertical staging: standing, crouching, lying, raised platforms. Levels read as power, status and attention.

Mise en scène

Everything the audience sees and hears on stage: set, costume, light, sound, blocking, pace. The total composed picture.

Motif

A repeated element, an image, gesture, line or sound, that carries thematic weight. The audience learns to recognise it as it returns across the piece.

Naturalism

A style aiming to make the staged world appear real: believable behaviour, realistic set, illusion of life. The default theatre style most audiences expect.

Pace

How quickly the action moves. Pace is rhythm at the scale of a scene. Slow pace forces the audience to dwell. Fast pace overwhelms them.

Physicality

How performers use their bodies: posture, weight, tension, gesture. Strong physicality means choices are visible in moments of tension and moments of stillness.

Presence

The quality of being fully on stage even when not speaking. Visible commitment to the moment. The opposite of zoning out.

Proxemics

The use of distance between performers: intimate, personal, social, public. Proxemics read as relationship and status.

Status

The power dynamic between characters. High status carries weight and control. Low status defers and apologises. Status can be played in voice, body and space.

Stillness

The deliberate absence of movement. Held stillness is active. It focuses the audience and shows control.

Stimulus

The starting material, a text, image, statistic, song or object, that sparks a devised piece. Must be cited and traceable to staged decisions.

Sub text

What a character means underneath what they say. "I'm fine" with a different sub text is a different line.

Symbolism

Using an object, image or action to stand for an idea. A wedding ring on the floor, a coat hung up at the end. Symbolism only works if the audience can read it.

Tempo

The internal rhythm of a moment, how fast or slow it pulses. Tempo is rhythm at the scale of a beat.

Tension

The audience's sense that something is at stake. Built by pace, stakes, threat, secrets and conflict.

Transition

How one scene becomes the next. Transitions are part of the piece, not gaps between it. Choreographed transitions are a top band marker.

PIPED BAP and PET FLAGS

Use these to describe vocal and physical decisions precisely. Vague words like "loud" or "angry" sit in the lower bands. These give you the words that let you explain the decision and its impact on the audience.

Describing vocal delivery: PIPED BAP

Pitch

e.g. high, screechy, shrill, fluctuating, deep, resonating

Intonation

e.g. desperate, ingratiating, harsh, gentle, pleading

Pace

e.g. rapid, speedy, regulated, steady, slow, reticent

Emphasis

e.g. on a particular word, phrase or syllable

Dynamics (volume)

e.g. powerful, dominating, gentle, soft, hesitant

Breath control

e.g. breathlessness, breathy, whisper, controlled

Accent

e.g. Received Pronunciation, Northern, Cockney, Thames Estuary

Pause

e.g. regular pauses, lengthy pause, stuttering

Describing body language: PET FLAGS

Posture

e.g. upright, slouched, dejected, large, confident, broad

Eye contact

e.g. lowered eyes, averting eye contact, fixed gaze, glare

Tension

e.g. tension in the shoulders, muscular tension, relaxed

Facial expression

e.g. aggressive, caring, warm, cold, loving

Levels

e.g. to show status, dominance or vulnerability

Action

e.g. striding, gliding, marching, tiptoeing, skipping

Gesture

e.g. pointing, clenched fist, beckoning, rubbing forehead

Space

e.g. distanced proxemics, intimate proxemics, distant, close

Theatre styles, a survey

Naturalism

Style aiming to imitate real life: believable behaviour, realistic dialogue, illusionistic set. Stanislavski's tradition.

Realism

Close relative of naturalism. Realistic settings and behaviour, but often with heightened theatricality, monologues and soliloquies.

Epic Theatre

Brecht's anti illusionist form. Refuses immersion in favour of critical distance. Audience is asked to judge, not to feel.

Expressionism

Style of distortion: fragmented dialogue, angular movement, dream logic, externalising the inner state of the character.

Physical theatre

Style foregrounding the body as the primary storyteller. Lecoq, Frantic Assembly, DV8. Often dialogue light.

Verbatim theatre

Style using real testimony from real people, performed word for word from transcripts. Document as script.

Immersive theatre

Style where the audience moves through the staged world rather than watching from seats. Punchdrunk, Slung Low.

Theatre of the Absurd

Style staging the irrational and meaningless as a comment on the human condition. Beckett, Ionesco.

Lighting

Wash

A broad, even spread of light covering a whole area or stage. Bright washes expose. Coloured washes create mood.

Spot / spotlight

A single concentrated beam, often used to isolate one performer. Reads as focus, importance, exposure.

Profile / fresnel

Two common lantern types. Profiles give sharp edged beams, useful for tight specials. Fresnels give soft edged washes.

Gel

A coloured filter slid in front of a lantern to colour the light. Named in the cue sheet by number, for example L201.

Gobo

A patterned metal cut out placed in a profile to project shapes: leaves, windows, prison bars, text.

State

A complete lighting picture at one moment, the combination of all lanterns at their current intensities. Scenes move between states.

Cue / cross fade

A cue is a moment the lighting changes. A cross fade moves smoothly from one state to the next over a named duration.

Blackout

All lights off. Often used for endings and scene breaks. Holding a blackout for an uncomfortable length is a deliberate choice.

Side / back / top light

Direction the beam comes from. Side light sculpts the body. Back light silhouettes. Top light isolates and flattens.

Silhouette

Performer lit from behind only, so the audience reads their outline rather than their face. Used for anonymity, archetype, threat.

Strobe

Rapid flashing light. Disorienting, hyper real, often used for violence, dreams or memory.

Practical

A light source the audience can see on stage as part of the set: a lamp, a torch, a phone screen, a candle.

Set and space

Black box

A flexible studio space with black walls, often with no fixed audience position.

End on / proscenium

Audience seated on one side facing the stage. The standard configuration. Wide and shallow visual reading.

Thrust

Audience on three sides of the stage. Forces blocking to consider every angle. No back of the stage.

In the round / traverse

Audience on all four sides, round, or two facing sides, traverse. Most exposing for the performer. Everything is visible.

Rostrum / riser

A raised platform used to add level, focus or symbolic height. An easy way to elevate one performer.

Cyclorama / cyc

A large curved backdrop at the back of the stage, often lit to suggest sky, distance or pure colour.

Flat

A flat panel forming a temporary wall. Used to suggest interiors or to mask off stage areas.

Minimal set

Few, deliberately chosen pieces. Forces the audience to fill in the world. Common in devised and physical theatre.

Stylised set

Set that signifies rather than imitates. A single chair to mean a kitchen. A hanging sheet to mean a wall.

Sightline

What each audience member can see from their seat. Blocking has to respect sightlines or the moment dies for half the room.

Sound

Diegetic

Sound the characters can hear too. A phone ringing on stage. A song from a car radio in the world of the scene.

Non diegetic

Sound only the audience hears: underscore, scene change music, sound effects from outside the world of the play.

Underscore

Music playing under a scene to create atmosphere and support its tone. Keep it deliberate and motivated.

Soundscape

A layered ambient world built from multiple sounds: traffic, voices, weather, machinery. Often more interesting than a single track.

Cue

A moment a sound starts, stops, fades or changes. Each one is timed and called by a stage manager or operator.

Fade in / fade out

A sound rising into or out of audibility over time. The length of the fade matters. A 2 second fade reads completely differently from a 12 second one.

Foley

Live sound effects made on stage: pouring water, snapping a stick, breathing on a microphone. Often visible to the audience.

Motif (sound)

A short repeated sound that becomes associated with a character, place or idea across the piece.

Silence

A choice, not an absence. Held silence is one of the most powerful sound choices a piece can make.

Costume

Silhouette

The outline a costume creates: narrow, broad, sharp, soft. The first thing the audience reads about a character.

Palette

The colours used across the piece. A unified palette binds ensemble. A contrasting palette singles a character out.

Period

The era the costume signals: modern, 1950s, dystopian, timeless. Period mismatch can be a deliberate choice.

Symbolic costume

A garment that stands for something beyond character. A white veil for innocence. A chain for control. A single colour for status.

Transformation costume

Costume that changes on stage to mark a shift in identity or role. The change itself is part of the staging.

Distressing

Costume deliberately aged or damaged, torn, faded or stained, to signal class, time or hardship.

Motif costume

A signature element worn by every ensemble member to bind them as a group. Same shoes, same red sash, same gloves.

Quick change

A fast costume change designed to happen mid scene. Often part of multi rolling.

Using a term for the correct effect

Decoration versus analysis

Decoration: "There was a spotlight on the actress."

Analysis: "A single profile spot from stage left isolated the actress, cutting her away from the ensemble she had so longed to be part of and forcing the audience to see how quickly society pushes out a person whose views or beliefs do not fit the group."

Define the term as you use it

When you introduce a technical term, give it a short definition in the same sentence, then carry on. For example: "gestus, a physical posture that reveals social status". This shows the examiner you understand the term without stopping your analysis.

Two element pairing

The strongest paragraphs name a performance choice and a production choice together: "the actress crouched on a rostrum lit only from above; the silhouette read as both diminished and exposed." Pairing the two earns marks in your written analysis and in your staging.