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 great unifier of body - mind - and voice.






2. Actresses began to appear on stage.






3. The exchange of action and reaction.






4. 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






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






6. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






8. 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?






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






10. 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.






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






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






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






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






15. The father of the modern actor.






16. Stanislavski's physical approach to acting.






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






18. 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.






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






20. A person fully committed to an important objective.






21. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






22. 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.'






23. 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.






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






25. 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 -






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






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






28. Actresses began to appear on stage.






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






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






31. 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.






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






33. 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.






34. _____ causes an _____ directed toward an __________






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






36. 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






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






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






39. 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






40. 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.






41. 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.






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






43. 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






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






45. 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.






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






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






48. 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.






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






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