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. 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.






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






4. 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.






5. Actresses began to appear on stage.






6. 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.






7. The exchange of action and reaction.






8. 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.






9. 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.






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






11. A person fully committed to an important objective.






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






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






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






15. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






16. 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






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






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






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






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






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






22. 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






23. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






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






25. 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






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






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






28. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






30. 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.






31. 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.






32. 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 -






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






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






35. 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






36. 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.






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






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






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






40. 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.'






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






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






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






44. 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 -






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






46. A person fully committed to an important objective.






47. 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.'






48. 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.






49. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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