Theatre Terms
As a service to the theatre community, AACT provides over 1000 definitions of theatrical terms. Fully searchable, our glossary is helpful for technical staff, directors, actors, producers, or anyone wanting to better understand the inner workings of theatre.
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| Term | Definition | Link |
|---|---|---|
| MD or M.D. | 1) Musical Director. Often the conductor of a musical, or the person responsible for the musical content of a production. 2) Mini Disc. See Digital Recording. | Digital Recording |
| MELODRAMA | A play that is sensational, implausible in characterization, dialogue, and situation, usually with struggles between exaggerated heroes and villains, ending happily in the romantic triumph of virtue. Thus, "melodramatic," meaning to overplay or overwrite a dramatic scene. | |
| MELODRAMATIC | ||
| MEMORY PLAY |
A play in which past events, as the protagonist recalls them, become the principal portions of the dramatic action. Examples include The Glass Menagerie and Dancing at Lughnassa. |
|
| MEZZANINE | A seating area just above the orchestra, or the forward part of such an area; the first balcony. | |
| MIC | (pronounced "Mike") Abbreviation for microphone. | Microphone |
| MIC LEVEL SIGNAL | Low level audio signal produced by circuitry in microphone. Needs boosting either by a pre-amp or a mixing desk before it can be amplified. Susceptible to interference over long cable runs. | Microphone |
| MICROPHONE | Device for converting sound into electrical pulses which can then be amplified or recorded onto tape. Signals from a microphone are very low level and are amplified in the mixing desk to line level. | Mic |
| MIDI | Acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Control system for linking musical instruments or other electronic equipment and computers together and storing the control signals the equipment produces for subsequent playback. | |
| MILK | To work hard to get as much response as possible from the audience to one's acting; thus, to milk a scene dry for laughs, tears, or applause. | |
| MIMESIS | Imitation, as to mimic reality. | |
| MINI DISC | Digital Recording | |
| MINSTREL | 1) A musical entertainer in a dramatic performance, particularly in medieval and Renaissance performance. 2) A performer in a minstrel show. | Minstrel Show |
| MINSTREL SHOW | A kind of comic stage entertainment popular in the U.S. from the middle of the 19th century into the close of the 1920s, typically consisting of dialogue, songs, and dance in a set pattern, imitating African American manners and speech, performed usually by white actors in blackface. The cast included an interlocutor, as master of ceremonies and straight man; two end men as comedians; and a chorus seated in a semicircle. | Minstrel Show |
| MIRACLE PLAY | A type of play--usually medieval--based on biblical or other sacred stories; more accurately, a play dealing with the miracles associated with a saint. | |
| MIRROR BALL | Lighting effect popular in ballrooms and other dance halls. A large plastic ball covered with small mirror pieces. When a spotlight is focused onto the ball, specks for light are thrown around the room. Usually motorized to rotate. | |
| MISE EN SCENE | The stage director's arrangement of all the elements that comprise the stage picture, including scenery, actors, lighting, costumes. From a French expression meaning "made into a scene." | |
| MIXDOWN | The process during which a multitrack recording is balanced and transferred to two tracks (stereo) for playback or reproduction. | |
| MIXER | A device with a number of input channels where each sound source is provided with its own control channel through which sound signals are routed into two or more outputs. Many mixing desks can also change the quality of the sound. A Powered Mixer has an amplifier built into it. Sound sources of varying levels are accepted which can be amplified if necessary. | |
| MODEL | A scale model provided by the set designer to help all the technical departments to co-ordinate and plan a production. Used as a reference when building, painting, dressing and lighting the set. |
