Theatre Terms
beginners: Actors appearing in the first scene
Hamlet’s father: In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s father appears only as a ghost, in 1.1, 1.4, 1.5 and 3.4. While he is seen by several characters in the play, the ghost speaks in only two scenes and only Hamlet hears him.
paint store: A room for storing (flammable) paint
Richard III : Shakespeare’s 1597 history play about how Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of Gloucester (1452– 1485), becomes King Richard III (r.1483–1485) by killing or arranging to kill everyone who stands in his way of the throne, including the Duke of Buckingham, Richard’s closest ally and biggest supporter, who helps put him on the throne and is in Richard’s good graces until he balks at Richard’s plan to kill his nephews, and the Duke of Clarence, Richard’s brother George, killed in part by being drowned in a vat of wine.
scenery dock: A large space next to the stage for storing, loading and/or staging set pieces and equipment
stalls: Seats on the main floor of a theater auditorium; a balcony or gallery is overhead, and boxes (if any) would surround the stalls
tabs: The curtain of a theater, hung just behind the proscenium arch; a shortened form of a tableau curtain
weekly rep: Repertory theaters that would put up a new production every week or two, most common in Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century
Other References
ballcock: A valve, like in a toilet, that automatically regulates the amount of liquid in a tank via a hollow ball and lever attached to the tap
Madeira: A reference to either the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Portugal/ west of Morocco or the fortified wine made there. Madeira wines are fortified with brandy and were very popular in colonial America because of Madeira’s location on trade routes.
Marbella: A famous resort city of about 140,000 on the Costa del Sol in Andalusia in southern Spain, about 50 miles from Gibraltar. It’s surrounded by the Sierra Blancas on the north and the Mediterranean Sea on the south, which provides miles of sandy beaches.
Myra Hess: Dame Myra Hess (1890–1965) was a British classical pianist. During World War II, including through the German bombing of London, she organized a series of almost daily lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery in order to boost British morale. Hess herself sometimes played, and by the time the war ended, more than 1,300 concerts had been given.
Oxfam: An international non-governmental organization working to end poverty. Founded in 1942 as Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, the organization now works in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Sardinia: An island off the west coast of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. Its name is thought to derive from a Sea People called the Sherdan who settled the island around the 12th or 13th century B.C.E. (during the Bronze age).
The sardine: a small fish in the herring family, was and may still be abundant around Sardinia, which is how it received its name. The European version is found in the Mediterranean Sea and on the Atlantic coast from Britain to Spain. Sardines can be used for bait, as well as sold fresh, dried, smoked, salted or canned in oil for eating.
