Below are a list of terms that describe the basic elements in drama. Read and familiarise yourself with these terms as they will be referred to very often in your drama lessons.

a.) Focus- The frame that directs attention to what is most significant and intensifies the dramatic meaning. There are 3 areas of intense focus, the scene, the actor and the audience. This is what grabs the audiences' attention and channels their attention.

b.) Tension- this is the force that engages the performer and audience in the dramatic action. 

c.) Space- the personal and general space used by the actors. 

d.) Mood- the atmosphere created. Mood concentrates the dramatic action and moves the audience in emotionally appropriate directions.

e.) Role- Taking on a role requires performers to accept the physicality, attitudes and beliefs of the characters they are playing. 

f.) Symbol- the use of objects, gestures or persons to represent meaning beyond the literal. 

g.) Exposition- is at the beginning of a play where the scene is set.

h.) Denouement- is at the end of the play when there is solution or outcome of the events that took place before.

i.) Climax- is the turning point in the story and the most intense part.

j.) Plot- the action or sequence of events in a story.

k.) Scene- a division of a play, usually part of an act.

l.) Staging- to present, represent, or exhibit on or as on stage.

m.) Theme- the statement about life a particular work is trying to get across.

n.) tone- the overall feeling,or effect, created by a writer's words. It may be serious, humorous or satirical.