The correct answer is b. information about what is taking place on the stage.
Indeed, theater as an art form is the oldest ancestor to cinema. It is thus an audiovisual medium and when one reads a stage play, one always must remember that it was written above all to be played on stage. There is not only meaning in the written words of a play but on the elements that are used on stage to reinforce and diversify such themes and meaning.
A good example of this, are the stage conventions of Elizabethan theater:
• The use of props (accessories). They always symbolized an idea, a social class or the nature of an action. It is very important to always pay attention to objects being used in a play. Look for them in the text or the dialogs. Ex:
A dagger would always be used by a traitor or a felon and only in murders (the bad character in the play).
A sword was the noble weapon and would always be used by the hero and only in duels.
• Important events always occur on the center stage.
• There was a tiring-house wall (the theather backstage). Actors would always spy on others from here, standing at the space behind the curtain.
• There was a door on each side and depending on the side and the way and the number of characters that would enter/exit then. The signification would vary:
If characters exit the stage by going through a door located on the same side it meant they were going to the same place.
If characters entered the stage through the same door it meant they were either part of the same family or friends.
If characters came in through separate doors it meant they were rivals or from opposing camps.
• Upstage: above, in the back there was a space where events were depicted sometimes. If played here, these events were either unimportant or less important. However, some characters appearing here would be Kings or divine figures.
• Pillars: they held the roof (called The Heavens) above stage. They could represent trees or be used as visible, hiding places where characters would hide.
• Trap doors: there were trap doors on the floor of the center stage, which acted as gateways to the underworld (demons and ghosts of dead ones would come through them).