Name: __________________________________________
Period:
2
3
5
7
8
Drama Vocabulary Test
Word Bank
Blocking
Cast of Characters
Diction
Set
Suspense
Thought
Aside
Proscenium Stage
Upstage
Melody
Dramatic Irony
Irony
Plot
Monologue
Drama
Lighting
Set Design
Comedy
Cue
Sound
Scene
Arena Stage
Script
Apron
Hubris
Conflict
Thrust Stage
Costumes
Characters
Wings
Tragedy
Soliloquy
Spectacle
Chorus
Theme
Act
Downstage
Character Foil
Props
Tragic Flaw
Denouement
Stage Directions
Center Stage
Prologue
1. ________________ Specific words the playwright chooses to use.
2. ________________ All the visuals represented in the play. Represents everything you
see: set, costumes, lights, etc.
3. ________________ What the audience learns - the moral of the play. (THEME)
4. ________________ The play must be about someone or something - can be human or
non-human.
5. ________________ Everything you hear - music, sound effects, silence are all
examples of this.
6. ________________ Show must have a beginning, middle and end. Something needs
to happen and a character must be challenged.
7. ________________ A story written to be performed by actors.
8. ________________ A play that ends happily after an amusing series of predicaments.
9. ________________ A play that shows the death or downfall of a tragic hero.
10. ________________ The written text in a play, including dialogue and stage directions.
11. ________________ Constructions that show where a scene takes place.
12. ________________ Everything on the stage including furniture and props, and
environment in which the action of a play occurs.
13. ________________ The effects an audience hears during a performance to
communicate character, context, or environment.
14. ________________ The arrangement of lights to achieve particular effects in order to
help create mood or tone in a play.
15. ________________ Tools used to bring a play/story to life.
16. ________________ Clothing worn by the actors who play the characters. Oftentimes,
these help to establish characterizations, mood, and tone.
17. ________________ List of characters that appear in the play with a brief description of
the character is like; gives important information about the
character.
18. ________________ A group of performers, who sing, dance and comment on events
in the play as it unfolds.
19. ________________ Notes that tell how to perform the play. Usually indicated with
italics/or parentheses. May indicate where the scene takes place,
what a character is supposed to do, or how a character should
deliver certain lines.
20. ________________ The internal or external struggle between opposing forces, ideas,
or interests that creates dramatic tension.
21. ________________ Major divisions within a play.
22. ________________ Divisions in an act; usually representing change in time or
location.
23. ________________ A speech in which one character speakers at length either alone
or to others.
24. ________________ Shows a character alone onstage as he/she reveals private
thoughts. (Literally, “talking to oneself”)
25. ________________ Shows a character briefly expressing to the audience private
thoughts that other characters onstage cannot hear.
26. ________________ The exposition or opening of a play where background on the
conflict is presented.
27. ________________ A central message or insight into life revealed through a literary
work. (Universal: meaningful to people of all times and places.)
28. ________________ A feeling of uncertainty as to the outcome; used to build interest
and excitement in the audience.
29. ________________ General names for moments in literature that involve surprising,
interesting, or amusing contradictions.
30. ________________ Contradiction between what the characters think and what the
audience or readers know will happen or know to be true.
31. ________________ A character who provides a contrast to another character.
32. ________________ A characteristic, weakness or defect, usually in the main
character’s personality, that brings about his/her downfall or
death. (Ex. arrogance, stubbornness, pride, selfishness, blindness
to reality, etc.)
33. ________________ A performance space in which the audience sits in front of the
stage and views as if through a picture frame
34. ________________ A theater stage that extends out into the audience's part of a
theater and has seats on three sides.
35. ________________ A stage constructed so the audience can sit on all sides; also
known as "theatre-in-the-round".
36. ________________ The front area of the stage extending past the main act curtain.
37. ________________ The offstage areas directly to the right and left of the performance
space.
38. ________________ The middle point of the performance space.
39. ________________ The area of the performance space that is farthest away from the
audience.
40. ________________ The area of the stage that is nearest to the audience.
41. ________________ A signal or line that prompts the next action of stage business
during a performance.
42. ________________ The path formed by the actor’s movement on stage, usually
determined by the director, playwright, and/or actor.