Theatre Terms
ADC Theatre Lexicon Archived version of a long list of definitions for many theatre terms.
BC Education Small glossary of theatre terms.
Canton Schools Useful glossary of theatrical terms (PDF).
Childrens’ Creative Theatre Basic glossary of theatre terms for young people.
Community Arts Network Small list of terms relevant to the theatre of Augusto Boal.
David’s Glossary of Theatre Terms Very comprehensive glossary of theatre terms.
East Los Angeles College Theatrepedia Useful glossary of mostly theatre genres and styles.
Fountain Square Players Excellent glossary of mostly technical theatre terms (PDF).
Grand Stage Company Glossary of theatrical terms.
ImprovComedy Excellent glossary of improv terms.
J R Clancy Comprehensive glossary of theatre and stage rigging terms.
Lewis Heniford Useful glossary of various theatre genres.
Lutron Small, but useful collection of technical theatre terms.
McGraw-Hill Useful glossary of theatre terms used in Edwin Wilson’s text The Theatre Experience.
McGraw-Hill Another list of drama terms from publisher McGraw-Hill.
NWAtalent.com Reasonable glossary of brief definitions to key theatre terms.
Oregon Public Education Network Small glossary of theatre terms.
Performing Arts-Dictionary.org Comprehensive dictionary of technical theatre terms (highly recommended).
Performing Arts-Dictionary.org Useful dictionary of comedy terms.
Playwriting 101 Useful list of playwriting terms and definitions.
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch Comprehensive glossary of theatre terms.
SJR Theatre Useful list of theatre terms (Word doc)
Stage Specs Glossary of technical terms for the theatre.
STArt Brief list of theatre terms.
The Ancient Theatre Archive Greek and Roman theatre glossary.
The British Theatre Guide Comprehensive glossary of technical theatre terms.
Theatre On A Shoestring Long list of useful theatre terms (on a not-so-usefully colored website)
Theatrecrafts Excellent glossary of technical terms for the theatre, searchable by letter, word or category.
Thomson Gale Useful glossary of literary terms (many of these common theatre terms/genres etc).
Tupelo Community Theatre Archived version of a useful, but less comprehensive glossary of theatre terms.
Vincent Lighting Systems Comprehensive glossary of stage lighting terms.
Dear Justin
Love your site! Wondering if you could help me… I am doing my Masters degree on thrillers in the theater, that includes the genre, thriller playes. Basically the history of thrillers in the theater up till now. I am searching for everything about thrillers in the theater. But struggling to find cerdit information. Do you have any idea where I can serach, or whom might have written something about this topic.
Greetings Marcelle
South Africa
Marcelle,
Glad you like the website! I haven’t found anything on the thriller genre on the web, possibly because there is so much more information available about this genre in literature, television and film, than for the stage. I presume the thriller genre is akin to horror and murder mystery? If you find anything on the thriller genre, please send me some links and I’ll start up a page on this site for everyone. Regards, Justin.
Aw, a lot of these links are broken! How sad. There should be more theatrical reference sites with definitions out there for us theatre students in uni. Still, ta!
Gillian,
Thanks for alerting me to the dead links on this page. Some were dead, others moved on to new homes and some just took forever to load in the browser. I’ve deleted a few links that no longer exist, found a few dead links archived on the web that still work, located some others at their new addresses and added a few new ones as well. I highly recommend the Performing Arts-Dictionary.org link for technical theatre terms, just added, above.
Justin