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This art form is live, ephemeral, collaborative, a synthesis of many other art forms; a mirror of life that is not necessarily an exact replica of the “real” world.
THEATRE
This type of dramatic structure has a small number of characters, one plot line, one setting, and a very compressed action timeline.
CLIMACTIC STRUCTURE
This type of dramatic structure has a main plot and several subplots; many characters; ranges over several different locations and time frames, such as weeks, months or years.
EPISODIC STRUCTURE
The performer’s attempt to exploit the capacity of the spectator to relate to the characters and situations on stage as different from themselves.
DISTANCING
This is a style of theatre where the stage world is presented as a believable, alternate reality; where things happen much as they would in life and people behave in seemingly natural ways.
REALISM
This is a late-20th century concept without a single definition. Generally, it argues that past truths are constructions by a dominant culture; it invites and opens up the possibility of new and equally valid forms of artistic expression.
POST-MODERNISM
These are accepted codes of communication and interaction between performers and spectators for the duration of a performance that enhance storytelling.
THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS
The performer’s attempt to exploit the capacity of the spectator to identify emotionally with a character through a recognition of similarity.
EMPATHIZING
A theatrical convention of realism, this is an invisible wall separating the stage from the spectators.
FOURTH WALL
This is a euro-centric theatrical tradition based on a written text, meant to be reinterpreted by different artists at different times and in different places.
TEXT-BASED TRADITIONS
This is any theatrical tradition that preserves conventions of staging, music, dance, masks, and acting/characterizations passed down orally, generation-to-generation, rooted in the belief systems of tightly-knit communities.
PERFORMANCE-BASED TRADITIONS
This is a configuration of a theatre space in which the audience faces the actors on only one side.
PROSCENIUM STAGE
This is a configuration of a theatre space where audience members sit on three sides of the stage that is a raised platform.
THRUST STAGE
These are six forces underlying the diversity of today’s theatre.
GLOBALIZATION; MULTI-CULTURALISM; INTER-CULTURALISM; POST-MODERNISM; POST-COLONIALISM; AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES
A tradition of indigenous performance that evolved in Mesoamerica as a form of resistance during the colonial era; characterized by a precise representation of local color, costumes, and dialects.
COSTUMEBRISTA
