Test your basic knowledge |

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. 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






2. Used giant puppets and actors to enact parables denouncing the Vietnam War and materialism






3. Type of Islamic theatre which is created by lighting two-dimensional figures and casting their shadows on a screen; the audience watches the silhouettes while a narrator tells a story






4. This happened for the first time during the Restoration






5. Comedies forced Victorian society to reexamine its hypocrisies; Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) - A WOman of No Importance (1893) - An Ideal Husband (1894); advocated 'art for art's sake'; The Importance of Being Ernest






6. Would agitate the masses - attack the spectators' sensibilities and purge people of their destructive tendencies; wanted stylized - ritualized performances - not realism - which they felt restricted the theatre to the study of psychological problems






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






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






9. What western theatre is often called:






10. Goethe's most famous Romantic play






11. A synthesis of music - dance - acting - and acrobatics; it was first performed by strolling players in markets - temples - courtyards - and the streets






12. The German equivalent to Diderot; was a playwright - critic - and Enlightenment philosopher Who wrote tragedies and comedies about the middle-class; his greatest play was Nathan the Wise






13. A period of licentious gaudiness inspired by the elaborate styles that Charles II brought with him from the French Court






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






15. Elmer Rice; about a man named Mr. Zero Who is fired from his job and replaced by an adding machine






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






17. No spoken dialogue - entirely sung; comes from the Latin word 'work' and may have originally meant 'works in music' or 'musical works for the stage'; first operas were in Italy in late 1500s






18. 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






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






20. Improved the daguerreotype and created modern photography; was also an English physicist






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






22. Musicals that are mostly singing and have less spoken dialogue; similar to operattas - but thier tone is often much darker and more dramatic






23. Plays without music






24. More serious plot and theme; West Side Story (1957)






25. A production of British actor Charles Kean; had realistic costumes - set and props that he had researched to make sure they were historically correct

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26. A permanent - professional theatre outside NYC; founded in 1947 by Margo Jones; stage new plays alongside commercial hits and historical plays; appeal to the intellectual audiences that Hollywood seldom serves






27. Form of drama that dominated theatre in India for a thousand years; named for the ancient Indian language in which its plays are performed; combine the natural and the supernatural - the believable and unbelievable






28. 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






29. 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






30. Writes the lyrics






31. By Swedish Playwright August Strindberg; fourteen-act play that follows the disconnected logic of a dream






32. 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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33. Most popular type of theatre during the Restoration; often featured great wit and wordplay and told stories about sexual gratification - bedroom escapades - and humankind's unrefined nature when it comes to sex






34. 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






35. '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






36. Six characters take on life of their own when the playwright fails to complete the play in which they were supposed to appear






37. The sung words






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






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






40. 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






41. Comic interludes performed during the intermissions of opera






42. Characterized by a light-hearted - fast-moving comic story - whose dialogue is interspersed with popular music; Guys and Dolls (1950)






43. Studied the history of class conflict






44. A program of unrelated singing - dancing and comedy numbers






45. A synthesis of music - dance - acting - and acrobatics; it was first performed by strolling players in markets - temples - courtyards - and the streets






46. Second part of a Noh play - protagonist performs a dance that expresses his or her concern






47. Set out to break all the neoclassical rules - attacked the three unities






48. Elaborate geometrical designs were used for these roles which included supernatural beings - warriors - and bandits; the color of the make-up indicated the character's personality






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






50. A popular form of stage entertainment from the 1880s to the 1940s; included a dozen or so slapstick comedy routines - song-and-dance numbers - magic acts and juggling or acrobatic performances