Drama Glossary

What is at risk for the characters and what they have to lose.

In theatre, the opening situation on the stage in which everything is unchanged. Stasis is usually broken by a character's entrance or first line.

In Ancient Greek theatre, the first part of an ode spoken by the chorus and accompanied by movement of the chorus from east to west.

A playwright’s style is the sort of plays they typically write (comedy, contemporary realism, etc.).

A smaller, more specific category for a play.

The actual meaning behind a character’s words.

Bizarre, unbelievable, or fantastic.

A literary device that uses a word or phrase to represent another, often abstract, idea.

French for "living picture," a posed scene in which actors communicate meaning through facial expressions and posture.

How fast or slow the rhythm is.

Ancient treatise by Aristotle that sets out the rules of dramatic poetry, including comedy and tragedy.

The underlying meaning and main idea of a work. Many plays and musicals have multiple themes.