book

books (plural)
boke (alternative obsolete)
booke (alternative archaic)

Sranan Tongo: buku

desctree

Tok Pisin: buk
→ Rotokas: vuku
→ Takia: buk

→ Chichewa: buku

→ Hawaiian: puke

→ Lingala: búku

→ Malagasy: boky

→ Maori: pukapuka (with reduplication)

→ Marshallese: bok

→ Motu: buka

→ Shona: bhuku

→ Somali: buugga

i

possibly also from Afrikaans <i class="Latn mention" lang="af">boek</i>

→ Sotho: buka (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

→ Zulu: ibhuku (possibly also from Afrikaans boek)

From Middle English bok, book, from Old English bōc, from Proto-West Germanic *bōk, from Proto-Germanic *bōks. Eclipsed non-native Middle English livret, lyveret (“book, booklet”) from Old French livret (“book, booklet”). Bookmaker sense by clipping.

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

buck (without the foot-strut split, when pronounced /bʊk/)

have more chins than a Chinese phone book

why buy a book when you can join a library

why buy a book when you can join the library

The guild helps ensure that the ownership and control of the music, lyrics, and book of a show remain in the hands of its authors and composers—not the producers.

2010, David Baskerville, Tim Baskerville, Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, page 172:

(theater) The script of a musical or opera.


above

From Middle English above, aboven, abuven, from Old English ābufan, onbufan, from on (“on”) + bufan (“over”), (akin to Icelandic ofan (“from above”), Middle Dutch bōven, Old Frisian bova, Middle High German bobene) from bī (“by”) + ufan (“over”); also cognate with Danish oven, Dutch boven, German oben, Swedish ovan, Old Saxon oƀan, Old High German obana.
The preposition, adjective and the noun derive from the adverb.


on

Etymology tree
Proto-West Germanic *ana
Old English on
Middle English on
English on
From Middle English on, from Old English on, an (“on, upon, onto, in, into”), from Proto-West Germanic *ana, from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on, at”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en-.
Cognate with North Frisian a (“on, in”), Saterland Frisian an (“on, at”), West Frisian oan (“on, at”), Dutch aan (“on, at, to”), Low German an (“on, at”), German an (“to, at, on”), Swedish å (“on, at, in”), Faroese á (“on, onto, in, at”), Icelandic á (“on, in”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰 (ana), Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “up, upon”), Albanian në (“in”); and from Old Norse upp á: Danish på, Swedish på, Norwegian på, see upon.

etymon

Southern US, Midland US, Philadelphia, Baltimore

(acting, drama, roleplaying games) Acting in character.


star

Sranan Tongo: stari
Aukan: sitali

→ Finnish: stara

→ French: star

→ German: Star

→ Italian: star

→ Swahili: staa

From Middle English sterre, from Old English steorra (“star”), from Proto-West Germanic *sterrō, variant of *sternō, from Proto-Germanic *sternô, *sternǭ (“star”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (“star”). Doublet of aster, stella, étoile, and estoile.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots starn, ster, North Frisian steer, West Frisian stjer, Saterland Frisian Stiern, Dutch ster, Luxembourgish Stär, German Stern, Yiddish שטערן (shtern), Vilamovian śtaom, Swedish stjärna, Norwegian stjerne, Icelandic stjarna, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐍉 (stairnō), Spanish estrella, Portuguese estrela, French étoile, Italian stella, Romanian stea, Occitan estela, Venetan stéła, Sicilian stidda, Sardinian isteddu, Mirandese streilha, Walloon sitoele, Romansch staila, Megleno-Romanian steau̯ă, Istriot stila, Istro-Romanian ste, Latin stēlla, Greek αστέρι (astéri), Ancient Greek ἀστήρ (astḗr), Old Armenian աստղ (astł), Persian ستاره (setâre), Tajik ситора (sitora), Pashto ستوری (storay), Mazanderani اساره (ëssâre), Northern Kurdish stêr, Central Kurdish ئەستێرە (estêre), Zazaki astare, Ossetian стъалы (st’aly), Hindi तारा (tārā), Urdu تارا (tārā), Punjabi ਤਾਰਾ (tārā), Gujarati તારો (tāro), Sanskrit तारा (tārā).

аеҵǝа

a celestial body appearing as a point of light on the clear night sky, whose position is relatively fixed with respect to each other

Many Hollywood stars attended the launch party.


green

en-noun

green (countable and uncountable, plural greens)

→⇒ Chinese: 果嶺 /果岭 (guǒlǐng)

→ Czech: green

→ Danish: green

→ Dutch: green

→ Finnish: griini

→ German: Green

→ Marshallese: kūriin

Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *grōniz
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ih₂
Proto-Germanic *-į̄
Proto-West Germanic *-ī
Proto-West Germanic *grōnī
Old English grēne
Middle English grene
English green
From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen.
See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Icelandic grænn.
The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is from a calque of Spanish verde.

der

Today, actors say off-handedly, 'See you on the green' or 'I'll be in the green room' without giving the expressions much thought. In Shakespeare's day, actors changed behind the stage in the 'tiring house', […]

2016, Bruce Montague, The Book of Shakespearian Useless Information:

(theater, informal) Ellipsis of green room.


boomerang

→ Japanese: ブーメラン (būmeran)

Roll: A live action changing from one color to another. Typically requires dexterity to "crossfade" between two colors in the boomerang with one hand while following with the other.

2013, Steven Louis Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting:

If you are spot one you should push down on the first lever on the boomerang to load frame one. Spot two should do the same with frame five. On the go, both spot ops should run their dowser levers to bring the light up on the target specified by the cue caller.

2013, John Holloway, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 144:

(theater) A device for changing the color of a followspot.


wing

en-noun

wing (countable and uncountable, plural wings)

wings (plural)
weng (alternative obsolete)
whing (alternative obsolete)
wyng (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English winge, wenge, from Old Norse vængr ("wing of a flying animal, wing of a building"; compare vængi (“ship's cabin”)), from Proto-Germanic *wēingijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”), thus related to wind. Cognate with Danish vinge (“wing”), Swedish vinge (“wing”), Icelandic vængur (“wing”).
Replaced native Middle English fither (from Old English fiþre, from Proto-Germanic *fiþriją), which merged with Middle English fether (from Old English feþer, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō). More at feather.

gl

"wing of a flying animal, wing of a building"; compare <i class="Latn mention" lang="non">vængi</i> (“ship's cabin”)

der

The performers crowded breathlessly in the wings.

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 176:

(theater) One of the unseen areas on the side of the stage in a theatre.


jump

Brill Publishers
hydraulic jump
jump cut
jump discontinuity
jump instruction

From Middle English jumpen (“to walk quickly, run, jump”), probably of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *gumpōną ~ *gumbōną (“to hop, skip, bounce”), an iterative verb. The OED suggests an imitative origin. Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely.
Cognates
Cognate with German Low German jumpen (“to jump”), archaic German gumpen (“to jump, hop, bounce”), dialectal German gampen (“to hop”), Alemannic German gumpe (“to leap, jump”), Walser dialect kumpu, Old Norse gopta (“to jump; make jump”) Danish gumpe (“to jolt”), Swedish gumpa (“to jump”), Danish gimpe (“to move up and down”), Middle English jumpren, jumbren (“to mix, jumble”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

Next jump will be at the Chicago Theater, Chicago.

(theater) Synonym of one-night stand (“single evening's performance”).


NU

(chiefly acting) Initialism of nonunion.


beginner

From Middle English begynner, equivalent to begin + -er. Cognate with West Frisian begjinner (“beginner”), Dutch beginner (“beginner”), Low German begünner (“beginner”), Danish nybegynder (“beginner, novice”, literally “new-beginner”).

On the stage, the beginners for the first piece had taken their places — the chorus were there, scared but determined, and in the wings waited Harlequin, in the person of Charles Lyall […]

1949, Walter Macqueen-Pope, Gaiety: Theatre of Enchantment, page 60:

(theater) An actor who is present on stage in the first moments of a play.


ben

In the Chronicles of the Stage, some curious particulars are given relating to Sir Henry Herbert and the well-known Sir William Davidson, by which we learn, amongst other things, that a “ben” or benefit at Drury Lane, two centuries ago, was worth a hundred pounds.

year?, The Catholic Literary Circular (page 75)

(UK, theater, slang, obsolete) A benefit (performance to raise funds).


angel

angels (plural)
Angel (alternative)
angell (alternative obsolete)

Jamaican Creole: ienjel

→ Chinese: 安琪兒 /安琪儿 (ānqí'ér)

→ Hawaiian: ʻānela

→ Lingala: anjelu, anzelu

→ Malagasy: anjely

Florence Baptistery
Seven churches of Asia
en:Angel (disambiguation)
en:angel

Two Baroque angels from southern Germany, from the mid-18th century
From Middle English angel, aungel, ængel, engel, from Old English anġel, ænġel, enġel, enċġel (“angel, messenger”), from Proto-West Germanic *angil, borrowed from Latin angelus, itself from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”); and also in part from Anglo-Norman angele, angle, from the same Latin source. The religious sense of the Greek word first appeared in the Septuagint as a translation of the Hebrew word מַלְאָךְ (malʾāḵ, “messenger”) or יהוה מַלְאָךְ (malʾāḵ YHWH, “messenger of YHWH”). Doublet of Angelus.
Use of the term in some churches to refer to a church official derives from interpreting the "angels" of the Seven churches of Asia in Revelation as being bishops or ministers rather than angelic beings.

𐔰𐕎𐔲𐔴𐔾𐕒𐕚

in Christian angelology, the lowest order of angels

don't drive faster than your guardian angel can fly

someone that funds
(theater) The person who funds a show.

someone that funds
The person who funds a show.


angel

en-verb

angel (third-person singular simple present angels, present participle angeling or angelling, simple past and past participle angeled or angelled)

angels (present singular third-person)
angeling (participle present)
angelling (participle present)
angeled (participle past)
angeled (past)
angelled (participle past)
angelled (past)
Angel (alternative)
angell (alternative obsolete)

Six years ago, he lost $20,000 in the first show he angelled, a turkey called Dance Night.

1944, Maurice Zolotow, Never Whistle in a Dressing Room; Or, Breakfast in Bedlam, page 59:

You've got to come to Chicago to meet Duell, and see Wilson, who's going to angel the show.

1984, “American Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 118, page 88:

(transitive, theater, slang) To support by donating money.


exit

From Middle English exit, from Latin exitus (“departure, going out; way by which one may go out, egress; (figuratively) conclusion, termination; (figuratively) death; income, revenue”), from exeō (“to depart, exit; to avoid, evade; (figuratively) to escape; of time: to expire, run out”) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs). Exeō is derived from ex- (prefix meaning ‘out, away’) + eō (“to go”) (ultimately from ). The English word is cognate with Italian esito, Portuguese êxito, Spanish éxito. Doublet of ejido and exitus.
The verb is derived from the noun.

ikje

action of going out or going away, or leaving — see also departure

All the world's a ſtage, / And all the men and women, meerely Players; / They haue their Exits and their Entrances, / And one man in his time playes many parts, / His Acts being ſeuen ages.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 194, column 1:

Why do directors assume that exits and entrances need not be rehearsed?

1968, Leon C. Miller, “Blocking the Play”, in How to Direct the High School Play, Chicago, Ill.: The Dramatic Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 39 and 43:

An act of going out or going away, or leaving; a departure.

(specifically, drama) The action of an actor leaving a scene or the stage.


exit

en-verb

exit (third-person singular simple present exits, present participle exiting, simple past and past participle exited)

exits (present singular third-person)
exiting (participle present)
exited (participle past)
exited (past)

ацара

to go out or go away from a place or situation — see also depart, leave

Desdemona exits stage left.

(intransitive) To go out or go away from a place or situation; to depart, to leave.

(theater) To leave a scene or depart from a stage.


exit

Borrowed from Latin exit, the third-person singular present active indicative of exeō (“to depart, exit; to avoid, evade; (figuratively) to escape; of time: to expire, run out”); see further at etymology 1 above.

I take no mony, but good vvords, raile not if I tell true, if I do not reuenge. Farevvell. Exit Bom[bie].

c. 1590 (date written), [John Lyly], Mother Bombie. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv, signature [E4], verso:

A ſauage clamor? / Well may I get a-boord: This is the Chace, / I am gone for euer. / Exit purſued by a Beare.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 288, column 2:

Agnes exit rapidly, and Ravenſburg is partly perſuaded, and partly forced off, by the Prince Palatine. END OF ACT I.

1810 July, Frederic Reynolds, “The Free Knights; or The Edict of Charlemagne. A Drama, in Three Acts, Interspersed with Music; as Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.”, in The Jersey Magazine; or Monthly Recorder, volume II, number 7, Jersey: Printed and published by J. Stead, →OCLC, act I, scene iii, page 325, column 1:

(intransitive, drama, also figuratively) Used as a stage direction for an actor: to leave the scene or stage.

el

used as a stage direction for an actor: to leave the scene or stage


ad lib

ad libs (plural)
ad lib. (alternative adverb)
ad-lib (alternative noun verb)
adlib (alternative noun verb)

Abbreviation of ad libitum, borrowed from New Latin ad libitum.

(acting) An instance of something improvised, especially a line.


vocal

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-vocal.wav

Late Middle English vocal, borrowed from Latin vōcālis (“uttering a voice, sounding, speaking”), from vōx (“a voice, sound, tone”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of vowel and vocalis. Compare Old French vocal.

af

(music) A part of a piece of music that is sung.

(acting) A musical performance involving singing.


lead

en-noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

leads (plural)
lede (alternative obsolete)
leed (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”).
Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

der

"You make moving pictures. In jungles and places." "That's me. And I've picked you for the lead in my next picture."

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 43:

(acting, theater) The main role in a play or film; the lead role.

(acting) The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.


break

en-verb

break (third-person singular simple present breaks, present participle breaking, simple past broke or (archaic) brake, past participle broken or (nonstandard) broke)

breaks (present singular third-person)
breaking (participle present)
broke (past)
brake (archaic past)
broken (participle past)
broke (nonstandard participle past)
break (infinitive)
break (first-person present singular)
broke (first-person past singular)
break (present second-person singular)
breakest (archaic present second-person singular)
broke (past second-person singular)
brokest (archaic past second-person singular)
breaks (present singular third-person)
breaketh (archaic present singular third-person)
broke (past singular third-person)
break (plural present)
broke (past plural)
break (present subjunctive)
broke (past subjunctive)
break (imperative present)
breaking (participle present)
broken (participle past)

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). Doublet of bray.
Cognates
Cognates of Germanic origin include Scots brek (“to break”), West Frisian brekke (“to break”), Dutch breken (“to break”), Low German breken (“to break”), German brechen (“to break”), French broyer (“to crush, grind”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break, destroy”), Norwegian brek (“desire, yearning”).
Also cognate with Albanian brishtë (“fragile”), Latin frangō (“break, break up, shatter”, verb), whence English fracture and other terms – fragile, frail, fraction, and fragment.

breek

intransitive: to separate into (to end up in) two or more pieces

thyen

transitive: to separate into (to cause to end up in) two or more pieces

sındırmaq

to cause a person to lose spirit or will

խախտել

transitive: to do that which is forbidden by (something)

փչանալ

intransitive: to stop functioning properly or altogether

ջարդել

transitive: to cause to stop functioning

burst

ergative: separate into two or more pieces

contravene

transitive: do that which is forbidden by

break one's arm patting oneself on the back

you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

In July Alexander broke the run and went on tour, as was his custom. He believed in keeping in touch with provincial audiences and how wise he was!

1958, Walter Macqueen-Pope, St. James's: Theatre of Distinction, page 134:

After Camberwell he broke the play's season and brought it back in the autumn with a few revisions and a noticeably strengthened cast but without any special success.

1986, Kurt Gänzl, The British Musical Theatre: 1865-1914, page 610:

(transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.

(transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).


cut

en-noun

cut (countable and uncountable, plural cuts)

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjaną, *kuttaną (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetwą (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian Bokmål kutte (“to cut”), Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”). Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English snīþan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe or snead. See snide. Adjective sense of "drunk" (now rare and now usually used in the originally jocular derivative form of half-cut) dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

leikkaus

notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging

The director asked the cast to note down the following cuts.

en:any result of cutting, literally or figuratively

(literal, figurative) The result of cutting.

(especially theater, film) A passage omitted or to be omitted from a play, movie script, speech, etc.


exeat

Borrowed from Latin exeat, third-person singular subjunctive of exeō (“depart”) used as an impersonal imperative, literally “let him go forth”.

Coordinate term: (plural form) exeunt

(obsolete, theater) A stage direction to leave the stage.


flown

From Middle English flowen, floȝen, from Old English flogen, ġeflogen, past participle of Old English flēogan (“to fly”).

flown scenery


diction

en-noun

diction (countable and uncountable, plural dictions)

From late Middle English diccion (“something said; a word or phrase”) (an obsolete sense in Modern English), borrowed directly from Latin dictiō (“a saying, speaking, uttering”) or from Old French dicïon (“word”) (Anglo-Norman dictyoun), from Late Latin dictiō (“word”), both from dīcō (“to say, to talk”) + -tiō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, to point out”).
The modern senses of “choice and use of words” and “clarity of word choice” were likely influenced by additional senses of dictiō.


ducat

From Middle French ducat, late Old French ducat, from Old Italian ducato, from Medieval Latin ducatus, from oblique stem of dux (“duke; leader”). Doublet of duchy.

Ned Beaumont said, "Well, I've got a ducat that reads to there, anyway.

1972 [1931], Dashiell Hammett, “IV. The Dog House”, in The Glass Key, Vintage Books, page 73:

Customers are usually enticed in with a "ducat", or pass for one free dance.

1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 88:

[…] the lines at the box office since ducats went on sale publicly Wednesday […]

(US, theater, transport, slang) A ticket.


business

en-noun

business (countable and uncountable, plural businesses)

businesses (plural)
biz (alternative clipping)
bisoness (alternative obsolete)
businesse (alternative obsolete)
busynesse (alternative obsolete)
bizness (alternative African-American-Vernacular-English pronunciation-spelling)
bidness (alternative African-American-Vernacular-English Southern pronunciation-spelling)

Tok Pisin: bisnis

→ Albanian: biznes

→ Belarusian: бі́знэс (bíznes)

→ Bulgarian: би́знес (bíznes)

→ Czech: business, byznys

→ Dutch: business

→ Indonesian: bisnis, bisnes

→ Faroese: besnissaður

→ Finnish: bisnes, business

→ French: business

→ Haitian Creole: biznis

→ Italian: business

→ Japanese: ビジネス (bijinesu)

→ Jersey Dutch: bääznäs

→ Marshallese: peejnej

→ Moroccan Arabic: بزناس (biznās)

desc

→ Newar: बनय्ज्या (banêjyā), बनेज्या (banejyā)

→ Pennsylvania German: Bisniss

→ Polish: biznes

→ Romanian: bișniță

desctree

→ Russian: би́знес (bíznes), би́знесъ (bíznɛs) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)
→ Armenian: բիզնես (biznes)
→ Yakut: биисинэс (biisines)

→ Slovak: biznis

→ Spanish: bisnes, bisne

→ Tatar: business

→ Ukrainian: бі́знес (bíznes)

→ Welsh: busnes

From Middle English busines, busynes, businesse, bisynes, from Old English bisiġnes (“business, busyness”), equivalent to busy + -ness. Doublet of busyness.

business

action carried out with a prop or piece of clothing

business in the front, party in the back

The business with the hat is a fine example of the difficulty of distinguishing between 'natural' and 'formal' acting.

1983, Peter Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre, →ISBN, page 155:

(acting, theater) Ellipsis of stage business (“aspect of acting”).


curtain

Inherited from Middle English curtine, from Old French cortine, from Late Latin cōrtīna (“curtain”), a calque from Ancient Greek.

He took so long to shave his head that we arrived 45 minutes after curtain and were denied late entry.

(theater, by extension) The beginning of a show; the moment the curtain rises.


recast

en-verb

recast (third-person singular simple present recasts, present participle recasting, simple past and past participle recast)

recasts (present singular third-person)
recasting (participle present)
recast (participle past)
recast (past)

According to As the World Turns producer, Michael Laibson, the decision was made to recast the role, because the producers and writers felt it would annoy the audience to have Betsy discontinued so soon after her long-delayed marriage […]

2002, Robert C. Allen, To Be Continued...: Soap Operas Around the World, Routledge, →ISBN, page 153:

(transitive, film, theater) To assign (roles in a play or performance) to different actors.

She was recast as the villain.

(transitive, film, theater) To assign (actors) to different roles.


swing

en-noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

I started as a swing. I mostly played Joanne and Mrs. Jefferson, the “Seasons of Love” soloist. I closed it out. So I was there for about the last four or five years.

2025 April 11, Stephen J. Dubner, quoting Crystal Monee Hall, “How Is Live Theater Still Alive?”, in Freakonomics Radio, number 629:

(theater) In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.


act

act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)

From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta (“register of events”), plural of āctum (“decree, law”), from agere (“to do, to act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. Compare German Akte (“file”). Partially displaced deed, from Old English dǣd (“act, deed”).

“H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what […] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.

(countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.

գործողություն

drama: division of theatrical performance


dry

en-verb

dry (third-person singular simple present dries, present participle drying, simple past and past participle dried)

dries (present singular third-person)
drying (participle present)
dried (participle past)
dried (past)
dry (infinitive)
dry (first-person present singular)
dried (first-person past singular)
dry (present second-person singular)
driest (archaic present second-person singular)
dried (past second-person singular)
dries (present singular third-person)
drieth (archaic present singular third-person)
dried (past singular third-person)
dry (plural present)
dried (past plural)
dry (present subjunctive)
dried (past subjunctive)
dry (imperative present)
drying (participle present)
dried (participle past)
drie (alternative)

[d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷaɪ̯]

Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgī, *draugī, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). The verb derives from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”).
cognates and related terms
 Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.

乾 /干

preceded by a character indicating the method

An actor never stumbled over his lines, he “fluffed”; he never forgot his dialogue, he “dried.”

1986, Richard Collier, Make-believe: The Magic of International Theatre, page 146:

In one of the previews I dried (lost my lines) in my opening scene, 1.4, and had to improvise.

2006, Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today, page 126:

Blinded to the astonishment of a thousand spectators by the force of the footlights, [Derek] Jacobi realised he'd dried. Dried completely. It wasn't like he'd forgotten the words. It was like he'd never known them.

2024 June 1, John Phipps, “The lamentable true history of the Red Hamlet”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 18:

(intransitive, informal, theater) For an actor to forget their lines while performing.


crisis

From Latin crisis, from Ancient Greek κρίσις (krísis, “a separating, power of distinguishing, decision, choice, election, judgment, dispute”), from κρίνω (krínō, “pick out, choose, decide, judge”).

der

(drama) A point in a drama at which a conflict reaches a peak before being resolved.


heavy

From Middle English hevy, heviȝ, from Old English hefiġ, hefeġ, hæfiġ (“heavy; important, grave, severe, serious; oppressive, grievous; slow, dull”), from Proto-West Germanic *habīg (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Germanic *habīgaz (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to take, grasp, hold”).
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Saterland Frisian heeuwich, häwich (“violent, angry”), West Frisian hevich (“violent”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), German Low German hevig (“violent, fierce, intense, angry”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).

cog

Payton boasted his range included "leading parts or genteel heavies, character old men, dialect parts, old women and, on occasion, soubrettes and leading ladies"; however, he was most at ease in light comedy roles.

2008, William L. Slout, Theatre in a Tent, page 28:

(theater, archaic, slang) A serious theatrical role.


perch

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin pertica (“staff”, “long pole”, “measuring rod”).

der

(theater) A platform for lights to be directed at the stage.


ham

Uncertain, though it is generally agreed upon that it first appeared in print around the 1880s. At least four theories persist:
* It came naturally from the word amateur. Deemed likely by Hendrickson (1997), but then the question would be why it took so long to pop up. He rejects the folk etymology of Cockney slang hamateur because it originated in American English.
* From the play Hamlet, where the title character was often played poorly and/or in an exaggerated manner. Also deemed likely by Hendrickson, though he raises the issue that the term would have likely been around earlier if this were case.
* From the minstrel's practice of using ham fat to remove heavy black makeup used during performances.
* Shortened from hamfatter (“inferior actor”), said to derive from the 1863 minstrel show song The Ham-fat Man. William and Mary Morris (1988) argue that it's not known whether the song inspired the term or the term inspired the song, but that they believe the latter is the case.

Writing in The New Yorker in 2005, James Wood praised Mr. McCarthy as “a colossally gifted writer” and “one of the great hams of American prose, who delights in producing a histrionic rhetoric that brilliantly ventriloquizes the King James Bible, Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy, Melville, Conrad, and Faulkner.”

2023 June 13, Dwight Garner, quoting James Wood, “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(acting) An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.


ham

en-verb

ham (third-person singular simple present hams, present participle hamming, simple past and past participle hammed)

hams (present singular third-person)
hamming (participle present)
hammed (participle past)
hammed (past)

Near-synonym: camp it up

(acting) To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.


dame

60th British Academy Film Awards
Judi Dench
Order of the British Empire

From Middle English dame, dam (“noble lady”), from Old French dame (“lady; term of address for a woman; the queen in card games and chess”), from Latin domina (“mistress of the house”), feminine form of dominus (“lord, master, ruler; owner of a residence”), or from Latin domus (“home, house”). Doublet of domina and donna.

der

[page 73, column 2] Mother Goose was produced on the 29th of December; Simmons playing the Old Dame; […] [page 74, column 1] Bugle condemns her to the ducking-stool, a sentence opposed by Colin, who espouses the cause of the Old Dame, who, escaping from her persecutors, puts an end to the wedding festivities by raising the ghost of the Squire's first wife.

1870 January 29, “English Pantomime. In Two Parts.—Part II.”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume VII (Fourth Series), number 318, London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, →OCLC, chapter X, pages 73 and 74:

The Dame in a Panto is generally a large, gregarious and out-going man who plays the part of a large, gregarious and out-going woman. […] Every successful actor who plays the part of Dame in Panto knows that the secret of his success is that it should be obvious that it is a man playing a part, for this is not a Drag act; the intention is not to be as womanly as possible, but always to be 'a feller in a frock'. […] Oh how everyone loves the Panto Dame for she is Panto.

2013, Maureen Hughes, “Welcome to the Magical World of Pantomime”, in A History of Pantomime, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History, →ISBN, page 34:

(British, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.


SM

en-noun

SM (countable and uncountable, plural SMs)

Obtain contact information for the people you will be working with directly: director, production manager, stage manager (SM), soundboard operator (SO), and dance and fight choreographers. […] Early in the process is the time to ask the stage manager their preference for labeling music cues (numerically or alphabetically). The SM will have a system for calling cues: […].

2022 December 24, Richard Jennings, “Music for Plays, a Step-by-Step Guide”, in American Theatre:


half

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

From Middle English half, halfe from Old English healf (“half”); as a noun, 'half', 'side', 'part', from Proto-West Germanic *halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.
Cognates
Cognate with Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Old Dutch half, West Frisian heal, Dutch half, German halb, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian halv, Icelandic hálfur and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍃 (halbs). Compare halve, behalf.

'arf (alternative)
ha'f (alternative)
halfe (alternative)

(theater) A call reminding performers that the performance will begin in thirty minutes.


circuit

From Middle English circuit, from Old French circuit, from Latin circuitus (“a going round”), from circuire (“go round”), from circum (“around”) + ire.

(theater) A set of theaters among which the same acts circulate; especially common in the heyday of vaudeville.


side

side (countable and uncountable, plural sides)

From Middle English side, from Old English sīde (“side, flank”), from Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ (“side, flank, edge, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēy- (“to send, throw, drop, sow, deposit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Siede (“side”), West Frisian side (“side”), Dutch zijde, zij (“side”), German Low German Sied (“side”), German Seite (“side”), Danish and Norwegian side (“side”), Swedish sida (“side”).
The LGBTQ slang sense was coined by sex therapist and author Joe Kort in 2010 and popularized in 2013. The sense was coined by analogy with top and bottom and based on the metaphor of a box which has a top, bottom, and sides.

coinage

know which side one's bread is buttered on

laugh out of the other side of one's mouth

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest

the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

the grass is always greener on the other side of the road

Some directors use full scripts (book); others use “sides,” which consist of one or two words of the cue and the subsequent full speech of the individual actor.

2010, Viola Spolin, Carol Sills, Theater Games for Rehearsal: A Director's Handbook, page 12:

The short scenes in this book are particularly useful for audition workshops since audition sides are rarely longer than two pages.

(drama) A written monologue or part of a scene to be read by an actor at an audition.


interpreter

interpreters (plural)
interpretour (alternative)
enterpretour (alternative)
enterpretor (alternative)

/ɪnˈtɝpɹɪɾɚ/

/ɪnˈtɝpɹɪtɚ/

/ɪnˈtɜːpɹɪtə/

From Middle English interpreter, interpretour, etc., from Old French interpreteur, interpreteeur, etc., from Late Latin interpretātōr, from classical Latin interpretātus (“explained, translated”) + -or (“-er: forming agent nouns”), from interpretārī (“to explain, to translate”), from interpres (“go-between, translator”) + -ārī (“to be ~ed”), q.v. In reference to divine emissaries, a calque of Mercury's Latin epithet interpres divum (“go-between of the gods”). In reference to the rhetorical device, a calque of Latin interpretatio. Equivalent to interpret + -er.
Displaced native Old English wealhstod.

der

... one of the foremost interpreters of Beethoven's piano works ...

A person or thing that interprets the meaning of something for another, particularly:

(music, theater) A performer who presents a piece of art in a distinct style, particularly so as to make older works relevant to their audience.


length

en-noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþ, lengþu, from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþō, equivalent to long + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

[…] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club, page 38:

The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre, page 45:

(theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.


turn

→ Japanese: ターン (tān)

Partly from Anglo-Norman *torn, from Latin tornus, from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos), and partly an action noun from the verb turn.

دَوْرَة

movement about an axis ending up with the same orientation

360° turn

movement about an axis returning to the original orientation

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

Between the pieces were individual turns, comic songs and dances.

1960, Theatre Notebook, volumes 14-16, page 122:

(circus, theater, especially physical comedy) A short skit, act, or routine.

numero

circus, theatre: short skit, act, or routine


grid

Back-formation or clipping of griddle or gridiron.

Everything on the grid – all the backdrops and curtains, anything that has to move up and down from the fly-tower – has to be counterweighted.

(theater, television) An openwork ceiling above the stage or studio, used for affixing lights etc.


double

en-verb

double (third-person singular simple present doubles, present participle doubling, simple past and past participle doubled)

doubles (present singular third-person)
doubling (participle present)
doubled (participle past)
doubled (past)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English double, from Old French doble, double, from Latin duplus (“twofold”). Doublet of doppio and duple.

When, therefore, Briggs, the sedate, middle-aged individual, who in the Markham household doubles the roles of butler and valet, makes his appearance, his master affects to be in a great hurry, looks at his watch, and says : […]

1878, lady Isabella Emma E. Schuster, Hands Not Hearts, page 141:

Miss Theby doubles in the part of Rose and the native girl in the Philippines. This is a problem plot in which a young man leaves the girl of his choice because she has had an affair in her earlier years. He goes to the Philippines, […]

1916, The Moving Picture World, page 335:

In On the Beat he doubles the parts of a constable and a gang-leader. Norman was all over the place.

1997, Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Hal Leonard Corporation, →ISBN:

In his case the matter is simplified by the fact that the head of his Deception Staff doubles the roles of author and producer. The Commander therefore tells him what sort of deception he needs, examines the plans produced for him […]

2013, Hy Rothstein, Barton Whaley, The Art and Science of Military Deception, Artech House, →ISBN, page 164:

(theater) To play (both one part and another, in the same play, etc).


ghost

en-noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

ghosts (plural)
ghoast (alternative obsolete)
gost (alternative obsolete)

→ Japanese: ゴースト (gōsuto)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-ghost.wav

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest, West Frisian geast, Dutch geest, German Low German Geest, Geist, German Geist, Swedish gast.
The ⟨h⟩ in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton's Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the ‘Holy Ghoost’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.


special

From Middle English *special, especial, especiall, from Old French especial (whence also French spécial), from Latin speciālis (from speciēs). In this sense displaced native Old English synderlīċ. Doublet of especial.

Coordinate term: spotlight

In addition to followspots, there will be three frontlight specials on Autoyokes hung on the truss to provide frontlight specials.

2009, Steven Shelley, A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, page 132:

The first is a special—a single lighting instrument that lights a particular spot on the stage. Specials generally have no color, or a more saturated color, allowing them to stand out through other lighting onstage.

2009, Jennifer Bringle, Lighting, page 23:

(theater) A light that illuminates a specific person or thing on the stage.


annual

First attested around 1382, borrowed from Late Latin annuālem, annuālis, related to Latin annālis, adjective form of annus (“year”). Used to categorize plants since 1710.

Excellent work has been done by the Playgoers' Club in connection with its Christmas Pantomime Fund. Thousands of children who possibly otherwise would have little chance of witnessing one of the hardy annuals have been annually taken […]

1919, Lionel Carson, The Stage Year Book, page 67:

From 1852 until 1888 he was the author of every Drury Lane pantomime, or "Annuals" as in his old fashioned way he preferred to […]

1949, Albert Edward Wilson, The Story of Pantomime, page 61:

(theater) A pantomime taking place once a year.


method

method (countable and uncountable, plural methods)

From Middle French methode, from Latin methodus, from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos).

mètode

(programming) subroutine or function in object-oriented languages

my very easy method just speeds up naming planets

In this case, the application of the famous method was a little shaky. To be fair, the director was dealing with a pretty stroppy cast.

1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 64:

(acting, often "the method") A technique for acting based on the ideas articulated by Konstantin Stanislavski and focusing on authentically experiencing the inner life of the character being portrayed.


truck

truck (countable and uncountable, plural trucks)

Belizean Creole: chrok

→ Bengali: ট্রাক (ṭrak)

→ Bislama: trak

→ Cebuano: trak

→ French: truck

→ Hindi: ट्रक (ṭrak)

→ Indonesian: truk

→ Japanese: トラック (torakku)

→ Korean: 트럭 (teureok)

→ Maguindanao: trak

→ Malay: trak

desctree

→ Spanish: troca
→ Southeastern Tepehuan: trooka

→ Polish: trak

→ Tagalog: trak

→ Taos: tròkiʼína

→ Tausug: tarak

→ Tok Pisin: trak

→ Urdu: ٹْرَک (ṭrak)

Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).

(theater) A platform with wheels or casters.


tableau

Unadapted borrowing from French tableau, from Old French tablel (“a surface which is used primarily for painting”).

der

[…] several scenes from the first act were consolidated into one tableau […]

1994, Gerda Taranow, Sarah Bernhardt: The Art Within the Legend, page 158:

As creative as it might have been, it appeared disjointed, with the sense of many things happening simultaneously, and the promenading performances jumping from one idea to the next – from a cancan to a gothic tableau featuring mock-beheaded women at the windows of the Conciergerie with red streamers that looked like macabre spurting blood.

2024 July 26, Arifa Akbar, “Paris Olympics opening ceremony review – soaring ambition deflated by patchy delivery”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(theater) A unit of a play, an opera, or a ballet with change of stage setting.


dress

en-verb

dress (third-person singular simple present dresses, present participle dressing, simple past dressed, past participle dressed or (obsolete) drest)

dresses (present singular third-person)
dressing (participle present)
dressed (past)
dressed (participle past)
drest (obsolete participle past)
dress (infinitive)
dress (first-person present singular)
dressed (first-person past singular)
dress (present second-person singular)
dressed (past second-person singular)
dresses (present singular third-person)
dressed (past singular third-person)
dress (plural present)
dressed (past plural)
dress (present subjunctive)
dressed (past subjunctive)
dress (imperative present)
dressing (participle present)
dressed (participle past)
drest (participle past)

→ Sranan Tongo: dresi

PIE word
 *dwís
The verb is from Middle English dressen, dresse (“to arrange, put in order”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French dresser, drecier (modern French dresser), from Late Latin *directiare (“to guide, direct”). Doublet of direct.
The noun is derived from the verb.

aantrek

to put clothes on (oneself or someone, etc.) — see also clothe

self aantrek

to put on clothes — see also get dressed

koristaa

to adorn or ornament (something) — see also adorn, ornament

siistiä

to fit or prepare (something) for use; to render (something) suitable for an intended purpose — see also get ready

whakahuene

referring to preparing rough sawn timber

To design, make, or prepare costumes (for a play or other performance); also, to present (a production) in a particular costume style.

Mallory, all night long, single-handedly painted and dressed the set so that at eight o'clock Sunday morning when we arrived to make breakfast in the kitchen, there she was sound asleep on the davenport in the set, every prop in place.

2012, Marvin Silbersher, chapter 22, in A Fistful of Stars, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 106:

To prepare (a set) by installing the props, scenery, etc.

lavastaa

to prepare (a set) by installing the props, scenery, etc.


dress

en-noun

dress (countable and uncountable, plural dresses)

→ Japanese: ドレス (doresu)

→ Korean: 드레스 (deureseu)

→ Norwegian: dress

→ Pennsylvania German: Dress

→ Scottish Gaelic: dreasa

(film, television, theater) Ellipsis of dress rehearsal.


practical

en-adj

practical (comparative more practical, superlative most practical)

more practical (comparative)
most practical (superlative)

theoretical

antonym(s) of “based on practice or action”

impractical

antonym(s) of “likely to be effective and applicable to a real situation”

From Middle English practical, practicale, praktycall, from Medieval Latin practicālis.

(theater, not comparable) Of a prop: having some degree of functionality, rather than being a mere imitation.


practical

Practicals are used onstage as they would be used in real life. If the sound cue is to be from a radio or television, give qualities to the recording that will maintain the sense of the medium.

2013, Deena Kaye, James LeBrecht, Sound and Music for the Theatre: The Art & Technique of Design:

(theater) A prop that has some degree of functionality, rather than being a mere imitation.


traveller

travellers (plural)
traveler (alternative US)

From Middle English traveler, travelour, travailere, travailour (“worker", also "traveller”), equivalent to travel + -er. Compare Anglo-Norman travailur, travailour, Old French travailleor, travelleeur, travelier.

That would detract from the austerity of Rudkin's study, and a curtain on a traveler is always slid across the stage […]

1977, New York Theatre Critics' Reviews, volumes 38-39, page 134:

(television, theater) A rail or track for a sliding curtain.


responsible

From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondere. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.

[…] first appeared on August Bank Holiday, 1901, at Grand Theatre, Llandudno, playing "responsibles" with Edward Compton; […]

1907, The Green Room Book; Or, Who's Who on the Stage, page 9:

'Well, the Cardinal is the heavy part, isn't it?' 'I know.' 'Then,' said I, 'you'd better go'; and one of the Responsibles took it on, and was perfect on the night.

(theater) An actor taking on the lesser roles in repertory theatre.


joey

From Joseph Grimaldi (1778–1837), a popular English entertainer.


gig

en-verb

gig (third-person singular simple present gigs, present participle gigging, simple past and past participle gigged)

gigs (present singular third-person)
gigging (participle present)
gigged (participle past)
gigged (past)

The etymology of the noun is unknown, but compare Old French gigue (“a fiddle”). The verb is derived from the noun.

The Rolling Stones were gigging around Richmond at the time.

(film, music, television, theater) To engage in a musical performance, act in a theatre production, etc.

keikkailla

to engage in a musical performance, act in a theatre production, etc.

მუსიკალურ წარმოდგენაში მონაწილეობა


acting

en-noun

acting (countable and uncountable, plural actings)

(uncountable, drama) The occupation of an actor.


drop

From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to crumble, grind”).

nb...

dropan, droupe, (Northern England) droipe

afval

small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own round shape through surface tension

piisk

very small quantity of liquid, or of anything

piisk

that which hangs or resembles a liquid globule

langemine

decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate

afgrond

distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level

La Cage's upstage drops include two of the St. Tropez harbor (one for the day and another for the night), [... an] ocean drop (used in an Act I dream sequence), and an abstract chandelier drop (used in the second act[…]).

1983, Theatre Crafts, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Crafts Associates, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 61, column 1:

In The Rover, one of these esthetically important elements was the arrangement of the upstage drops. Originally the drop was split into three sections, with obvious and blatant seams between them.

2007, Michele Fields, Designing The Rover (unpublished M.F.A. dissertation), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin–Madison, →OCLC:

(theater) A curtain which falls in front of a theatrical stage; also, a section of (cloth) scenery lowered on to the stage like a curtain.


pong

en-verb

pong (third-person singular simple present pongs, present participle ponging, simple past and past participle ponged)

pongs (present singular third-person)
ponging (participle present)
ponged (participle past)
ponged (past)

(slang, theater, derogatory) To deliver a line of a play in an arch, suggestive or unnatural way, so as to draw undue attention to it.

[…] and the “good old crusted” actor, forgetting the lines of the author, used without compunction to cover his discomfiture by inventing a text of his own–an achievement known as "ponging."

2016, Jim Davis, European Theatre Performance Practice, 1750–1900:

(slang, theater, intransitive) To invent a line of dialogue when one has forgotten the actual line.


redhead

Coordinate term: blonde

Most [camera crews] carry two blondes and three redheads or their equivalents. Blondes are 2000 watt lamps traditionally with yellow heads (or shells) used to light fairly large areas — also referred to as 2Ks — and redheads smaller 800 watt lamps traditionally with red shells to light faces.

2012, Colin Hart, Television Program Making, page 63:

(film, television, theater) A kind of 800-watt lamp.


stage

→ Japanese: ステージ (sutēji)

From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.

cog

The band returned to the stage to play an encore.

Knights, squires, and steeds must enter on the stage.

1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:

Lo! Where the stage, the poor, degraded stage, / Holds its warped mirror to a gaping age.

The theater is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, it is also the return of art to life.

(theater) A platform; a surface, generally elevated, upon which show performances or other public events are given.


prop

They used the trophy as a prop in the movie.

(theater, film) An item placed on a stage or set to create a scene or scenario in which actors perform.

реквизит

item placed on a stage to create a scene


off

(older Received Pronunciation, General American) -ɔːf

From Middle English of, from Old English of, af, æf (“from, off, away”), from Proto-West Germanic *ab, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“from”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo (“from, off, back”). Doublet of of.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots of, af (“off, away”), West Frisian af, ôf (“off, away”), Dutch af (“off, from”), German Low German of (“off, from”), German ab (“off, from”), Danish af (“of, off”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish av (“of, off”), Icelandic af (“of, off”), Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af, “of, from”); and with Latin ab (“of, from, by”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from”), and others.

inh

noises off


bowl

Bislama: bol

→ Esperanto: bovlo

desctree

→ French: bol
→ Catalan: bol
→ Greek: μπολ (bol)

→ German: Bowle, → Bowl

→ Hungarian: bólé

→ Ido: bolo

→ Irish: bolla

→ Japanese: ボール (bōru)

→ Latvian: bole (probably via German)

→ Korean: 볼 (bol)

→ Scottish Gaelic: bòl

→ Swedish: bål

From Middle English bolle, from Old English bolla, bolle (“bowl, cup, pot, beaker, measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bollā, from Proto-Germanic *bullǭ (“ball, round vessel, bowl”).
Cognate with North Frisian bol (“bun, bread roll”), Middle Low German bolle, bole (“round object”), Dutch bol (“ball, sphere, scoop, dot”), German Bolle (“bulb”), Danish bolle (“bowl, bread roll”), Icelandic bolli (“cup”). Doublet of boule and pulla.

inh

(sports, theater) An elliptical-shaped stadium or amphitheater resembling a bowl.


block

en-verb

block (third-person singular simple present blocks, present participle blocking, simple past and past participle blocked)

blocks (present singular third-person)
blocking (participle present)
blocked (participle past)
blocked (past)
blocke (alternative)

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

cog

It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.

(transitive, theater) To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).

asemoida

to specify positions and movements of actors


mute

From Middle English muet, from Anglo-Norman muet, moet, Middle French muet, from mu (“dumb, mute”) + -et, remodelled after Latin mūtus.

As for the poor honest Maid, whom all the Story is built upon, and who ought to be one of the principal Actors in the Play, she is commonly a Mute in it:

1668 OF Dramatick Poesie, AN ESSAY. By JOHN DRYDEN Esq; (John Dryden)

(obsolete, theater) An actor who does not speak; a mime performer.


avail

en-noun

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

(British, acting) Non-binding notice of availability for work.


aside

From Middle English aside, asyde, a-side, oside, from Middle English on side, from Old English on sīdan (literally “on (the) side (of)”), equivalent to a- + side. Compare beside.

der

An incidental remark to a person next to one made discreetly but not in private, audible only to that person.
 (theater) A brief comment by a character addressing the audience, unheard by other characters.

旁白

(theatre) a brief comment by a character addressing the audience, unheard by other characters


dock

A dock (sense 1, sense 2) for cruise ships
A laptop docking (sense 5) station
A GUI dock (sense 6) on Linux
From Early Modern English meaning "area of mud in which a ship can rest at low tide, dock", borrowed from either Dutch dok (“dock, wharf”) or Middle Low German docke (“dock, wharf”), both from Middle Dutch docke (“port, harbour”), of uncertain origin. The original sense may have been "the furrow a grounded vessel makes in a mud bank". Compare Danish dok, Dutch dok, West Frisian dok, German Dock, Low German Dock, Swedish docka.
Some sources link this word to an unattested Middle Dutch *docke (“watercourse, trench, canal”), which is a ghost word, only being inferred from Mediaeval Latin documents in the form of ducta, doctus, doccia (“conduit, canal”). However, if this theory is correct, then it would relate the word to Italian doccia (“drainpipe”), making dock a doublet of douche and duct.
An alternative theory ties Middle Dutch docke to a North Germanic or Scandinavian source, notably Old Norse dǫkk, dökð (“depression in the landscape, pit, pool, trench”); compare Icelandic dökk, Norwegian dokk (“hollow, low ground”), Swedish dank (“marshy ground”). If so, this would make dock a doublet of dank.

multiple image

A dock (sense 􂀽1, sense 􂀽2) for cruise ships

ThinkPad Mini Dock Series 3, Type 4337-9664.jpg


chorus

en-noun

chorus (plural choruses or (dated) chorusses or (rare) chori)

choruses (plural)
chorusses (dated plural)
chori (plural rare)

The noun is borrowed from Medieval Latin chorus (“church choir”), Latin chorus (“group of dancers and singers; dance”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “group of dancers and singers, choir, chorus; dance accompanied by song; round dance”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to encircle, enclose”) or *ǵʰoros. Doublet of choir, chore, and hora.
The plural form chori is from Latin chorī, from Ancient Greek χοροί (khoroí).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

Enter Chorus. / Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful ſtraight, / And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough, / That ſometime grew within this learned man: […]

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [F3], recto:

Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Palinode. / Amo[rphus]. From ſpaniſh ſhrugs, french faces, ſmirks, irps, and all affected humours: / Chorvs. Good Mercvry defend vs.

1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene xi, page 267:

Enter Time, the Chorus. [stage direction]

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 289, column 2:

(by extension, chiefly British, theater, historical) An actor who reads the prologue and epilogue of a play, and sometimes also acts as a commentator or narrator; also, a portion of a play read by this actor.


ingenue

Borrowed from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu (“guileless”), originally from the Latin ingenuus (“ingenuous”).

The intelligent and talented blonde who was fluent in English, French and Spanish was interested in art and joined a local theater group to work on set designs but wound up on stage playing an ingenue in Liliom and was spotted by director Vincente Minnelli.

2012, Thomas Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969, McFarland, →ISBN, page 396:

(theater, film) A dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role.

naiva

a dramatic role of such a woman; an actress playing such a role


gypsy

gypsies (plural)
gipsy (alternative archaic)
gipsey (alternative archaic)
gypsey (alternative archaic)
gypsie (alternative archaic)
gyptian (alternative)

See Gypsy. The generic usage that refers to any itinerant person.
Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.

(theater) A member of a Broadway musical chorus line.


property

en-noun

property (countable and uncountable, plural properties)

properties (plural)
propretie (alternative)

From Middle English propertee, properte, propirte, proprete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French propreté, proprieté (“propriety, fitness, property”), from Latin proprietās (“a peculiarity, one's peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property”), from proprius (“special, particular, one's own”). Equivalent to proper + -ty. Doublet of propriety.

خَاصَّة

attribute or abstract quality associated with an object, individual or concept

characteristic

attribute or abstract quality of an object

Costumes and scenery are distinguished from property properly speaking.

(usually in the plural, theater) A prop, an object used in a dramatic production.


guy

en-verb

guy (third-person singular simple present guys, present participle guying, simple past and past participle guyed)

guys (present singular third-person)
guying (participle present)
guyed (participle past)
guyed (past)

PIE word
 *h₁weydʰh₁-
Coined by semantic widening from the name of Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), an English Catholic executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, from Old French Gui, a form of Proto-Germanic *Wido, a short form of names beginning with the element witu "wood" from Proto-Germanic *widuz, such as Witold and Widukind. Cognate with Italian Guido.

To guy the speech in the manner of an old-fashioned 'ham' for cheap laughs....

2000, John Southworth, Shakespeare the Player:

(theater, transitive) To play in a comedic manner.


dramaturge

* Definition 1: Borrowed from French dramaturge.
* Definition 2: Borrowed from German Dramaturg.

(rare, theater) Someone who writes or adapts theater plays, a playwright, dramatist, especially one connected with a specific theater or company.

(rare, theater) A literary adviser or editor in a theater, opera, or film company that researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programs (or helps others with these tasks), consults with authors, and does public relations work.


dramaturge

dramaturge (third-person singular simple present dramaturges, present participle dramaturging, simple past and past participle dramaturged)

dramaturges (present singular third-person)
dramaturging (participle present)
dramaturged (participle past)
dramaturged (past)

It expresses concerns about programming (“We have watched you program play after play, written, directed, cast, choreographed, designed, acted, dramaturged and produced by your rosters of white theatermakers for white audiences”); […]

2020 June 9, Michael Paulson, “Theater Artists Decry Racism in Their Industry”, in The New York Times:

(ambitransitive, rare, theater) To act as a dramaturge.


rep

en-noun

rep (countable and uncountable, plural reps)

Clippings of various words beginning with rep.

She did her time in reps before she made the grade in West End theatre.


scrim

scrim (countable and uncountable, plural scrims)

Attested since the end of the 18th century. Origin unknown.
In one of the earliest mentions, "The Statistical Account of Scotland", 1793, by John Sinclair, page 593, we read in a paragraph devoted to weavers: "Besides these, they are now much employed in working a thin kind of coarse linen called Silesias, vulgarly Scrims, whereof each piece is 27 or 30 inches broad".

unk

unknown

Mummified mannequins dangling above the set, illuminated from within, were a heavy-handed touch, but the designer George Tsypin’s translucent scrims and painted drops beautifully conveyed the passage of sun-blasted days and bone-chilling nights on the edge of civilization.

2007 January 22, Steve Smith, “In Austin, Echoes of a Distant War in an Opera’s American Premiere”, in New York Times:

(theater) A theater drop that appears opaque when a scene in front is lighted and transparent or translucent when a scene in back is lighted.


deck

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic


extra

(acting) A supernumerary or walk-on in a film or play.


player

From Middle English pleyer, playere, from Old English pleġere (“player, athlete, wrestler”), from Proto-West Germanic *plegārī. Equivalent to play + -er.

inh

All the world's a ſtage, / And all the men and women, merely Players

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 194, column 1:

One that plays.
(theater) An actor in a dramatic play.

One that plays.
An actor in a dramatic play.


rag

→ Kashubian: reksa (United States)

From Middle English ragge, from Old English ragg (suggested by derivative raggiġ (“shaggy; bristly; ragged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft; shagginess”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, probably related to *rūhaz. Cognate with Swedish ragg. Related to rug.

(slang, theater) A curtain of various kinds.


rehearse

en-verb

rehearse (third-person singular simple present rehearses, present participle rehearsing, simple past and past participle rehearsed)

rehearses (present singular third-person)
rehearsing (participle present)
rehearsed (participle past)
rehearsed (past)

From Middle English rehersen, from Anglo-Norman reherser (“to repeat word-for-word”).

der

The director rehearsed the cast incessantly in the days leading up to opening night, and as a result they were tired and cranky when it arrived.

He […] has been rehearsed by Madame Defarge as to his having seen Her […]

1859, Charles Dickens, “Darkness”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 231:

It was plain that he'd been rehearsed a lot, but he wasn't letter-perfect by any manner of means.

1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:

(transitive, theater) To cause to rehearse; to instruct by rehearsal.

doen repeteren

to cause rehearse or instruct by rehearsal


scene

scenes (plural)
scæne (alternative archaic)

From Late Middle English scene, from Middle French scene, borrowed from Latin sc(a)ena, from Ancient Greek σκηνή (skēnḗ, “scene, stage”). Doublet of scena and skene.

They stood in the centre of the scene.

to paint scenes

to change the scenes

behind the scenes

(theater) The decorations; furnishings, and backgrounds of a stage, representing the place in which the action of a play is set.

səhnə

(theater) decorations, furnishing and backgrounds of a stage — see also decor

The play is divided into three acts, and in total twenty-five scenes.

The most moving scene is the final one, where he realizes he has wasted his whole life.

There were some very erotic scenes in the movie, although it was not classified as pornography.

Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

(theater, film, television, radio) A part of a dramatic work that is set in the same place or time. In the theatre, generally a number of scenes constitute an act.

տեսարան

(theater, film, television, radio) part of a dramatic work that is set in the same place or time


spike

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.

2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15:

(theater) A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.


manet

From Latin manet (“he remains”), manent (“they remain”), inflections of maneō.

Exeunt Princess and maidens. Manet Lady Blanche.

(theater) Used in stage directions; literally, he, she or it remains. Compare exit, exeunt.


jury

→ Dutch: jury (or via French)

→ Finnish: jyry

→ French: jury (see there for further descendants)

→ Hungarian: zsűri

→ Macedonian: жири (žiri)

→ Norman: jury

→ Norwegian Bokmål: jury

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: jury

→ Portuguese: júri

→ Swedish: jury

From Middle English jure, from Anglo-Norman juree, from Medieval Latin iūrāta, from Latin iūrō (“I swear or take an oath”).

The jury which decides on the first night usually seals the fate of the season.

1828, The New Monthly Magazine, page 418:

The widespread idea that before a first-night the audience, dressed to the nose, dines en masse at the Colony and proceeds elegantly to the scene in Hispanos is as fabulous as that which imagines it assembles at Lindy's delicatessen in yesterday's shirt and moves on to the theatre in garbage wagons. And no less spurious is the theory that, in either case or in both together, the jury is possessed of a remarkably rich acumen in the matter of theatrical values.

1971, George Jean Nathan, The Entertainment of a Nation: Or, Three-sheets in the Wind, page 130:

(theater, slang) The audience attending the first night of a performance, whose reaction may determine whether it succeeds or fails.


variety

en-noun

variety (countable and uncountable, plural varieties)

varieties (plural)
variete (alternative)
varietie (alternative)
variëty (alternative)

From Middle French varieté (“variety”) (modern French variété (“variety; genre, type”)) or directly from its etymon Latin varietās (“difference; diversity, variety”) + English -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives); by surface analysis, various + -ety. Varietās is derived from varius (“different, diverse, various; variegated”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon; to give out; to leave”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). The English word displaced the native Old English mislīcnes.
Sense 1.3.2 (“total number of distinct states of a system; logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system”) was coined by the English psychiatrist William Ross Ashby (1903–1972) in his work An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956).
Cognates
* Galician variedade (“variety”)
* Italian varietà (“difference; variety”)
* Portuguese variedade (“variety”)
* Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)

der

(radio, television, theater) Ellipsis of variety performance or variety show (“a type of entertainment featuring a succession of short, unrelated performances by various artistes such as (depending on the medium) acrobats, comedians, dancers, magicians, singers, etc.”).

variety performance
variety performance#English

variety performance or variety show

(radio, television, theater) The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.


prompt

en-verb

prompt (third-person singular simple present prompts, present participle prompting, simple past and past participle prompted)

prompts (present singular third-person)
prompting (participle present)
prompted (participle past)
prompted (past)

The adjective is from Middle English prompte, from Middle French prompt and its etymon Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”). Doublet of pronto.
The verb is from Middle English prompen, apparently from the adjective. The noun is from the verb.

der

If he forgets his words I will prompt him.

(transitive, theater and television) To show or tell (an actor/person) the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.

sufloj

to show or tell an actor/person the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing


prompter

The loud ringing of the prompter's bell made her spring suddenly away; and two of his companions, each taking an arm, hurried him away also. How glad would he have been to have left the party: his thoughts were in a tumult; duties and inclinations warred together—nay, his very sense of right was confounded.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 79:

(theater) The person who does the prompting.


sink

a bathroom sink sink (canonical)
sinks (plural)

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”).
Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

(theater) A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.


alienation

en-noun

alienation (usually uncountable, plural alienations)

From Middle English alienacioun, borrowed from Old French alienacion, itself borrowed from Latin aliēnātiōnem.


nervous hit

But it hardly mattered; her singing (including "My Own Best Friend" made into a solo) and performing were so strong that few quibbled, especially as she was accomplishing a valiant task by selling out a new, somewhat nervous hit while its regular star recovered.

(theater, idiomatic, England) A production which receives generally favorable notice, but is not assured of success.


flipper

From flip + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Flappert (“flipper, wing”).

cog

The flipper is designed to give support by standing at a 90-degree angle to the flat. It probably gets its name from its appearance: cut out like a piece of profile scenery, it resembles the flipper of a marine animal, […]

1998, Martin Harrison, The Language of Theatre, page 104:

When standing alone, a flat may have a small extension, a FLIPPER, for added strength.

2013, Jonathan Law, The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre:

(theater) A small flat used to support a larger one.


Thalia

From Ancient Greek Θαλία (Thalía) or Θάλεια (Tháleia); from Ancient Greek θάλλω (thállō, “flourish, to be verdant”).

uder

(theater, eponym) Socks, as a symbol of comedy.


dresser

From Middle English dresser, equivalent to dress + -er.

(theater, film, television) A wardrobe assistant (who helps actors put on their costume).


catharsis

en-noun

catharsis (countable and uncountable, plural catharses)

/kəˈθɑɹˌsɪs/

From Ancient Greek κάθαρσις (kátharsis, “cleansing, purging”), from καθαίρω (kathaírō, “I cleanse”). Coined in the dramatic-emotional sense by Aristotle.

uder

True, as the show has entered its later years, there have been more inspired moments of catharsis, but fewer unpredictable arcs and story beats, as a narrative nearing its conclusion is no longer attempting to shock.

2019 April 14, Alex McLevy, “Winter is Here on Game of Thrones’ Final Season Premiere (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2020-12-18:

(drama) A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions, as through watching a dramatic production (especially a tragedy).


comedy

en-noun

comedy (countable and uncountable, plural comedies)

comedies (plural)
comedie (alternative)
comœdie (alternative obsolete)
comœdy (alternative archaic)

drama

antonym(s) of “light, humorous, or satirical work”

→ Japanese: コメディ (komedi)

→ Korean: 코미디 (komidi)

From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “I sing”). Doublet of commedia.

(countable, drama) a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone


orchestra

orchestra (plural orchestras or (rare) orchestrae)

orchestras (plural)
orchestrae (plural rare)

→ Albanian: orkestër

→ Arabic: أوركسترا (ʔorkestrā)

→ Japanese: オーケストラ (ōkesutora)

→ Korean: 오케스트라 (okeseuteura)

→ Thai: ออร์เคสตรา (ɔɔ-kées-dtrâa)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-orchestra.wav

Borrowed from Latin orchēstra, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀρχήστρα (orkhḗstra) (a derivative of ὀρχέομαι (orkhéomai, “to dance”)).

(Ancient Greece, theater) A semicircular space in front of the stage used by the chorus in Ancient Greek and Hellenistic theatres.

orchestra

semicircular space in front of the stage used by the chorus in Ancient theatres


praxis

praxis (countable and uncountable, plural praxes or praxises)

Partly from Latin prāxis and partly from its etymon Ancient Greek πρᾶξις (prâxis, “action, activity, practice”).

bor

(drama) The deliberate action of a rational being.

ihmistoiminta

drama: deliberate action of a rational being


points

In my concentrated week at Stratford I found that, although as a theatregoer for decades I could not help marking what the old actors called 'points' now and again, […]

1977, Drama: The quarterly theatre review, numbers 124-131, page 16:

The nineteenth century acting technique of making points was encouraged by the dramaturgy of the melodramas which dominated the stage. The style was in fact difficult to avoid in many popular plays.

2014, Amy Lehman, Victorian Women and the Theatre of Trance, page 21:

(theater) Exaggerated speech or gestures used for emphasis during a performance.


lines

I have yet to learn my lines.

(film, theater) Words spoken by the actors.


lantern

lanterns (plural)
lanthorn (alternative archaic)

→ Bengali: লন্ঠন (lonṭhon)

Hindi: लालटेन (lālṭen)

→ Irish: laindéar

→ Malay: lentera

Indonesian: lentera

→ Telugu: లాంతరు (lāntaru)

From Middle English lanterne (13th century), via Old French lanterne from Latin lanterna (“lantern”), itself a corruption of Ancient Greek λαμπτήρ (lamptḗr, “torch”) (see lamp, λάμπω (lámpō)) by influence of Latin lucerna (“lamp”). The spelling lanthorn was current during the 16th to 19th centuries and originates with a folk etymology associating the word with the use of horn as translucent cover. For the verb, compare French lanterner to hang at the lamppost. Displaced native Old English lēohtfæt (literally “light-container”).

ncog

(theater) Especially, a metal casing with lens used to illuminate a stage (e.g. spotlight, floodlight).


tormentor

tormentors (plural)
tormentour (alternative obsolete)

From Anglo-Norman tourmentour, from Old French tormenteor.

Then Nathan Eldred, gently pushing, was muttering, ‘On you go, dear. Good luck!’ and she was edging between the tormentor and the backing flats, in front of the curtain, holding her small hands out to the sudden-silenced audience […]

1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 24, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 241:

(theater) One of a pair of narrow curtains just behind the front curtain and teaser that mask the areas on the sides of the stage and can be adjusted to the desired width.


flog

en-verb

flog (third-person singular simple present flogs, present participle flogging, simple past and past participle flogged)

flogs (present singular third-person)
flogging (participle present)
flogged (participle past)
flogged (past)

From Middle English *floggen (suggested by flogge (“hammer, sledge”), from Old English *floggian, a stem variant of Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), itself a secondary zero-grade iterative with unetymological -u-, derived from *flōkaną.
The original zero-grade iterative *flakkōną had been misinterpreted as an o-grade. See flack (“to beat”), also as a dialectal noun "a blow, slap". Cognate with Scots flog (“a blow, stripe, flogging”, noun), Scots flog (“thin strip of wood”), Norwegian flak (“a piece torn off, strip”).
Alternatively, a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).

cog

(theater) To beat away charcoal dust etc. using a flogger.


black box

black boxes (plural)
blackbox (alternative)

black box
black box#History
flight recorder#Terminology
gray-box testing
white box (software engineering)

* Since circa 1945 in both main senses (that is, event recorders and objects with unknown innards), which are historically related to each other; for details, see black box § History and flight recorder § Terminology.
* (type of theater): Such theaters are often painted black.

(drama) A type of theater characterized by a lack of decoration or complex mechanisms.


stock character

en-noun

stock character (plural stock characters)

(writing, theater, film) Any fictional character drawn from some stereotype who is instantly recognizable.

ամպլուա

fictional character based on a recognizable stereotype


hamartia

hamartia (usually uncountable, plural hamartias)

/ˌhæˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

/ˌhɑːˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

From Ancient Greek ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “tragic failure, sinful nature”), from the verb ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō, “to miss the mark”).

der

Creon's main hamartia was his excessive pride.

Understanding hamartia as “ignorance of the injurious act,” Lacan distinguishes Greek tragedy from the Renaissance version on the basis that the latter supplants hamartia with the hero's privileged knowledge.

2006, David Ratmoko, On Spectrality: Fantasies of Redemption in the Western Canon, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 71:

The plot and the tragic figure at its center, destroyed through an act of hamartia, should be tailored to the production of pity and fear. Oedipus is not so much a person as he is a hamartia delivery system, a moving, empty center within the motions of the play, who through his vulnerability to hamartia and its disastrous consequences reveals the pitiable and the fearful to the audience.

2008, Daniel Greenspan, The Passion of Infinity: Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 81:

But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years […] ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):

(Greek drama) The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy.


jog

Of uncertain origin. Originally with the meaning of "to shake up and down".
Perhaps an early alteration of English shog (“to jolt, shake; depart, go”), from Middle English shoggen, schoggen (“to shake up and down, jog”), from Middle Dutch schocken (“to jolt, bounce”) or Middle Low German schoggen, schocken (“to shog”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *skukkōn (“to move, shake, tremble”). More at shock.
Alternatively from Middle English joggen, a variant of jaggen (“to pierce, prod, stir up, arouse”) (see jag).

der

This angle is somewhat more acute than that of the right and left walls of the Western box set; but unlike the walls of the box set, the Kabuki wall is never broken up by a jog or by a succession of jogs.

1974, Earle Ernst, The Kabuki Theatre, page 143:

(theater) A flat placed perpendicularly to break up a flat surface.


opener

(theater) The first act in a variety show or concert.


supernumerary

From Late Latin supernumerarius (“extra soldier added to a legion; supernumerary”), from super (“above; beyond”) + numerus (“number; collection, quantity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns or numerals). The word is analysable as super- + numeral + -ary.

refn

From Joseph C. Hughes (1897 September) “Supernumerary Finger Growing from First Metacarpal Bone”, in James Moores Ball, editor, Tri-State Medical Journal and Practitioner, volume IV, number 9, St. Louis, Mo.: [s.n.] 3509 Franklin Avenue, →OCLC, figure 2, page 436.

bor

[A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.

1983, H[endrik] B[rugt] G[erhard] Casimir, “Introduction”, in Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science (A Sloan Foundation Book), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, →ISBN; republished Amsterdam: Amsterdam Academic Archive, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 1:

Though little is known about Noble Luke Usher before his first recorded performance in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it is certain that he made the rounds of the eastern theatres as a supernumerary before as well as after that year.

2009, West T. Hill, Jr., “The First Western Circuit”, in The Theatre in Early Kentucky 1790–1820, paperback edition, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 72:

(film, theater) An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.


gracioso

From Spanish gracioso. Doublet of gracious and grazioso.

I ſhall never ceaſe to wonder that the Engliſh, who are certainly a ſenſible and diſcerning people ſhould be ſo much infatuated, as to applaud and careſs with the moſt extravagant approbation, not to ſay adoration and regard, one or two gracioſo's, who, I will be bold to ſay, would ſcarce be able to earn their bread by their talents, on any other theatre under the ſun.

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter LV, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume II, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 137–138:

(theater) A clown or jester in early-modern Spanish comedy.


pancake

en-noun

pancake (countable and uncountable, plural pancakes)

pancakes (plural)
pan cake (alternative)

→ Cantonese: 班戟 (baan¹ gik¹)

→ Mandarin: 班戟 (bānjǐ)

→ Cebuano: pankeyk

→ French: pancake

→ German: Pancake

desc

→ Hijazi Arabic: بانكيك (bānkēk, pānkēk)

→⇒ Irish: pancóg

→ Japanese: パンケーキ (pankēki)

→⇒ Khmer: នំផេនខេក (num pheenkheek)

→ Korean: 팬케이크 (paenkeikeu)

→ Nauruan: epankeik

→ Portuguese: panqueca, (dated) panqueque, (dated) pancake

→ Russian: панкейк (pankejk)

→ Spanish: (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay) panqueque, (Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico) pancake, (Venezuela) panqueca

→ Thai: แพนเค้ก (pɛɛn-kéek)

→ Turkish: pankek

→ Azerbaijani: pankek

→ Yoruba: pan̄kéèkì

Inherited from Middle English pancake, panne cake, pankake, ponkake, equivalent to pan + cake.
Perhaps adapted from Middle Low German pankôke, pannekôke, from Old Saxon *pannakōko (suggested by derivatives Old Saxon pannakōkilo and pannakōkilīn), where the compound is much older; compare Old High German phankuohho (8th century), whence Middle High German phankuoche, German Pfannkuchen (“pancake”); further
Saterland Frisian Ponkouke, Ponkuuke (“pancake”), West Frisian pankoek (“pancake”), Dutch pannenkoek (“pancake”), German Low German Pannkook (“pancake”).
The juggling sense is by analogy with a pancake being tossed in a pan.

And us, me wearing pancake with my eyebrows recently plucked archly, done by Little Amber, the beauty-school student quean, in Bryant Park.

1984 April 14, Freddie Greenfield, “Spoiling the View”, in Gay Community News, page 19:

(uncountable, theater) A kind of makeup, consisting of a thick layer of a compressed powder.


upstage

From up- + stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage.

(theater) The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.


upstage

en-verb

upstage (third-person singular simple present upstages, present participle upstaging, simple past and past participle upstaged)

upstages (present singular third-person)
upstaging (participle present)
upstaged (participle past)
upstaged (past)

(transitive, theater) To force other actors to face away from the audience by staying upstage.


soliloquy

en-noun

soliloquy (countable and uncountable, plural soliloquies)

Augustine of Hippo
Hamlet
Soliloquiorum libri duo
To be, or not to be
William Shakespeare

1595–1605; From Late Latin sōliloquium in the title of St. Augustine's Soliloquiorum libri duo ("Two Books of Soliloquies"), from sōlus (“only, sole”) + loquor (“I speak”).

Coordinate term: aside

At the end of the second act the main villain gave a soliloquy detailing his plans to attack the protagonist.

Yet if I were to say […] that Hamlet's soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate Shakespeare.

1901, Edmund Selous, Bird Watching, J.M. Dent & Co, London, Chapter XII: Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales, Sand-martins, etc., page 315:

(drama) The act of a character speaking to themselves so as to reveal their thoughts to the audience.


come-on

Deverbal from come on to. First use appears c. 1897, in the publications of Edward W. Townsend. See cite below.

When the public no longer rushed to the box-office to buy such synthetic exaltations of the spirit, pitchmen like Jerome K. Jerome and the aforesaid Kennedy got out their theopathic apparatus and had at the trade with elixirs in which actors, their faces chalked into a pallor exceeding Nicky Arnstein's, were programmed as A Stranger, A Wayfarer, or Manson and, by conducting themselves for the major portion of two hours like overly verbose and objectionable pallbearers, peculiarly persuaded the come-ons that they were replicas of Christ and that the rest of the cast, a bunch of low-lifes, were converted to the faith by them.

1975, George Jean Nathan, Charles Angoff, The Theatre Book of the Year, 1942-1943, page 82:

(theater, slang) A bad actor whose talents do not extend far beyond walking onto the stage.


unity

unity (countable and uncountable, plural unities)

Etymology tree
Middle English unite
English unity
From Middle English unite, from Anglo-Norman, Old French unité, from Latin ūnitās, from ūnus (“one”) + noun of state suffix -itās, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one, single”), hence distantly related to one and an. Displaced native Old English ānnes (literally “oneness”).

der

(drama) Any of the three classical rules of drama: unity of action (nothing should be admitted not directly relevant to the development of the plot), unity of place (the scenes should be set in the same place), and unity of time (all the events should be such as might happen within a single day).

eenheid

drama: any of the three classical rules of drama


overplay

en-verb

overplay (third-person singular simple present overplays, present participle overplaying, simple past and past participle overplayed)

overplays (present singular third-person)
overplaying (participle present)
overplayed (participle past)
overplayed (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-overplay.wav

overdrijven

To present something more dramatically than necessary

When Chris overacted his part again, the director warned that anyone overplaying would be barred from the next production.

Nevertheless, 3 Body Problem does well to pull us onward, as much through the relentless, but never overplayed, suffering and hardening of Ye Wenjie as she endures her effective imprisonment in the project grounds – and the stealing of her work by others – as by the present day mystery.

2024 March 21, Lucy Mangan, “3 Body Problem review – the creators of Game of Thrones have done it again”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(ambitransitive, acting) To overdo or overact one's effect or role.


Melpomene

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μελπομένη (Melpoménē), from μέλπω (mélpō, “to sing”).

bor+

(theater, eponym) Buskins, as a symbol of tragedy.


behind the scenes

behind-the-scenes (alternative)
BTS (alternative)

Many videos come with features that show what went on behind the scenes to make the movie and special effects.

The men who stood behind the scenes and worked the religious puppet-show by hidden wires to the awe and astonishment of the gaping vulgar.

1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 134:

(idiomatic, theater, film) behind the scenery and stage area; backstage; among the actors; during the production or rehearsal


ham it up

en-verb

ham it up (third-person singular simple present hams it up, present participle hamming it up, simple past and past participle hammed it up)

hams it up (present singular third-person)
hamming it up (participle present)
hammed it up (participle past)
hammed it up (past)
ham up (alternative)

Near-synonym: camp it up

You can count on him to ham it up for the camera.

(idiomatic, acting) To deliberately exaggerate one's emotions or movements, or to overact or act hammily.

有意誇張 /有意夸张

performing arts: exaggerate one's emotions or movements


bit part

2005, Most of her work, however, consisted of bit parts. She often was cast in movies credited only as "flower vendor," "warden" or "suntan lady," — 'Five Easy Pieces' waitress dead at 85, CNN online.

(acting) A minor role, generally not assigned a name.


spit take

spit takes (plural)
spit-take (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spit take.wav

When the wombat-riding chimp jumped onto the bar, Smith, who had been enjoying a beer, did a massive spit take.

(acting) A take (recorded performance), generally expressing surprise or disbelief, in which the actor in the act of drinking spits out the drink.


pigeonhole

pigeonholes (plural)
pigeon-hole (alternative)
pigeon hole (alternative)

Stanford University
Thomas Chippendale
pigeon-hole messagebox

The noun is derived from pigeon + hole. The verb is derived from the noun.

分類架 /分类架

one of an array of open compartments in a desk, set of shelves, etc., used for sorting and/or storing letters, papers, or other items; one of an array of open compartments for receiving mail and other messages at a college, office, etc.

kulkuaukko

small opening for looking or passing things through; opening in a ship for passing equipment through

The Play is done: For from the Pigeon-hole / I heard them hiſs the Curtain as it fell.

1732 June 12 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Henry Fielding], The Covent-Garden Tragedy. […], London: […] J[ohn] Watts, and sold by J. Roberts […], published 5 July 1732, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:

(obsolete, theater) A seat in the top row of the gallery of a theatre.