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. 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.






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






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






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






5. 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






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






7. 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.






8. 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.






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






10. 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.






11. A person fully committed to an important objective.






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






13. 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






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






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






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






17. 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?






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






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






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






21. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






23. 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.






24. 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.






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






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






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






28. A person fully committed to an important objective.






29. 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.






30. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






31. The exchange of action and reaction.






32. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






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






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






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






37. The father of the modern actor.






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






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






40. The father of the modern actor.






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






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






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






44. An actor devoted to searching for the truth of human behavior. The craft of working 'from the inside out'.


45. 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






46. 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.






47. 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.






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






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






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