machiavel: stock character, usually villainous, who uses cunning, duplicity, and other amoral behaviors to achieve his ends; named for Niccoló Machiavelli, who suggested that "the end justifies the means" in his political treatise, The Prince. Iago is a well-known stage machiavel.
"magic if": Stanislavsky's term for the trigger that allows the actor to enter into the emotional life of a character: "Under these circumstances, what would I do if I were this character?"
mai: solemn dances of the Noh theater of Japan.
maschere: Italian word for "masked performers"; collective term for actors in the commedia dell'arte.
mask: 1. a device that hides the face to conceal an identity; 2. a pose or false front, especially true of a "psychological mask."
masque: Renaissance entertainments in which courtiers and royalty dressed in elaborate costumes and performed brief plays against majestic scenery; poetry, song, and dance were integral to the masque, which usually culminated spectacularly, often with the reigning official elevated into the heavens. Ben Jonson was the foremost composer of masques in Europe.
masquerade: theatrical activity characterized by the use of elaborate masks, oversized costumes, and vigorous physical dancing and other mimetic actions; the Carnival in Trinidad, the New Orleans Mardi Gras, and the Yoruban Festival are examples of masquerade.
me-chane-: the "machine" used to lower the gods from the heavens in the Greek theater (see also deus ex machina).
melodrama: the dramatic genre characterized by an emphasis on plot over characterization; typically, characters are defined as heroes or villains, conflicts are defined along moral lines, and the resolution rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Spectacle and action are important to the melodramatic effect.
mestizo: Spanish for "of mixed blood"; refers to plays that are a mixture of the drama of Spain and indigenous dramas of Latin America.
metanarrative: postmodern term for the "new myths" created by a synthesis of traditional stories and modern sensibilities. Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guidlenstern Are Dead is a metanarrative on Hamlet.
method acting: strongly internalized acting that emphasizes emotion memory and personal experience in creating a character. The term is closely associated with Lee Strasberg's teaching at New York's Actors Studio.
michiyuki: circular movement about the stage meant to imply a long journey in both the Noh and Kabuki theaters.
mie: formal pose adopted by a Kabuki actor on his entrance; it allows the audience time to reflect on his costume and his psychological state (see kata).
Miles Gloriosis: see braggart warrior.
mimesis: Greek term referring to the art of imitation through physical and vocal means.
minstrel show: popular American theatrical entertainments in the nineteenth century comprising a variety of comic skits, songs, and dances performed by actors in blackface.
miracle play: medieval play depicting the lives of the saints and church figures.
mise en scène: the arrangement of actors and scenery on the stage for a theatrical production; the physical setting for the action; sometimes used to denote the sixth of Aristotle's elements of the theater: spectacle.
mizumono:Kabuki plays whose setting includes water (e.g., lakes, the ocean, etc.); noted for their spectacular water effects (honmizu).
moira: Greek term for "fate" or "the sharer out." Customarily, fate was depicted as three sisters who spun out the thread of one's life. One spun the thread, the second determined its length, and the third (representing death) cut the thread.
monologue: a lengthy speech spoken by a single character, usually to other characters (see soliloquy).
moral interlude: early Renaissance play that was didactic and dealt with proper and improper conduct in secular matters; the secular equivalent of the religious morality play.
morality play: medieval drama that portrayed moral dilemmas through allegorical figures such as Everyman and various virtues (Strength, Beauty) and vices (Gluttony, Rumor). Most moralities (such as Everyman) dealt with the way in which the Christian meets death.
mudras: mime and dance gestures used by actors in the theater of India.
multiculturalism: the incorporation into an artwork of the values and modes of expression of those other than traditional Eurocentricism. Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman and Townsend's The Great Celestial Cow are multicultural works.
music: one of the six Aristotelian elements of the drama; it refers to song, melody, and rhythm.
musical theater: genre that uses song, music, and dance as an integral part of the play's action; it is not usually as elevated as opera or even operetta.Musical theater can be further divided into musical drama (e.g., West Side Story) or musical comedy (e.g., Guys and Dolls).
mystery play: in the medieval theater, a short play depicting events from the Bible. A number of mysteries were strung together to form a cycle, which attempted to tell the story of humanity from the Creation to the Day of Judgment. The term is derived from a medieval word which referred to the "masters" or skilled workmen to whom the performance of the plays was assigned. Abraham and Isaac is a typical mystery play.
na-taka play: Sanskrit play based on traditional mythology or history, usually five to seven acts in length. ´Sakuntala- is a nataka play (see prakarana play).
naturalism: a particular form of realism that emphasizes environment; naturalism was also a philosophical movement that saw humans as products of their heredity and environment.
natyamandapa: the playhouse of classical theater in India.
Na-tyas´a-stra (Treatise on Drama): the so-called Fifth Veda, a sacred text devoted to dramatic theory and stage practice in the theater of India.
naugata: the ensemble of orchestra and singing chorus in the Kabuki theater.
Neoclassicism: Renaissance movement that consciously imitated the classical style of the Greeks and Romans; noted for its strict adherence to the rules of dramatic writing and its emphasis on morality and decorum. The plays of Jean Racine epitomize Neoclassicism.
New Comedy: post-Aristophanic comedy dealing with the lives and actions of common people; usually New Comedy is apolitical and focuses on the follies of ordinary people. Menander is said to have originated New Comedy, and the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence perfected it. Most television sitcoms are derived from New Comedy.
new stagecraft: early-twentieth-century movement that moved away from pictorial realism to more abstract settings designed to evoke mood and emphasize the language of a play.
Noh (No-) theater: the classical dance-drama of Japan, distinguished by a fusion of dance, poetry, music, mime, and meditation.
obligatory scene (also scène à faire): climactic scene which the audience comes to expect; usually, the ultimate confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist which leads to the resolution of the play's conflict; in the well-made play, the obligatory scene is often marked by the revelation of a secret.
ode: a song sung by the chorus in a Greek play, usually between episodes of the plot. Odes, divided into sections called strophes,antistrophes, and epodes, were used to comment on the action.
odori: temple dancers of Japan; the forerunners of Kabuki performers.
Old Comedy: Ancient Greek comedy, most associated with the plays of Aristophanes, which was satirical in its depiction of civic affairs. (See Spotlight box, Greek Old Comedy, Chapter 4)
onkos: a large headpiece, containing a mask, worn by actors in the Greek theater.
onnagata: traditional Kabuki role in which a male plays a woman; it also refers to the acting style used to play feminine beauty.
onno: the original women's Kabuki of seventeenth-century Japan.
opera: a drama almost exclusively sung to orchestral accompaniment; operas usually deal with tragic and heroic theme; (e.g., Madame Butterfly or the Ring cycle.)
opéra bouffe: satirical comic opera (e.g., Orpheus in Hades).
operetta: "little opera," a romantic and comic play that incorporates considerable music, song, and dance (e.g., The Merry Widow or The Mikado).
orchestra: the large (c. 70-foot diameter) circle in a Greek theater in which the chorus sang, danced, and stood during a play. It was located between the audience and the logeion.
overture: an orchestral piece played before the beginning of an opera, operetta, or musical play; overtures were also often played before nonmusical plays in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
pageant wagon (or pageant): medieval stage built on wagons or carts that could be transported through towns; often, two wagons were used, one for scenery, a second for an acting platform.
pantomime: dumb shows that emphasize spectacle.
parabisis: the "harangue" in Greek Old Comedy in which the playwright addresses topical issues of personal concern.
parados: 1. the song of entry for the chorus in a Greek play; 2. the path or aisles on which the chorus entered or exited, located on either side of the playing space.
pastiche: postmodern playwriting technique that fuses a variety of styles, genres, and story lines to create a new form. Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a pastiche of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, absurdist theater, vaudeville, and existentialist tract.
pastoral drama: play dealing with rustic life; it extols the virtues of simple living by contrasting it with the corrupt life of the city; evolved in Italy during the Renaissance and may have been patterned after the satyr play of ancient Greece. The romance is an outgrowth of the pastoral drama.
Peking Opera: generic term for populist Chinese theater, originating in the eighteenth century, which uses song, dance, and nonrealistic means to tell melodramatic stories; the national theater of China.
periaktoi: prisms that served as the principal scenic effect in the Greek theater; locales such as a forest, a palace, or a seacoast were painted on each side of the triangle, which could be turned to reveal a new location.
peripeteia: Aristotelian term for "reversal" in a play, that is, the moment when the fortunes of the protagonist are drastically changed.
perspective: technique, used by scenic designers, of representing on a flat surface (such as a canvas drop) the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye.
pictorial realism: the attempt to suggest "real life" on the stage through painterly devices.
pit: in Restoration and eighteenth-century theaters, the seating (occasionally standing) area immediately in front of the stage, customarily inhabited by fops and rakes. Today the pit usually refers to the orchestra pit, a recessed area in front of (or often beneath) the stage where an orchestra sits during a performance.
plaudite: a formal speech at the end of classical comedies in which the speaker asks the audience's forgiveness for any transgressions and requests applause; see Puck's final speech in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
play: literary genre in which a story (plot) is presented by actors imitating characters before an audience. One might say that a play is a script "on its feet."
play-within-the-play: a usually brief play inserted into the action of a larger play, often to comment on or illuminate the primary play. The performance of the Pyramis and Thisbe play by the workingmen in A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play-within-the-play.
plot: the first of Aristotle's six elements of theater; the structure of a play's story line; see praxis.
pluralism: the inclusion of many cultures, races, and lifestyles into an enterprise; in the theater, this includes multicultural/racial drama, feminist drama, gay and lesbian drama; in general, pluralism is an alternative to traditional male-dominated, Eurocentric art.
poetic justice: moral doctrine that requires that the good be rewarded for their benevolent deeds and that the wicked be punished for their transgressions; the doctrine is particularly influential on the resolution of melodramas and sentimental comedies.
Poetics: Aristotle's treatise on dramatic theory and stage practice; in particular, it defines and discusses tragedy. Written in the mid-fourth century B.C.E., it is the germinal work on dramatic theory in Western theater.
point of attack: that moment nearest the beginning of the play in which the major conflict to be resolved occurs; sometimes called the inciting moment.
poor theater: Jerzy Grotowski's term for a theater which seeks (by choice or necessity) to eliminate everything not entirely essential to the performance (e.g., scenery, elaborate costumes, makeup, high-tech lighting); "found" objects and costumes are used and the actors themselves create effects to support the production (see also via negativa).
postmodernism: late-twentieth-century critical, literary, and performance movement that reacts to modern art and literature; postmodernists suggest that truth is no longer verifiable, and that new art forms are best created by freely mixing previous styles and themes.
prakarana play: Sanskrit play invented by the playwright, usually ten acts in length. The Little Clay Cart is a prakarana play. (see also na-taka play).
praxis: the action of a story; that is, the arrangement of the events of the story calculated to bring about a desired response from the audience.
presentational style: performance mode in which the actors openly acknowledge the presence of the audience and play to it.
problem plays: usually refers to a series of plays written by Shakespeare in the first decade of the seventeenth century that do not neatly fit into the traditional generic categories of comedy and tragedy; they include Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida.
prologue: the opening action of a Greek play; it usually is a dialogue between two or three characters and establishes the problem of the play. It now refers to an opening section of a play that is not part of the first scene or act.
proscenium: in modern theaters, the wall that separates the stage from the auditorium and provides the arch that frames it; often referred to as the "picture frame" stage.
protagonist: literally, "the first debater," but the term applies to the central character in a drama.
punto de honor: Spanish for "point of honor," applied to a form of drama in which the hero must defend the honor of his family, his lady, or himself.
Q
queer theater/theory: drama, theory, and criticism concerned with the problems confronting gays and lesbians in society.
quid pro quo: Latin for "something for something"; a playwriting term applied to a situation in which one, two, or more characters unknowingly misunderstand a situation, which further enmeshes them in the play's action.
