Dramatis personæ

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For the poetry collection see Dramatis Personae. For the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode see Dramatis Personae (DS9 episode).

Dramatis personæ is a Latin phrase (literally 'the persons of the drama'), recorded in English since 1730 but in international use, for the characters in the plot of a play, and is used to refer collectively to the characters represented in a dramatic work (various forms of theater, but also on screen) to be played by the acting cast members, whether they act or use some other form (such as puppetry), or even if they are animals. Off-stage characters are not considered part of the dramatis personæ.

The dramatis personæ is also the list of character names at the beginning of a written play. In ancient Greece and in Shakespearian plays (as well as many other old drama) the names were listed in order of hierarchy, with gods at the top, peasants at the bottom. The female characters were listed below all the male characters.

Nowadays it is more customary to give a cast list, which also has next to each name the name of the actor playing the part or his stage name; an alternative type rather lists the names of the actors who played the parts originally. In order not to give away vital parts of the plot some names may be altered, for example mixed up with another name. Some minor characters may be listed just as the actors who perform the parts.

[edit] Other uses

Dramatis personæ is also used in the legal industry to identify the list of key people in a case. This is to minimise variations of names referred to throughout the matter. Vladimir Propp in his book, The Morphology of the Folktale uses the term dramatis personae when referring to the protagonist/hero of fairy tales, specifically the Russian tales of Alexander Afanasiev.