Drama Terms Lesson

Drama Terms

Review and show your knowledge of drama terms.

​Aside

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

Dialogue

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

​Flashback

An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action. Writers use flashbacks to complicate the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time.

​Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature.

- In verbal irony, characters say the opposite of what they mean

-In situational irony:  the opposite of what is expected occurs.

-In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters.

Monologue

A speech by a single character without another character's response

Props

Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.

Setting

The time and place of a literary work that establish its context. The setting of the Odyssey is……

​Soliloquy

A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.  

Stage Directions

A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. 

Multiple Choice

A speech by a single character without another character's response

• Soliloquy

• Flashback

• Aside

• Monologue

Multiple Choice

Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play.

• Props

• Setting

• Dialogue

• Irony

Multiple Choice

The time and place of a literary work that establish its context. The setting of the Odyssey is……

• Props

• Setting

• Stage Direction

• Dialogue

Multiple Choice

A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.

• Monologue

• Irony

• Aside

• Soliloquy

Multiple Choice

A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. 

• Prop

• Stage Direction

• Setting

• Flashback

Multiple Choice

A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant or between what happens and what is expected to happen in life and in literature.

- In verbal irony, characters say the opposite of what they mean

-In situational irony:  the opposite of what is expected occurs.

-In dramatic irony, a character speaks in ignorance of a situation or event known to the audience or to the other characters.

• Setting

• Flashback

• Dialogue

• Irony

Multiple Choice

An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action. Writers use flashbacks to complicate the sense of chronology in the plot of their works and to convey the richness of the experience of human time.

• Irony

• Dialogue

• Flashback

• Soliloquy

Multiple Choice

The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.

• Settng

• Flashback

• Irony

• Dialogue

Multiple Choice

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

• Aside

• Monologue

• Prop

• Irony