| Theatre Terms (A-Z) Sort descending | Definition |
|---|---|
| MUSICAL DIRECTOR | In a musical, the person with overall responsibility for everything relating to the music. |
| MUSICAL PLAY | A branch of musical theatre, in which the essentially light story takes on more heavily dramatic overtones, often with social and political issues. There is an effort to link all songs and dances to the characters, plot, and setting, as opposed to music for entertainment alone. Examples include Show Boat, Carousel, Gypsy, Company, and Evita. |
| MYSTERY PLAY | 1) A play (usually medieval) based on a biblical story, more particularly, a play dealing with the life of Christ. 2) A play based on the detection of a crime. |
| NATURALISM or NATURALISTIC | Realism; attempting to depict life and society as it is. Usually used to describe a play in its entirety, but also the individual work of a director or actor. Thus, a "naturalistic performance." |
| NEON | 1) A type of discharge lighting generated by a high voltage across two electrodes at opposite ends of a long, thin glass tube filled with neon gas. Different colors can be obtained by mixing other gases, or by using fluorescent coatings. Mostly used for advertising signs - the glass tube is bent to form letters. 2) A small mains voltage indicator lamp. |
| NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTER | Lighting filter that reduces the brightness of a light source without changing its color. |
| NOISES OFF | Offstage sound effects, such as thunder, breaking glass, a crash, voices, etc. |
| NON DIMS | Channels, usually controlled from the lighting desk which are switched, rather than dimmed. This enables motors, slide projectors, smoke machines etc to be controlled from the lighting desk. |
| NONPROFESSIONAL or NON-PROFESSIONAL | Said of a theatre or production, as opposed to professional, to avoid the derogatory connotation sometimes understood by the term "amateur." In recent decades, however, "nonprofessional" has taken on the same derogatory connotation, sometimes used to mean "not of high quality." |
| NUMBER | A song or dance in a musical production, so called because each musical selection is numbered for the convenience of the orchestra. |
| NUT | The actual or estimated cost of producing a show, often figured on a weekly basis. |
| OFF BOOK or OFF-BOOK | An actor or cast who has memorized their lines is said to be "off book." Often given as a reminder in a rehearsal schedule ("We will be off-book July 1.") |
| OFF-BROADWAY or OFF BROADWAY | Said of professional theatres in New York City, not located in the traditional Broadway theatre area. |
| OFFSTAGE | 1) Towards the nearest side of the stage from the center. (e.g. "Focus that spot offstage a bit, please") 2) The area out of sight of the audience (e.g. "Get that couch offstage!") |
| OHM | The unit of electrical resistance. |
| OMNIDIRECTIONAL | A type of microphone. |
| ON BOOK or ON-BOOK | 1) To serve as prompter. 2) An actor who has not yet memorized his/her lines is said to be "on book." |
| One Man's Burden | A comedy/drama. This play is set on a wasteland, could be part of any time or country, and is ultimately seeking meaning in life. A man appears pulling a huge wagon filled, apparently with large rocks. He comes across someone who lives in this desert, who questions him roughly about where he is going and why toting rocks. It turns out that the rocks carry great meaning. |
| One Man's Burden | PULLMAN Arrives onstage pulling an enormous collection of rocks across a barren landscape. He believes that the rocks comprise his life history: accomplishments, failures, loves and regrets. |
| ONSTAGE | 1) The stage area visible from the audience. Thus, an onstage chair. 2) A command from a stage manager, as in "Cast onstage!" |
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