Ms. Monsod

1. Floor plan (bird’s eye view drawing)

2. Stage Directions

a) right, Left, Up, Down, Center

b) raked

3. House

a) Orchestra

b) Stalls

c) Balcony

4. Proscenium arch. proscenium theater

5. FOH Front of House

6. Backstage

7. Wings

8. Side leg

9. Portal

10. Mid-tab or Mid-stage traveler

11. Upstage traveler

a) batten (Block H took this up)

12. Cyclorama (curtain or wall)

13. Fly gallery (“fly in,” “fly out”)

14. Counterweights

15. Scrim (for opaque, transparent)

16. Crossover

17. Master control panel (including blue performance mode)

18. Lift

Melodrama was the dominant western dramatic type of the nineteenth century.

Oscar G. Brockett lists basic characteristics of the melodrama:

1. Focus on emotional appeal. Emotion is more important than credibility and depth of character and plot.

2. Musical underscoring.

3. Powerful vocal delivery and emphatic gesturing.

4. Virtue under siege. A virtuous hero and/or heroine (aka Damsel in Distress) is victimized by a horrible villain.

5. Poetic justice.  Good always triumphs in the end.

6. Comic relief through a sidekick.

7. Fast-paced, sensational action.  A short expository scene is followed by important events, often with elaborate spectacle (battles, floods, earthquakes) and local color (festivals, dances, etc.).

8. Plot devices such as coincidence, concealed identity, startling discoveries (“What? I am your long lost brother?”), reversals, etc. Each acts ends with a strong climax or “curtain line.”

Source: Brocket, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy,  History of the Theater (Foundation Edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2007, pp. 277-78.

A famous melodrama actor, Tod Slaughter, in a 1940′s film.