Origins of Theater Through Medieval History
Rituals -- a practice or tradition done on a regular basis.
Tragos -- "goat song" sung in yearly rituals of sacrifice from which we get our word "tragedy".
Dionysus -- God of wine and fertility.
Thespis -- The 1st actor who steps apart from the chorus to speak lines from whom we get our term "Thespians".
Tragedy -- Serious dramas where the hero of high birth meets doom performed in spring.
Sophocles -- Greek playwright of tragedies such as "Antigone".
Satyr plays -- Obscene, crude pantomimes performed between tragedy trilogies in spring.
Euripides -- Greek playwright of the only surviving Satyr
Comedy -- Light-hearted dramas where the hero of low birth succeeds performed in winter.
Aristophanes -- Greek playwright of mostly comedies such as "The Birds" or "The Frogs".
Cothurni -- Platform shoes to make actors taller.
Masks -- Large headpieces to indicate and exaggerate character.
Theatron -- The performance space built by the Greeks from which we get our word "theater".
Aristotle -- A very smart man that wrote "The Poetics", a guideline to tragedy and comedy.
Bear Baiting, gladiators, Christian executions -- Roman rituals and ceremonies as entertainment.
Coliseums -- Place for Roman entertainments.
Cycle and Passion Plays -- Religious plays of the medieval period used to teach the bible.
Masques -- Secular entertainments performed for the rich during medieval periods.
Renaissance -- Time of Rebirth.
Crusades -- Wars in the holy lands of Constantinople to convert "heathens" to Christianity. During this time Christians are exposed to the ancient arts.
Printing Press -- a machine to mass copy documents, previously copied by hand, which leads to a growth in education and wide spread communications.
Voice Production Vocab
Voice Production
I. Being heard.
A. Volume - How loud or quiet
B. Projection: To put forth the voice without shouting
II. Breathing: Regulating breath control
A. Diaphram - The muscle between the lungs and stomach that effects breath control.
B. Resonators - The spaces in the head and chest that play a part in voice production.
III. Articulation: The clear precise pronunciation of words.
IV. Tone: The attitude carried by the voice.
V. Quality: The individual resonance and tonality of a voice (nasally, breathy, harsh, raspy).
VI. Inflection: The different emphasis given to words in a speech to create variety and meaning.
VII. Frequency: High/ Low
A. Pitch - The relative highness or lowness of the speech.
B. Range - The distance between the highest and lowest of a person's natural speaking voice.
VIII. Focus: Clear concentration, staying in character and on task.
IX. Speed
A. Rate: The speed of speech. The general words per minute.
B. Pace: Timing of the speech. Finding appropriate pauses and places to speed up or slow down.
X. Body Language: The movement or stance that the body takes that communicates without words.
Structure of Dramatic Literature Vocabulary
Setting -- Time and place of a play
Character -- All the persons involved in the story.
Protagonist -- The main character of a play.
Antagonist -- The person or force opposing the main character.
Plot -- The series of events or actions in the play.
Preliminary Situation -- The starting of the play, explains who, where, when and why.
Initial Incident -- First major event or conflict which the rest of the plot develops.
Rising Action -- Events building on each other creating more conflict.
Climax -- The turning point in action, the height of the crisis.
Falling Action -- A decline of events after the action comes to its peak.
Conclusion -- The outcome of events.
Theme -- A basic idea or purpose of a play.
Mood -- The emotional feeling of a play.
Spectacle -- The visual part of a play.
Dialogue -- The spoken lines of the play.
Tableau -- A freeze frame of action.
Acts and Scenes -- the major divisions of a script equivilant to Chapters and sections of a novel. Acts divide play into major sections while scenes change any time the setting of the play shifts.