Drama Glossary

A member of the Catholic order known for educational theatre and morality plays during the Counter-Reformation.

A failed 1832 uprising in Paris that inspired the setting and themes of the musical Les Misérables.

A flamboyant male character from British music hall who satirized upper-class affectations and social posturing.

A dramatic genre with exaggerated characters and emotions, often including music to enhance moral and emotional stakes.

A heightened, emotional style of performance or storytelling that exaggerates plot and character traits. Melodrama is often associated with 19th century theatre and explores themes of good versus evil.

Historically, a medieval performer of songs and tales; in the U.S., associated with racist 19th-century blackface performance.

A British theatrical genre featuring variety entertainment including songs, comedy, and specialty acts. Popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it influenced modern musical theatre.

A political ideology that has shaped theatre by promoting cultural identity, tradition, and patriotic themes.

Naturalistic drama is a theatrical style that seeks to present life on stage with heightened realism, portraying characters, dialogue, and settings as close to everyday reality as possible. It often emphasizes the influence of environment, heredity, and social conditions on human behavior, inspired by scientific and sociological ideas of the late 19th century. Productions typically use detailed, lifelike sets and natural speech patterns to immerse audiences in an authentic slice of life.

The British monarch during much of the 19th century whose reign shaped the values and aesthetics of Victorian theatre, including morality, realism, and melodrama.

A type of theater popularized on paddle steamers in 19th-century America, known for musical entertainment and melodrama.

A genre that blends humor with moral themes and emotional appeal, popular in the 18th century as a reaction against bawdy Restoration comedy.