Drama Vocabulary

Drama
• Literature meant
to be performed
before an
audience by
actors on a stage

• Example: Romeo
and Juliet
 Act
• A major division of a play

• Shakespeare did not separate his plays

into acts; each play was later divided
into five acts

• Acts can contain one or more scenes

 Scene

• A subdivision of an act in a play

• Each scene usually takes place in a

specific setting and time
 Diction

• Specific word choice that an author

uses in writing.

“…This is a knavery of them to make me

afeard.” Bottom from A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
 Flashback
• A technique that allows a writer to present
past events during current events.
• Dream sequences, memories, etc.
 Screenplay
• The script for a screen, including
instructions for sets and camera work.
•
 Verbal Irony

• A person says one thing and

means another

• Example: When Mercutio is

dealt a fatal wound but calls it
only a “scratch”
 Verbal Irony Examples
• “Oh great!” (when
something isn’t really
good)
• “Sure I don’t mind to wait
until you finish your
conversation, I know it’s
way more important than
what I am fixing to teach!”
• “Two households both
alike in dignity…”
• “Lucky you!!” (when you
get a teacher you don’t
really want)
 Dramatic Irony
•The audience has
important information
that characters in a
literary work do not
have

•Example: The
audience knows that
Juliet is only sleeping,
but Romeo thinks she
is dead.
 Aside
• A character’s
remark, either to
the audience or
another character,
that others on
stage do not hear;
reveals the
character’s private
thoughts
 Soliloquy
• A speech given by a
character alone on stage
that lets the audience know
what the character is
thinking or feeling

• Example: Juliet’s balcony

speech
 Pun
• A humorous play on two or more meanings
of the same word or on two different words
with the same sound

• Examples: He drove his expensive car into a

tree and found out how the Mercedes bends.
A baker stopped making donuts after he got
tired of the hole thing.
 Pun
Examples: The raisin wined about how he
couldn't achieve grapeness.

Once you've seen one shopping center you've

seen a mall.

When fish are in schools they sometimes take

debate.
 Stage Directions
• Instructions about
the appearance
and actions of
characters, sets,
props, costumes,
sound effects, and
lighting for a play
 Staging
• The act of selecting, designing, adapting
to, or modifying the performance space for
a play.
 Oxymoron
• A figure of speech that is a combination of
seemingly contradictory words

• Examples from Romeo and Juliet:

brawling love, loving hate, heavy
lightness, sick health

• Can you think of one?

 Oxymoron
• Examples:
Anarchy rules
Awfully nice
Books on tape
Cold sweat
Only choice
Sad smile
Seriously funny
Wise fool
Icy Hot
 Paradox
• A situation or a statement that seems to
contradict itself, but on closer inspection,
contains a possible truth

• Examples:
– “Cowards die many times before their death.”
– “I must be cruel to be kind.”
 Parallelism
• The repetition of a grammatical structure

• Example:
– “of the people, by the people, for the people”

– "When you are right you cannot be too

radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be
too conservative."
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
 Parallelism
• "Today's students can put dope in their
veins or hope in their brains. If they can
conceive it and believe it, they can
achieve it. They must know it is not their
aptitude but their attitude that will
determine their altitude."
(Jesse Jackson)
 Theme
• The author’s message or central idea of
the story.

• Hint: Find the topic of the story (love, war,

etc.) and then ask yourself, “What is the
author trying to say about the topic?”
(Love conquers all. War has no
boundaries.)
 Dialogue and Monologue
• Dialogue – conversation between 2 or
more characters

• Monologue – a speech by one character

 Comic Relief
• A humorous scene or speech intended to
lighten the mood
 Script
• The text of a play, including dialogue,
stage directions, and scene changes.