Theatre Arts 1
MID-TERM GUIDE
Types of Stages – KNOW WHAT EACH LOOKS LIKE!
1. Proscenium - most popular kind of theatre - traditional theatre space - stage is framed and audience
watches through the frame
2. Arena - stage is in the middle while the audience surrounds (aka "theatre in the round")
3. Black Box - the most flexible of theatre spaces
4. Thrust - stage projects into the audience; the audience sits on 3 sides of the action
Parts of a Theater
1. Stage - actors' space
2. House - audience's space
3. Proscenium Arch - frame around the stage in a proscenium/traditional theatre
4. Apron - part of the stage that sticks out past the proscenium arch
5. Electric - pipe used for lights, wired for electricity
6. Fly Space - area above stage to hide lights and scenery
7. Fly System - system of ropes and pulleys used for raising and lowering scenery
8. Wing - backstage on either side of the stage (left and right)
9. Loft - backstage space above the wing on either side of the stage
10. Catwalk - access to lights high above the stage
11. Orchestra Pit - area in front of the stage used by musicians
12. Center Line - imaginary line from up center to down center
13. Proscenium Line - imaginary line from the edge of the proscenium from stage right to left
14. Light/Sound Booth - enclosed space near the back of the house with the light and sound boards
15. Pipe - metal bar used for hanging drops, curtains, scrims, etc.
Curtains
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Teaser (Border) - short, wide curtains used to hide lighting equipment
Tormenter (Leg) - long curtains on either side of the stage used to hide backstage areas and set pieces
Traveler - curtain that opens and closes
Cyclorama - sky blue or white back drop, often called a "cyc" (<<psych>>)
Drop - large fabric with scenery painted on it
Scrim - mesh fabric used to obscure scenes/produce a silhouette effect
Fire Curtain - curtain designed to protect the audience in case of a fire
Stage Directions – BE ABLE TO LABEL THESE ON A DIAGRAM
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Downstage - closest to audience
Upstage - furthest from audience
Stage Left - actor's left when facing the audience
Stage Right - actor's right when facing the audience
House Right - audience's right when facing the stage
House Left - audience's left when facing the stage
Breathing and Projection – STUDY DIAGRAMS FROM PREVIOUS QUIZ
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Voice is a crucial element in an actor’s performance.
o Must be heard
o Must convey character
o Must convey what your character thinks and feels
Diaphragm – connective muscle and tissue between your abdominal and chest cavities
o Inhale – diaphragm contracts down to allow more space for air
o Exhale – diaphragm expands up to force air out
Vowels – open, sustained sounds
Audible – able to be heard
Resonators – hard and soft palates, throat, sinuses
Resonance – enriches vocal tone
Consonants – stopped or shaped sounds
Articulators – jaw, lips, tongue, teeth, soft palate
Articulation – clear and precise pronunciation of words
Project – to use your voice to fill a performing space so that every member of the audience can hear
and understand you
o Shouting is not the same as projecting!
Inflection – variety in speech
o Pitch – how high or low
o Volume – how loud or soft
o Tempo – how fast or slow
o Phrasing – how you divide speech into smaller parts
o Quality – shrill, nasal, raspy, breathy, booming, etc.
Basic Drama Vocabulary
1. Director – person in charge of the actors, crew, etc.
2. Cast – actors in a show
3. Lead/principal – major role/actor
4. Featured role – minor role, made to stand out but not as much as the lead
5. Ensemble – group of performers
6. Script – written words to be performed
7. Blocking – movement and placement during a scene (write in the script in pencil!)
8. Set – “everything but the people,” background, furniture, etc.
9. Monologue – long section of only one person talking
10. Open – keeping your body angled toward the audience to be seen and heard
11. Scene – a moment in a play
12. Understudy – replaces the primary actor when needed (illness, schedule conflict, etc.)
13. Exit – to go offstage
14. Cross – to move across the stage
Script Marking (with bonus tongue twisters!) – BE ABLE TO USE MARKS FOR EACH
Fast tempo: rubber baby buggy bumpers
Slow tempo: red leather yellow leather
Raise pitch: she sells sea shells by the sea shore
Lower pitch: unique New York
Raise volume: aluminum linoleum chrysanthemum geranium
Lower volume: Irish wristwatch
Emphasize a word: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck…
Pause: …if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Improvisation
Rule #1: Say “Yes, and…” to scene partner suggestions
Rule #2: Use your whole body to create interesting levels & stage pictures
Rule #3: Make a choice & stick to it; be confident with decisions
PERFORMANCE COMPONENT
Select a monologue from those provided to perform in a professional setting. Each presents a slightly different
challenge to your acting abilities. Read them aloud and test them out before making a final decision!
You will be assessed for:
Memorization
Vocal Inflection (Volume, Tempo, Phrasing, Pitch, Quality)
Character portrayal (i.e. body language/facial expressions; consistency/improvisation if needed)
MONOLOGUE 1 (FEMALE ONLY) – from Fanny’s First Play by George Bernard Shaw
Margaret is a proper young woman who, eager for something different, went to a dance hall with a friend of the family.
There a fight broke out, and the police were called in. In the ensuing confusion, Margaret got pushed around and, in
retaliation, punched a policeman, for which she was jailed. In this speech she is trying to explain to her mother why she is
not ashamed of what happened.
MARGARET. I’m not hardened, Mother. But I can’t talk nonsense about it. You see, it’s all real to me. I’ve suffered it. I’ve
been shoved and bullied. I’ve had my arms twisted. I’ve been made to scream with pain in other ways. I’ve been flung
into a filthy cell with a lot of other poor wretches as if I were a sack of coals being emptied into a cellar. And the only
difference between me and the others was that I hit back. Yes I did. And I did worse. I wasn’t ladylike. I cursed. I called
names. I heard words that I didn’t even know that I knew, coming out of my mouth just as if somebody else had spoken
them. The policeman repeated them in court. The magistrate said he could hardly believe it. The policeman held out his
hand with his two teeth in it that I knocked out. I said it was all right; that I had heard myself using those words quite
distinctly; and that I had taken the good conduct prize for three years running at school. The poor old gentleman put me
back for the missionary to find out who I was, and to ascertain the state of my mind. I wouldn’t tell, of course, for your
sakes at home here; and I wouldn’t say I was sorry, or apologize to the policeman, or compensate him or anything of
that sort. I wasn’t sorry. The one thing that gave me any satisfaction was getting in that smack on his mouth; and I said
so. So the missionary reported that I seemed hardened and that no doubt I would tell who I was after a day in prison.
Then I was sentenced. So no you see I’m not a bit the sort of girl you thought me. I’m not a bit the sort of girl I thought
myself. And I don’t know what sort of person you really are, or what sort of person Father really is. I wonder what he
should say or do if he had an angry brute of a policeman twisting his arm with one hand and rushing him along by the
nape of his neck with the other. He couldn’t whirl his leg like a windmill and knock a policeman down by a glorious kick
on the helmet. Oh, if they’d all fought as we two fought we’d have beaten them.
MONOLOGUE 2 (FEMALE ONLY) – from The Star-Spangled Girl by Neil Simon
Sophie is a Souther girl who has come to New York temporarily to train for international swimming competitions.
Unfortunately, she moved in next door to Normal Cornell, who fell madly in love with her and is destroying her life with
his attempts to win her love. In this speech, Sophie, who has had enough, confronts Norman.
The speech is written to indicate a broad Southern accent, but the accent itself is not particularly essential to the speech.
Play the emotion first, and don’t worry about the accent until the emotion is clear, or don’t use an accent at all.
SOPHIE. Mr. Cornell, Ah have tried to be neighborly, Ah have tried to be friendly and Ah have tried to be cordial… Ah
don’t know what it is that you’re tryin’ to be. That first night Ah was appreciative that you carried mah trunk up the
stairs… The fact that it slipped and fell five flights and smashed to pieces was not your fault… Ah didn’t even mind that
personal message you painted on the stairs. Ah thought it was crazy, but sorta sweet. However, things have now gone
too far… Ah cannot accept gifts from a man Ah hardly know… Especially canned goods. And A read your little note. Ah
can guess the gist of it even though Ah don’t speak Italian. This has got to stop, Mr. Cornell. Ah can do very well without
you leavin’ little chocolate-almond Hershey bars in mah mailbox – they melted yesterday, and now Ah got three gooey
letters from home with nuts in ‘em – and Ah can do without you sneakin’ into mah room after Ah go to work and
paintin’ mah balcony without tellin’ me about it. Ah stepped out there yesterday and mah slippers are still glued to the
floor. And Ah can do without you tying big bottles of eau de cologne to mah cat’s tail. The poor thing kept swishin’ it
yesterday and nearly beat herself to death… And most of all Ah can certainly do without you watchin’ me get on the bus
every day through that high-powered telescope. You got me so nervous the other day Ah got on the wrong bus. In short,
Mr. Cornell, and Ah don’t want to have to say this again, leave me ay-lone!
MONOLOGUE 3 (MALE ONLY) – from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner
Charlie brown is alone in the school yard during lunchtime. He is feeling very sorry for himself because he is always alone.
During the following monologue, he wonders how a young girl also sitting alone would react if he joined her for lunch.
CHARLIE BROWN. I think lunchtime is about the worst time of day for me. Always having to sit here alone. Of course,
sometimes mornings aren’t so pleasant, either – waking up and wondering if anyone would really miss me if I never got
out of bed. Then there’s night, too – lying there and thinking about all the stupid things I’ve done during the day. And all
those hours in between – when I do those stupid things. Well lunchtime is among the worst times of the day for me.
Well, I guess I’d better see what I’ve got (He opens the bag, unwraps a sandwich, and looks inside.) Peanut butter. (He
bites and chews.) Some psychiatrists say that people who eat peanut butter sandwiches are lonely. I guess they’re right.
And if you’re really lonely, the peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth. (He munches idly, quietly, idly fingering
the bench.) Boy, the PTA sure did a good job of painting these benches. (He looks off to one side.) There’s that cute little
redheaded girl eating her lunch over there. I wonder what she’d do if I went over and asked her if I could sit and have
lunch with her. She’d probably laugh right in my face. It’s hard on a face when it gets laughed in. There’s an empty place
next to her on the bench. There’s no reason why I couldn’t just go over and sit there. I could do that right now. All I have
to do is stand up. (He stands.) I’m standing up. (He sits.) I’m sitting down. I’m a coward. I’m so much of a coward she
wouldn’t even think of looking at me. She hardly ever does look at me. In fact, I can’t remember her ever looking at me.
Why shouldn’t she look at me? Is there any reason in the world why she shouldn’t look at me? Is she so great and am I
so small that she couldn’t spare one little moment to… (He freezes.) She’s looking at me. (In terror he looks one way,
then another.) She’s looking at me. (His head looks all around, frantically trying to find something else to notice. His
teeth clench. Tension builds. Then, with one motion, he pops the paper bag over his head.)
MONOLOGUE 4 (MALE ONLY) – from A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner
Upset by the rat race of the media world, Murray confronts his brother, Ernie, who he considers a prize example of a total
conformist.
MURRAY. Oh, Arnie, you don’t understand any more. You got that wide stare that people stick in their eyes so nobody’ll
know their head’s asleep. You got to be a shuffler, a moaner. You want me to come sit and eat fruit with you and watch
the clock run out. You start to drag and stumble with the rotten weight of all the people who should have been told off,
all the things you should have said, all the specifications that aren’t yours. The only thing you got left to reject is your
food in a restaurant if they do it wrong and you can send it back and make a big fuss with the waiter. (Murray turns
away from Arnold, goes to window seat, sits down.) Arnold, five months ago I forgot wat day it was. I’m on the subway
on my way to work and I didn’t know what day it was and it scared the hell out of me. (Quietly.) I was sitting in the
express looking out the window same as every morning watching the local stops go by in the dark with an empty head
and my arms folded, not feeling great and not feeling rotten, just not feeling, and for a minute I couldn’t remember, I
didn’t know, unless I really concentrated, whether it was a Tuesday or a Thursday – or a – for a minute it could have
been any day, Arnie – sitting in the train going through any day – in the dark through any year – Arnie, it scared the hell
out of me. (Stands up.) You got to know what day it is. You got to know what’s the name of the game and what the rules
are with nobody else telling you. You have to own your days and name them, each one of them, every one of them, or
else the years go right by and none of them belong to you.