Drama lesson 1: The ancient Greek theater.

orchestra: a round dancing place before the stage.  The chorus performed there.

skene (SKEE-nee): a winged building behind the stage and in front of the actors.  It may have had a painted backdrop.  It is the origin of our word scene.

buskin: also called cothurnus, a high-soled shoe used to elevate characters in Greek tragedy.  The less dignified characters in comedy wore socks.  In both genres actors wore masks.

episode: a scene.  The term is now used for any scene in a novel or an installment of a TV series.  The first episode (providing exposition) was the prologue, the final episode the epilogue.

ode: one of the songs which the chorus performed between episodes.  The opening ode, sung as the chorus entered the stage, was called the parodos; its final ode, sung upon exiting, was the exodos.   Parts of an ode were called strophe (STRO-fee) and antistrophe (an-TISS-tro-fee).  The strophe was probably sung while the chorus danced from stage right to stage left; the antistrophe was the opposite.

chorus: a group of twelve or fifteen performers who sang and danced the odes; they represented elders (leading citizens).  Their spokesman, the choragos, had speaking parts during the scenes.

stichomythia (stick‑uh‑MYTH‑ee‑uh): dialogue consisting of alternating single lines spoken by two characters.  It was used in Greek tragedy to show tense disputes.  Modern writers like Shakespeare use versions of it.  It is similar to repartee (rep-ar-TAY), a fast-paced exchange of witty retorts in modern comedy.

dramatic irony: irony that results when characters say or do something of greater significance than they realize.  The audience’s knowledge is superior to that of the character(s)..

deus ex machina (DAY-us ex MOCK-ee-na): a convention used in Greek tragedy after Sophocles for lowering or lifting actors playing gods by means of a crane on the skene.  The Latin phrase deus ex machina (“a god from a machine”) is now used for any quick means of resolving a plot, like the sudden revelation at the end of Huck Finn that Jim is free and Huck has a fortune.
 

Drama lesson 2: Greek tragedy.

tragedy: a literary genre depicting serious actions that usually have a disastrous outcome for the protagonist.  Strictly speaking, the term applies only to drama, but it is now also used for novels.  Greek tragedy originated in religious rituals worshiping the god Dionysus.

dithyramb: a choral ode honoring the god Dionysus.  A chorus of singers dressed as satyrs performed episodes from myths.  The dithyramb evolved into tragedy.

tetralogy and trilogy: respectively, a group of four and three plays.  In Athens during the age of Sophocles (the fifth century B.C.), competitions were held in the spring during rituals honoring Dionysus.  The first three plays were a trilogy of tragedies.

satyr play: a parody of a myth.  The final part of the tetralogy in Athenian dramatic competitions.

hamartia (hahm-mar-TEE-uh): according to Aristotle, an error of judgment that causes the downfall of a tragic protagonist.  The concept is often identified with the tragic flaw or fatal weakness in character, such as the jealousy of Othello or the pride of Oedipus.

hubris (HEW-bris): extreme (or “overweening”) pride, especially when considered a tragic flaw.

catastrophe: the resolution of the plot of a tragedy, depicting the final downfall of the protagonist.

catharsis: according to Aristotle, the purging of pity and fear that tragedy causes in viewers.

comedy: a literary genre intended primarily to amuse the audience.  Like tragedy, the term originally applied only to comedies but is now also used for other genres.
 

Drama lesson 3: Staging a play.

blocking: the movements of actors on a stage.  Directors who block (or block out) a scene chart the positions and movements of actors.

downstage: toward the audience.  So called because stages used to be slightly sloped.

upstage: away from the audience.  Used as a verb, it means to force an actor to turn away from the audience.  Thus it has come to mean “to draw attention from.”

stage left and stage right: these terms refer to the point of view of someone facing the stage.  To the actor facing the audience, thus, stage left means right and stage right means left.

stage directions: instructions in a script or play text.  Early editions of Shakespeare include some stage directions but omit some that must have been intended.  Modern editors include conjectures (i.e., guesses) of stage directions, sometimes enclosing them in brackets.

exeunt: a Latin stage direction meaning “exit” but referring to two or more characters.  Exeunt omnes means “all exit.”

convention: necessary or convenient features of literature which audiences unquestioningly accept.  An example from drama is the “fourth wall”: the audience’s understanding that a scene showing characters indoors has an invisible wall between the audience and the stage.

aside: a dramatic convention: a speech to the audience, understood to be the speaker’s thoughts.

monologue: a lengthy speech by a single character in a play, either alone or to others (like Helena’s speech at the end of scene 1 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream).  Distinguished from a soliloquy because the speaker is not necessarily alone on stage.

soliloquy: (plural soliloquies) a speech in a play made by a character who is alone on stage, understood as the character’s thoughts.

dramatis personae (Latin for “persons of the drama”): a list of characters at the start of a play text.