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. 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






2. 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)






3. French philosopher often called the Father of the Romantic movement; argued that people could find happiness in a 'state of nature' and that they should learn from nature rather than the artificial and corrupted teachings of society






4. Play by Wole Soyinka; celebrates Nigerian independence but also warns against returning to Nigeria's violent past






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






6. The orchestrated melodies






7. Musicals that feature a particular band's songs






8. Including operetta - developed out of intermezzi






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






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






11. Comic interludes performed during the intermissions of opera






12. The first all-black show to pay at a top Broadway theatre






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






14. 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






15. A synthesis of music - dance - acting - and acrobatics; it was first performed by strolling players in markets - temples - courtyards - and the streets






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






17. Proclaimed 'God is dead...and we have killed him.'; felt taht absence of God was a tragedy - but believed human beings needed to accept the tragedy and move forward in a world that was unjust and meaningless






18. A period of licentious gaudiness inspired by the elaborate styles that Charles II brought with him from the French Court






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






20. Built in Venice in 1637






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






22. 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






23. Includes all other forms of drama - from the ancient ritual theatre of Africa to the traditional theatre of Asia to the shadow and puppet theatre of Muslim lands






24. 'The Father of Realism'; was initially a Romantic writer and his early plays were verse dramas largely based on Norwegian history and folk literature; plays presented complex - sometimes distrubing - views of human society; A Doll's House (1879) - Gh






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






26. People who dismissed Traditional African Theatre because it was so unlike anything they knew






27. Wrote plays about the rugged lives of Irish peasants using their dialect; Riders to the Sea (1904) & The Playboy of the Western World (1907)






28. Writes the lyrics






29. During the Enlightenment there were revolutions in: ... which had a profound effect on theatre






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






31. Sell over $1billion worth of tickets annually - majority of those are for musicals






32. 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






33. Recorded conversations of slum dwellers in Dublin and used their words verbatim in his plays

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


34. Sell over $1billion worth of tickets annually - majority of those are for musicals






35. Built in Venice in 1637






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






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






38. Most famous of the absurdist playwrights; best considered a fatalist - although work is sometimes hilarious and can ask existential questions; Endgame (1957) Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Happy Days (1961); Waiting for Godot (1953)






39. A German poet - director and playwright who challenged traditional ideas about theatre; became a communist after watching policement shoot 4 unarmed civilians; The Life of Galileo (1938) - Mother Courage and her Children (1939) & The Caucasian Chalk






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






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






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






43. What western theatre is often called:






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






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






46. Nigerian playwright that was executed for trying to protect the Ogoni people against encroachments of Shell oil company






47. French physicist - mathematician - and philosopher - expressed the essence of Romanticism






48. Based off the idea that before a problem can be solved - society must first understand that the problem exists; 'attack the message - not the messenger'






49. Type of Islamic theatre - religious drama of Iran which allowed for actors - both professional and amateur - and has been performed in open-air playing spaces and on some occasions in specially constructed indoor stages for hundreds of years

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


50. An extreme form of realism; an acurate 'documentary' of everyday life - including its seamy side