Theatre Final (Quiz Questions)

How did the Western world influence Chinese theatre?

-Urban students staged plays by Brecht and Ibsen to shed light on China's social and political problems -realism is still the dominant form of Western theatre performed in China today -Many of the Peking opera's simple stages have been replaced with proscenium arches, including curtains and an orchestra pit

how did Islamic audiences respond to the introduction of Western theatre in the 1800s due to colonization by Britain, France, and Italy?

-because they were used to puppets, the human actors were foreign to them -they kept most early performances private and that were not unseen by the general public -in 1847, Marun al-Naqqaush wrote the first European-style play in Arabic

which of the following originated in Italy and influenced theatre throughout Europe?

-commedia dell'arte -humanist theatre -perspective scenery

Which of the following is true of Voltaire?

-he was the most celebrated French playwright of the Enlightenment -He preached that there were no miracles in the universe, only fixed laws. -in his play Merope, he criticized hereditary aristocracy, saying "he who serves his country worthily needs no ancestry"

Aristophanes' famous comedy Lysistrata?

-is an anti-war comedy -is about a woman who organizes the women of Athens and Sparta to deny their husbands sex until the men stop the war -was written during the Peloponnesian War which lasted 27 years

which of the following describes how the introduction of Western influence affected the tradition of Kabuki theatre?

-it prompted the emergence of a modified form of Kabuki which translates as the New School of Movement -It toned down the spectacle of Kabuki and allowed some Western realism into the performances -Women played women's parts for the first time in hundreds of years, but only in Shimpa plays .

Which of the following can be said of Aphra Behn?

-she had been a spy for the English government in Antwerp -her writings were full of sexual intrigue, loveless marriages, and satire -she was the first professional female playwright and the most famous woman of the era to make her living by writing

How did the fall of Athens to the Spartans, which ended the Peloponnesian War, affect the growth of theatre in Greece?

-the pragmatism of Spartan thinking produced few poets, artists, actors, or playwrights -Freedom of Speech was strictly controlled so playwrights turned to sage themes, more mundane topics, such as martial misunderstandings and meddling in laws -greek tragedy became shallow, scripts were mediocre, and performances seldom noteworthy

how did Aristotle's theory of causality critically influence Christianity and the development of theatre in the High Middle Ages?

-to christians, Aristotle's philosophy reinforced the idea that everything has a purpose and all things are connected -Everything results from cause and effect; everything is a sign of God's pleasure or wrath- or possibly the work of Satan -actors and playwrights now understood people's behaviors as resulting from a struggle between God and the Devil, so the characters of morality plays are allegorical

This theatre movement was born to reflect the feeling that human beings face a cold, hostile universe and that most plays fail to reflect the ridiculousness, anxiety, and chaos of the world.

Absurdism

who _____ was known as the father of tragedy and the earliest writer of Greek tragedy whose plays still exist?

Aeschylus

What aspect of Eastern theatre influenced American designer Julie Taymor in her work on the Lion King?

African, Asian, Mayan, and Indian traditional uses of puppetry and masks

French tragic playwrights wrote in _____, which sounds rather boring to modern ears.

Alexandrine Verse

which of the following playwrights wrote about stagnant and helpless people whose frustrating inaction, this writer hoped, would prompt audience members to take action in their own lives?

Anton Chekhov

Which playwright of Greek comedies is famous for caricatures of Greek leaders, stinging attacks on society, lampooning celebrities in the audience, and writing about a father who advises his spendthrift son to take lessons from Socrates on logic and argumentation to outfox his creditors?

Aristophanes

during the high middle ages, the seeds of the Renaissance were planted with the fall of Muslim Spain and the rediscovery of the writings of the philosopher,

Aristotle

who was Alexander the Great's teacher, who instilled a passion for Greek theatre?

Aristotle

Which statement accurately describes theatre in the digital age?

Artistic directors are choosing crowd-pleasing musicals like Always Patsy Cline over classics by Ibsen and Shakespeare.

This French enlightenment playwright was a supporter of the American Revolution. His most famous plays are The Barber of Seville and its sequel, The Marriage of Figaro, which initially was banned by King Louis XVI of France

Beaumarchais

Which of the following playwrights was a good friend of William Shakespeare and is buried upright in Westminster Abbey?

Ben Jonson

Which playwright wrote many of the masques staged by Inigo Jones, which offended the Puritans?

Ben Jonson

In 1453, what city of the Eastern Roman Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks and prompted the Renaissance?

Canstantinople

this french author and playwrifht wrote the twenty-eight volume Encyclopedie, which included hundreds of articles by famous scholars and covered a wide range of topics, and is considered to be one of the most important French philosophers of the Age of Reason

Diderot

______ plays often use deliberate distortion such as walls slanted inward to create a claustrophobic feeling, and characters that are portrayed as the protagonist sees them, such as pigs or cogs in a machine

Expressionist

True or False. Two types of permanent public playhouses began appearing around London: small indoor theatres such as the Blackfriars, which were open to the general public, and huge outdoor theatres such as the Rose and the Globe, which catered to wealthy clientele and echoed the arena-like design as in ancient Rome.

False

Which of the following playwrights wrote "high comedies"- cerebral, socially relevant plays- that had an intellectual scope so vast they forced audiences to reassess their values?

George Bernard Shaw

______ was the greatest of the Sturm und Drang playwrights and his most famous Romantic play is Faust. Some see the play as the epitome of the Romantic philosophy and the individual's search for truth

Geothe

Which influential playwright wrote The Dumb Waiter, a "comedy of menace" meant to both frighten and entertain?

Harold Pinter

Which of the following playwrights wrote about the moral failings of modern society in A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler?

Henrik Ibsen

This French playwright's upbringing was so strict, he was even forbidden to read. But his love of classical Greek plays led him to write his most famous play, Phaedra.

Jean Racine

which of these non- western theatre styles esteems highly stylized, exaggerated movements so much that it borrowed many of its movements from traditional Japanese puppet theatre?

Kabuki

_____ is a dramatized version of the Hindu epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata

Kathakali

How were contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare similar?

Marlowe wrote plays filled with classical allusions

This French playwright was supported by King Louis XIV. He wrote scathing comedies, such as Tartuffe, that satirized French life.

Moliere

Which of the following French playwrights was called "a demon in flesh" and told that he should be burned at the stake as "a forestaste of the fires of hell" for writing plays about a religious hypocrite and freethinker who doesn't believe in heaven, hell, or devils?

Moliere

After the Peloponnesian War, playwrights were denied freedom of speech and turned from political satire to these comic plays, known as _____, which were mundane and steered clear of insulting those in power:

New Comedy

which of the following was one of Sophocle's most famous characters?

Oedipus Rex

Starting in the late 1950s, small theatres sprang up in several Manhattan neighborhoods to put on plays about the issues of the day. These theatres became collectively known as

Off Broadway

These comic plays were written before the end of the Peloponnesian War, when playwright enjoyed a relatively high degree of freedom of speech in Athens

Old Comedy

Which influential playwright during the Golden Age of spanish theatre was ahead of his time because he attempted to explain the human character as shaped by environmental and psychological causes, rather than by fate or dictated by "final cause"?

Pedro Calderon de la Barca

This French playwright refused to follow the strict writing code of l'Academie francaise (the French Academy). His popular play Le Cid was loved by the public, but criticized by the Academy.

Pierre Corneille

which of the following did not contribute to the end of religious theatre many parts of Europe?

Pope Innocent III's building of a ballroom theatre at the Vatican.

Which institution or group in England attacked the theatre because they believed that the only way to escape the fires of hell was through hard work, abstinence from all profane amusements and sensual pleasures, and careful observance of religious rites?

Puritans

_______ is defined as a permanent, professional theatre located outside of New York City.

Regional theatre

The Puritans ruled England from 1642 to 1660, until Oliver Cronwell's death. When Charles II was restored to the English throne, the period of the _____ began.

Restoration

these popular entertainers had shows filled with jugglers, acrobats, comic skits, buffooner, and plenty of vulgar language, indecent songs, and nudity

Roman mimes

who was one of Rome's greatest tragic playwrights and, as the tutor of the future emperor Nero, greatly influenced the ruler in becoming one of the greatest supporters of art and theatre in Western history?

Seneca

Shakespeare's name first appeared in London in 1592, as an actor with the Lord Chamberlain's company.

True

True or False. Europe had to question its ordered view of the world when explorers brought back stories of distant and exotic lands and cultures.

True

True or False. Thomas Edison's invention of the incandescent light bulb and the ideas of Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Karl Marx contributed to the birth of the theatrical style we call "Realism".

True

Which of the following does not describe the effect that colonization had on African theatre?

Western plays performed at the time celebrated and assimilated African theatre

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman mixes realism and expressionism. Which of the following illustrates the expressionistic part of that play?

Willy's rosy visions of the past and his great hope for his two sons

Today, the term "well-made play" means

a bad formula plot

In fifteenth century, Italy, a university student who rejected the traditional curriculum of theology, and instead studied the classical subjects of history, poetry, painting, architecture, music, and classical literature was called ____

a humanist

Two forms of Islamic theatre that existed prior to coming into cultural contact with the West include

a shadow theatre and the Ta'ziyeh religious dramas of Iran

One of the most valuable historical records of Indian theatre is the Natyasastra, which is

a written compilation of dramatic theory and practice written sometimes between 200 BCE and 200 CE

which of the following statements in false? a. ritual turned into theatre the moment when dialogue was written down b. ritual plays were passed down through generations c. theatre is artificial and usually has a story with a conflict d. theatre in one form or another has been performed in every part of the world for thousands of years

a.

This small, secular play was performed between other forms of entertainment and created a transition between medieval plays meant to moralize and teach biblical lessons to the more secular plays of the future

an interlude

This word can describe any work of art that is experimental, innovative, or unconventional. Examples include symbolism, Dadaism, surrealism, and absurdism

avant-garde

Which of the following statements about the Ta'ziyeh religious drama of Iran is false? a. the plays enact the suffering and death of the Prophet of Islam's grandson b. In Saudi Arabia, both female and male actors perform in open-air spaces c. religious leaders sometimes condemn their being enacted because of the ban on graven images d. it contains some comedic plays

b

which of the following statements about theatre in the Dark Ages is False? a. Fragments of plays by Euripides were found that contained lines rewritten to incorporate Christian themes b. Roman mimes used puppet plays to perform their unruly skits c. In Constantinople, Ancient tragedies may have been used to teach Greek d. companies of jugglers, storytellers, dancers, animal trainers, and acrobats travelled around Europe

b

which statement about theatre during the Enlightenment is false? a. domestic tragedies became immensely popular, but died out just as quickly b. theatres began to turn to the middle class for patronage and playwrights created middle-class heroes. c. the revolution in philosophy changed how playwrights viewed character. d. the revolution in astronomy caused people to question the divine right of kings

b.

This type of set features true-to-life interior rooms, allowing the audience to look in on characters' private lives

box set

Which of the following is not characteristic of the commedia dell'arte plays? a. the Church looked upon its vagabond actors as rogues and a public nuisance b. common subjects of the plays were slaves tricking their masters, misunderstandings between lovers, and peasants who are smarter than aristocrats c. all parts were played by either men or boys d. each actor specialized in playing one particular stock character based on common stereotype

c.

which of the following statements about mystery plays is false? a. they often were performed by . guilds b. they were outdoor liturgical plays c. they were about theological mysteries, beliefs that cannot be fully understood but are taken on faith as true d.they involve some form of comic relief

c.

the purpose of Greek tragedies was not to make the audience feel somber but to enable them to experience an intense twofold feeling known as ______, which occurs when one truly encounters life and confronts its many riddles

catharsis

what are tropes

chanted or sung phrases incorporated into Mass as an embellishment on a religious lesson

the most popular Restoration plays featured great wit and wordplay, and often told stories of bedroom escapades. These were:

comedy of manners

these impromptu farces were performed by professional acting troupes throughout Italy in the 1500s.

commedia dell'arte

Which of the following statements about Jean-Jacques Rousseau false? a. he is sometimes called the father of the Romantic movement b. he argued that people should learn from nature rather than the artificial and corrupt teachings of society or civilization c. he rebelled against the rationalists of the Age of Reason d. He was a notable French playwright who wrote in Alexandrine verse

d.

which of the following is not true of early African theatre? a. African theatre in its purest form was prior to colonization b. theatre was tied into myths, rituals, rites, and communal celebrations of daily life c. it is likely to be the oldest theatre in the world d. the audience of the earliest African theatre sat and watched actors with masks

d.

which of the following statements about Euripides and Medea is false? a. Euripides won only four popularity contests, like the one held at the Theatre of Dionysus b. the protagonist in Medea sought revenge, destroyed her ex-husband's life, and killed her children without retribution for her actions c. Euripides questioned the existence of the gods d. Euripides is the least produced of the ancient Greek tragic playwrights

d.

two basic elements of humanist theatre popular in Italy were adherence to Aristotle's unities ____ and _____.

declamatory acting

What was the name given to the people of the Enlightenment who believed inn god called "Creator"- a great nonintervening watchmaker who set the cosmos into motion and let it run on its own?

deists

Although there are many theories about how theatre began in Athens, many scholars accept Aristotle's claim that theatre grew out of a ritual called the ____, a hymn sung at the altar of the god Dionysus

dithyramb

Thomas Paine called this time period the "Age of Reason" because of the great philosophical, scientific, technological, political, and religious revolutions. It was also called the _____.

enlightenment

Bertolt Brecht's greatest innovation was _____, a type of play with a large cast, that covers a long period of time, and that includes a number of unrelated incidents.

epic theatre

True or False. The term "rum and fun" comes from the Roman politicians who know that if they gave the general population enough food (rum) and entertainment (fun), the public would not question the government

false

Women were not allowed on stage in Shakespeare's England. It was considered unseemly for women to appear on stage; however, the Puritans approved of boys playing the younger female roles and mature men playing the parts of older women

false

Which of the following is not characteristic of existentialist themes in theatre?

following rules is more important than individual decisions

What distinguishes Euripides' work from the other great playwrights of ancient Greece's Golden Age?

he was one of the first writers to treat women as major characters

This German playwright and philosopher wrote tragedies and comedies about the middle class. His greatest play was Nathan the Wise. Even though the protagonist of the play pleads for religious tolerance, the Church condemned the play, and its author was refused a Christian burial

lessing

Cheap limitations of romantic plays with formulaic plots, sensational subjects, and improbable events were called

melodramas

________ plays told stories about the lives of the saints

miracle

By 1915, it looked like theatre was being killed off by

movie theatres

This genre of theatre can be called more-real-than-realism, an accurate "slice of life", a documentary-like look at existence

naturalism

The earliest liturgical dramas were written by priests and monks, with the exception of one _______ who wrote six short dramas about the lives of saintly women, modeling the plays of the Roman comic playwright Terence.

nun

Horse-drawn wagons used to stage religious performances in the town square were called_____

pageant wagons

Which Eastern theatre form did the German playwright Bertolt Brecht imitate by having actors perform on a bare stage and make no attempt to hide the fact that it was a performance?

peking opera

Performances that mix theatre, visual arts, music, dance, gesture, and rituals are a new type of experimental theatre called

performance art

Which of the following plays of social indictment had the common theme, "We have met the enemy and he is us"?

problem plays

In the twentieth century, many Western directors cited Eastern theatre as a major influence in their work during the revolt against

realism

Enlightenment philosophers and free thinkers formed scholarly societies and intellectual salons to exchange ideas. Their emphasis on _______ led to revolutions in mathematics and the sciences.

reason

the word "renaissance" means

rebirth

Enlightenment philosophers embraced doubt and relied on empirical evidence based on

repeatable observations of nature and tested scientific proofs

______ is an early form of theatre that used theatrical techniques such as song, dance, and characterization, but it was still firmly rooted in religion

ritual theatre

These playwrights questioned the Scientific Revolution's obsession with logic, feeling that science was not adequate to describe the full range of human experience

romantics

greek tragedies were presented in groups of three and were followed by a short comic-relief play. This comic-relief play was called a

satyr play

which of the following was a type of play during the Enlightenment that showed middle-class characters finding happiness and true love?

sentimental comedy

which of the following reflects the prevailing attitude toward theatre in the Dark Ages?

so few people risked attending theatre performances that actors went underground and performed only when and where they could

This ancient Greek playwright's plays are known for their complex characterization, harmonious lyrics, and effective dialogue. He also concentrated his plays on just a few critical moments within a character's life

sophocles

religious dramas called autos sacramentales were still being performed in _____ two hundred years after liturgical plays had lost popularity in the rest of Europe. Even though secular plays were allowed, they often had liturgical and ______ themes.

spain, patriotic

Ancient Greek plays have a framework consisting of five elements: a prologue, a parodos, alternating episodes and _____, and an exodus.

stasimons

Which of the following "isms" sought to replace the specific and concrete with the suggestive and metaphorical

symbolism

according to this Aristotle's theory of causality four causes brought order to the world. Which of these defines the "efficient cause"?

the agent that actualizes the material, who acts on the material to make it into something

When the Vatican sensed that it was losing the common people, it allowed theatrical elements into the Mass to strengthen people's faith. Priests acted as "living impersonators" of biblical figures in short plays on religious topics. Which language did the priest use when performing these little plays?

the language of the local people

which of the following led to the beginning of mass media and the popularization of ideas?

the printing press

What a spect of Indian Sanskrit drama influenced Western playwrights such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Bertolt Brecht?

the staging techniques and epic proportion of the plays

which of the following was blamed for causing the Black Death during the Middle Ages?

the theatre

these rigid rules for playwriting insisted that 1) the action of the play take place within twenty-four hours 2) the play must never combine comedy and tragedy and 3) all the settings in a play could be reached within twenty-four hours

the three unities

Which of the following explains why, in the early 1700s, theatre all over Europe seemed to be stagnant?

theatre owners sold seats on the stage to make extra money and to cater to the wealthy

the main features of ancient Greek theatres were a seating area called the ______, or "seeing place" and a circular playing area called the _____ or "dancing place",

theatron, orchestra

How did Indian playwrights use Western-style theatre in the twentieth century?

they masked their political points in the guise of historical or mythological stories

Which of the following is characteristic of non-Western theatre, which many prevent Westerners from fully appreciating the art form?

they use bright costumes with symbolic colors and masks

a form of theatre that mixed traditional African ritual . theatre and Western-style drama, and that encouraged African nationalism and glorified Africa's past, is called

total theatre

True or False. During the Dark ages in Europe, except in Muslim Spain, there were few new inventions and fewer innovative thinkers

true

True or False. Once scholars rediscovered the great Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and the Roman comedies of Plautus, Terence, and Seneca, university students were performing these classics for their fellow pupils and small invited audiences, which helped pave the way for introducing more secular theatre

true

What kind of theatre did Romans prefer?

unsophisticated comedy

Actors in the Peking opera

use precise stylized gestures

the scenery of Elizabethan theatre was minimal, so playwright's words painted pictures so that the audience could "dress" the stage in their imagination. This technique was known as:

verbal scene painting