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. Comic interludes performed during the intermissions of opera






2. Goethe's most famous Romantic play






3. The men who play female roles are called:






4. Term used to describe performances that mix theatre - visual arts - music - dance - gesture and rituals; often use multimedia effects - sounds and lighting effects to make a point and allow the audience to understand its deeper implications; often re






5. Big-time vaudeville who performed a series of lavish musical reviews on Broadway






6. During the Enlightenment there were revolutions in: ... which had a profound effect on theatre






7. Where more experts agree that human beings came into existence






8. The first all-black show to pay at a top Broadway theatre






9. Book - music - and lyrics






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






11. One of the most famous Sanskrit dramas - a love story in seven acts written by the playwright Kalidasa






12. A true-to-life interior containing a room or rooms with the fourth wall removed so that the audience has the feeling of looking in on the characters' private lives






13. Spoken lines of dialogue as well as the plot






14. An early form of theatre; it used theatrical techniques such as song - dance - and characterization - but it was still firmly rooted in religion






15. 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






16. Wooden clappers used in Kabuki






17. The first all-black show to pay at a top Broadway theatre






18. A sudden - striking pose (often with their eyes crossed - chin sharply turned - and big toe pointed towards the sky) in Kabuki accompanied by several powerful beats of wooden clappers






19. Brought Western-style theatre to Africa to dramatize Bible stories in order to win converts






20. Staged inexpensive - noncommercial productions of artistically significant plays in small - out-of-the-way theatres






21. 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






22. Writes the music






23. History plays about major political events of the past - domestic plays about the loves and lives of merchants and townspeople - and dance-dramas about the world of spirits and animals






24. The audience remains alienated from the performance so they could critically consider the play's themes






25. Divided into fatalist - hilarious and existentialist






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






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






28. French physicist - mathematician - and philosopher - expressed the essence of Romanticism






29. Grew up in poverty and put himself through medical school and set up free clinics in Russia to help the poor; The Seagull (1896) - Uncle Vanya (1899) Three Sisters (1901) & The Cherry Orchard (1904); placed on stage the lazy chaos of lives crushed by






30. '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






31. Bandits discuss rival systems of goverment while waiting for an attack






32. The men who play female roles are called:






33. Records of this type of theatre are fragmentary - but we do know that it grew out of regional religious rituals related to Confucianism - Taoism - and Buddhism - and ritual dances performed during the Shang dynasty






34. Instead of learning how to conjure real emotions - actors of Sanskrit drama studied for many years to learn representations of emotions through:






35. The orchestrated melodies






36. Play that takes place in a mental institution - the audience sits on the stage with the actor-patients






37. Recorded conversations of slum dwellers in Dublin and used their words verbatim in his plays


38. Thought that inner truths could be hinted at only through symbols; sought to replace the specific and concrete with the suggestive and metaphorical; usually had little plot or action and tended to baffle the audience






39. Closely tied to ritual - and it uses color - dance - song - and movements to exaggerate - stylize - and symbolically represent life






40. Instead of learning how to conjure real emotions - actors of Sanskrit drama studied for many years to learn representations of emotions through:






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






42. 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






43. The sung words






44. Writes the lyrics






45. Peking Opera was dramatically altered when:






46. '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






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






48. 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






49. Highlights the insanity of life in a comical way






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