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. 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.






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






3. 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






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






5. 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?






6. 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.






7. 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.






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






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






10. 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.






11. 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






12. Three finger widths below your navel. The origin of breath and therefore your voice - as well as all large motions of the body. The undistorted source from which our work begins in order to develop the unique ways of using our bodies and voice requir






13. 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 -






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






15. The father of the modern actor.






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






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






18. 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.






19. 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.






20. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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






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






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






24. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






26. Three finger widths below your navel. The origin of breath and therefore your voice - as well as all large motions of the body. The undistorted source from which our work begins in order to develop the unique ways of using our bodies and voice requir






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






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






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






30. 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.






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






32. 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.






33. 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.






34. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






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






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






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






39. 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.






40. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






41. 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.






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






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






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






45. The father of the modern actor.






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






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






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






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






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