"You must say paragon. A paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught."

Throughout the week of Shakespeare Camp, we'll surely be throwing around a lot of terminology. We've compiled a listing of jargon here. We try

• Actingarea :: Area within the stage that the actors can be seen from the audience. This includes everything from the angle leading into the wings to the aisles of the audience. Anything that is seen from the audience is an actingarea.
• Aisles :: Open passages between the seating within the audience.
• Apron :: Section of the stage that extends into the auditorium.
• Backstage :: Area that remains unseen to the audience.
• Blackout  :: Turning out all stagelights and throwing the stage into darkness.
• Blocking :: Arranging the movements made by the actors throughout the scenes. The term of "blocking" originated with William Gilbert, who would plan out each step of his performances using small blocks made from wood.
• Cue :: A prompt of sorts for lines and actions.
• Downstage :: The area of the stage nearest to the audience.
• Dressrehearsal :: Complete run through, with everything and anything.
• House :: The audience and auditorium.
• Houselights :: Common lighting which is often faded before the performance.
• Offstage :: The area that is not on stage.
• Props :: Any item or object that isn't part of the scenery or costuming.
• Spotlight :: Light that solely shines down on to a given area of the stage.
• Stage left/right :: Sides of the stage dependent on the actors view.
• House left/right :: Sides of the stage dependent on the audience view.
• Projecting :: Speaking loudly without yelling or screaming so the audience can hear you.
• Stagemanagers :: Responsible for charging and arranging all actors and props.
• Runners :: People charged with working through any necessary tasks.

If any of you know of any other terms that we didn't detail here, please share it with us and leave a comment!!