dramatis

‡ In general, the “dramatis personae” are the participants in an event: “Winston Churchill, Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin were the dramatis personae at the Yalta Conference.

dramatis personae 2002

This usage survives today in the phrase "dramatis personae."

News 2011

[Footnote: Molière, Racine, and Corneille always call the dramatis personae _acteurs_, and not _personnages_.]

The Blunderer 1622-1673 Moli��re 1647

And yet the main characters have not been mentioned here, nor those whom one hesitates to call dramatis personae-the Devil and his retinue, witches, corpses, water nymphs, demons of all aspects and of every stripe, and finally an enormous talking car with a cavalry mustache.

languagehat.com 2009

Pivoting off this revealing comparison, Mr. Brill introduces the dramatis personae of his broader story, including grass-roots educators that readers will meet for the first time and several well-known people, like Michelle Rhee the former head of schools in Washington, D.C.

Learning the Hard Way Joel Klein 2011

Of course, there are exceptions — epilogues that do conclude the action of the story — but most of the epilogues I read these days are nothing more than a biography of the dramatis personae.

Happily Ever After « Write Anything 2009

Among the dramatis personae, the happier individuals are the ones who've acknowledged their checkered histories and waved a cheerful goodbye to them.

David Finkle: First Nighter: "Follies" 2011 a Smash Hit David Finkle 2011

The dramatis personae are friends, relations, and neighbors, evidently engaging in a friendly tug-of-war between two teams of women and children apparently of roughly equal strength — the kind of happy social exercise in which by all accounts my grandfather specialized.

Archive 2009-02-01 2009

But in a little over a month, the dramatis personae in the vigil around the survivor's bed will change.

Gabrielle Giffords's astronaut husband prepares for space mission 2011

They start off instead with excessive scene-setting, metaphysical speculation, introducing nonessential dramatis personae, throat-clearing, etc.

The Fine Art of Where to Start Darin Strauss 2012