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Tableau

Performance
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A deliberately held still image created by one or more performers. It can mark a scene, emotion, or turning point in a poem.

Detailed Definition
A tableau is a moment of arranged stillness that allows the audience to read bodies as if they were an image on a page. In group poetry performance, performers may freeze in positions that suggest a family photograph, public monument, battlefield, classroom, or private memory. The still image can introduce a poem, separate sections, or intensify a final line. Because it interrupts movement, tableau gives visual emphasis and invites reflective attention.
Example
Example in poetry:
Several poets hold a frozen pose representing a family dinner while one speaker reads a poem about silence at the table; During a poem on climate change, performers form a still tableau of trees, then slowly lower their arms as the poem describes deforestation; A student group creates a tableau of commuters staring at phones before a poem about urban isolation begins; At the end of a persona poem about a photograph, the reader freezes in the posture described by the poem, making the final image visually memorable
Additional Notes
A tableau is a frozen stage picture that gives the audience time to read a moment visually. It is especially useful at emotional peaks, scene changes, or after an important line.
Also Known As
Frozen Picture Living Picture Stage Picture
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