Theatre Vocabulary

1. Theatre Vocabulary

2. Ad-Lib • Make up words or actions, usually to cover a mistake in a performance.

3. Anticipating • Reacting to something before your character has any reason to do so. • (Although you know perfectly well that somebody is coming up behind you, your character, who is supposedly experiencing all this for the very first time, has no way of knowing until the other character makes a noise or says a line or walks where you can see him or her.)

4. At Rise • The moment when the curtain rises, or the stage lights go on, or whatever happens to signal the start of the play or act or scene.

5. Blackout • The end of an act or play, or the time between scenes of an act during which the stage lights are off and/or the curtain is closed

6. Blocking • The movement of the characters on the stage

7. Breaking Character • Becoming yourself on the stage, instead of the character you’re playing. Giggling, laughing, talking with other actors on stage when you shouldn’t be. DON’T!

8. Cue • The line spoken just before your line, or the signal for you to enter or perform another action.

9. Discovered • Already on the stage when the scene begins.

10. Downstage Turn • Turning so that your body passes through the full front position on your way to your final position

11. Indicating • Showing instead of doing.

12. Interior Monologue • The entire stream of thoughts that a character thinks while he or she is on stage.

13. Motivation • The character’s reason for doing or saying anything. • The reason for your blocking.

14. Objective • What your character wants in a scene.

15. Obstacle • The object or character that prevents you from reaching your objective.

16. Super-Objective • What your character wants in the play.

17. Projecting • Making sure your performance is audible and visible from every seat in the house.

18. Stage Business • Activities performed onstage as a part of your characterization.

19. Subtext • The thoughts that underlie the character’s actual words. • The subtext often determines the specific way a line is said.

20. Upstaging • Causing another actor to turn into a closed position so that the audience can see his face.

21. Verisimilitude • The illusion of reality on stage.