Dada

A modernist "anti-art" art movement initially associated with Zurich,Tristan Tzara, and the first World War, but which was also taken up by others elsewhere. Informed by a disgusted rejection of the civilization that produced that war, Dadaist artworks and cabaret-style performances attacked all the traditional values of European art by aggressively championing nonsense, randomness, vulgarity, and anarchy. Along with the Italian Futurists, Dada expanded the language of modern theatre with its use of noise, chaos, spontaneity, and with simultaneous, multi-media "happenings" in unconventional venues. See modernism.

Determinism

The idea that behaviour is shaped in advance, especially by the laws of heredity (genetics and the family) and environment (social and political factors). In contrast to a belief in personal agency, determinism implies that humans are not completely responsible for their actions. Determinism in drama is associated particularly with nineteenth-century writers such as Emile Zola, who argued against the moralism of melodrama, and for an objectively scientific study of humanity. See also Naturalism.

Dialect

A local variation of a given spoken language, such as Cockney English or Cajun French.

Dialectic Argument

A mode of thought, associated with Socrates and with the nineteenth-century philosophers Hegel and Marx, in which terms are understood to contain their opposites, so that each one, being partial and only half the truth, should be annulled into a higher synthesis. The opposite of binary thinking (right or wrong, on or off), a dialectical argument has three terms (thesis, antithesis, synthesis), and says "yes, but also…, and therefore…" Brecht's "alienation effect" was based on, and intended to induce, dialectic thinking.

Dialogue

Words spoken by actors, usually implying the exchange of language between two or more speakers.

Didactic Theatre

Dramatic performances intended to teach a particular moral, political, or religious lesson to the audience.

Director

The individual or team responsible for interpreting, casting, and rehearsing a play, and for making creative decisions regarding its staging. Before the twentieth century, these functions were performed not by a person who specialized in direction but by the leading actor in a troupe or by the playwright. See also mise en scène.

Dithyramb

A type of poem sung and danced in ancient Greece to celebrate the wine-god, Dionysus, and from which tragedy seems in some sense to have emerged. Dithyrambs performed by 50 -member men's and boys' choirs competed for prizes during the Athenian theatre festivals (see also choral lyric).

Double-Casting

Giving an actor two (or more) parts to play within a given production.

Double Entendre

An utterance meant to be heard in two ways, one innocently literal and the other obscene or sexually suggestive. It is an important technique in comedy, especially comedy of manners.

Downstage-Centre

A position on stage near the audience and halfway between each side wing. In order to aid the perspective illusion of painted scenery, theatre stages used to be raked upwards, with the horizon-line higher at the back of the stage than at the front. To move "downstage" is therefore to come closer to the audience.

Dramaturgy

The art or principles of playwriting.

Dumb-Show

The silent representation of an action through physical mimicry and gestures only.


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