Acting Terms

1. Acting Terms

2. Blocking • Planning where characters are positioned on stage and where they move is called blocking.

3. Stage Directions • Upstage is the portion of the stage farthest away from the audience, • Downstage is the portion of the stage that is closest to the audience, • stage right and stage left refer to the actors’ right and left. • Center stage is the middle portion of the stage. 

4. Diagram of Stage Directions Audience _____________________         /          downstage           \         /                                       \              /     center stage              \             /  stage left      stage right  \               /                       \           /          upstage                     \

5. Green Room • The term seems to have been in common use by the end of the 1690s. The Green Room is where actors can go to relax and visit before and after a performance. • Most people have concluded that the term probably came from the color the early Green Rooms in the theatre were painted, but no one has any idea why they would be painted green.

6. Green Room • Plays originally took place outside on the village green • It was soothing to actors eyes after performing in front of harsh lights • It was where the shrubbery used on stage was stored, and that made it a cool, comfortable place

7. Green Room • The room was walled with green baize cloth as soundproofing, so actors could practice their lines • Scene, screen and green rhyme. Green Room might actually be a mis-statement of Scene Room where scenery screens were stored • “Green" was stage jargon for the section of the stage visible to the public, so the Green Room was the room nearest the stage