| A | B |
|---|
| soliloquy | a speech delivered by an actor alone on stage that reveals the character's innermost thoughts |
| tarras | the balcony on the second floor of an Elizabethan playhouse |
| William Shakespeare | the Elizabethan playwright who is often considered the greatest dramatist of all time; he wrote Romeo and Juliet |
| Eugene O'Neill | American dramatist known for such works as Long Day's Journey |
| Goethe | the German dramatist who wrote Faust |
| commedia dell'arte | professional improvised comedy that used stock characters |
| opera | an attempt by Italian playwrights during the Renaissance to revive the music of ancient Greek drama |
| No (Noh) | created by Zeami Motokiyo, this type of Japanese drama combines words, dance, and music that are rhythmically coordinated to the events of the story |
| Globe Theatre | the Elizabethan playhouse with which Shakespeare was associated |
| Restoration | the time period following the Puritan Rebellion; theater was decreed legal once again |
| lazzi | humorous bits of stage business set apart from the main action; used in the commedia dell'arte |
| raked stage | an acting area that is slanted upward away from the audience |
| innamorati and innamoratae | upper-class young lovers of the commedia dell'arte |
| Bunraku | a type of Japanese theater that features four-foot-tall marionettes; also called doll theater |
| Stanislavski | Russian author whose works are used as the basis for defining method acting |
| the humors | a combination of elements and body fluids that the Elizabethans believed to have an effect on personality |
| Renaissance | term meaning rebirth; the time between the medieval and modern ages in western Europe |
| scenarios | plot outlines that were posted backstage before each performance of the commedia dell'arte troupes |
| groundlings | the lower-class playgoers of the Elizabethan era who stood in the pit to watch the performances |
| Kabuki | a type of Japanese theater that developed as entertainment for the general public; it borrows aspects of No and Bunraku |
| Christopher Marlowe | the Elizabethan dramatist who introduced the first important use of blank verse; he wrote Tamburlaine the Great |
| the Barrymores | the family of actors that links the early American stage with the modern |
| Ben Jonson | the Elizabethan author who is known as a master of English comedy; he wrote Volpone |
| Peking Opera | Chinese drama that incorporates historical, spoken, dance, and song drama and ballet |
| Thinking Person's Society | Shaw's theory that states, "Of every 1,000 people, 700 do not think, 299 are idealists, and 1 thinks." |
