Poetry and Drama Academic Words

This poetry term refers to a smaller part of a drama with its own setting and time.

• act

• scene

• narrator

• plot

This term refers to a pattern of events in a drama.

• prop

• plot

• cast

• character

Which of the following drama terms

refers to what the actors are saying?

• character

• stage lighting

• playwright

• dialogue

Who would most likely be responsible for moving furniture

out onto the stage for actors to use?

• playwright

• screenwriter

• stage lighting crew

• stage crew

Who would be responsible for taking a well-known book

and adapting it for a movie?

• the author

• the playwright

• the screenwriter

• the character

What could an audience infer from a stage crew that produced sounds of thunder,

water droplets on a window, and an actor that takes the stage in a raincoat, rubber boots, and a very large umbrella?

• That the play takes place near an ocean that just experienced a tsunami.

• The setting is in the mountains and it is snowing outside.

• That the neighbors have suddenly turned on the sprinklers and the main character got soaking wet.

• That the setting of the play takes place during a time when it was rainy.

Why might an author be reluctant to

have their work turned into a movie or television show?

• They might be reluctant because they are worried about getting paid in Pokemon bucks.

• They might be reluctant because they are concerned that their life's work might be turned into something that is cheap, ugly, or trashy.

• They might be reluctant to turn their book into a movie because if the movie flops, their book sales might greatly decrease as well and people might burn their books in the streets.

• They might be be worried about someone stealing their ideas, their thoughts, and their car sitting in the driveway.

Match the following terms to their definitions.

• stage crew

• The person who writes plays or dramas

• Playwright

• The person who is in charge of adapting a book to the length for a movie or tv show

• narrator

• In charge of making sure that the set is properly managed, including backdrops, lights, sounds, and props.

• Screenwriter

• The list of of people who are in a drama.

• cast

• The person who is telling the story.

How can a person recognize dialogue in a script?

• There are different colors of ink and so you can tell which actor is supposed to speak.

• In a script, the names of the people who are speaking are listed on the left, followed by any stage directions, and then the lines of the actor.

• The dialogue is marked with quotation marks.

• The screenwriter uses lots of highlighters so that it is super easy for anyone to tell where the dialogue is.

Read the following mini-passage:

The nights came early. With winter closing in, and the temperatures falling rapidly, the family struggled to get home in the family car. When they arrived, they bundled the children up in blankets from the back of the car made from the sheep they sheared last fall, and rushed up to porch, and hurried inside, whistling for the dogs as they closed the wooden door. As they lit the fire, the house finally warmed a bit, and everyone finally felt safe and warm.

Which of the following settings would best fit this passage?

• In a downtown apartment building near a subway station

• Deep in the woods on a cold winter night at the small country home of a little family

• In a small shop that sells bait near a beach community

• In an office building near the home of the President of the Nike company.