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. Singular - Immediate - & Personal. (SIP)






2. 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.






3. 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.






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






5. Relinquishing too much effort - chronic physical tension - a false voice - preconceptions about the work - personal fear - and most importantly who you already are.






6. The dramatic ______ is what happens in the story - scene - or beat in the most fundamental sense.






7. Something a character lacks or wants that drives him to pursue an action to satisfy that lack or desire.






8. 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.






9. An actor's ability to put himself in the place of another person - both for purposes of observation and for applying the Magic If to a role. It is possible to empathize with someone without sympathizing with that person.






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






11. 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.






12. 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.






13. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






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






15. 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?






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






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






18. 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.






19. 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






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






21. 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.






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






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






24. 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.






25. The great unifier of body - mind - and voice.






26. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






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






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






30. Although it has a literal - physical dimension - being in a state of________ implies a unified sense of self that allows actions to involve the whole body and be well focused.






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






32. 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.'






33. 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.






34. 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.'






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






36. 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?






37. The father of the modern actor.






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






39. 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.






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






41. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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






43. 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.






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






45. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






46. 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






47. The dramatic ______ is what happens in the story - scene - or beat in the most fundamental sense.






48. An actor's ability to put himself in the place of another person - both for purposes of observation and for applying the Magic If to a role. It is possible to empathize with someone without sympathizing with that person.






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






50. Male choir groups began competing against one another reciting poems at religious festivals in Ancient Greece. Gradually the choir leader began to speak as an individual character and acting was born. As a second actor was added - dialogue emerged -