Hello Shakespeare!
 

Affective Power - ability to affect a spectator

Amphitheatre - open-ceilinged stage, outdoor, mostly built into the ground, mostly lower class spectators, cheaper

Balcony - tarras for use in plays that specified two levels

Blackfriars - indoor hall theatre

Blank Verse - sounds of poetry

Boxes - very expensive seating

Catharsis - notion of purging emotions that result from pity or fear with the purpose of allowing the viewer to work through the emotions in the theater and not behave like the hero in the 'real world'

Characters - moral qualities embodied in agents

Characterization - different types of people speak differently

City - Puritans who didn't like transvestite theatre; constituencies

Comedy - titles usually reflect a message, focuses on community, involves humor, always aims at resolution, rests on "positive understanding of human experience" (Krueger 2013), audience doesn't expect real harm to occur, audience is asked to laugh at the world, there is a happy ending, is related to the culture and customs of society.

Connotation - meaning of a word based on culture and context

Cost - Outdoor: Yard= 1 penny, Gallery= 2 pennies, Upper-Gallery= 3 pence; Indoor: Benches= 1 shilling, Boxes= 1/2 crown (2 shilling and 6 pence), Gallery= 6 pence

Costumes - very exuberant, expensive, flashy and usually obtained second hand

Cousin - kinsman, not child of aunt or uncle

Court - where the King and/or Queen held their court

Cross-Dressing - boys played girl's/female parts and wore women's clothing because during this period women were not allowed to perform

Denotation - definition of a word; literal meaning

Diction - word choice

Didactic - a moral or lesson

Discovery - shift from ignorance to knowledge, or love to hate, good to bad.

Discovery Space - space at the rear of the stage, hidden by a curtain, where characters could hide

Dramatic Irony - reversal of expectations; ex. "tragic figure's talent leads to destruction" (Krueger 2013)

Empty Space - where audience would have to imagine scenery and/or the stage being full

English Renaissance - rebirth of England

Fable (Plot) - things that happen in the story; may be simple or complex

Gallery - seating up over-looking the stage, used as required, sometimes by spectators and often as part of the play

Gatherers - ushers/ticket taker

Genre - drama (for Shakespeare)

Hall Theatre - enclosed performance space, attracted wealthier audience, more expensive, variety of seating

Hamartia - "error in action"; not inherent weakness (Krueger 2013)

Heavens - canopy that partly covered the playing area

Hell - beneath the stage which was accessed through a trapdoor

Hero - see Tragic Figure

Homonym - two words that are the same and have the same meaning

Housekeeper - person who looked after the house (theatre), property, and watched over franchises/investment in theatre space

Hut - an enclosed space that permitted hidden stagehands to create special effects and operate machinery for flying; above the tarras

Homophone - words that sound the same but are different words with different meanings

Iamb - a foot with an unstressed-stressed syllable: da-DA

Indoor (Private) Theatre - smaller, roofed, lit by candle/torches, more expensive, less seating

Liberties - neighborhoods where theatres were located, had more liberty across the Thames River

Master of Revels - censure of the time, censures what is produces to make sure they aren't disrespecting royalty or important people

Melody - pleasurable sound

Mode - subgenre of drama

Nice - Squeamish or delicate

Outdoor (Public) Theatre - no roof, attracts all sorts of spectators, open-air, more seating

Paradox - "the hero's gifts are also the cause of his or her fall" (Krueger 2013)

Pentameter - five feet

Peripety - reversal of fortune

Pit - in front of the stage, benches might have been there, in hall theatres (would be the yard in outdoor theatres)

Plot - see fable

Presentational Theatre - acting/performing in such a way that spectators remember they are actually in a theatre and watching a play, actors want you to remember that you are detached from the play

Private Theatre - see Indoor Theatre

Proper - handsome

Prose - not poetry, sounds like natural speech

Proscenium - stage part closest to the audience

Public Theatre - see Open Theatre

Representational Theatre - realistic portrayal, uses many props, is a replica of what is true of real life

Rhythmic Effects - musical effects through language

Scene (location) - where characters meet, interact and play

Scene (organizational unit) - break up of script after it has been written

Shareholder - people who invest in companies, theatre and the idea of theatre

Spectacle - pleasurable sight; horror and blood

Spectators - people who watch the play/spectacle

Stools on Stage - place where spectators could pay to sit on the side of the stage in an indoor theatre

Tarras - private viewing rooms for the wealthy

The Curtain - 1577, North of London, amphitheater

The Globe - outdoor amphitheater

The Rose - 1587 but was rebuilt in 1592

The Theatre - 1576, amphitheatre, north of London, first permitted playhouse in London

Thought - points made

Time (day) - time which play is actually, physically being performed

Time (play) - time in the play which is expressed through character lines, gestures, costumes and/or small props

Tiring House - dressing room; behind the stage, sometimes in separate buildings

Tragedy - title focuses on a specific character, focuses on "misfortunes of charismatic and powerful individuals" (Krueger 2013), rests on "unfavorable assessment of human experience" (Krueger 2013), shows human flaws/failure/misery/loss/self-destruction/etc., audience expects harm to occur, audience is asked to feel pity and benefit from the moral, unhappy ending; Standard definition: "a great person suffering greatly, and the heroic reaction of the tragic figure to extreme suffering commands immense respect and sympathy" (Krueger 2013); "an imitation not of persons but of action and life, of happiness and misery" (Krueger 2013).

Tragic Figure (hero) - not merely a victim of circumstance or environment; he is a capable agent

Tragic Flaws - ex. Pride, Jealousy, Ignorance, etc.

Trapdoor - access in the floor for the Hell

Transvestite Theatre - because boys played women's parts it became philosophical in that boys were embodying female aspects and the female gender so it affects the psyche 

Yard - general admission area located between the inner wall and the stage