Final

Question 1

What is the fourth wall?

Answer 1

The idea that the audience views a play through an invisible wall and that the audience and performers should not acknowledge each other’s presence is often referred to as this.

Question 2

What is Romanticism?

Answer 2

This form of drama rejected neoclassical rules, employed an episodic structure, aimed to create mood and atmosphere, included supernatural elements, and often featured a misunderstood hero who was a social outcast.

Question 3

What is naturalism?

Answer 3

The most extreme form of realism.

Question 4

What is expressionism?

Answer 4

This style of art and literature distorts reality to express suppressed emotions. In this kind of drama, protagonists often navigate disconnected incidents, and the structure resembles station dramas. Characters typically are titled instead of named, and dialogue comprises short, abrupt lines with more lyrical passages

Question 5

What is selective realism?

Answer 5

Arthur Miller’s Death of a salesman and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire are this type of drama, identifiable by each play’s heightening of certain details of action, scenery, and dialogue while omitting others.

Question 6

What are happenings?

Answer 6

This type of performance event is loosely structured, intended to blur the boundaries between art and commonplace experience, and often revolves around interacting with everyday objects. It was most popular during the 1960s, and one of its biggest proponents was Allan Kaprow.

Question 7

What is non-traditional casting?

Answer 7

This practice involves casting roles without considering a performer’s ethnicity, gender, age, or physical ability. It is particularly prominent in Shakespearean productions, but it is increasingly being adopted in other forms of theatre.

Question 8

Who are the Hallams?

Answer 8

They are considered the first American theatrical family.

Question 9

What is melodrama?

Answer 9

This form of drama, first popularized by the French in the 19th century, was characterized by its focus on surface-level emotions, clearly defined heroes and villains, and the use of stock characters.

Question 10

Who is George Bernard Shaw?

Answer 10

This playwright was once a theatre critic, condemned the stale commercial theatre of his time, wrote long prefaces discussing issues in his plays as well as stage directions, and was known for his humor. His most notable play was Pygmalion, which was later adapted to the musical My Fair Lady.

Question 11

What is futurism?

Answer 11

This was a form of theatre influenced by Filippo Marinetti. It glorified war and machines and consisted of short, illogical pieces that incorporated new electronic media and puppets.

Question 12

What is existentialist drama?

Answer 12

This type of drama has a fairly conventional form, but the characters exist in an irrational universe.

Question 13

What is site-specific theatre?

Answer 13

This type of theatre refers to productions that are staged specifically in non-theatre locations. Typically, they are picked to help amplify the story of the play or to make a more interesting backdrop for the action.

Question 14

What are mega musicals?

Answer 14

These large-scale theatrical productions are characterized by their tremendous spectacle (i.e., extravagant sets, grand musical scores, and extensive choreography). They often function as franchise operations that several companies can run for years in all the world’s major cities.

Question 15

What is Storm and Stress?

Answer 15

This was an artistic and literary movement in Germany that rejected dramatic rules and often had radical subject matter and style. Many view it as a precursor to romanticism.

Question 16

Who is Madame Vestris?

Answer 16

This woman instituted major innovations as proprietor of the Olympic Theatre, where she presented light entertainment with a degree of care usually reserved for tragedies and classical plays

Question 17

Who is Konstantin Stanislavski?

Answer 17

His acting system was designed to make the outward behavior of the performer natural and convincing, to convey the wants and objectives of a character, and to develop a cohesive ensemble

Question 18

What is the Group Theatre?

Answer 18

Although it only lasted for 10 years, this theatre company is often considered the most influential in American history. They helped to popularize method acting.

Question 19

What is a concept musical?

Answer 19

This type of musical emphasizes style and thematic vignettes over plot.

Question 20

Who is Josef Svoboda?

Answer 20

This influential scenographer was known for their innovations in pillared light, kinetic sets, and multimedia theatre. In many ways, they were the successor of 19th-century designers such as Adolphe Appia and Edward Gordon Craig.

Question 21

What is fringe theatre?

Answer 21

This type of theatre is closely related to international performance festivals. The term refers to the practice of small and experimental companies performing in the same cities hosting these large events, but they are often not part of the official program.

Question 22

Who are the Bibiena family?

Answer 22

This influential Italian family (which came to prominence during the 18th century) was known for using the baroque art style, vast scale and elaborate ornamentation, and angle perspective in their scenic designs.

Question 23

Who are Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse?

Answer 23

These two women were the most popular international actresses during the nineteenth century. One was noted for her legendary eccentricities, melodic voice, and broad and flamboyant acting style. The other was known for her more realistic acting, with her believable and understated methods, which supposedly conveyed sincerity.

Question 24

What is the Moscow Art Theatre?

Answer 24

This company was undoubtedly the most influential of the 19th-century independent theaters. It helped popularize Anton Chekhov’s plays and was where Konstantin Stanislavski developed his acting system.

Question 25

Who is Antonin Artaud?

Answer 25

Although he was originally associated with the surrealist movement, this man was kicked out due to his interest in the occult and mysticism. Later he conceptualized Theatre of Cruelty.

Question 26

What is theatre of the absurd?

Answer 26

This type of drama often explores the randomness or seeming meaningless of life. The plots in these plays tend to lack a conventional structure and may seem cyclical. There is usually minimal character development and little expository information. Settings are often strange or surreal, and dialogue tends to be sparse.

Question 27

What is performance art?

Answer 27

This art form typically involves a live presentation for a select audience, most often in non-traditional theatre venues such as museums and art galleries. It draws on various artistic disciplines, including acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting. It is often called art in process and is meant to be ephemeral. However, it is often documented with still photography and, increasingly, through video recordings.

Question 28

What is documentary theatre?

Answer 28

This type of theatre utilizes materials like newspaper articles, reports, interviews, and journals to create plays about actual events and people. The original text is typically unaltered during performances, although various dramatic techniques are used to humanize the stories.

Question 29

What is a ballad opera?

Answer 29

This type of performance, which emerged during the 18th century, is characterized by having no sung dialogue but spoken dialogue alternated with songs set to popular contemporary melodies, characters drawn from the middle and lower classes, and satirical humor poking fun at contemporary issues.

Question 30

What is the well-made-play?

Answer 30

This form of drama features a carefully structured cause-and-effect plot, often centering on a secret the audience knows but the characters do not.

Question 31

Who are Adolphe Appia and Edward Gordon Craig?

Answer 31

Modern stage design is considered to begin with these two men. They were known for their symbolic sets and use of structured lights.

Question 32

What is Dadaism?

Answer 32

This artistic movement was influenced by Tristan Tzara, railed against traditional “museum” art, tried to confuse and antagonize audiences, and presented pacifist ideologies. A popular form of performance associated with this movement was the sound poem, which consisted of meaningless phonemes rather than words.

Question 33

Who is Augusto Boal?

Answer 33

This Brazilian playwright, director, and theorist is best known for conceptualizing Theatre of the Oppressed, a type of revolutionary and socially conscious theater.

Question 34

What are the audience and actors?

Answer 34

Jerzy Grotowski helped to popularize the concept of poor theatre, which is the idea that only these two essential elements are required for theatre.

Question 35

What is theatre for development?

Answer 35

This is a community-based and participatory type of theatre where people share their experiences with the intent of social transformation. It is often used to promote political activism or inform audiences about important issues, and is most common in emergent nations.

Question 36

What are burlettas?

Answer 36

These were any three-act plays with five or more songs per act. In England, imaginative managers would transform non-musical plays, such as those written by Shakespeare, into these to circumvent The Licensing Act.

Question 37

What are the moving panorama, elevator stage, and revolving stage?

Answer 37

These three nineteenth-century theatre technologies were made possible by the Industrial Revolution.

Question 38

What are independent theatre companies (usually with subscription services)?

Answer 38

Because producing realistic and naturalistic drama faced legal and commercial barriers, it was often staged by these kinds of companies.

Question 39

What is the Bauhaus?

Answer 39

This was a German school/movement founded by Walter Gropius, which believed that all arts, including crafts and architecture, should be brought together in a unified fashion.

Question 40

What is Butoh?

Answer 40

This is a type of stylized dance-drama that emerged in Japan during the 1950s and 1960s.

Question 41

What is non-text-based theatre?

Answer 41

This type of theatre does not rely on a traditional script with dialogue written by a playwright. Instead, it features scenarios created by a director or an ensemble.

Question 42

What is intercultural theatre?

Answer 42

This type of theatre uses the texts, acting styles, music, costumes, masks, dance, and/or scenic vocabularies of one culture and adapt/modifies them for audiences of another culture across national boundaries rather than within them.

Question 43

Who are David Garrick and Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe?

Answer 43

These two men are often considered precursors to modern directors. They demanded a more realistic acting style, implemented rigorous and extensive rehearsals, and paid closer attention to design elements.

Question 44

What is total theatre?

Answer 44

Richard Wagner, who was a celebrated German opera composer, forwarded the concept of gesamtkunstwerk. This term can best translated as this.

Question 45

What is the movement presented taboo topics and contemporary social problems?

Answer 45

Many theatergoers and critics were scandalized by realism in theatre for these two reasons.

Question 46

What is the “Little Theatre” Movement?

Answer 46

This movement was considered the successor of the independent theatres that emerged in late nineteenth-century Europe, influencing the off-Broadway movement post-World War II. The Providence Playhouse and the Washington Square Players were two companies associated with the movement.

Question 47

What are off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, regional theatre, and alternative regional theatre?

Answer 47

These are the four manifestations of non-commercial theatre in the United States.

Question 48

What are intertextuality, temporal distortion, and subversion of expectations?

Answer 48

These are the three most common characteristics of postmodernist theatre.

Question 49

What is post-dramatic theatre?

Answer 49

This type of theatre distinguishes between performance and drama (i.e., the written text), suggesting that the latter is either of secondary importance or entirely unnecessary. As a result, it often decouples the text from the performance and abandons traditional theatrical conventions, such as actors portraying specific characters. Instead, actors draw attention to the fact that they are performers on stage.

Question 50

What is environmental theatre?

Answer 50

This is a term coined by Richard Schechner and is indebted to the theories of Meyerhold and Artaud. It is based on the idea that the whole theatre can be used as a performance space, often transforming the spatial arrangements between the performers and the audience.