Script Terms | Part 2
GENRE: The style of the play. Genre can be as broad as ‘comedy’ or ‘tragedy’ or as narrow and specific as ‘courtroom drama’ or ‘burlesque’.
MELODRAMA: A style of theatre primarily popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Characterized by exaggerated plotting and characters, ‘melodramatic’ has come to mean an over-the-top style.
MONOLOGUE: A speech given by one character to other characters. Monologues are frequently used as audition pieces.
MUSICAL: A play using musical accompaniment and sung music to tell its story.
PLOT: The events of a play, from its beginning to end.
PROTAGONIST: The primary character in a play. Often considered the “good guy.”
SATIRE: A story or play which uses humor to make strong statements about individuals, policies, or society as a whole.
SCRIPT: A printed copy of the dialogue and instructions of a play.
SOLILOQUY [səˈlɪləkwi]: A speech given by a single character to himself to express his thoughts for the benefit of the audience, as opposed to a monologue given for the benefit of other characters.
SUBTEXT: The underlying emotion, thoughts, and meanings underneath what is said by the characters in a play. TEXT: The words said aloud by characters during a play.
THEME: A unifying concept in a play.
TRAGEDY: An unhappy, emotional play. Traditionally, tragedies ended in the death of the protagonist, as opposed to a tragedy, which ended in marriage and implied birth and new life.
See also