| A | B |
|---|
| trilogy | a series of three plays about the same characters |
| closet dramas | plays intended to be read and not performed |
| Saint plays | a religious play based on the lives and legends of the Saints |
| Mystery plays | a form of religious drama based on biblical history |
| Passion Play | a play concerned with the last week in the life of Christ |
| mansions | a series of acting stations that represented biblical settings |
| folk drama | plays of the Middle ages set in Nature during planting, harvest or other secular holidays |
| cycle | a serious of short plays depicting religious history from creation to doomsday |
| Morality play | a play dealing with right and wrong, usually allegorically |
| Moral Interludes | short versions of Morality plays usually involving mostly humorous scenes |
| commedia dell'arte | an Italian Renaissance improvisational style of theater |
| raked | a type of stage that is slanted upward away from the audience |
| Peking Opera | a form of 19th century Chinese theater |
| No (Noh) | a 600 year old type of Japanese drama that is the oldest form to be still performed the same way as in the past |
| Bunraku | Japanese doll theater |
| Kabuki | a type of 17th century Japanese theater that combines elements of No and Bunraku |
| tragos | the greek word for "goat song" and the basis of the word tragedy |
| thespian | another term for an actor |
| Thespis | a Greek who is reported to be the first known Greek actor |
| skene | the Greek changing hut that also served as a backdrop |
| machina | Greek word for machine, in particular a crane used to hoist actors on and of the stage floor |
| deus ex machina | "god from the machine"; used today to refer to any ending of a play that is unsupported by the previous action of the play |
| pathos | empathy with the suffering of another (in drama- a character) |
| satirist | a playwright who attacks the ills of society by mocking them |
| amphitheaters | circular arenas surrounded by tiers of seats |
| pageant wagon | a medieval traveling stage |
| scenario | the plot outline used in commedia dell'arte |
| stock charcters | characters who are the same in and used in a variety of plays with different scenarios |
| zanni | commedia dell'arte clowns |
| tiring house | the Elizabethan changing room |
| study | a curtained part of the stage on an Elizabethan stage upstage of the main acting area |
| tarras | a shallow balcony on the second level in an Elizabethan theater |
| heavens | a small roof suspended over the stage with the Sun, Moon, and stars painted on it |
| groundlings | poor theatergoers in Elizabethan times who stood in the pit |
| pit | the area on the floor surrounding the raised stage in Elizabethan theaters |
