Looking for a technical term

[George J.]

I'm posting to this group for the first time because I've been looking for a technical term, and haven't been able to find it on the web. I'm looking for the term to call the names that appear ore the lines in a play, indicating which character is speaking those lines.

I've been privately thinking of them as "cues," but I'd like to know the actual term in use so I can talk about them.

[Robert Engel]

On Monday, November 6, 2023 at 11:05:15 PM UTC-5, George J. wrote:
> I'm posting to this group for the first time because I've been looking for a technical term, and haven't been able to find it on the web. I'm looking for the term to call the names that appear ore the lines in a play, indicating which character is speaking those lines.
>
> I've been privately thinking of them as "cues," but I'd like to know the actual term in use so I can talk about them.

I would imagine it would just be "Character Name."

Referencing at least from the screenplay world the following page:
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay/

Robert

[Michael Kallweitt]

George J. Da...@news.novabbs.com (George J. Dance) <George> wrote:

> I'm posting to this group for the first time because I've been looking
> for a technical term, and haven't been able to find it on the web.

You're welcome! There's not much traffic in here as Usenet has been on a
decline for years, and most of us artist ppl aren't into tech anyway.

> I'm looking for the term to call the names that appear ore the lines
> in a play, indicating which character is speaking those lines.

AFAIK (English is not my mother language) there is no specific term for
this, apart from "character [name]".

> I've been privately thinking of them as "cues," but I'd like to know
> the actual term in use so I can talk about them.

A cue is a trigger for some action or effect (light, sound) to happen at
a specific moment. The term is also used in contemporary dance.


--
michael.kallweitt.art
»Meine Stücke wachsen nicht von vorne nach hinten, sondern von innen nach
außen.« Pina Bausch https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pina_Bausch#Inszenierung

[George J.]

Michael Kallweitt wrote:

> George J. Da...@news.novabbs.com (George J. Dance) <George> wrote:

>> I'm posting to this group for the first time because I've been looking
>> for a technical term, and haven't been able to find it on the web.

> You're welcome! There's not much traffic in here as Usenet has been on a
> decline for years, and most of us artist ppl aren't into tech anyway.

I understand about the decline. I normally post on rec.arts.poems and alt.arts.poetry.comments, where the same thing has happened.

>> I'm looking for the term to call the names that appear ore the lines
>> in a play, indicating which character is speaking those lines.

> AFAIK (English is not my mother language) there is no specific term for
> this, apart from "character [name]".

I haven't even been able to find any mention of one, so I suspect you're right that there isn't one.

>> I've been privately thinking of them as "cues," but I'd like to know
>> the actual term in use so I can talk about them.

> A cue is a trigger for some action or effect (light, sound) to happen at
> a specific moment. The term is also used in contemporary dance.

Fair enough. The problem is that it's hard to talk about them without having a name for them. Here, let me tell you why I wanted the name; and, if you're interested, feel free to comment.

Some poets have written long poems in the style of plays; we're currently debating whether one 19th-century poem is a play or not. Some insist it does, because the poet's divided it into Acts. My rejoinder would be that it still isn't in the style of a play, because it lacks those "character [name]" tags; the story isn't told by the characters in dialogue, but by an anonymous narrator. I'm just looking for the best way to state that point.