Drama Terms Review (Graded)

The playwright / author's reason for writing the play / text. The word choice and structure help us determine this!

• Author's Purpose

• Author's Voice

• Author's Thoughts

• Author's Message

A play for theater, television, film, or radio.

• Fiction

• Drama

• Non-Fiction

• Poetry

The person who wrote the play

• Drama Author

• Writer

• Playwright

• Storyteller

The way playwrights break up the action in a play; the way it is structured overall

• Act

• Stage Directions

• Dialogue

• Scene

A subsection of the play, within an Act, that takes place at a specific time and place / between specific characters

• Drama

• Act

• Scene

• Stage Directions

The words characters speak in a piece of text

• Speech

• Dialogue

• Conversation

• Monologue

The playwright's written instructions about how actors should move or behave. Broken up into 2 main categories: Action based, Performance based.

• Stage Directions

• Actor's Notes

• Plot

• Dialogue

The "main character" or "main focus" of a piece

• Antagonist

• Protagonist

• Actor

• Playwright

A long speech in a play, performed by one character / actor

• Stage Directions

• Dialogue

• Monologue

• Scene

Stage directions are a key component to understanding drama, because they give the performers and readers of the play an opportunity to understand both the emotions and the actions taking place, therefore helping the reader make inferences about the author's purpose in writing the play.

• True

• False