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. Unstructured theatrical events on street corners - bus stops and anywhere else people gathered






2. One of the most popular Kabuki and Bunraku playwrights - who - like Shakespeare - wrote crowd-pleasing plays that combined poetry and prose in dramatic tales of comedy - tragedy - love - and war






3. Writers who felt science was not adequate to describe the full range of human experience - and their writings stressed instinct - intuition - and feeling






4. Wrote 'high comedies' which were cerebral socially relevant plays that had an intellectual scope so vast they forced audiences to reassess their values; Man and Superman (1903) & The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891)






5. The sung words






6. A dialogue that captures the incoherence - broken language - and pauses of modern speech; usually marked by surreal distortion and impending danger; from writing of Franz Kafka






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






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






9. Type of theatre greatly influenced by Buddhism and Shinto; originates in ritual






10. Studied the history of class conflict






11. Musicals that are mostly singing and have less spoken dialogue; similar to operattas - but thier tone is often much darker and more dramatic






12. Comic interludes performed during the intermissions of opera






13. Form of drama that dominated theatre in India for a thousand years; named for the ancient Indian language in which its plays are performed; combine the natural and the supernatural - the believable and unbelievable






14. Light opera - differs from 'grand opera' because it has a frivolous - comic theme - some spoken dialogue - a melodramatic story - and usually a little dancing; The Mikado (1885)






15. 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






16. Instead of learning how to conjure real emotions - actors of Sanskrit drama studied for many years to learn representations of emotions through:






17. Developed from the dance-prayers of Buddhist priests; has five possible subjects: the deities - the deeds of heroic samurai - women - insanity - and famous legends






18. Comic operas that mixed popular songs of the day with spoken dialogue






19. Grew up in poverty and put himself through medical school and set up free clinics in Russia to help the poor; The Seagull (1896) - Uncle Vanya (1899) Three Sisters (1901) & The Cherry Orchard (1904); placed on stage the lazy chaos of lives crushed by






20. Peking Opera was dramatically altered when:






21. Have become living traditions that are handed down from father to son

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22. Book - music - and lyrics






23. 1. theatre has an actor who plays a character - theatre is artificial - and 2. theatre usually has a story with a conflict - conflict is key to all drama






24. French Enlightenment playwright; was an inventor and thinker who spent countless hours at the leading intellectual salons of France; most famous plays are The Barber of Seville - and The Marriage of Figaro - his plays reflect the attitudes of the Enl






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






26. Said that the free enterprise system is seriously flawed and is a cause of great human misery because it exploits the poor






27. Any artist or work of art that is experimental - innovative or unconventional; some styles would be symbolism - expressionism - futurism - Dadaism - surrealism - and absurdism






28. Set out to break all the neoclassical rules - attacked the three unities






29. Six characters take on life of their own when the playwright fails to complete the play in which they were supposed to appear






30. Most famous surrealist and was a French writer and director; studied Asian religions - mysticism - and ancient cultures; declared theatre should should wake the nerves and heart; argued that proscenium arch theatres create a barrier between the audie






31. Big-time vaudeville who performed a series of lavish musical reviews on Broadway






32. Showed middle-class characters finding happiness and true love (Enlightenment)






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






34. Built in Venice in 1637






35. One of the most valuable historical records of Indian theatre; an encyclopedic book of dramatic theory and practice; has 37 chapters and covers every aspect of classical Indian drama - also a treatise on dramatic theory and philosophy - states that t






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






37. The German equivalent to Diderot; was a playwright - critic - and Enlightenment philosopher Who wrote tragedies and comedies about the middle-class; his greatest play was Nathan the Wise






38. Including operetta - developed out of intermezzi






39. One of the most valuable historical records of Indian theatre; an encyclopedic book of dramatic theory and practice; has 37 chapters and covers every aspect of classical Indian drama - also a treatise on dramatic theory and philosophy - states that t






40. Plays without music






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






42. Comedies forced Victorian society to reexamine its hypocrisies; Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) - A WOman of No Importance (1893) - An Ideal Husband (1894); advocated 'art for art's sake'; The Importance of Being Ernest






43. Third part of a Noh play - the protagonist appears as a new self - and the cause of torment is resolved






44. Third part of a Noh play - the protagonist appears as a new self - and the cause of torment is resolved






45. Writes the music






46. Used giant puppets and actors to enact parables denouncing the Vietnam War and materialism






47. Used giant puppets and actors to enact parables denouncing the Vietnam War and materialism






48. Musicals with a particularly well-developed story and characters






49. Africa's greatest living playwright; born in Nigeria; plays combine symbolism - mysticism - beautiful dialogue - and they make strong political points; plays are deeply rooted in African myths - dance - and rituals but also influenced by Western dram






50. 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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