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






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






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






4. 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.






5. 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.






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






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






8. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






9. 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.






10. 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






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






12. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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






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






15. 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 -






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






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


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






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






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






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






22. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






28. 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.






29. 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.






30. 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






31. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






33. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






42. 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.'






43. 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.






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






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






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






47. The father of the modern actor.






48. 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?






49. A person fully committed to an important objective.






50. 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.