English

Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

Lesson 12.1
Common Terms Used in Drama andTheater

Figure 1. Have you heard of terms used in a drama and in a theater?

Introduction
To be able to appreciate drama and theater as a form of entertainment, both as a performer and as
part of the production, it is essential that you know at least the most commonly used terms for both
theater and drama. This lesson will help you get familiar with the technical vocabulary for drama and
theater.

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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

Objective
In this lesson, you should be able to become familiar with the technical
vocabulary for drama and theater (like stage directions).

DepEd Competency
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to become familiar with the
technical vocabulary for drama and theater (like stage directions) (EN9OL-
IIIa-3.7).

Quick Write
Procedure
1. For five minutes, write as many theater terms as you can that you have encountered
in the past. These can be from your past lessons or experiences.
2. After five minutes, share your answers in class.

Vocabulary

Commencing
Beginning
(verb)

Hasty
Acted to quickly; rash
(adjective)

Snubbed
To be neglected
(verb)

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Gnawin
To be anxious
g(verb)
Nondescript
Lacking distinguishable qualities
(adjective)

Essential Question
How does drama/theater reflect and influence society?

Learn about It

Some drama and theater terms were already introduced in the previous lesson. Thefollowing are
some more drama and theater terms you have to be familiar with:

Types of Drama

1. Allegory
This is a type of drama with symbolic characters representing abstract concepts. An
example of an allegorical play is The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

2. Burlesque
This is a type of drama that ridicules or satirizes a well-known play or dramatic style.An
example of this type of play is Tom Stoppard’s 1974 play Travesties.

3. Farce
This is a type of drama that exaggerates comic and highly improbable situations. Below is
an example of a farce from The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare.
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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

The Comedy of Errors

by William Shakespeare
(excerpt of Act 1 Scene 2)

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Stop—in your wind, sir; tell me this, I pray:
Where have you left the money that I gave you?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
O,—sixpence that I had o'Wednesday last
To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper;—
The saddler had it, sir, I kept it not.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
I am not in a sportive humour now;
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how dar'st thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I pray you jest, sir, as you sit at dinner:
I from my mistress come to you in post:
If I return, I shall be post indeed;
For she will score your fault upon my pate.
Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
And strike you home without a messenger.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season;
Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.
Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?

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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me!

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,
And tell me how thou hast dispos'd thy charge.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
My charge was but to fetch you from the mart
Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner:
My mistress and her sister stay for you.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Now, as I am a Christian, answer me,
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money:
Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours,
That stands on tricks when I am undispos'd;
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders,
But not a thousand marks between you both.—
If I should pay your worship those again,
Perchance you will not bear them patiently.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;

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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,

And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
What mean you, sir? for God's sake hold your hands!
Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.

4. Melodrama
This is a type of drama filled with pathetic situations. An example of a melodrama is

Pygmalion by Jean Jacques Rousseau.

5. Naturalistic play
It is a drama that presents the dark sides of life. Miss Julie by August Strindberg is anexample
of a naturalistic play.

6. Problem play
This drama presents a current social problem and provides a solution or course ofaction.

The Merchant of Venice

by William Shakespeare
(excerpt of Act 4 Scene 1)

PORTIA. A pound of that same merchant’s flesh is thine.

The court awards it and the law doth give it.

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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

SHYLOCK. Most rightful judge!

PORTIA.And you must cut this flesh from off his breast.

The law allows it and the court awards it.

SHYLOCK. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare.

PORTIA. Tarry a little; there is something else.

This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
The words expressly are ‘a pound of flesh’:
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

GRATIANO. O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!

SHYLOCK. Is that the law?

PORTIA. Thyself shalt see the act;

For, as thou urgest justice, be assur’d
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir’st.

GRATIANO. O learned judge! Mark, Jew: alearned judge!

SHYLOCK. I take this offer then: pay the bond thrice,

And let the Christian go.

BASSANIO. Here is the money.

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PORTIA. Soft!
The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:—
He shall have nothing but the penalty.

GRATIANO. O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!

PORTIA. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.

Shed thou no blood; nor cut thou less nor more,
But just a pound of flesh: if thou tak’st more,
Or less, than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.

GRATIANO. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!

Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.

PORTIA. Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.

SHYLOCK. Give me my principal, and let me go.

BASSANIO. I have it ready for thee; here it is.

PORTIA. He hath refus’d it in the open court;

He shall have merely justice, and his bond.

The Comedy of Errors

by William Shakespeare
(excerpt of Act 1 Scene 2)

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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Stop—in your wind, sir; tell me this, I pray:
Where have you left the money that I gave you?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
O,—sixpence that I had o'Wednesday last
To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper;—
The saddler had it, sir, I kept it not.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
I am not in a sportive humour now;
Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?
We being strangers here, how dar'st thou trust
So great a charge from thine own custody?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I pray you jest, sir, as you sit at dinner:
I from my mistress come to you in post:
If I return, I shall be post indeed;
For she will score your fault upon my pate.
Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
And strike you home without a messenger.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season;
Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.
Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me!
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Grade 9 • Unit 12: The One-Act Play

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,
And tell me how thou hast dispos'd thy charge.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
My charge was but to fetch you from the mart
Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner:
My mistress and her sister stay for you.

ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Now, as I am a Christian, answer me,
In what safe place you have bestow'd my money:
Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours,
That stands on tricks when I am undispos'd;
Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
I have some marks of yours upon my pate,
Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders,
But not a thousand marks between you both.—
If I should pay your worship those again,
Perchance you will not bear them patiently.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
Thy mistress' marks! what mistress, slave, hast thou?

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;
She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,
And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.

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ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE.
What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,
Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.

DROMIO OF EPHESUS.
What mean you, sir? for God's sake hold your hands!
Nay, an you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.
7. Realistic play
This type of drama presents an image of what is really happening in society. A Doll’s House
by Henrik Ibsen is an example of this kind of play.

8. Romantic play
This is a type of drama that magnifies and embellishes reality. An example is TwelfthNight
by William Shakespeare.

9. Travesty
This is a type of satirical drama that pokes fun at manners, a way of life, or oldbeliefs.

Sarah Bernhardt, a famous actress, plays the role of a male character, Prince
Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Let’s Check In
What is the difference between farce and problem play?

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Terms Used in Theater

1. Aside
Asides are words directed to the audience but are not “heard” by other characters onstage
during a performance.

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the title character does asides when he is

contemplating whether to kill the king or not.

2. Chorus
A chorus is a group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama) ledby a
choragos, who comment on the action of a play from an outsider’s perspective.

Antigone (excerpt)
Sophocles

Enter Chorus of Theban Elders

Chorus. Ο light of yon bright sun,
Fairest of all that ever shone on Thebes,
Thebes with her seven high gates,

Thou didst appear that day,

Eye of the golden dawn,

O'er Dirké's streams advancing,

Driving with quickened curb,
In haste of headlong flight,

The warrior who, in panoply of proof,

From Argos came, with shield of glittering white;

Whom Polyneikes brought,

Roused by the strife of tongues

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Against our fatherland,

As eagle shrieking shrill,
He hovered o'er our land,

With snow-white wing bedecked,

Begirt with myriad arms,

And flowing horsehair crests.

3. Comic relief
This is the use of a humorous scene to interrupt a series of intensely tragic dramatic
moments.

Shakespeare’s inclusion of jesters and foolish characters in his plays to

lighten the mood of the scene.

4. Deus ex machina
From a Latin phrase meaning "a god from the machine," it refers to the use ofartificial,
sometimes supernatural, means to resolve the conflict of a play.

Tiresias, the blind seer, by some twist of fate, reveals to Oedipus that he
actually married his own mother.

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5. Dramatis personae
This term refers to the characters or persons in a play.

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman, the salesman, his wife
Linda, and his sons Biff and Happy are the characters.

6. Monologue
This is is a speech by a single character without another character's response.

Marc Anthony’s monologue in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.

7. Pathos
This is a quality of a play's action that moves the audience to feel pity for a character.

The classic death of the two star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet.

8. Recognition
This is a point at which a character fully understands the consequences of his actionsor the
truth about who he is.

Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex realized that he killed his father and
married his mother.

9. Reversal
This is a surprising turning point in the life of the protagonist.

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Oedipus, the great king of Thebes, unknowingly killed his own father and
married his own mother.

10. Soliloquy
This is a speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the
audience but not by othercharacters on the stage.

Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech

Let’s Check In
What is the difference between an aside and soliloquy?

Key Points

● A monologue and a melodrama can coexist together.

Since melodramas are basically drama, it can have
monologues done by characters.
● A problem play which usually tackles social problems,
can also have a reversal stage wherein the character has
a turning point where he finds answers to his societal
problems.

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