mise en scène

Noun

mise en scène (plural mises en scène or mise en scènes)

1. A physical environment; surroundings.
   • The smoking-room proper, with its mise en scène of Turkish divans, narghilehs, brass coffee-trays, and other Oriental properties, is no longer considered a necessity in the modern house; […]1897, Edith Wharton, Ogden Codman Jr., “The Library, Smoking-room, and “Den””, in The Decoration of Houses, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 151
   • Keeping the bird low in my field of view emphasized its early post-liftoff flight path and allowed the lake and its far bank to add layers of color to the mise-en-scène.2021, Peter Cavanagh, “9. Cranes”, in 100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight, →ISBN, page 218
2. The arrangement of props and actors on a stage or for film.
   • Although this mise en scène may sound like a contrived “Twilight Zone” setup, it provides Mr. Powers with the perfect opportunity to show off his virtuosic skills as a writer[…]1995 June 27, Michiko Kakutani, “Playing Pygmalion to a Hermeneutic Computer”, in New York Times
   • For reasons explained in the previous volume, noticeably absent are mises en scène representing productions at the Théâtre-Italien.1998: H. Robert Cohen, Original Staging Manuals for Ten Parisian Operatic Premières, 1824–1843, page xiii (Pendragon Press; →ISBN, 0945193610)