Crossword clues for prompter
prompter
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Prompt \Prompt\ (pr[o^]mt; 215), a. [Compar. Prompter; superl. Promptest.] [F. prompt, L. promptus, properly, brought forth (to light or view), hence, visible, evident, at hand, ready, quick, -- p. p. of promere to take or bring forth; pro forth + emere to take. See Redeem. ]
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Ready and quick to act as occasion demands; meeting requirements readily; not slow, dilatory, or hesitating in decision or action; responding on the instant; immediate; as, prompt in obedience or compliance; -- said of persons.
Very discerning and prompt in giving orders.
--Clarendon.Tell him I am prompt To lay my crown at's feet.
--Shak.And you, perhaps, too prompt in your replies.
--Dryden. -
Done or rendered quickly, readily, or immediately; given without delay or hesitation; -- said of conduct; as, prompt assistance.
When Washington heard the voice of his country in distress, his obedience was prompt.
--Ames. -
Easy; unobstructed. [Obs.]
The reception of the light into the body of the building was very prompt.
--Sir H. Wotton.Syn: Ready; expeditious; quick; agile; alert; brisk; nimble.
Usage: Prompt, Ready, Expeditious. One who is ready is prepared to act at the moment. One who is prompt acts at the moment. One who is expeditious carries through an undertaking with constant promptness.
Prompter \Prompt"er\, n.
One who, or that which, prompts; one who admonishes or incites to action.
One who reminds another, as an actor or an orator, of the words to be spoken next; specifically, one employed for this purpose in a theater.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1540s, agent noun from prompt (v.)). Earlier was promptator (mid-15c.).
Wiktionary
a. (en-comparative of: prompt) n. (context theater English) The person who does the prompting.
WordNet
n. someone who assists a performer by providing the next words of a forgotten speech [syn: theater prompter]
a device that displays words for people to read [syn: autocue]
Wikipedia
The prompter (Fr., Ger. souffleur; It. rammentatore, suggeritore) in an opera house gives the singers the opening words of each phrase a few seconds early. Prompts are mouthed silently or hurled lyrically in a half-voice, audible (hopefully) only on stage. (This is in contrast to the prompt in a spoken-drama theater who aids actors who have forgotten their words or lines.)
Opera prompters are traditionally housed in a stuffy wooden box at the center-front edge of the stage, above the orchestra pit. They are visible to the performers and no one else. Technology has brought cool air and small display screens, among other advances, to support their work.
Effective prompting can be a challenge. The American prompter Philip Eisenberg recounts the story at a Maria Callas performance when she needed louder prompts. The famed diva swooped down in a curtsy right in front of the prompter’s box and — mid-curtsy, unnoticed by the audience — gave the Italian command "più forte!" (louder) to her boxed colleague.
Prompters attend all rehearsals, mark up any adjustments or clarifications to the score, and generally "prepare" singers for a role. Their profile is low, and opera program books often credit them only under "musical preparation" or some similar moniker.
Usage examples of "prompter".
New York circle as a representative woman, an important Bostonian, the prompter, colleague, associate of one of the most original girls of the time.
And while Terrel refused to appear on stage, he occasionally took on his old role as prompter, and also helped Laevo mark up any changes to the scripts - even suggesting a few amendments of his own.
The puniest man in camp could cow him with a look, yet none was prompter than he to face the grave perils of breaking a log-jam, and there was no cooler hand than his in the risky labors of stream-driving.
Along with the company, the tireman and his assistants, the prompter, and the stagehands, a couple of dozen friends and wives and lovers milled about where the groundlings would throng in a few hours.
When the actors came I noticed amongst them a young man whose face I did not know, and on my enquiring Rossi told me he was the prompter.
The actors never acknowledged their debt to the prompter, and put down to his account all the mistakes they make.
The prompter was dismissed, but the three actresses began to complain.
These remarks put us all in high spirits, and the ministers of Thalia ended by promising that they would dispense with a prompter.
Over at Teleprompter they would get a printout too, so that by the time he reached the broadcast studio, one floor below, it would be ready for him to read from the prompter screen.
If we knew our parts as well as the 'pater noster' we should be certain to come to a dead stop if the prompter isn't in his box.
Special prompters are always detailed to spots like that, to keep the actors from going astray or missing any cues.
How would the applause sound, he wondered, if I didn't have a few paid prompters in the crowd to lead it?
The prompters were a few merciful men who had perhaps too feelingly considered the facts latterly unearthed, and the result was that evidence was taken which it was hoped might remove the crime in a moral point of view, out of the category of wilful murder, and lead it to be regarded as a sheer outcome of madness.
Necker personally, arraigned his declaration, and proposed one which some of his prompters had put into his hands.
Suddenly Barchenka was scowling down at the prompter screen from which she had been reading her speech.