Theatre Glossary (Mike Green)
Note: If you wish to use this in your own Moodle course, you can download the entries from the Moodle content database here.
Browse the glossary using this index
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PantomimeAction without words; nonverbal communication through body movement, gesture, and facial expression. |
PerceptionThe process by which people receive, recognize, integrate, and interpret sensory stimuli. |
Performance The imitation of life in front of at least one other person. In a broad sense, performance refers to the presentation of any kind of entertainment--from play to rock concert, from solo presentation to ensemble collaboration. |
PlayingImprovising or acting out characters in a scene or story. |
Playing in Role A technique used by the creative drama leader during the playing, in which the leader enacts a role that allows for some authority and control, to heighten and advance the playing. |
Playing Space and Audience SpaceAn area for dramatic activities. This may be simply the space surrounding a student's desk or a cleared space in a classroom without a designated place for observation by an audience. Theatrical production clearly establishes an acting area, or stage, and a designated audience area: proscenium (one side), thrust (three sides), area (four sides). |
PlaymakingPlaymaking is a term used to describe dramatic activities that lead to improvised drama with a beginning, middle, and end employing the general form and some of the elements of theatre. The product may or may not be shared with others. |
PlaywritingPlaywriting is the act of creating the plot, theme, characters, dialogue, spectacle, and structure of a play and organizing it into a playscript form. It involves the ability to imagine the entire production scene by scene and to put it into written form so that others may interpret it for the stage. |
PlotPlot is the structure of the action of the play; it is the arrangement of incidents that take place on the stage as revealed through the action and dialogue of the characters. Plot structure usually includes a beginning, a middle, and end with a problem, complications, and a resolution. |
Portray The process of representing a character. |