399 articles
Sanjana Kapoor (संजना कपूर)
Sanjana Kapoor (संजना कपूर), also Sanjna Kapoor, born 1967, daughter of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal, is an Indian theatre personality who ran Prithvi Theatre 1990–2012 and co-founded Junoon in 2012.
Santino Fontana
Santino Fontana (born 1982, Stockton, California) is an American Tony-winning stage and screen actor; voice of Prince Hans in Frozen and Greg in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Sapphira Cristál
Sapphira Cristál (O'Neill Nichol Haynes), American drag queen, classically trained opera singer, and composer; RuPaul's Drag Race Season 16 runner-up and Miss Congeniality, six-octave range, debut album The Cristál Ball.
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (Henriette-Rosine Bernard, 1844–1923), French tragedienne and theater manager called "la Voix d'or" and "la Divine"; starred at the Comédie-Française and Odéon, toured the world nine times in America, and became the first major stage actress to star in films.
Sarah Stiles
Sarah Stiles, American stage and screen actress born 1979 in Massachusetts, two-time Tony nominee for Hand to God and Tootsie, known for Avenue Q, Billions, Get Shorty, The Crew, and voicing Spinel in Steven Universe.
Scenic design
Scenic design, also called set design or stage design, is the creation of scenery, furniture, and props for plays and musicals. Rooted in Appia and Craig's New Stagecraft, it now spans drafting, models, lighting, and digital projection.
Scenic painting
Scenic painting is the craft of painting theatrical scenery, backcloths, flats, floors, and props, traditionally in distemper (glue and pigment) on linen, now in vinyl acrylics, using paint frames, gridding, scumbling, glazing, and aging, and differing physically from projection in its response to stage light.
Scholarship on acting theory
Scholarship on acting theory is the academic study of acting as a practice and cultural phenomenon, covering histories, semiotic and phenomenological accounts, and studies of performance traditions.
Scrim (material)
Scrim (theatrical gauze): open-weave fabric, opaque when front-lit and transparent when backlit, used for stage reveals and ghost effects; also coarse cloth for upholstery and sail making; sharkstooth gauze is the standard type.
Sean Mathias
Sean Mathias, Welsh theatre and film director born 1956 in Swansea, directed Bent (stage and film), the Tony-nominated Indiscretions, and McKellen-Stewart Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land; Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Haymarket and Windsor.
Sebastien Stella
Sébastien Stella (Seb), French choreographer and director (born 1971), creator of P!nk's Funhouse Tour aerial routines and circus choreography for Water for Elephants; ex-Cirque du Soleil 'O' performer and founder of Espace Cirque Moorea.
Semiotics and sociology of the actor
The semiotics of the actor is a research tradition treating the stage actor as a producer of organized signs, begun by the Prague Linguistic Circle and surveyed again in 2025.
Set construction
Set construction is the practical craft of designing and building physical scenery for theater, film, and television. It covers planning, materials, and safety for the scenic department.
Sharon Washington (actress)
Sharon Washington (born 1959) is an American actress and playwright, a Yale School of Drama MFA who grew up in a NYPL custodial apartment, wrote and performs the solo play Feeding the Dragon, appeared in The Scottsboro Boys and Joker, and was nominated for a 2023 Tony for New York, New York.
Sheila Atim
Sheila Atim MBE (born 1991) is a Ugandan-born British actress, singer, composer, and playwright who won Olivier Awards in 2018 and 2022 and appeared in The Woman King.
Shelley Plimpton
Shelley Plimpton (born 1947, Rosebury, Oregon) is an American actress who created Crissy in Hair Off-Broadway 1967 and on Broadway 1968, singing "Frank Mills"; mother of Martha Plimpton with Keith Carradine.
Shoba Narayan (actress)
Shoba Narayan is an American actress, singer, and Bharatanatyam dancer on Broadway: Great Comet (2016), Eliza Hamilton on tour, Nessarose in Wicked, Jasmine in Aladdin, and the voice of Emily in Hazbin Hotel. Distinct from the Indian author of the same name.
Showgirl
Showgirl: a female performer in musical theater or revue, in flamboyant feathered, sequined costume. Line runs from Paris Folies Bergere through Ziegfeld Follies (1907-1931) to Las Vegas (Lido de Paris, 1958; Jubilee!, closed 2016).
Sierra Boggess
Sierra Boggess (born 1982, Denver) is an American Broadway and West End actress and soprano, Olivier-nominated for originating Christine Daae in Love Never Dies and known for Ariel in The Little Mermaid and the Phantom 25th Anniversary concert.
Simon McBurney
Simon McBurney (born 1957, Cambridge) is an English actor, writer, director, and co-founder of Complicité, known for Mnemonic, A Disappearing Number, The Encounter, opera work, and the Yomiuri and Konrad Wolf prizes.
Sophia Anne Caruso
Sophia Anne Caruso (born 2001, Spokane, Washington) is an American actress and singer known for originating Lydia Deetz in Broadway's Beetlejuice, her Broadway debut in Blackbird, Lazarus, The School for Good and Evil, and One Piece's Miss Goldenweek.
Sophie Hunter
Sophie Hunter (born 1978) is a British theatre and opera director, playwright, and producer; directorial debut The Terrific Electric (Barbican, 2007), Associate Director on Enron, producer of The End We Start From, and wife of Benedict Cumberbatch.
Sound effect
A sound effect is a recorded, performed, or generated sound other than speech or music used to support performance. Covers ancient thunder machines, foley, electronic cue playback (QLab), and AI generation.
Special effect
Special effect: an illusion created live or on camera, beyond ordinary scenery or lighting. Covers theatre classifications (mechanical, pyrotechnical, electrical), Shakespearean and Victorian stagecraft, early cinema, fog safety, and modern projection and tracking systems.
St. Clair Bayfield
St. Clair Bayfield (John St. Clair Roberts, 1875–1967), English-born Broadway character actor, common-law husband and manager of singer Florence Foster Jenkins from 1909 to 1944; namesake of the Actors' Equity Foundation's St. Clair Bayfield Award.
Staffan Westerberg
Staffan Westerberg (1934–2026) was a Swedish director, playwright, actor, and puppeteer best known for the surrealistic children's television program Vilse i pannkakan, broadcast by Sveriges Television in 1975.
Stage (theatre)
Stage (theatre): the defined performance area of a theatre, arranged for sightlines, acoustics, scenery, and performer movement. Main configurations are proscenium, thrust, and theatre in the round, differing in where the audience sits.
Stage lighting
Stage lighting: the craft of controlling intensity, distribution, angle, and color of light on a performance stage for visibility, emphasis, mood, and composition. Spans theatre, concerts, and film/TV; history runs from gas (1816) and limelight (1837) through DMX512 and LED fixtures.
Stage management
Stage management: the theatrical discipline of coordinating rehearsals, documentation, and live performance. Key elements: the prompt book, cue calling ("LX 12, go"), paper tech, the SM/DSM/ASM team, UK SM NOS 2026 standards, and Stern & Gold's standard 13th-edition text.
Stagecraft
Stagecraft: the technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production, covering scenery, lighting, costumes, props, sound, rigging, and stage management, distinct from scenography, with roots in Greek and Renaissance theatre and extended uses in music performance and ILM's virtual production system.