Theatre Terms for Actors

Part I: Terms related to the actor on the physical stagePart II: Terms related to character studyPart III: Terms related to the physical theatre/stage

Part I: Terms related to the actor on the physical stage

Left (stage left) – the actor’s left when facing the audience

Right (stage right) - the actor’s right when facing the audience

Up (upstage) – away from the audience; the area of the stage farthest from the audience

Down (downstage) - toward the audience; the area of the stage closest to the audience

Above – related to “up” (above the sofa = upstage of the sofa)

Below – related to “down” – (below the sofa = downstage of the sofa)

In – toward center

Out – away from center

Cross -- moving purposefully on the stage (used as noun or verb)

Open – facing the audience

Closed – facing away from the audience

Body positions – actors’ positions relative to the audience

Full front – facing the audience directlyFull back – with full back to the audienceOne-quarter left or right (one-quarter of the distance from full front to full

back)Profile left or right (in profile to the audience)Three-quarters left or right (three-quarters of the distance from full front to full

back)

Shared position – both actors equally strong

Giving or taking a position – one actor (taking the scene) is in a stronger (more open) position than the actor giving the scene, who is in a weaker (more closed) position

Entrance An actor enters the stage area; the specific portal through which the actor enters the stage area

Exit An actor leaves the stage area; the specific portal through which the actor leaves the stage area

To upstage someone Moving upstage in a way that forces your partner to close (turn the back to audience)

Focus (give focus) Using body position or eye contact to draw attention to another actor or stage area

Backstage (offstage) the portion of the stage not seen by the audience

Onstage the portion of the stage seen by the audience

Theatre Terms for Actors

Part I: Terms related to the actor on the physical stagePart II: Terms related to character studyPart III: Terms related to the physical theatre/stage

Part II. Terms related to character study

Motivation (also objective, essential action, goal, victory, intention) – The goal your character wants to achieve, thus expressed with an active verb.

Examples: “I want to convince you that I am honest.”“ I must get this position.

Action—What happens in a play. Action may be physical or verbal, but is motivated and occurs within the given circumstances.Obstacle—That which stands in the way of your character achieving his/her intention. (It may be a person, a societal factor, a physical or personality impairment, a tangible barrier, etc.)Beat—The smallest unit of action in a scene. Given circumstances—Anything given by the playwright or director that you cannot change. You explore your character’s choices within the given circumstances.Super-objective (through action, overall action, character spine) –The principal motivation that drives all of your characters actions in the play.Credibility (believability)—The quality of enabling the audience to believe in your character and not to see you “acting.”“Being in the moment” (“illusion of the first time,” spontaneity)—involves listening carefully and reacting honestly to your partner. Although the lines and blocking may be “set,” you listen and react as if you were experiencing things for the first time. “Magic If”—The actors asks “What would I do if were this character in these circumstances?” This three-part exploration enables the actors to enter the world (the given circumstances) of the play.Suspension of disbelief—The willingness of the audience to believe for the duration of the performance in the reality of the stage illusion. It requires a complementary willingness on the part of the actors not to break character or otherwise cause the audience to lose its belief. This shared agreement is sometimes referred to as a “contract” between actors and audience.Character sketch – A descriptive analysis of a character based on all of the information you can find in the script.Character biography (or autobiography) – A descriptive analysis of a character which builds on the information of the character sketch, but explores the character further, It may include your own suppositions about the character and his/her background, as long as they are grounded in the given circumstances of the play. The “character autobiography” is written in the first person.“Illusion of the first time”--The actor who is fully believable give the audience the “illusion” that everything on stage is happening for the first time, even thought the words and movements may be memorized and have been rehearsed for weeks.

Sense memory/emotional memory—Terms derived from Stanislavsky’s teachings. The actor re-imagines senses and emotions from his/her own experience in order to find the reality of what the character senses and feels. In Stanislavsky’s theories, these experiences find their expression through physical action (as opposed to simple physical movement).Indicating -- Performing stage actions without motivation. Calling attention to the fact that you are “acting.”Concentration—One of the actor’s most difficult and most important tasks, concentration requires the actors to shut out distracting thoughts and stimuli and focus attention on something—a prop, another actor, etc. Stanislavsky used the term “circles of attention” (small, medium, large) to describe the ranges of an actor’s concentration.Subtext—The underlying meaning of the words, it may expand, alter, or even conflict with the literal meaning of the words.