Advanced Repertory Theatre
Vocabulary Words
TIRING HOUSE. A section of a theater reserved for the actors and used especially for dressing for stage entrances.
TARRAS. The shallow balcony in the center of the second level acting area.
PATHOS. Element in drama that arouses pity and compassion.
MANSIONS. A stage for theatrical performances that originated in churches where they were small wooden platforms with supports and a roof. They were used in medieval theatre to represent specific locations, such as Heaven or Hell.
HUMORS (OR HUMOURS). Moods, personality traits explored in Elizabethan drama: Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Sanguine.
HUBRIS. Excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to the fall of the protagonist.
HEAVENS. Roof supported by two ornate columns above the stage.
HAMARTIA. A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
DEUS EX MACHINA. God from the machine actor playing was lowered to stage to settle worldly affairs
PAGEANT WAGON. A movable stage used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th century.
MORAL INTERLUDE. A short version of a Morality play that usually includes more humorous incidents.
MYSTERY PLAY. Based on biblical history.
BUNRAKU. Japanese doll theater, puppets
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Italian theatre from the Renaissance that featured professional troupes specializing in performance through comic improvisation and stock characters.
EPIC THEATRE. A theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century in response to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre. The purpose this form of theatre is not to encourage an audience to suspend their disbelief, but rather to force them to see their world as it is.
KABUKI. A classical Japanese dance-drama known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
NOH. 600-year Japanese drama with standard characters, simple plots, intricate language.
PASSION PLAY. Based on last week of Christ's life.
MIRACLE PLAY. Based on the life of saints.
SATYRE. An ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to the bawdy satire of burlesque.
HENRIK IBSEN. A Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. One of the founders of modernism in theatre, he is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, A Doll's House, and Hedda Gabler.
AESCHYLUS. A Greek playwright, often called the father of tragedy, whose Oresteia is the only example of a Greek trilogy to have survived.
ARISTOPHANES. A Greek playwright, often called the father of comedy, who wrote Lysistrata and The Frogs.
ARISTOTLE. A Greek philosopher who wrote about for theatre in the Poetics. He identified the parts of theatre: plot, characters, thought, diction, melody, spectacle.
BERTOLT BRECHT. A German playwright who was the main proponent of the epic theatre. During World War II, he lived in exile in the United States. His famous plays include The Threepeeny Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
DAVID YAZBEK. An American composer and lyricist who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Band's Visit, and Tootsie. He won a Tony Award for The Band's Visit.
DIONYSUS. The ancient God of wine, fertility, and theatre. He may have been celebrated by the ancient Greeks in their play festivals.
EDWARD ALBEE. An American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story, A Seascape, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Three Tall Women, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, and A Delicate Balance. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
EURIPIDES. A Greek playwright who is famous plays include The Trojan Women and Media.
HAROLD PINTER. A Nobel Prize winning British playwright and screenwriter who is best-known for writing The Birthday Party and The Homecoming.
HROSVITHA. A 10th-century German nun who is credited as being the first female playwright. She wrote six plays in Latin about female characters who are converted to Christianity.
JEROME KERN. An American composer of musical theatre and popular music.One of his biggest achievements was writing the music for Showboat.
LILLIAN HELLMAN. An American playwright that is best known for writing The Children's Hour and The Little Foxes.
LUIGI PIRANDELLO. An Italian playwright dramatist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. He is known for writing Six Characters in Search of an Author.
DAVID HENRY HWANG. An American playwright, librettist, screenwriter that is best-known for writing the play was M Butterfly. He also wrote the books for Aida, Flower Drum Song, and Tarzan.
MOLIERE. A French playwright know for writing comedies such as Tartuffe, The Miser, and the Imaginary Invalid.
PLAUTUS. A Roman playwright who wrote comedies including The Menaechmi, Pseudolus, & Miles Glorious.
SOPHOCLES. A Greek playwright who wrote tragedies include Oedipus and Antigone.
TERENCE. A Roman playwright who wrote comedies including Eunuchus, Adelphoe (The Brothers), and Hecyra (the mother-in-law).
WENDY WASSERSTEIN. An American playwright that won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.
1776. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. The story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It dramatizes the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document.
42ND STREET. A musical composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer about the efforts of famed dictatorial director to mount a successful Broadway production of a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great Depression.
A CHORUS LINE. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning concept musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots in the ensemble. The the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical.
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ A musical review based on a song by Fats Waller and various composers and lyricists as a tribute to the black musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance; an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness, and ethnic pride.
AVENUE Q. A Tony Award winning musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It tells the story of a recent college grad who moves into a shabby New York apartment where he and his neighbors struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life.
BOOK OF MORMON. A Tony Award winning musical comedy that makes light of various Mormon beliefs and practices, but ultimately endorses the positive power of love and service.
BRIGADOON. A musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story involves two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.
CABARET. A musical with music by John Kander & lyrics by Fred Ebb set in a nightclub in Germany as the Nazi Party is rising in power before World War II. It won the Tony Award for best musical and best revival of a musical.
CHICAGO. A musical with music by John Kander & lyrics by Fred Ebb that is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of criminal celebrity. It won the Tony Award for outstanding revival of a musical.
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus that tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door.
COMPANY (MUSICAL). A Tony Award winning musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim about a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. The story is linked together by a celebration of his 35th birthday.
FIORELLO. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock about a New York City mayor who took on the political machine of his day.
FOLLIES. A musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim about a reunion of showgirls from musical revues that were performed in a crumbling Broadway theatre that is scheduled for demolition.
GYPSY. A musical composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim that follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage. It won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
HAIR. A rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot that tells the story of a group of politically active hippies living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. It won a Grammy Award for the original cast album and a Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
IN THE HEIGHTS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda that tells of a largely Hispanic-American neighborhood in New York City and how it is changing and affecting the lives of its residents.
JERSEY BOYS. A Tony Award winning jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. Presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of The Four Seasons. The musical is structured as four seasons, each narrated by a different member of the band who gives his own perspective on its history and music.
MEMPHIS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by David Bryan and book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro. It is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s.
NEXT TO NORMAL. A Pulitzer Prize winning American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing her illness has on her family. The musical addresses grief, depression, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the underbelly of suburban life.
OF THEE I SING. A Pulitzer Prize winning musical with a score by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman. The musical lampoons American politics as a man runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform, but gets into political hot water, when he falls in love with the sensible woman instead of a beautiful pageant winner selected for him.
ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. A one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty that concerns a peasant girl on a tropical island, who uses the power of love to bring together people of different social classes. It won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
PIPPIN. A musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz about a mysterious performance troupe led by a Leading Player, to tell the story of a young prince on his search for meaning and significance in life. It won a Tony Award for best rival of a musical.
PORGY AND BESS. An English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It tells the story of a disabled black street-beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue a woman from the clutches of her violent and possessive lover and her drug dealer.
RAGTIME. A musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty that tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in New Rochelle, NY; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant.
RENT. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
SHOW BOAT. A musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II that follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
SOUTH PACIFIC. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The plot centers on an American nurse during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. A Pulitzer Prize winning musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine inspired by a painting by Georges Seurat. A complex work revolving around a fictionalized Seurat immersed in single-minded concentration while painting the masterpiece, and his great-grandson's effort to continue to create art.
THE PRODUCERS. A musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, that concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop.
THE WIZ. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of modern African-American culture.
ANGELS IN AMERICA. A two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony Award for Best Play for both parts of the play, as well as both best revival when both parts were performed together. It is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s.
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. A Pulitzer and Tony Award winning comedy-drama play by Tracy Letts about a dysfunctional family. The play takes place after the death and funeral of a father, that brings three sisters, along with their significant others and various kin, to the home of their mother.
FOOL FOR LOVE. A Pulitzer Prize winning play written by American playwright Sam Shepard. The play focuses on former lovers who have met again in a motel in the desert.
HEDDA GABLER. A play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen about he famous daughter of General Gabler, who married George Tesman out of desperation, but soon finds life with him to be dull and tedious.
MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS. A play by Athol Fugard that takes place in South Africa during apartheidera, and depicts how institutionalized racism, bigotry or hatred can become absorbed by those who live under it. The play is about the relationship between a young boy and his family's servants.
THE BALD SOPRANO. A play by Eugene Ionèsco that is an example of theatre of the absurd. Two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems. The play devolves into a series of complete non-sequiturs with no resemblance to normal conversation.
THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL. A play by David Rabe that is first in a trilogy of plays about the Vietnam War. The story is bracketed by scenes depicting the death of the everyman-like title character, who mindlessly grabs a live grenade that is tossed into the Saigon brothel he is visiting.
THE HAIRY APE. A play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich.
THE PIANO LESSON. A Pulitzer Prize winning play by American playwright August Wilson that focuses on the arguments between a brother and a sister who have different ideas on what to do with their family piano which was decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor.
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG. A play by American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks that chronicles the adult lives of two African-American brothers as they cope with poverty, racism, work, women, and their troubled upbringings.
COMEDY OF MANNERS. A play that shows the humorous traits of a particular segment of society, usually the upper class.
HIGH COMEDY. A type of comedy that includes satire and is characterized by clever lines, word plays, and allusions.
LOW COMEDY. A type of comedy that is quite physical, sometimes vulgar, and highly exaggerated in style and performance.
PERFORMANCE ART. A type of monodrama that combines many different elements of theatre in a novel way.
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD. A form of theatre based on the assumption that human hopes and plans are ridiculous.
It sometime employee unconventional language.
OPERA. A dramatic work with no spoken dialogue set to music for singers and instrumentalists.
OPERETTA. Comic or lighthearted opera, generally with a substantial amount of spoken (not sung) dialogue.
MUSICAL REVUE. A production consisting of a series of independent song-and-dance scenes tied loosely tougher; often satirical.
PARODY. A type of low comedy that mocks a certain work by imitating the author's style for comic effect.
PROFESSIONAL. Normally used for someone who's regularly paid for a particular job
CATHARSIS. The emotional release an audience feels after the downfall of a tragic character.
EMPATHY. Emotional identification with someone or something outside oneself; ideally the audience develops this with the characters in a play.
FORESHADOWING. A line, an action, or an idea emphasized early a play that give the audiences clues to the conclusion.
MOOD. The emotional feeling of a play.
MORAL. The lesson or the principle contained within or taught by a play.
RECOGNITION. In tragedy, a scene in which the protagonist either achieves an inner awareness as a result of great personal suffering or identifies a lost loved one or friend; the discovery of hidden or obscure meanings.
REVERSAL. An ironic twist in a tragedy in which an action produces an effect opposite to what at first would seem likely.
STYLE. The way in which a play is written, acted, and produced.
THEME. The basic idea of a play.
UNITY. The principle that all elements of a set must form a whole, centering around the theme of the play.
TRILOGY. A set of three related plays.
SUMMER STOCK. Plays or musicals that are produced by a repertory company during the summer, typically in vacation resort areas. They are often viewed as a starting point for professional actors or students who are still in college.
AVANT-GARDE. New or experimental styles of an art form.
DRAMA. A literary composition onstage.
YES, AND. a rule-of-thumb in improvisational comedy that suggests that a participant should accept what another participant says and expand on that line of thinking.
ENSEMBLE ACTING. An approach to acting that aims for a unified effect achieved by all members of a cast working together on behalf of the play, rather than emphasizing individual performances.
PUBLIC SOLITUDE. An actor's ability to appear private while they are performing on stage.
ACCEPTING. Embracing the offers made by other performers in order to advance the scene.
ENDOWMENT. Assigning attributes to another performer's character.
CHIVALRY. Daring to give up control. Allow yourself to be changed by other players. Giving up your own ideas, status, or life in an improvisation scene.
THE BAND'S VISIT. A musical with music and lyrics by David Yazbek that won 10 Tony Awards. It is about an Egyptian police band that is sent to a remote village in the Israeli desert after a mix-up at the border.
FUN HOME. A Tony Award winning musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by Lisa Kron about a young woman's discovery of her own sexuality, her relationship with her gay father, and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life.
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER. A Tony Award winning musical comedy with lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and the music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. It is about a low-born man who finds out that he's eighth in line to be earl in a lofty family. The man plans to knock off his unsuspecting relatives without being caught.
KINKY BOOTS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein inspired by true events, about a man who having inherited a shoe factory from his father, forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business.
ONCE. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová where the cast serve as the orchestra. It tells the story of a vacuum repairman and an immigrant who sells flowers for a living who collaborate to create a musical career as a romantic relationship develops.
BILLY ELLIOT. A Tony Award winning musical with music by Elton John and lyrics are by Lee Hall. The plot revolves around a motherless British boy who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes, and his personal struggle with fulfilment balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by a miners' strike.
SPRING AWAKENING. A Tony Award winning rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater that is based on a 1891 German play about the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. A musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan that tells the story of a small-town girl who comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love.
CONTACT. A Tony Award winning musical developed by Susan Stroman and John Weidman. It is made up of three separate dance pieces, each set to pre-recorded music, including songs from Tchaikovsky, Stéphane Grappelli, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Royal Crown Revue, and The Beach Boys. In each story, the central character expresses a longing to make a romantic connection.
FOSSE. A Tony Award winning three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. The musical was conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr., Chet Walker, and Ann Reinking. This musical had primarily black-and-white costumes (including the all-important hats), set against a simple setting.
TARRAS. The shallow balcony in the center of the second level acting area.
PATHOS. Element in drama that arouses pity and compassion.
MANSIONS. A stage for theatrical performances that originated in churches where they were small wooden platforms with supports and a roof. They were used in medieval theatre to represent specific locations, such as Heaven or Hell.
HUMORS (OR HUMOURS). Moods, personality traits explored in Elizabethan drama: Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Sanguine.
HUBRIS. Excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to the fall of the protagonist.
HEAVENS. Roof supported by two ornate columns above the stage.
HAMARTIA. A fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
DEUS EX MACHINA. God from the machine actor playing was lowered to stage to settle worldly affairs
PAGEANT WAGON. A movable stage used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th century.
MORAL INTERLUDE. A short version of a Morality play that usually includes more humorous incidents.
MYSTERY PLAY. Based on biblical history.
BUNRAKU. Japanese doll theater, puppets
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE. Italian theatre from the Renaissance that featured professional troupes specializing in performance through comic improvisation and stock characters.
EPIC THEATRE. A theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century in response to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre. The purpose this form of theatre is not to encourage an audience to suspend their disbelief, but rather to force them to see their world as it is.
KABUKI. A classical Japanese dance-drama known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.
NOH. 600-year Japanese drama with standard characters, simple plots, intricate language.
PASSION PLAY. Based on last week of Christ's life.
MIRACLE PLAY. Based on the life of saints.
SATYRE. An ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to the bawdy satire of burlesque.
HENRIK IBSEN. A Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. One of the founders of modernism in theatre, he is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include Peer Gynt, An Enemy of the People, A Doll's House, and Hedda Gabler.
AESCHYLUS. A Greek playwright, often called the father of tragedy, whose Oresteia is the only example of a Greek trilogy to have survived.
ARISTOPHANES. A Greek playwright, often called the father of comedy, who wrote Lysistrata and The Frogs.
ARISTOTLE. A Greek philosopher who wrote about for theatre in the Poetics. He identified the parts of theatre: plot, characters, thought, diction, melody, spectacle.
BERTOLT BRECHT. A German playwright who was the main proponent of the epic theatre. During World War II, he lived in exile in the United States. His famous plays include The Threepeeny Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechwan, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
DAVID YAZBEK. An American composer and lyricist who wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Band's Visit, and Tootsie. He won a Tony Award for The Band's Visit.
DIONYSUS. The ancient God of wine, fertility, and theatre. He may have been celebrated by the ancient Greeks in their play festivals.
EDWARD ALBEE. An American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story, A Seascape, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Three Tall Women, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, and A Delicate Balance. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
EURIPIDES. A Greek playwright who is famous plays include The Trojan Women and Media.
HAROLD PINTER. A Nobel Prize winning British playwright and screenwriter who is best-known for writing The Birthday Party and The Homecoming.
HROSVITHA. A 10th-century German nun who is credited as being the first female playwright. She wrote six plays in Latin about female characters who are converted to Christianity.
JEROME KERN. An American composer of musical theatre and popular music.One of his biggest achievements was writing the music for Showboat.
LILLIAN HELLMAN. An American playwright that is best known for writing The Children's Hour and The Little Foxes.
LUIGI PIRANDELLO. An Italian playwright dramatist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. He is known for writing Six Characters in Search of an Author.
DAVID HENRY HWANG. An American playwright, librettist, screenwriter that is best-known for writing the play was M Butterfly. He also wrote the books for Aida, Flower Drum Song, and Tarzan.
MOLIERE. A French playwright know for writing comedies such as Tartuffe, The Miser, and the Imaginary Invalid.
PLAUTUS. A Roman playwright who wrote comedies including The Menaechmi, Pseudolus, & Miles Glorious.
SOPHOCLES. A Greek playwright who wrote tragedies include Oedipus and Antigone.
TERENCE. A Roman playwright who wrote comedies including Eunuchus, Adelphoe (The Brothers), and Hecyra (the mother-in-law).
WENDY WASSERSTEIN. An American playwright that won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.
1776. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. The story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It dramatizes the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document.
42ND STREET. A musical composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer about the efforts of famed dictatorial director to mount a successful Broadway production of a musical extravaganza at the height of the Great Depression.
A CHORUS LINE. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning concept musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban centered on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots in the ensemble. The the musical is set on the bare stage of a Broadway theatre during an audition for a musical.
AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ A musical review based on a song by Fats Waller and various composers and lyricists as a tribute to the black musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who were part of the Harlem Renaissance; an era of growing creativity, cultural awareness, and ethnic pride.
AVENUE Q. A Tony Award winning musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It tells the story of a recent college grad who moves into a shabby New York apartment where he and his neighbors struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life.
BOOK OF MORMON. A Tony Award winning musical comedy that makes light of various Mormon beliefs and practices, but ultimately endorses the positive power of love and service.
BRIGADOON. A musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story involves two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.
CABARET. A musical with music by John Kander & lyrics by Fred Ebb set in a nightclub in Germany as the Nazi Party is rising in power before World War II. It won the Tony Award for best musical and best revival of a musical.
CHICAGO. A musical with music by John Kander & lyrics by Fred Ebb that is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of criminal celebrity. It won the Tony Award for outstanding revival of a musical.
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus that tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door.
COMPANY (MUSICAL). A Tony Award winning musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim about a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. The story is linked together by a celebration of his 35th birthday.
FIORELLO. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock about a New York City mayor who took on the political machine of his day.
FOLLIES. A musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim about a reunion of showgirls from musical revues that were performed in a crumbling Broadway theatre that is scheduled for demolition.
GYPSY. A musical composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim that follows the dreams and efforts of Rose to raise two daughters to perform onstage. It won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
HAIR. A rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot that tells the story of a group of politically active hippies living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. It won a Grammy Award for the original cast album and a Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
IN THE HEIGHTS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda that tells of a largely Hispanic-American neighborhood in New York City and how it is changing and affecting the lives of its residents.
JERSEY BOYS. A Tony Award winning jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio and lyrics by Bob Crewe. Presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of The Four Seasons. The musical is structured as four seasons, each narrated by a different member of the band who gives his own perspective on its history and music.
MEMPHIS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by David Bryan and book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro. It is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s.
NEXT TO NORMAL. A Pulitzer Prize winning American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing her illness has on her family. The musical addresses grief, depression, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the underbelly of suburban life.
OF THEE I SING. A Pulitzer Prize winning musical with a score by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman. The musical lampoons American politics as a man runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform, but gets into political hot water, when he falls in love with the sensible woman instead of a beautiful pageant winner selected for him.
ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. A one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty that concerns a peasant girl on a tropical island, who uses the power of love to bring together people of different social classes. It won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
PIPPIN. A musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz about a mysterious performance troupe led by a Leading Player, to tell the story of a young prince on his search for meaning and significance in life. It won a Tony Award for best rival of a musical.
PORGY AND BESS. An English-language opera by the American composer George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. It tells the story of a disabled black street-beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue a woman from the clutches of her violent and possessive lover and her drug dealer.
RAGTIME. A musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty that tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in New Rochelle, NY; and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant.
RENT. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock musical with music, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan's East Village in the thriving days of Bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
SHOW BOAT. A musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II that follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927. Its themes include racial prejudice and tragic, enduring love.
SOUTH PACIFIC. A Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The plot centers on an American nurse during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children.
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. A Pulitzer Prize winning musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine inspired by a painting by Georges Seurat. A complex work revolving around a fictionalized Seurat immersed in single-minded concentration while painting the masterpiece, and his great-grandson's effort to continue to create art.
THE PRODUCERS. A musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, that concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop.
THE WIZ. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of modern African-American culture.
ANGELS IN AMERICA. A two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony Award for Best Play for both parts of the play, as well as both best revival when both parts were performed together. It is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s.
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. A Pulitzer and Tony Award winning comedy-drama play by Tracy Letts about a dysfunctional family. The play takes place after the death and funeral of a father, that brings three sisters, along with their significant others and various kin, to the home of their mother.
FOOL FOR LOVE. A Pulitzer Prize winning play written by American playwright Sam Shepard. The play focuses on former lovers who have met again in a motel in the desert.
HEDDA GABLER. A play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen about he famous daughter of General Gabler, who married George Tesman out of desperation, but soon finds life with him to be dull and tedious.
MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS. A play by Athol Fugard that takes place in South Africa during apartheidera, and depicts how institutionalized racism, bigotry or hatred can become absorbed by those who live under it. The play is about the relationship between a young boy and his family's servants.
THE BALD SOPRANO. A play by Eugene Ionèsco that is an example of theatre of the absurd. Two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems. The play devolves into a series of complete non-sequiturs with no resemblance to normal conversation.
THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL. A play by David Rabe that is first in a trilogy of plays about the Vietnam War. The story is bracketed by scenes depicting the death of the everyman-like title character, who mindlessly grabs a live grenade that is tossed into the Saigon brothel he is visiting.
THE HAIRY APE. A play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich.
THE PIANO LESSON. A Pulitzer Prize winning play by American playwright August Wilson that focuses on the arguments between a brother and a sister who have different ideas on what to do with their family piano which was decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor.
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG. A play by American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks that chronicles the adult lives of two African-American brothers as they cope with poverty, racism, work, women, and their troubled upbringings.
COMEDY OF MANNERS. A play that shows the humorous traits of a particular segment of society, usually the upper class.
HIGH COMEDY. A type of comedy that includes satire and is characterized by clever lines, word plays, and allusions.
LOW COMEDY. A type of comedy that is quite physical, sometimes vulgar, and highly exaggerated in style and performance.
PERFORMANCE ART. A type of monodrama that combines many different elements of theatre in a novel way.
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD. A form of theatre based on the assumption that human hopes and plans are ridiculous.
It sometime employee unconventional language.
OPERA. A dramatic work with no spoken dialogue set to music for singers and instrumentalists.
OPERETTA. Comic or lighthearted opera, generally with a substantial amount of spoken (not sung) dialogue.
MUSICAL REVUE. A production consisting of a series of independent song-and-dance scenes tied loosely tougher; often satirical.
PARODY. A type of low comedy that mocks a certain work by imitating the author's style for comic effect.
PROFESSIONAL. Normally used for someone who's regularly paid for a particular job
CATHARSIS. The emotional release an audience feels after the downfall of a tragic character.
EMPATHY. Emotional identification with someone or something outside oneself; ideally the audience develops this with the characters in a play.
FORESHADOWING. A line, an action, or an idea emphasized early a play that give the audiences clues to the conclusion.
MOOD. The emotional feeling of a play.
MORAL. The lesson or the principle contained within or taught by a play.
RECOGNITION. In tragedy, a scene in which the protagonist either achieves an inner awareness as a result of great personal suffering or identifies a lost loved one or friend; the discovery of hidden or obscure meanings.
REVERSAL. An ironic twist in a tragedy in which an action produces an effect opposite to what at first would seem likely.
STYLE. The way in which a play is written, acted, and produced.
THEME. The basic idea of a play.
UNITY. The principle that all elements of a set must form a whole, centering around the theme of the play.
TRILOGY. A set of three related plays.
SUMMER STOCK. Plays or musicals that are produced by a repertory company during the summer, typically in vacation resort areas. They are often viewed as a starting point for professional actors or students who are still in college.
AVANT-GARDE. New or experimental styles of an art form.
DRAMA. A literary composition onstage.
YES, AND. a rule-of-thumb in improvisational comedy that suggests that a participant should accept what another participant says and expand on that line of thinking.
ENSEMBLE ACTING. An approach to acting that aims for a unified effect achieved by all members of a cast working together on behalf of the play, rather than emphasizing individual performances.
PUBLIC SOLITUDE. An actor's ability to appear private while they are performing on stage.
ACCEPTING. Embracing the offers made by other performers in order to advance the scene.
ENDOWMENT. Assigning attributes to another performer's character.
CHIVALRY. Daring to give up control. Allow yourself to be changed by other players. Giving up your own ideas, status, or life in an improvisation scene.
THE BAND'S VISIT. A musical with music and lyrics by David Yazbek that won 10 Tony Awards. It is about an Egyptian police band that is sent to a remote village in the Israeli desert after a mix-up at the border.
FUN HOME. A Tony Award winning musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by Lisa Kron about a young woman's discovery of her own sexuality, her relationship with her gay father, and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life.
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER. A Tony Award winning musical comedy with lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and the music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. It is about a low-born man who finds out that he's eighth in line to be earl in a lofty family. The man plans to knock off his unsuspecting relatives without being caught.
KINKY BOOTS. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein inspired by true events, about a man who having inherited a shoe factory from his father, forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business.
ONCE. A Tony Award winning musical with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová where the cast serve as the orchestra. It tells the story of a vacuum repairman and an immigrant who sells flowers for a living who collaborate to create a musical career as a romantic relationship develops.
BILLY ELLIOT. A Tony Award winning musical with music by Elton John and lyrics are by Lee Hall. The plot revolves around a motherless British boy who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes, and his personal struggle with fulfilment balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by a miners' strike.
SPRING AWAKENING. A Tony Award winning rock musical with music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater that is based on a 1891 German play about the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of teenage sexuality.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. A musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan that tells the story of a small-town girl who comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love.
CONTACT. A Tony Award winning musical developed by Susan Stroman and John Weidman. It is made up of three separate dance pieces, each set to pre-recorded music, including songs from Tchaikovsky, Stéphane Grappelli, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Royal Crown Revue, and The Beach Boys. In each story, the central character expresses a longing to make a romantic connection.
FOSSE. A Tony Award winning three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. The musical was conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr., Chet Walker, and Ann Reinking. This musical had primarily black-and-white costumes (including the all-important hats), set against a simple setting.