Theatrical Elements in French Plays PDF

## The Acme (1) - The acme corresponds to the peak of the crisis in the work. It is situated towards the middle of the play and can have moral, psychological repercussions on the characters. ## Other Times (2) - In the past, each act lasted as long as it took for the candles to burn out. Five or...

## The Acme (1) - The acme corresponds to the peak of the crisis in the work. It is situated towards the middle of the play and can have moral, psychological repercussions on the characters. ## Other Times (2) - In the past, each act lasted as long as it took for the candles to burn out. Five or three in the classical era. ## The Characters (3) - Characters in conflict are the protagonists of the play. ## Aside (4) - In an aside, a character expresses thoughts apart from others that, by convention, are supposed not to hear them. ## The Convention (5) - What is appropriate in relation to the morals or theatrical conventions of an era is called *bienseance*. ## The Chorus (6) - In ancient Greek theater, the *Chorus* was a group of actors who recited, sang, and commented on the action. ## The Comedy (7) - The outcome of the comedy is happy. ## The Ways (8) - The most common ways to make people laugh are comic timing, *comique de geste*, *comique de mots*, *comique de repetition*. ## The Italian Comedy (9) - The *commedia dell'arte*, of Italian origin, is based on improvisation and stereotypical comic characters. This tradition has enriched French comic theater (in particular the farce). ## The Theatrical Turning Point (10) - The *coup de theatre*, introduced a dramatic change in the situation. Placed throughout a play, often in the middle of a scene, It accelerates the action. ## Faux Scenery (11) - *Faux paysage* (interior, exterior) planted on and at the back of the stage, the decor indicates social class, the kind of play, gives information on the location and time period. ## The Climax (12) - The *dénouement* solves the main problem of the play and those of the most important characters. In the final scene, most of the characters are assembled. ## Stage Direction (13) - Stage directions given by the author, the *didacalasies*, concern the gestures, the movement of the actor, the recipients of a remark, the feelings, the costumes etc ## The Playwright (14) - The author of a play is a *dramaturge*. ## The Initial Scene (15) - The initial scene of exposition, … explains the current crisis, introduces the characters, places, the context, the period. ## The Farce (16) - The farce is a theatrical genre aimed at making people laugh by using simple methods. There is always a "victim". ## The Director (17) - The * metteur en scène* directs the acting of the actors according to his own interpretation of the play. ## The Plot (18) - The "story" that unfolds on the stage is a*briga*. ## The Soliloquy (19) - The words spoken by a character alone on stage that *mammaalague* ... allow the character to express their thoughts, feelings. ## The *Dénouement* (20) - The *dénouement*, is a delicate moment in the plot where different problems combine. ## The Character (21) - The fictional being created by the author, a *personnage*, must have a character, an identity, belonging to a social class, but he/she is generally not endowed with physically precise features. ## The Qui Pro Quo (22) - The *quiproquo*, a misunderstanding between two characters, is supposed to provoke laughter from the audience (etymology: taking a "qui" for a "quo"). ## The *Aplique* (23) - A character speaking to another, applies to him/her. ## The Curtain(24) - The red fabric that separates the stage from the hall, the curtain, allows for changes in decor between acts. ## The Venue (25) - The *comedie* is the place where the play is performed and in the act, a passage delimited by the entry and/or exit of one or more characters. ## The Prompter (26) - The prompter used to fill in the gaps in the actors' memories. We no longer resort to his service. ## The *Stichomythie* (27) - If lines are exchanged in an alternating manner, from verse to verse, by *stichomythie*, then it creates an acceleration of the rhythm corresponding to a moment of tension. ## The Tragedy (28) - The *tragedy* whose ending is sad, fate weighs on the men and dooms them to misfortune. ## The Classical Rule (29) - A rule of composition for classical theatre, with the three unities, the rule of three unities, *La règle de trois unities*, one shouldn't represent on stage more than one place, one action, which can only be resolved within a single day (between sunrise and sunset). ## The Servants (30) - The *valet* and the *servante* serve the master (mistress) of the house. They are frequent supports for comedy, characterized by freedom of speech, and often serve as assistants to the youth of the house in their love affairs. ## The Burlesque (31) - The burlesque, … is a form of exaggerated humor, uses trivial expressions to parody heroic characters; the burlesque epic appeared in France in the middle of the seventeenth century. ## The Catharsis (32) - *Catharsis*,... purges the passions of the spectators from a non-distanced dramatic representation.