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. 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






2. 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






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






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






5. The father of the modern actor.






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






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






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






9. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






11. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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






13. The exchange of action and reaction.






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






15. 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.






16. 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 -






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






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






19. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






20. A person fully committed to an important objective.






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






22. 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.






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






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






25. The father of the modern actor.






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






29. 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.






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






31. 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






32. 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.






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






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






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






36. 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.






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






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






39. 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






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






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






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






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






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






45. A person fully committed to an important objective.






46. 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 -






47. 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.






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






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






50. 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.