Theatre Appreciation Vocabulary list: Alphabetically

Group 1

1. "Magic if"

2. “Black box”

3. Through line" or "spine"

4. Theatrical Time”

5. “Emotional Residue of the Experience”

6. “Front of the House" (FOH)

7. “Illusion of the Very First Time”

8. “Theatrical Space”

9. Actors

10. Aesthetic distance

11. African American theatre

12. Agitprop

13. Antagonist

14. Arena stage, circle theatre, or theatre-in-the-round

15. Asian American theatre

16. Audition

17. Automated-lights, or moving lights

18. Batten or Pipe

19. Beam positions

20. Beats

21. Blocking

22. Book musical

23. Border or Teaser

24. Box Set

25. Broadway theatre

26. Built costume

27. Casting

28. Ceremony

29. Characters

30. Charge artists

31. Climactic plot

32. Climax

33. Cobbler

34. College and university theatre

35. Color

36. Color Filters or Gel

37. Comedy of character

38. Comedy of ideas

39. Comedy of manners

40. Comic premise

41. Complications

42. Concentration

43. Concept musical

44. Control Channels

45. Costume design

46. Counterweight

Group 2

47. Counterweight system

48. Crisis

49. Critic

50. Cues

51. Cutter

52. Deck

53. Descriptive criticism

54. Design concept

55. Dimmers

56. Director

57. Directorial Concept

58. Domestic comedy

59. Domestic drama

60. Draper

61. Dress rehearsal

62. Dresser

63. Editing

64. Electrics

65. Ellipsoidal reflector spotlight

66. Empathetic response

67. Environmental sounds

68. Environmental theatre

69. Episodic plot

70. Exposition

71. Extraordinary characters

72. Farce

73. Feminist theatre

74. Fly loft

75. Flying, moving “in” and “out”

76. Focus

77. Follow spot

78. Follow spot

79. Fresnel

80. Gay and lesbian theatre

81. Genre

82. Given circumstances

83. Global theatre

84. Gobos

85. Grand drape

86. Ground plan or Floorplan

87. Happenings

88. Heroic drama

89. Hispanic theatre

90. Imitation

91. Inner truth

92. Leg

Group 3

93. Libretto

94. Light Board op

95. Light booth

96. Light plot

97. Lighting designer

98. Line

99. Line, shape, or silhouette

100. Locale and Period

101. Major characters

102. Mannequin

103. Mass and composition

104. Master carpenter

105. Master electrician

106. Melodrama

107. Metaphor

108. Milliner

109. Minor characters

110. Minstrel shows

111. Mixing

112. Motivated sounds

113. Multimedia

114. Musical comedy

115. Native American theatre

116. Nonrealism

117. Obstacles

118. Off-Broadway theatre

119. Off-off-Broadway theatre

120. Opera

121. Operetta

122. Orchestra

123. Performance art

124. Performer-audience relationship

125. Personal role

126. Plot

127. Political theatre

128. Poor theatre

129. Postmodernism

130. Prescriptive criticism

131. Previews or Tryouts

132. Producer or Manager

133. Projecting

134. Property or Prop

135. Props Master

136. Proscenium

137. Prosthetic Makeup

138. Protagonist

Group 4

139. Pulled costume

140. Realism

141. Representative characters

142. Resident professional theatre

143. Reviewer

144. Rhythm

145. Ritual

146. Role playing

147. Romantic drama

148. Romanticism

149. Run-through

150. Scenic designer

151. Shift Crew

152. Skydrop, cyc, or cyclorama

153. Social role

154. Sound board op

155. Sound booth

156. Sound designer

157. Sound effects

158. Sound reinforcement

159. Sound reproduction

160. Stage Convention

161. Stage Manager

162. Stage positions

163. Stitcher

164. Stock characters

165. Subplot or parallel plot

166. Superobjective

167. Symbol

168. Technical Director

169. Technical Rehearsal

170. Texture

171. Theatre of Cruelty

172. Theatre of the Absurd

173. Theatre of the Ridiculous

174. Thrust stage

175. To "fly"

176. Tormentor

177. Tragedy

178. Tragicomedy

179. Traveler

180. Turntable

181. Vaudeville

182. Warm and Cool Colors

183. Well-made plays

184. Wings

185. Zingspiele or Singspiel