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Theatre 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 Father of Realism'; was initially a Romantic writer and his early plays were verse dramas largely based on Norwegian history and folk literature; plays presented complex - sometimes distrubing - views of human society; A Doll's House (1879) - Gh






2. The want for more 'genuine' sets - more 'honest' acting - and dialogue to be modeled after everyday speech - influenced by ideas of CHarles Darwin - Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx






3. An extreme form of realism; an acurate 'documentary' of everyday life - including its seamy side






4. Musicals with a particularly well-developed story and characters






5. A medley of the show's songs played as a preview; usually the beginning of a traditional musical; lets the audience know that it's time to stop talking because the performance is about to begin






6. Sarcastic label of Scribe's plays; the sympathetic protagonist suffers at the hands of an evil antagonist in the course of intense action - suspense - and contrived play devices; ending is always happy and the loose ends are neatly tied up






7. People who dismissed Traditional African Theatre because it was so unlike anything they knew






8. Wrote 'high comedies' which were cerebral socially relevant plays that had an intellectual scope so vast they forced audiences to reassess their values; Man and Superman (1903) & The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891)






9. Developed from the dance-prayers of Buddhist priests; has five possible subjects: the deities - the deeds of heroic samurai - women - insanity - and famous legends






10. Play by Wole Soyinka; celebrates Nigerian independence but also warns against returning to Nigeria's violent past






11. Russian playwright whose play The Lower Depths (1902) took look at people living in cellar of Moscow flophouse






12. A dialogue that captures the incoherence - broken language - and pauses of modern speech; usually marked by surreal distortion and impending danger; from writing of Franz Kafka






13. Russian playwright whose play The Lower Depths (1902) took look at people living in cellar of Moscow flophouse






14. Exposed the squalid living conditions of the urban poor and explores scandalous topics like poverty - venereal disease and prostitution; 'Sordid Realism'






15. This happened for the first time during the Restoration






16. French director who stage play The Butchers (1888) with real sides of beef infested with maggots






17. Unstructured theatrical events on street corners - bus stops and anywhere else people gathered






18. A robust and spectacular version of Noh; named after the characters for 'song' - 'dance' - and 'skill'; created by a woman named Okuni - owner of a brothel






19. Any artist or work of art that is experimental - innovative or unconventional; some styles would be symbolism - expressionism - futurism - Dadaism - surrealism - and absurdism






20. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2005); The Dumb Waiter (1957)






21. First female theatre manager in London; was also an actor and singer; managed first theatre to have a box set; Olympic Theatre in London






22. All lines are sung - usually to grand classical music; Madama Butterfly (1904)






23. The first 'talkie' movie; featured white actor Al Jolson in blackface performing in a minstrel show






24. Two types of traditional Japanese theatre






25. Form of theatre that mixed traditional African ritual theatre and Western-style drama; encouraged African nationalism - glorified Africa's past - and advanced African customs - rituals - and culture; also dealt with serious political themes and appla






26. The first modern musical; a melodrama about black magic staged in NYC in 1866






27. Wrote plays about the rugged lives of Irish peasants using their dialect; Riders to the Sea (1904) & The Playboy of the Western World (1907)






28. Type of theatre that grew out of ritual - incorporated acting - music - storytelling - poetry - dance - costumes - and lots of masks to create a theatre that combined ritual and ceremony with drama






29. Would be removed in the box set to give audience a real life look into the scene






30. Musicals that feature a particular band's songs






31. Composed and produced by Bob Cole - lyrics by Billy Johnson; story of a con man and used minstrel stereotypes and spoofed Chinatown; in one scene a young black man sings about he and his date were denied entry to a nightclub cuz He was black and this






32. Said that the free enterprise system is seriously flawed and is a cause of great human misery because it exploits the poor






33. French Enlightenment playwright; was an inventor and thinker who spent countless hours at the leading intellectual salons of France; most famous plays are The Barber of Seville - and The Marriage of Figaro - his plays reflect the attitudes of the Enl






34. Comic interludes performed during the intermissions of opera






35. Smaller - less expensive alternative experimental theatres; flourished in lofts - basements - coffeehouses and any found space usable






36. Contemporary form of Sanskrit Theatre - dramatized version of the Hindu epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata






37. Uses rock music - the rock and roll of the 1950s (Grease) - the psychedelic rock of the 1960s (Hair) or contemporary pop and rock (Rent)






38. Light opera - differs from 'grand opera' because it has a frivolous - comic theme - some spoken dialogue - a melodramatic story - and usually a little dancing; The Mikado (1885)






39. Studied the history of class conflict






40. Including operetta - developed out of intermezzi






41. Included comic scenes - dance interludes and sentimental ballads all based on white stereotypes of black life in the South






42. The time period that glorified humans' power to reason and analyze - a period of great philosophical - scientific - technological - political - and religious revolutions






43. Only cost a nickel






44. First black woman playwright to be producted on Broadway; Raisin in the Sun based of her actual childhood






45. French philosopher often called the Father of the Romantic movement; argued that people could find happiness in a 'state of nature' and that they should learn from nature rather than the artificial and corrupted teachings of society






46. One of the most important French philosophers of the Age of Reason - wrote and edited the first encyclopedia; was also a dramatist who penned books on the techniques of acting; authored The Paradox of Acting - a book that attached the pompous declama






47. Based off the idea that before a problem can be solved - society must first understand that the problem exists; 'attack the message - not the messenger'






48. Most famous American expressionist playwright who won Nobel Prize for Literature (1936); A touch of the Poet (1935) - The Iceman Cometh (1939) - A Long Day's Journey into Night (1956) & A Moon for the Misbegotten (1952); The Hairy Ape (1952)

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49. Writers who felt science was not adequate to describe the full range of human experience - and their writings stressed instinct - intuition - and feeling






50. Included comic scenes - dance interludes and sentimental ballads all based on white stereotypes of black life in the South