ch 10-15 theatre 101

A low platform on wheels upon which set pieces and even actors are brought onstage is called a

wagon

In 1973, ________ adapted Euripides's The Bacchae for the National Theatre in England.

wole soyinka

________ is a Nigerian playwright who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and whose plays include Death and the King's Horsemen.

wole soyinka

________ is a Japanese director who whose theatre emphasized physical movement, ensemble playing, and the combination of the new and the old, the traditional and the experimental.

(tadashi svzuki)????

Through the use of color, shadow, and intensity, lighting can suggest

-a time of day. -a season of the year. -a place.

The technical rehearsal is the time to establish

-the safe operation of all scenic shifts. -all light cue levels and timing. -the placement and length of all sound cues.

A stage set should tell the audience

-when the play takes place. -where the play takes place. -what kind of characters the play is about.

Federica Leon

Argentina

A classic play from which country includes a mythical Aboriginal character?

Australia

Contemporary film actor Geoffrey Rush began his career working in theatre in which country?

Australia

Which 2004 musical featured puppets?

Avenue Q

A(n) ________ is a show that has a story—which traces the fortunes of the main characters through a series of adventures with a beginning, middle, and end—and features more popular songs.

Book musical

Augusto Boal

Brazil

In the United States, ________ has become synonymous with the type of sketch theatre comedy that relied heavily on sexual comedy and innuendo and was a precursor to American strip shows.

Burlesque

One of the most famous Shakespeare festivals in the world, named for Shakespeare's birthplace, is located in

Canada

________ is an English avant-garde director who reinterpreted traditional texts with a focus on sociopolitical issues including feminism and gender.

Deborah warner

Deborah Warner

England

Tom Stoppard

England

Ariane Mnouchkine

France

Yasmina Reza

France

A conventional spotlight that produces a soft-edged beam and allows for variable beam spread is called a(n)

Fresnel spotlight.

Heiner Muller

Germany

Peter Handke

Germany

Joshua Sobol

Israel

Contemporary Asian theatre has evolved dramatically, and yet traditional theatrical forms from India, China, and Japan continue in popularity, including

Japanese nō, bunraku, and kabuki; Beijing opera, and Indian kathakali theatre styles.

The Donmar Warehouse, noted for active fringe theatre productions, is located in

London.

The Beauty Queen of the Leenane, The Pillowman, and The Cripple of Inishmaan, all by the playwright ________, have been brought to Broadway in the past ten years.

Martin McDonagh

The ________ was a variety show that featured white performers wearing blackface.

Minstrel show

Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers all were composers who worked in the ________ form.

Musical Comedy

________ is a form of musical entertainment that emerged in America in the 1920s and which features a light, comic story interspersed with popular music.

Musical Comedy

Which of the following is a 2009 Tony Award-winning musical concerning a mother who is struggling with a bipolar disorder and the effects her disease has on her family?

Next to Normal

Wole Soyinka

Nigeria

A(n) ________ is a drama set entirely to music.

Opera

George Ibrahim

Palestine

The Al-Kasaba Theatre, founded in 1970, is the most important theatre group in

Palestine.

________ is a type of theatre in which sketches and vignettes alternate with musical numbers, but no single story carries through from beginning to end.

Revue

Athol Fugard

South Africa

________ was a series of variety acts—music, sketches, juggling, animal acts—that made up an evening's entertainment.

Vaudeville

If an actor were to stand far upstage next to scenery painted in forced perspective, the result would be that the actor would

appear like a giant in front of the small details of forced perspective scenery.

The objectives of the scene designer do NOT include

assisting in the blocking of the production.

________ is the author of Master Harold...and the Boys.

athol fugard

When sound effects are recorded and arranged in the order of their appearance in the script, the process is called

editing.

A conventional spotlight that throws a sharp, concentrated light and allows for the shaping of the beam with shutters is called a(n)

ellipsoidal reflector spotlight.

Sound that recreates the noises of everyday life and help create the verisimilitude of a play, but are not specifically called for by the script, are called

environmental sounds.

Reflective quality is a function of which of the following?

fabric

A first hand, a cutter/draper, a stitcher, and a dresser are all essential costume shop personnel working on the building/construction process of a costume.

false

Aphra Behn and Susanna Centlivre are two contemporary feminist playwrights.

false

August Wilson's ten-play cycle of plays chronicles the Asian American experience in the U.S., beginning with the "gold rush" of 1849.

false

Because costumes must stand out from the scenery in order to be seen, costumes are rarely designed to be consistent with the scenic design for a production.

false

Beyond the confines of Broadway and touring professional theatre, there is not a great deal of diversity available in theatre around the country in the early twenty-first century.

false

Costume designers rarely meet the actors who will be wearing their costumes, leaving those responsibilities to the stage manager.

false

David Henry Hwang is the author of Angels in America.

false

Despite the popularity of the form, no musical has ever received the Pulitzer Prize.

false

Digital sound technology will allows musical instruments to be connected through a theatrical sound system, but at this time it cannot yet interface with lighting or projection technology.

false

El Teatro Campesino is one of the major theatres to arise in Native American theatre.

false

Environmental theatre is the name given to the plethora of outdoor theatres that developed in the late 1960s and 1970s.

false

Even in today's world, replete with global communications and exchanges of ideas and commerce, there is a surprising lack of theatrical exchange around the world.

false

It was not until the twentieth century that African American performers presented Shakespeare.

false

Lorraine Hansberry is the African American author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Topdog/Underdog.

false

Only something that actually attaches or pins to a costume piece is considered an accessory.

false

Performance art began as a form that predominantly combined ballet with special sound effects and limited visual design elements.

false

Postmodernism is an approach to drama that strives to achieve a correct interpretation of a play through extensive background research and intense bibliographic rigor.

false

Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, and Edward Albee are the most notable American playwrights of the twentieth century avant-garde theatre movement.

false

The "British invasion" in a theatrical context refers to imported British musicals like The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Cats, Les Misérables, and Miss Saigon.

false

The African Grove Theater was the first black theatre company in the United States to produce major musicals.

false

The book of a musical is sometimes referred to as the lyrics.

false

The most realistic makeup designs being used in the world of theatre are most often found in Japanese kabuki theatre presentations.

false

There was no Native American theatre tradition; rather, there were spiritual and social traditions that had theatrical elements.

false

To this day the most common form of sound reproduction technology in the theatre is reel-to-reel tape.

false

Undergarments are not a concern of the costume designer.

false

Unfortunately the sheer diversity of the American theatre scene has become so fragmented that there is no longer enough audience support for live theatre to continue.

false

When costumes are taken from inventory or rented from a costume house, this is known as rendering a costume.

false

While fabric affects the silhouette, texture, and bulk of a costume, it has little symbolic value.

false

While it is often necessary for actors and actresses to make quick costume changes, this is a concern for the stage manager, not the costume designer.

false

Canvas stretched on wood with the side facing the audience painted to look like a solid wall is called a

flat

The development of a ________ is an extremely important step in preparing for the show to begin rehearsals so the actors and director know how their patterns of movement will be affected by the placement of scenic elements and/or furniture.

floor plan or ground plan

When a beam of light is aimed at a particular area on the stage, it is said to be

focused

Joshua Sobol is the Israeli dramatist who wrote an important play about the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, called

ghetto

A firm material called lauan placed on a wooden or hollow metal frame, which can be painted and, in addition, have three-dimensional plastic moldings attached to it to create cornices, chair rails, and other features, is called a

hard-cover flat.

Roman togas and soldiers' helmets suggest which of the following?

historical period

A light plot does NOT include the

length of light cues.

Bustles or corsets affect which of the following areas?

line, shape, and silhouette

Since characters come from two completely different historical periods in Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia, the costume designer would probably use ________ and ________ to make connections between characters.

line; color

Which of the following is a critical member of the lighting design team?

master electrician

A small-scale, three-dimensional version of the set is called a

model

Sounds that are called for in the script are called

motivated sounds.

Spectacular stage effects like chariot races and houses burning down were fairly commonplace and extremely popular in the theatre during the

nineteenth century.

Stage right and stage left mean the right and left side, respectively, from the perspective of the

performers facing the audience.

Distinguishing major from minor characters is an analysis of which of the following?

relationships

A fairly complete sketch made by the scene designer, usually done in color, is called a

rendering

A gauze or cloth screen that, when painted and lit from the front, appears solid, but when lit from behind becomes transparent, is called a

scrim

The amplification of sounds produced by a performer or musical instrument is called

sound reinforcement.

When light from one area falls into an adjacent area, it is said to

spill

"Stethoscope" suggests which of the following?

status and personality

A "laboratory coat" is typical of which of the following categories?

status and personality

The show-stopping number from Aida, "My Strongest Suit," uses Bob Crowley's costume design to support

style and historical period.

The person responsible for seeing that the scenery, platforms, and other elements are built, painted, and installed onstage is called a

technical director.

The existence of wars, terrorism, natural disasters, and other intangibles are overwhelming issues in our contemporary world and therefore

the need for theatre and arts emphasizing human interaction are more important to our society.

Which of the following responses places these theatrical lighting practices in the proper chronological order?

the sun, candles and oil lamps, gaslight, limelight, incandescent lights, LEDs.

A rough sketch that provides the basis for further discussions between the director and the scene designer is called a

thumbnail

Fresnel lighting instruments are most often used for

top lighting.

A Trip to Coontown was the first black musical, conceived, written, produced, and directed by Bob Cole and William Johnson in 1898.

true

A further development in contemporary theatre relates to the sheer diversity of multinational theatre, gender specific theatre, and political theatre.

true

A harsh red light from below an actor's face can create a disturbing mood, but you would only find that kind of light in a nonrealistic production.

true

A warm golden red light from below an actor's face could establish a suggested light source of a campfire or candles on a table in a completely realistic production.

true

Along with expressionism, futurism, and surrealism, Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and Jerzy Grotowski's poor theatre were among the most significant features of the avant-garde theatre movement.

true

Although masks can help express a character effectively they are not likely to appear at all in a play that is completely realistic in style.

true

Although the Federal Theatre Project was shut down by Congress in 1940, the thousands of African Americans who began working in theatre due to the Federal Theatre Project led to an eventual explosion of black theatre in the 1950's.

true

An example of the postmodernist mixing of high and low art is the musical The Lion King.

true

Asian American theatre continues to thrive, as emerging playwrights Philip Kan Gotanda and Young Jean Lee are adding a more contemporary perspective to the already established works of David Henry Hwang and Tisa Chang.

true

August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences is a family drama set in the 1950s.

true

Black actor Paul Robeson had a record run of 296 performances in his 1943 production of Othello.

true

Both performance art and postmodernist approaches to theatrical production are more similar to the work of an auteur director, since the scripted dramatic work is subjugated to the creative vision and focus of the director.

true

England and numerous European countries invest significantly in the arts, and theatre specifically, to a far greater extent than the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States.

true

Even though the three longest-running musicals in Broadway history were 1980s British imports, the modern musical theatre form is predominantly a product of American talent and creativity.

true

Full-stage evocative scene designs can offer such an imaginative central image that stage design has even become an essential aspect of major rock concert tours.

true

In addition to the costumes themselves, makeup and wigs are also part of the responsibilities of the costume designer.

true

In ancient Greek tragedy, choral sections were performed to the accompaniment of music and dance movements.

true

It was rare to see African American performers on the stage in nineteenth century America.

true

Many believe that the opening of Fiddler on the Roof in 1964 marked the end of the golden age of "book" musicals, and yet forty years later the book musical once again has established a major presence in Broadway theatres.

true

Masks can be used to create stereotypes similar to stock characters.

true

Theatre of all types exists at every level, from amateur community theatre to university training programs to professional, and at any time audiences might attend

-productions of Shakespeare's classics. -visceral and unique avant-garde productions like Fuerza Bruta. -twentieth-century works by playwrights like Arthur Miller, August Wilson, Edward Albee, and Neil Simon.

Native Voices at the Autry, founded by Randy Reinholz and his wife Jean Bruce Scott, is one of the most important and prolific producers of new Native American plays.

true

One of the major playwrights to come out of the Cuban American theatre is Maria Irene Fornés.

true

Opera was originated by men who thought they were imitating Greek drama.

true

Performance art has been at the center of a controversy over funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

true

If an actor is near the edge of the stage closest to the audience, and she turns her back and walks away from the audience, she is walking

upstage

Visibility is the most obvious function of stage lighting. Which of the following is also a primary function of lighting?

-reveal shapes and forms -assist in creating mood and reinforcing style -provide a selective focus and an artistic visual composition

Athol Fugard

________ is a South African playwright whose plays often attacked apartheid.

Augusto Boal

________ was a Brazilian playwright and theorist noted for his theoretical work Theatre of the Oppressed.

Robert Edmond Jones believed that a stage setting is incomplete until

a performer is on it.

A light that is typically used to light the large cyclorama all the way upstage is

a strip light or flood light.

Walking sticks and parasols are examples of

accessories.

High-tech lights often used by rock musicians move up and down and from side to side, change colors, and change the sharpness and width of a beam of light and allow for numerous decorative or atmospheric patterns, are now used industry-wide. Such lights are called

automated lights.

A wireless microphone attached to a performer is called a ________ mike.

body

In order to meet the aesthetic demands of a lighting design, the stage manager must

call all cues with an understanding of the pace and rhythm integral to the production.

When a musical is based around an idea rather than a story, it is called a

concept musical.

When one set of lights comes down at the same time that another set of lights come up, this is known as a

cross-fade.

Lighting changes typically programmed in a computerized control system are referred to as

cues

The sound designer's primary collaborator on any theatrical production is the

director.

Performance art has since undergone several shifts of emphasis as visual artists continue to explore the temporal nature of theatrical performance, and yet the vocal presentation of text continues to be dominated by the use of text as visual image.

true

Possibly the most important production of the postwar era was A Raisin in the Sun.

true

Realistic prosthetic makeup is used both for fantastical creatures like flying monkeys and in creating believable historical characters.

true

Recitatives in an opera are the transitional sections between arias that are essentially dialogue that is spoken/sung in a stylized fashion on a musical pitch.

true

Shakespeare is alive and well in the U.S., with some 150 Shakespeare festivals around the country—30 in California alone.

true

Shingeki, or "new theatre," evolved throughout the twentieth century in Japan and eventually allowed female playwrights to actively take part, something that had previously been virtually nonexistent in Japan.

true

Some of the most important contemporary avant-garde works can be found off-off-Broadway in theatres such as Café LaMama, the Living Theatre, Mabou Mines, and the Wooster Group, among others.

true

Sound effects in the theatre can be produced effectively with either advanced technology or with age-old manual theatrical mechanics, depending on the style of the production.

true

Sound travels more slowly than light.

true

Split cross-fades are quite difficult to make consistent on a manual lighting console, but computerized light boards make this complicated timing easy to accomplish.

true

The Boys in the Band was the first play that brought gay life to the forefront of mainstream audiences.

true

The Federal Theatre Project of the 1930s was created to help theatre artists through the Depression, and it included units for African Americans.

true

The Federal Theatre Project of the late 1930s also gave rise to a significant number of Cuban American plays, performed predominantly in Florida.

true

The Royal National Theatre alone in Great Britain has a current annual budget of $30 million, which is more than 1/4 of the entire National Endowment for all of the arts in the U.S.

true

The invention of Velcro and the use of Whopper Poppers have been a great help in quick backstage costume changes.

true

The lighting designer can only use the following four controllable properties of light—intensity, color, distribution, and movement/change—in setting the lights for any cue in the theatre.

true

The musical Of Thee I Sing, 1931, satirized presidential elections in the U.S. as though they were some kind of beauty contest.

true

The proliferation of film, television, DVDs, computer games, and other electronic forms of entertainment all present a threat to the continuation of live theatre.

true

The true American musical, combining music, dance, and a singular dramatic story at the center, was first established in the late 1920s with the musical Showboat.

true

The type of theatre scene once found almost exclusively in New York City has become firmly established in numerous leading cities throughout the country, with a mix of theatre that is similar to the Broadway/off-Broadway/off-off-Broadway theatre model in NYC.

true

There is a very active theatre culture in Israel, which also includes numerous fringe theatre groups as found in Europe and the U.S., but most of the recent theatrical works explore the complexities of middle eastern politics and Israel's relationship with Palestine.

true

When a costume is created in the costume shop under the supervision of the designer, this is known as building a costume.

true

A circular revolving unit that is set into the floor, and which can turn mechanically to bring one set into view as another disappears, is a

turntable