Callboard
The theater bulletin or chalk board where rehearsal schedules, work calls and general announcements are placed by the director or stage manager. Also spelled Call-Board.

Catwalk
Any upper narrow bridge or platform that can run along the front or down the sides of a stage. These high walkways are used for getting to lights, pulling lines, etc. Also called a fly gallery.

Canvas
The usual material used to cover flat frames as a lighter and cheaper alternative to plywood. Canvas is also used for painted drops auch as advertisement curtains.

Cellar
The open space beneath a stage's floor.

Center Stage
(1) The center area of the stage.
(2) To take the prominent position in a particular scene.

Character Specialty
A performer who patterns his entire routine around a stage personality. Examples include Will Rogers' cowboy style trick roping and humorous patter, East Indian style fakers eating fire and resting on a bed of nails, etc. A character specialty is a form of Specialty Act.

Choir
A chorus, usually in formal attire or robes, that sings classical and/or religious music.

Chorus
(1) In Ancient Greek theater, the group of singers/dancers who performed choral odes commenting on the play's action but who not generally interacted with the actors during the scenes.
(2) An organized group of singers who sing in unison. Such a group often sings in conjunction with soloists in operas and oratotios.
(3) See Chorus Line.

Chorus Line
A group of singers/dancers that perform numbers in musicals, vaudeville shows and revues.

Chronicle Play
A play loosely based upon historical themes or events, consisting of a series of short scenes arranged in chronological order. Also know as Chronicle History.

Classical Theater
Performing plays which have been established as masterpieces for centuries, such as Greek or Roman tragedies or the works of William Shakespeare.

Closet Drama
(1) A play intended to be read rather than performed.
(2) A narrative poem cast as a play but meant to be read aloud to the audience, such as John Milton's Samson Agonistes, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust or Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

Clown White
White facial make-up, originally a form of grease paint, used to make performers' skin white so they could play characters such as 'Caucasians', clowns or ghosts.

Comedy
A dramatic yet light form of play which uses wit, humor and satire that concludes with a happy or cheerful ending. A central motif is often the good characters triumphing over adversity to win in the conclusion.

Comedy of Manners
A comedy satirizing the manners and customs of fashionable high society, often focusing on the rich's amorous and foolish intrigues.

Commedia Dell'Arte
A popular Italian comedy style developed during the 16th to 18th centuries in which masked entertainers improvised from standard plots using stock characters. Although considered highbrow, references to events of the days were often slipped in. Such stock characters included Pantalone (Pantaloon), the lecherous miserly nobleman who was easily outwitted by the lovers; Dr. Graziano, the amorous and gullible comic lawyer or doctor who was noted for his malapropisms; Capitano (Scaramouch), the braggart warrior and devout coward; the Zanni, servants and lower classed folks who were shrewder, wittier and more impudent than their 'masters'; etc. See Harlequin.

Concert Saloon
1850's to 1890's beer parlors whose entertainment programs were always vulgar if not totally obscene.

Cooch
See Hootchy-Kootchy.

Cookies
See Gobo.

Cooler
A vaudeville style act done between showings of a motion picture. These were performed both to give the audience a live show between films and to allow time for early movie projectors to cool.

Cothurnus (pl. Cothurni)
(1) A high, thick-soled boot or buskin worn by actors in ancient Greek and Roman tragedies. A forerunner of Elevator shoes, they were used to make an actor taller and, thus, seem larger than life.
(2) A greatly elevated dramatic style of tragedy or grave tragic acting.

Coulisse
(1) The side space between wing flats or leg drops.
(2) See Wings.

Cross-Dressing
A male performer is attired as a female. The acceptance for this goes back to a time when only male actors were allowed to perform on stage, such as in the Greek or Shakespearean theater. Later it was used in pantos, British music halls and vaudeville for broad comic purposes. Cross-dressing is still a plot development used in movies (Some Like It Hot), television (Bosom Buddies)and plays (Charlie's Aunt). Modern cross-dressing is rarely employed to fool an audience into believing they are watching a real woman. Serious forms of cross-dressing, such as when a man impersonates a noted woman celebrity or creates a genuine female alter ego, is called female impersonation. Since the 20th Century, women cross-dressing as men has also become prevalent, be it in fashion or entertainment (Victor/Victoria).

Crosslighting
Lighting used to shine across the paths of the main lights to illuminate areas left dark. Crosslighting is employed mostly to soften or eliminate shadows that can appear on scenery.

Curtain Warmers
Colored striplights along the stage's apron whose only duty is to splash some brightness onto the curtain before the show, during the intermissions and after the show. During the show, they are turned off. See Footlights.

Cutouts
Irregular areas cut out from flat solid frameworks, such as balcony railings or tree branches.

Cyclorama
A large curved curtain or screen used in a stage setting's background. Often they are blue or black to represent the sky.

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Glossary Index - Main Menu - Overture

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A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M

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N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

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