Drama Term Tuesday #42

/

Applause

The clapping of hands as an expression of approval. Conventionally there is a round of applause at the end of a play so as to acknowledge and thank the actors and production team for their work.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #41

/

Memorising

The act of committing a text to memory so that an actor can deliver the story fully and accurately every performance. Almost always actors need to memorise their lines and moves in a play. They do so in a range of ways.

  • learning the ideas and their interconnectedness, the story of the lines;

  • saying the lines aloud rather than in the head associating the line with the specific movements of the action;

  • associating and remembering the feelings that the words and images create, not just the words; actioning the words

  • seeing all of the lines in a scene as one whole with its beginning section, middle section, and concluding section and its dramatic progression;

  • figuring out what the character is actually saying when he/she says what he/she says;

  • using mnemonic devices to help remember lists, such as anagrams, rhymes, silly sentences etc;

  • making a tape of the lines that can be listened to repeatedly.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #40

/

Auditioning

Method of casting a play where actors compete for roles by demonstrating their skills of acting by performing a prepared speech or reading a part from the play for directors or producers. There are different types of auditions; open auditions (where a general call is made to anyone interested in auditioning - sometimes referred to as a cattle call); closed auditions (where auditionees are invited to attend often through the agent representing them); group auditions; solo auditions; workshop auditions.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #39

/

Operetta

By contrast with opera, operetta is light hearted and comic; in operetta, songs and scenes of dialogue are interwoven with dance.

Generally romantic in nature and almost inevitably resulting in a happy ending, operetta is a highly entertaining and popular form.

It is often seen as the forerunner to the modern musical.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #38

/

Forum Theatre

Drama strategy where spectators are invited to enter and transform dramatic action; innovation used mainly for political purposes by Augusto Boal and others.

Members of the audience watch a scene - usually on a political or social theme - and are then invited to stop the action and to suggest alternative ways of playing the scene.

The audience become spect-actors, rather than passive spectators.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #36

/

Korean Drama

An elaborate, sophisticated drama with long traditions and origins in ritual and religion.

Silla period - 578 BC - 935 AD featured

Kommu: masked sword dance about the death of a young warrior.

Muaemu: dance without masks

Ch’oyongmu: grotesque masked dance drama

Koryo period - 918 - 1392 AD featured mainly puppet plays, acrobatic dances, but not a fully featured developed drama tradition.

Choson period - 1392 - 1910

P’ansori: one man operetta accompanied on the pug, double headed drum.

Kwangdae - actor - used three elements:

Sori - singing

Aniri - narration and dialogue

Ballim - acting restricted to emotional expression of joy.

Korean masked drama had two major forms

Purakje - village festival plays

Sanda-togam-g¨uk - court plays that later came to be performed in theatres, included dance, singing, music, mime and exchange of repartee; used elaborate and colourful masks made of dried gourds or paper which were traditionally burned at the end of each performance. Plays were collaboratively developed and transmitted by oral traditions.

Khoktu kaksi - traditional humorous Korean puppet theatre featuring animal and human characters.

Hahoe mask dance drama - originally had ritual significance but in recent times has mainly entertainment focus. Features various allegorical characters represented by masks not dissimilar to the commedia dell’arte use of stock characters and masks. Focused on class and social distinctions in humorous ways.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday #35

/

Scene

act

Divisions of dramatic texts into sections.

In traditional drama, dramatic action was divided into a succession of inter-related scenes, and further shaped into sections called acts. In Aristotelian drama, the action of the play was divided into five acts. Although these divisions have been applied to plays, it is not always possible to set such formal and formulaic limits to drama; frequently the structure of drama is more organic and less schematic.

Some directors and actors also further divided scenes into beats, naturally occuring sections which make a whole statement or point and which contribute to the overall impact of the scene.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.

Drama Term Tuesday 34

/

Meisner (Sanford Meisner)

Meisner approach to acting

Sanford Meisner (1905 - 1997) developed a form of actor training - Meisner Technique - derived from Method acting and the Stanislavski tradition. Meisner believed that the seeds of the craft of acting is the reality of doing. His approach focused on acting that is rooted in the body of the actor responding authentically to the specific moment of the play. The Meisner technique is often described as ‘living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. Influenced other acting teachers such as David Mamet.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts. Continue the conversation on facebook and twitter.