Test your basic knowledge |

Theatre Basics

Subject : performing-arts
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Sell over $1billion worth of tickets annually - majority of those are for musicals






2. Including operetta - developed out of intermezzi






3. More serious plot and theme; West Side Story (1957)






4. A form of musical entertainment featuring bawdy songs - dancing women - and sometimes striptease






5. Brought Western-style theatre to Africa to dramatize Bible stories in order to win converts






6. What western theatre is often called:






7. No spoken dialogue - entirely sung; comes from the Latin word 'work' and may have originally meant 'works in music' or 'musical works for the stage'; first operas were in Italy in late 1500s






8. Russian playwright whose play The Lower Depths (1902) took look at people living in cellar of Moscow flophouse






9. The men who play female roles are called:






10. Most famous American expressionist playwright who won Nobel Prize for Literature (1936); A touch of the Poet (1935) - The Iceman Cometh (1939) - A Long Day's Journey into Night (1956) & A Moon for the Misbegotten (1952); The Hairy Ape (1952)

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11. Would agitate the masses - attack the spectators' sensibilities and purge people of their destructive tendencies; wanted stylized - ritualized performances - not realism - which they felt restricted the theatre to the study of psychological problems






12. Peking Opera was dramatically altered when:






13. Where more experts agree that human beings came into existence






14. A permanent - professional theatre outside NYC; founded in 1947 by Margo Jones; stage new plays alongside commercial hits and historical plays; appeal to the intellectual audiences that Hollywood seldom serves






15. Named new 'photographic' realism NATURALISM and his phrase 'slice of life' is quoted description of it






16. Kabuki borrowed many of these movements to make Kabuki acting highly stylized and almost puppet-like






17. Closely tied to ritual - and it uses color - dance - song - and movements to exaggerate - stylize - and symbolically represent life






18. Bandits discuss rival systems of goverment while waiting for an attack






19. Two types of traditional Japanese theatre






20. Improved the daguerreotype and created modern photography; was also an English physicist






21. The audience remains alienated from the performance so they could critically consider the play's themes






22. Contemporary form of Sanskrit Theatre - dramatized version of the Hindu epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata






23. Romanian-born French playwright best categorized as a hilarious absurdist; The Bald Soprano (1949) & Rhinoceros (1959)






24. First female theatre manager in London; was also an actor and singer; managed first theatre to have a box set; Olympic Theatre in London






25. Play that takes place in a mental institution - the audience sits on the stage with the actor-patients






26. All lines are sung - usually to grand classical music; Madama Butterfly (1904)






27. What western theatre is often called:






28. Plays about the issues of the day that were in Manhattan neighborhoods






29. By Swedish Playwright August Strindberg; fourteen-act play that follows the disconnected logic of a dream






30. French philosopher and playwright; The Flies (1943) & No Exit (1944)






31. One of the most important French philosophers of the Age of Reason - wrote and edited the first encyclopedia; was also a dramatist who penned books on the techniques of acting; authored The Paradox of Acting - a book that attached the pompous declama






32. A program of unrelated singing - dancing and comedy numbers






33. A medley of the show's songs played as a preview; usually the beginning of a traditional musical; lets the audience know that it's time to stop talking because the performance is about to begin






34. Feature the work of a director-choreographer






35. Theatre was not seen as being of value to society - so plays were not an important part of:






36. One of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment - French poet - essayist - and playwright whose writing often got him in trouble with the church; built a theatre on his own estate so he could freely present his plays






37. The first 'talkie' movie; featured white actor Al Jolson in blackface performing in a minstrel show






38. An early form of theatre; it used theatrical techniques such as song - dance - and characterization - but it was still firmly rooted in religion






39. Life has no purpose and they confused and antagonized audiences by refusing to adhere to a coherent set of principles - mirroring the madness of the world






40. Divided into fatalist - hilarious and existentialist






41. Second part of a Noh play - protagonist performs a dance that expresses his or her concern






42. Would be removed in the box set to give audience a real life look into the scene






43. Writes the book






44. History plays about major political events of the past - domestic plays about the loves and lives of merchants and townspeople - and dance-dramas about the world of spirits and animals






45. Holds that human beings are naturally alone - without purpose or mission - in a universe that has no God






46. More serious plot and theme; West Side Story (1957)






47. Type of Islamic theatre which is created by lighting two-dimensional figures and casting their shadows on a screen; the audience watches the silhouettes while a narrator tells a story






48. Exposed the squalid living conditions of the urban poor and explores scandalous topics like poverty - venereal disease and prostitution; 'Sordid Realism'






49. The first modern musical; a melodrama about black magic staged in NYC in 1866






50. Argued that the prime function of playwrights is to expose the social and moral evils of their time