IV. WORDS RELATING TO THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES; COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS

III. MEANS OF COMMUNICATING IDEAS

2. Conventional means; written language

The Drama.

[Nouns] the drama, the stage, the theater, the play; film, the film, movies, motion pictures, cinema, cinematography; theatricals, dramaturgy, histrionic art, buskin, sock, cothurnus, Melpomene and Thalia, Thespis.

play, drama, stageplay, piece, five-act play, tragedy, comedy, opera, vaudeville, comedietta, lever de rideau, interlude, afterpiece, exode, farce, divertissement, extravaganza, burletta, harlequinade, pantomime, burlesque, opera bouffe, ballet, spectacle, masque, drame, comedie drame; melodrama, melodrame; comidie larmoyante, sensation drama; tragicomedy, farcical comedy; monodrame, monologue; duologue; trilogy; charade, proverbs; mystery, miracle play.

[movies] western, horse opera; flick [colloq.]; spy film, love story, adventure film, documentary, nature film; pornographic film, smoker, skin flick, X-rated film.

act, scene, tableau; induction, introduction; prologue, epilogue; libretto.

performance, representation, mise en scene, stagery, jeu de theatre; acting; gesture [more]; impersonation [more]; stage business, gag, buffoonery.

theater; playhouse, operahouse; house; music hall; amphitheater, circus, hippodrome; puppet show, fantoccini; marionettes, Punch and Judy.

auditory, auditorium, front of the house, stalls, boxes, pit, gallery, parquet; greenroom, coulisses.

flat; drop, drop scene; wing, screen, side scene; transformation scene, curtain, act drop; proscenium.

stage, scene, scenery, the boards; trap, mezzanine floor; flies; floats, footlights; offstage; orchestra.

theatrical costume, theatrical properties.

movie studio, back lot, on location.

part, role, character, dramatis personae; repertoire.

actor, player; stage player, strolling player; stager, performer; mime, mimer; artists; comedian tragedian; tragedienne, Thespian, Roscius; star, movie star, star of stage and screen, superstar, idol, sex symbol; supporting actor, supporting cast; ham, hamfatter; masker.

pantomimist, clown, harlequin, buffo, buffoon, farceur, grimacer, pantaloon, columbine; punchinello; pulcinello, pulcinella; extra, bit-player, walk-on role, cameo appearance; mute, figurante, general utility; super, supernumerary.

mummer, guiser, guisard, gysart, masque.

mountebank, Jack Pudding; tumbler, posture master, acrobat; contortionist; ballet dancer, ballet girl; chorus singer; coryphee, danseuse.

company; first tragedian, prima donna, protagonist; jeune premier; debutant, debutante; light comedian, genteel comedian, low comedian, light comedy, genteel comedy, low comedy; walking gentleman, amoroso, heavy father, ingenue, jeune veuve.

property man, costumier, machinist; prompter, call boy; manager; director, stage manager, acting manager; producer, entrepreneur, impresario.

dramatic author, dramatic writer; play writer, playwright; dramatist, mimographer.

[Verbs] act, play, perform; put on the stage; personate [more]; mimic (imitate) [more]; enact; play a part, act a part, go through a part, perform a part; rehearse, spout, gag, rant; "strut and fret one's hour upon a stage"; tread the boards, tread the stage; come out; star it.

[Adjectives] dramatic; theatric, theatrical; scenic, histrionic, comic, tragic, buskined, farcical, tragicomic, melodramatic, operatic; stagy.

[Adverbs] on the stage, on the boards; on film; before the floats, before an audience; behind the scenes.

[Phrases] fere totus mundus exercet histrionem [Petronius Arbiter]; "suit the action to the word, the word to the action" [Hamlet]; "the play's the thing" [Hamlet]; "to wake the soul by tender strokes of art" [Pope].