05/12 5. Drama, Theater, and Performance Free Online FlashCards

What is drama?

Drama is literature designed for enactment, whose full meaning emerges through bodies, voices, movement, space, sound, objects, lighting, and audience response.

Why is theater a social event?

Theater is both an artistic form and a social event in which performers and spectators share a time and place.

What is a dramatic text?

A dramatic text includes dialogue, speeches, stage directions, characters, scenes, acts, and other written elements.

What is a theatrical convention?

A theatrical convention is an agreed practice that helps an audience understand how a performance works, such as direct address, masks, or a chorus.

What defines tragedy?

Tragedy presents serious conflict involving suffering, loss, moral difficulty, or the collapse of an individual, family, or community.

What are key features of comedy?

Comedy often emphasizes disorder, mistaken identity, incongruity, and renewal; it may end in reconciliation while also criticizing social customs or authority.

What is reversal in tragedy?

In Aristotle’s account, reversal is a change in the direction of events within a tragedy.

What is recognition in tragedy?

Recognition is a movement from ignorance to knowledge, often revealing a crucial truth about a character or situation.

What does rasa mean in Sanskrit theater?

Rasa is the aesthetic mood or flavor experienced by an audience through the disciplined transformation of emotion in performance.

What does the Greek chorus do?

In Greek drama, the chorus can comment on events, express collective fears, interpret the action, and frame moral or political issues.

What is spectacle in theater?

Spectacle comprises the visible and audible elements of performance, including scenery, costumes, props, lighting, music, sound, movement, and choreography.

What is a thrust stage?

A thrust stage extends into the audience, placing spectators on multiple sides of the performance space.