Items

• monologue

  A long speech delivered by one character, often revealing thoughts or advancing the plot.
• montage

  A sequence of shots edited together to condense time or summarise information / a film editing technique juxtaposing shots to create new meaning. Also used in theatre for rapid scene changes.
• motif

  A recurring theme, symbol, or idea that reinforces the central message of a work.
• motivation

  The reasons behind a character’s behaviour or choices.
• movement

  Physical actions or gestures used by an actor to express character, emotion, or intention.
• moving head

  A type of stage light that can move automatically and change colour, direction, and patterns.
• Mr Sands

  A code used for announcing that a fire has broken out. Appropriate evacuation protocol will then follow.
• multiculturalism

  The inclusion and representation of diverse cultural perspectives and traditions in performance.
• music in theatre

  When music is used in theatre as a supporting element to the production, to enhance the mood or ambiance.
• Musical Theatre

  A genre combining spoken dialogue, songs, and dance to tell a story.
• Naturalism

  A late 19th-century style in the arts depicting life with scientific objectivity. It’s a form of realism that focuses on how environment, heredity, and social conditions affect human behaviour – like a “slice of life”.
• New Wave cinema

  Post-WWII movements, e.g., French Nouvelle Vague (late 1950s to 1980s), emphasising auteur authority and innovation, rejecting traditional ways of filmmaking.
• non-diegetic sound

  Sound that does not originate from the story world, such as background music or narration. The character cannot hear it.
• non-linear narrative

  A storytelling structure that does not follow chronological order, common in modern theatre and film.
• objective

  What a character wants to achieve in a scene or play (their intention).
• obstacle

  Something that stands in the way of a character achieving their objective.
• offstage

  The part of the stage out of view of the audience (backstage).
• onstage

  The part of a theater, specifically the stage, where the performance or action takes place fully visible to the audience.
• opposite prompt side (O.P. side)

  The right-hand side of the stage from the actor’s point of view (i.e., stage right) / the side opposite the prompt desk, sometimes referred to as the off-prompt side.
• over-the-shoulder shot (OTS)

  Taken from behind one character’s shoulder, framing another subject, often used in dialogue.
• overhead / bird’s- eye view / God’s eye view

  A shot from directly above, giving a godlike or detached perspective.
• pan

  Horizontal movement of the camera from a fixed position, scanning the scene side to side.
• pantomime

  Acting that uses gesture, facial expression, and movement rather than speech to convey meaning. Also, a British genre of musical performance marked by exaggerated caricatures, audience interaction, and comedic retellings of popular fairy tales.
• performance analysis

  The analysis (and methodology for analysis) of live theatre performances as experienced in person.
• Performance Art

  A live art form combining theatre, visual art, and conceptual experimentation / challenges definitions of “theatre” / often conceptual and site- specific.