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






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






3. The exchange of action and reaction.






4. 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.






5. The father of the modern actor.






6. A person fully committed to an important objective.






7. 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






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






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






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






12. 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.






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. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






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






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






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






19. Actresses began to appear on stage.






20. 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.






21. 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.






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






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






24. 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.'






25. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






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






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






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






29. 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






30. 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?






31. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






33. The exchange of action and reaction.






34. 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.






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






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


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


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






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






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






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






42. 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 -






43. 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?






44. A person fully committed to an important objective.






45. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






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. 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.






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






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






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 -