Test your basic knowledge |

Acting 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. Becoming the new version of yourself by needing and doing what the character needs and does.






2. Immediate and urgent needs cause actions in the pursuit of objectives within given circumstances.






3. Bertolt Brecht's idea that the actor does not become the character completely - but rather demonstrates the character's behavior for the audience while still expressing some attitude about it.






4. He developed a presentational and overtly theatrical style of acting.






5. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






6. Heightening the drama of an action or scene by making it more significant or urgent.






7. Finding in the character's situation some need or objective that has true personal significance.






8. The goal of a character pursues through action to satisfy a need. It is best identified using a transitive verb such as - 'to persuade him to give me a territory in town.'






9. Recalling a significant moment in your past to fit a character. WARNING: Must be appropriate for the character.






10. Won an acting competition in Athens - Greece in 534 B.C. Considered the first actor.






11. Believed the qualities of a good play and a good actor should be: 1) Believable 2) Connect with the audience in a personal way. AKA Empathy 3) Immediacy 4) Communicate 'truthfulness'. Present experiences in a meaningful way relative to the audience.






12. Recalling a significant moment in your past to fit a character. WARNING: Must be appropriate for the character.






13. The exchange of action and reaction.






14. The key to almost everything in acting. For an actor - _______ is not a reduction of energy but rather a freeing of energy and a readiness to react. AKA Restful Alertness. The first step in Letting Go. Awareness is at a high level.






15. This occurs when: Everything the actor does as the character should grow directly out of the needs of the character - so that the 'inner' world of the character and the 'outer' world of the performance are unified.






16. Stanislavski's classic question. If I were in the situation of the character - and if I wanted what the character wants - what would I do?






17. The event itself. It is not 'about' something.






18. The reduction of self-consciousness from the total engrossment in a role.






19. A unit of action with it's own specific conflict and crisis. In each one a character has a single objective. They are formed of interactions and flow to create the underlying structure of a scene.






20. The job a character was created to perform within a story.






21. Showing the audience something about the character instead of simply doing what the character does.






22. The acceptance of responsibility for your own development through systematic effort.






23. The acceptance of responsibility for your own development through systematic effort.






24. The key to almost everything in acting. For an actor - _______ is not a reduction of energy but rather a freeing of energy and a readiness to react. AKA Restful Alertness. The first step in Letting Go. Awareness is at a high level.






25. Believed the qualities of a good play and a good actor should be: 1) Believable 2) Connect with the audience in a personal way. AKA Empathy 3) Immediacy 4) Communicate 'truthfulness'. Present experiences in a meaningful way relative to the audience.






26. The ______ is what his or her character does to try to fulfill a need by attaining some objective. Stanislavski spoke of both spiritual (inner) and physical (outer). Note that speaking is one of the most common forms - in other words speaking is doin






27. The condition of relaxed playfulness that some psychologists say allows for maximum creativity. When the inner parent allows the inner child to come out and play.






28. The job a character was created to perform within a story.






29. The father of the modern actor.






30. German word for power. The actor's physical and vocal tools.






31. Heightening the drama of an action or scene by making it more significant or urgent.






32. Stanislavski's classic question. If I were in the situation of the character - and if I wanted what the character wants - what would I do?






33. Singular - Immediate - & Personal. (SIP)






34. Our relationship to ______ implies internal states to the audience. Ex: Willie Loman with a bent back is hopeless and defeated and losing his battle with _____. In musical theatre it is convention that lovers actually defy _______ by skipping - as if






35. Everything an actor does in a performance has to be _______ by the character's internal need.






36. German word for power. The actor's physical and vocal tools.






37. The physical form of the action of the scene expressed in changing spatial relationships between the characters and their environment.






38. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






39. Finding in the character's situation some need or objective that has true personal significance.






40. He developed a presentational and overtly theatrical style of acting.






41. Bertolt Brecht's idea that the actor does not become the character completely - but rather demonstrates the character's behavior for the audience while still expressing some attitude about it.






42. Our relationship to ______ implies internal states to the audience. Ex: Willie Loman with a bent back is hopeless and defeated and losing his battle with _____. In musical theatre it is convention that lovers actually defy _______ by skipping - as if






43. Showing the audience something about the character instead of simply doing what the character does.






44. Meyerhold. The fusion of mind and body; teaching the 'body how to think'.






45. The quality of an action or performance that makes it seem to be happening right now - before our eyes - as if for the first time.






46. All parts of the actor--body - voice - and mind--work together in an integrated way.






47. The ability to function on more than one level of awareness at a time. Ex: A character pursuing his or her objective simultaneously observing and adjusting the performance for the sake of the spectators.






48. The goal of a character pursues through action to satisfy a need. It is best identified using a transitive verb such as - 'to persuade him to give me a territory in town.'






49. The exchange of action and reaction.






50. Won an acting competition in Athens - Greece in 534 B.C. Considered the first actor.