stagecraft
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of stagecraft
Explanation
Stagecraft is the art and design of putting on a play. If you're a musical theater buff, you might be inspired by the stagecraft of musicals like Hamilton, The Lion King, and Wicked. The term stagecraft covers everything from the writing of a play to its staging, set design, and lighting. Stagecraft sometimes specifically means "skill at staging plays," and you might even hear it used to refer to film production. The theater director at your school may be inexperienced when it comes to stagecraft, resulting in a production of West Side Story that appears to be set in a dentist's office.
Vocabulary lists containing stagecraft
Lesson 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Performance and illusion are recurring themes: A woman is sawed in half in a depiction of classic stagecraft; elsewhere a juggler manipulates ovoids that each contain an everyday vignette.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026
Renowned for its star-studded line-ups and spectacular stagecraft, Tomorrowland's home edition in Belgium's Boom is a bucket list item for many hardcore ravers.
From Barron's • Nov. 23, 2025
They might not have achieved that goal - Coldplay have already set themselves a ridiculously high bar - but this was stadium stagecraft at its absolute finest.
From BBC • Sep. 12, 2025
But what has changed — and what feels distinctly more insidious — is the migration of this corporate stagecraft into the very institutions entrusted with our care and education.
From Salon • Aug. 14, 2025
The Incorrigibles could not help but think about him as they fashioned their disguises, for Simon was a man of the theater, skilled in the art of stagecraft.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
