Glossary

stage directions

Subject: 

  • English First Additional Language
  • English Home Language

instructions to actors and directors of a play or film. These directions appear in a film or play script but are not the words to be said by the actors. Rather they tell the actors how to say the words, e.g. in a rage with anger, what to do with their bodies while they are talking, and where all the actors should be doing at different times during any scene. Stage directions also include details about how the stage should be arranged, e.g. a dishevelled country pub with a bar counter with three half-broken bar stools perched up against it. In the corner is a brightly coloured jukebox, etc.