raisonneur: common term applied to a character who speaks for society or the playwright; customarily, the raisonneur gives advice to the protagonist. Tiresias in Oedipus the King and Cléante in Tartuffe are raisonneurs.
rake (or rakehell): comic hero who lives by the code of love and uses deceit, cunning, and seduction to attain his conquests; such characters were especially popular in late-seventeenth- and eighteenth-century comedies.
ran-i: Japanese term for "the sublime," referring to the ecstasy and exaltation produced by advanced artistry.
rasa: the ultimate goal of performance in the theater of India; roughly translated as "flavor," rasa refers to the emotional state or mood that the playwright hopes to engender in the audience. A given play has a dominant rasa and each component act has its own rasa.
realism: an attempt to re-create actual life onstage in a manner that employs the details and routines of daily dress, speech, environment, and situations. Ibsen's social dramas typify realism. (see also naturalism).
recognition (anagno-risis): a character discovers a truth previously unknown; in tragedy it is the awareness of the error in judgment that leads to the character's downfall; originally, it referred to the recognition of one character by another (e.g., Electra recognizes her long-lost brother, Orestes) but the term now applies to the discovery of an error or a truth about oneself.
renderings: a scenery or costume designer's drawings of the set or costumes; these are usually colored or painted to suggest what the finished product will look like.
régisseur: Continental term for the stage director.
repartée: witty verbal exchanges between characters, especially in high comedy.
representational style: performance mode in which the actors seem to ignore the presence of the audience.
revenge tragedy: Elizabethan-Jacobean drama that depended on sensational events, murders, and revenge for plot; the Roman tragedies of Seneca were the models for revenge tragedies.
reversal (peripitea): a drastic change in fortune, usually for the protagonist of a play. In tragedy the reversal is calamitous and leads to the downfall of the principal character; in comedy, the reversal usually brings about good fortune and a happy resolution to the play.
reviewer: a theater critic who attends a play in performance and assesses the quality of the script, the performances and designs, and the overall experience.
revistas: Brazilian popular entertainments, usually musicals.
revue: theatrical presentation usually composed of loosely related skits, songs, and dances (see vaudeville).
rhapsode: Greek term for poet, storyteller, and myth maker; Homer is the best known of the rhapsodes.
rising action: the series of minor crises in a plot that build toward the major crisis and climax.
ritual: a formal and customarily repeated act, usually according to religious or social customs; a ritual generally has greater significance than a ceremony (e.g., a baptism or wedding). Early rituals often were intended to control the outcome of events.
ritualized enactment: symbolic actions performed in a pattern and progression that eventually become highly controlled and precise in their execution.
romance: drama about imaginary characters involved in events from a remote place and time, usually involving heroic deeds in a mysterious setting; «Sakuntala- and Shakespeare's The Tempest are romances.
Romanticism: late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century philosophical and artistic movement marked by an emotional appeal to the heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized. Romanticism celebrated the common people and is aligned with the democratic revolution.
roppo-: a stylized walk—part dance, part martial art—used by a Kabuki actor as he enters the stage on the hanimichi; literally, it means "six directions" and refers to the vigorous turns he executes during the walk. A tobiroppo- is an exit walk and often occurs after the curtain is closed.
sainetes: short farces in the Spanish-language theater.
Sanskrit drama: the classical court theater of India that thrived until c. 1000 C.E.
satire: species of comic drama that holds human follies and institutions up to ridicule and scorn; the use of wit, irony, or sarcasm to expose vice and folly. The Importance of Being Earnest is a satire.
satyr plays: early Greek comedy in which actors dressed in animal skins (particularly goats) and performed often bawdy parodies of serious dramas; the satyrs were the mythological creatures (half-man, half-goat) who served and protected Dionysus.early Greek comedy in which actors dressed in animal skins (particularly goats) and performed often bawdy parodies of serious dramas; the satyrs were the mythological creatures (half-man, half-goat) who served and protected Dionysus.
scenario: an outline of a play that denotes the principal actions of the plot; actors in the commedia dell'arte improvised plays from their scenarii.
scene: the secondary division of a play; acts may be divided into scenes. Also, the locale of a play's action.
scenery: the backdrops, furniture, and other visual accessories that help define the locale and mood of a play.
Senecan tragedy: Renaissance tragedy modeled after the Roman plays of Seneca; noted for the use of the supernatural and violent resolutions to the plot (e.g. Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus).
sentimental comedy (also weeping comedy, comédie larmoyant): The distribution of government legislative,
executive, and judicial powers to separate branches of government.
sermons joyeaux: medieval French burlesques of church sermons.
set: the scenery constructed for a particular play; usually, it is three dimensional (as opposed to painted drops).
setting: the locale of a play's action and the scenic elements that help define it.
sewamono: domestic dramas in the Kabuki theater, usually portraying the world of the merchant class.
shaman: a holy person who uses magic and ritual for the purpose of curing the sick, divining hidden mysteries, or controlling events. Shamans are often storytellers who preserve a community's myths.
shared line: two or more speeches in verse combined to form a line of iambic pentameter. This is usually a cue for the actors to pick up the pace.
sheng: male roles in Chinese opera (usually non-"character" roles).
shibai: common term for Kabuki theaters, derived from Japanese term for "grass sitting" (a reference to the grassy slope on which audiences sat in one of the earliest Kabuki theaters).
Shingeki: the new or alternative (to the Kabuki and Noh) theater of contemporary Japan.
shite: the protagonist or principal character in a Japanese Noh drama; literally, the term means "doer."
shura-mono play: one of the five types of Noh drama; a "warrior play" in which the protagonist, usually a slain warrior, returns as a ghost to relieve human suffering.
siglo d'oro drama: Spanish drama from the seventeenth-century golden age, particularly the plays of Lope De Vega and Pedro Calderón.
skene: the "hut" or building that served as the scenic background for the the Greek theater. It provided an area for actors to change, masked their entrances, and de-noted locale. Traditionally, the skene had three to five doors.
slapstick: a form of comedy that depends exclusively on physical humor such as beatings, chases, and pratfalls. The term is derived from a prop devised by actors in the commedia dell'arte that was used to administer beatings. The films of the Three Stooges epitomize slapstick comedy.
soliloquy: a theater convention in which a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud to the audience; it is particularly associated with Elizabethan drama.
sotties: short French farces that portray religious and/or political leaders as fools.
spectacle: one of the six Aristotelian elements of the drama; it refers to the visual elements of a playŃscenery, costume, movement, gesture, and so on. (see also mise-en-scène).
spine: see superobjective.
spirit cult performance: theatricalized ritual in which a medium, thought to be possessed by spirits of the dead, assumes a character while in a trance state.
sporagmos: a scapegoat or sacrificial victim who takes on suffering for the greater good of a tribe or community. A tragic hero, such as Oedipus, may be considered a sporagmos.
stage direction: the playwright's instructions to the actors, designers, and directors concerning setting, motivations, and characterization.
Stage Yankee: popular American comic figure noted for his ingenuity, honesty, and patriotism; he usually outwits his "betters" and triumphs because he adheres to American virtues.
stasimon: the choral odes in a Greek play; they alternate with episodes and are used to comment on the action, project the play's message, and create the emotional atmosphere.
stichomythia: stage dialogue in which characters alternate single lines to increase dramatic tension. Though the term is Greek in origin, it is found in many eras of theater.
stock character: instantly recognizable type of figure that reoccurs in many works (e.g., the young lover, the grouchy old man, the sassy servant, the braggart soldier).
storytelling performance: preliterate form of drama, especially common in Africa, in which a narrator tells a story while enacting the central roles; others may play roles as well as provide song and dance to accompany the tale.
strophe: one of the three principal divisions of a choral ode in a Greek play; it means "turn" and suggests something about the dance nature of the odes.
Sturm und Drang: German for "storm and stress," a philosophical and artistic movement in the late eighteenth century characterized by high emotion and rousing action that often dealt with an individual's revolt against society; the forerunner of Romanticism.
style: the manner in which a play is performed. The two principal styles are presentational, in which the actors openly acknowledge the presence of the audience and play to it, and representational, in which the actors seem to ignore the presence of the audience. Style implies the degree of "reality" or artificiality of a performance.
subplot: a secondary plot in a play which often parallels the major plot; e.g., in A Midsummer Night's Dream the story of Nick Bottom constitutes a subplot.
subtext: literally, "the text beneath the text"; it refers to the implied or underlying meaning of a line. Sometimes also called "the intentional meaning."
superobjective: Stanislavsky's term for the primary motivation of a character (e.g., Oedipus's superobjective is "to find the truth").
suspension of disbelief: Coleridge's term for an audience's willingness to accept events onstage as true or plausible during the course of a play.
su-tradhara: a storyteller in India, often a Brahmin priest.
symbolism: a literary or theatrical device in which an object or action suggests another meaning beyond its literal meaning. Willy's worn suitcases in Death of a Salesman symbolize his life and failures. Also, a theatrical style popular in the early twentieth century that relied almost exclusively on symbols for its impact; such plays as Garciá Lorca's Blood Wedding typify symbolist drama.
sympathetic (homeopathic) magic: when humans imitate an act of nature in the hope that nature, in turn, will imitate humans and thereby produce a desired result (e.g., a Native American rain dance).
the System: term applied to Stanislavsky's approach to actor training at the Moscow Art Theater; a blend of external technique with strong psychological analysis of the character.
tableaux vivants: French for "living pictures," spectacular scenes which often re-created historical events or violent situations (such as guillotinings). Today a tableau refers to a "freeze" in which the actors do not move.
tan: female roles in Chinese opera.
tetralogy: a grouping of four plays by theme and content; in the ancient Greek theater the tetralogy customarily comprised three tragedies (a trilogy) and a satyr play. Shakespeare wrote two tetralogies (the four plays dealing with King Henry V, and the four plays dealing with King Henry VI and the rise and fall of Richard III).
text: the printed version of a play; a script (see also context and subtext).
theater: the art form by which drama is realized; also, the formal space in which a drama is performed.
theater collectives: alternative theater companies, usually bound by a common ideology, who create works collectively; often they live in communes. The Living Theater (USA), the Théâtre du Soleil (France), Committed Artists (South Africa), and Grupo Teatro Escambray (Cuba) are examples of collectives.
theater of cruelty: movement associated with the theories of Antonin Artaud, who forced audiences to purge their inhumanity ("the Plague") by stripping away their defense mechanisms through an assault on the senses.
theater of the absurd: dramatic movement of the mid-twentieth century concerned with the metaphysical anguish of the human condition in a world that defies rational sense; it relies on plotless dramas, discursive dialogue, motiveless behavior, and ambiguity. The plays of Samuel Beckett exemplify absurdist drama.
theatrical (theatricality): the formal and stylized use of costumes, makeup, scenery, properties, lighting, and sound as a means of performance; with theatricality there is no pretense of realism.
theatron: Greek term for "the seeing place;" the area of a Greek theater where the audience sat.
thesis play (also, pièce à thèse and "discussion drama"): social drama in which contemporary problems are illustrated and discussed; typified by the early works of Ibsen, Shaw, and Odets. Most thesis plays are presented in a realistic or naturalistic style.
thought: one of the six Aristotelean elements of the drama; it deals with the idea or thematic values of a play.
thrust stage: a stage or acting area that is projected into the audience and is usually surrounded by the audience on three sides. The classical Greek theater and the Elizabethan public theaters used thrust stages.
thymele: the sacred altar in a Greek theater; it was customarily placed in the center of the orchestra and is a reminder of the religious roots of Greek drama.
tirade: a lengthy, highly emotional speech most often associated with the French Neoclassic theater; a strong outpouring of emotion.
tiring house: in the Elizabethan public theater, the area behind the stage where the actors dressed (or attired) themselves; the term also applies to the entire architectural structure (customarily four stories) that backed the playing space.
tlatquetzque: professional entertainers or actors in the Mayan culture, often dressed as ocelots, sacred snakes, or colorful birds.
total theater: twentieth-century performance mode that employs multisensory, multimedia techniques to assault the audience's senses. Traditional performance techniques are often combined with film, video, slide shows, electronic soundtracks, light shows, etc.
township theater: performances derived from the townships of South Africa in which actors often improvise dialogue and stories and use "found" materials for costumes and props.
tragedy: one of the principal dramatic genres, in which a central character is in conflict with an external, as well as internal, force; the conflict ends disastrously for the character and provokes pity and fear in the audience.
tragicomedy: one of the principal dramatic genres, which blends serious and comic elements; frequently the serious is treated comically, while the comic is given a more somber treatment. The plays of Anton Chekhov and Samuel Beckett typify tragicomedy.
trap(door): a hole cut in the stage floor (covered by a hinged door) that allows for entrances and exits below the stage; often used for special effects (e.g., the apparition of ghosts).
trilogy: a collection of three plays usually related by theme or characters. Aeschylus's Oresteia is a trilogy dealing with the fall of the house of Atreus. Neil Simon's Brighton Beach trilogy portrays the playwright's early life.
trope: antiphonal biblical passage set to music and sung in Christian ceremonies in the Middle Ages; eventually tropes—such as the Quem Queritas trope—grew into dramas in which events from Scripture were acted before the congregation.
tsa chu: Chinese term for classical Yuan drama (e.g., Autumn in the Han Palace).
ts'ao-ts'ao: stock villain in classical Chinese drama; usually a counselor to the emperor.
tsure: a secondary character in Japanese Noh drama who accompanies the shite.
unities: refer to the time, place, and action of a drama. The Neoclassicists believed that a play ought to be confined to a single action that takes place in a single location and occurs within a short time span.
vaudeville: stage entertainment comprising a variety of unrelated acts such as songs, dances, magic, comedy, etc. Originally, a vaudeville was a French entertainment that combined pantomime, dance, and music to tell a simple story.
Vedas: sacred Hindu scriptures; the Fifth Veda is a sacred text on dramatic theory written by Brahma to illustrate how the gods invented drama as a means of enlightenment for humans (see Natyashastra).
Verfremdungseffekt: Brecht's term for the alienation effect.
verisimilitude: "likeness to truth," the attempt to put a truthful picture of life onstage. Although it purported to "realism," verisimilitude, especially in the Renaissance, offered an idealized view of "real life."
via negativa: Grotowski's motto for the poor theater, which means to refrain from doing. It encourages actors to rely solely on their resources, and not externals, for the creation of the theater act.
wagoto: the refined, delicate acting style of the Kabuki theater, most often used to portray handsome young men, lovers, and princes.
waki: an objective third party in Japanese Noh drama; he is usually a holy person who watches from the side and comments on the actions of the shite.
wakushu: the young men's (boy's) Kabuki of seventeenth-century Japan.
well-made play: also, pièce bien faite; a drama in which a carefully constructed plot is designed to create suspense and forward movement, often at the expense of characterization. Such plays frequently employ a withheld secret, confrontations between heroes and villains, a series of minor crises building to a climax and resolution in which all the conflicts are neatly worked out. Although Oedipus the King is the prototype of the well-made play, it is a genre that flourished in the nineteenth century, especially in the works of Eugene Scribe.
wen hsi: domestic, usually romantic, stories in the Peking, or Chinese, Opera.
Wild West shows: popular American extravaganzas of the late nineteenth century which re-created frontier life, battles with Native Americans, and so on; associated with Buffalo Bill Cody.
wu: Chinese term for story and also for storyteller.
wu-hsi: military plays in the Chinese or Peking Opera.
yu-gen: Japanese term for "mysterious beauty"; it is the goal of Noh drama and seeks to achieve a mood of quietness, meditation, and aesthetic gratification.
zanni: collective term for comedians in the Italian commedia dell'arte; usually, these were unnamed characters who played a variety of roles and added bits of clowning to the action.
zarzuela: Spanish term applied to musical comedy; begun by Calder—n in seventeenth-century Spain and brought to the New World by Spanish colonists. Zarzuelas bufas are "comical musicals," while bailetes are "dance musicals."
