Unit 1 Terminology

• Soundscape - the layering up sounds to aurally create an environment/setting or reflect the emotions and atmosphere.
• Tableaux - a prepared still image that tells a story
• Up stage - the area of the stage furthest away from the audience.
• Downstage - the area of the stage closest to the audience.
• Monologue - a passage of speech delivered by one character, sometimes as direct address to the audience.
• Improvisation - making something up on the spot; being spontaneous without any prior planning.
• Empathy - the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation.
• Blocking - the deliberate positioning of actors on stage to provide the audience with the best and most effective view.
• Non-linear - a narrative structure in which the events are told in non-chronological order.
• Hot seating - a rehearsal technique used to develop character, where you have to respond to questions in role.
• Freeze frame - a spontaneous frozen image where everyone freezes mid-action at a given point.
• Split staging/cross cutting - a device to move between two or more scenes staged in the space at the same time.
• Profile spot - a lantern which produces a crisp edged, circular beam of light.
• Multi-roling - when an actor plays more than one character in a performance.
• Marking the moment - a dramatic technique used to highlight an important moment, e.g. through a freeze frame, slow-motion, a shift in lighting.
• Mime
- acting with no words and bringing the objects you are interacting with to life through imagination.