Theater Chapter 11

The Oresteia, a trilogy about the Trojan War hero Agamemnon, was written by ______.

Aeschylus

Of the hundreds of Greek tragedies written, only a handful by these writers survive.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

Unlike its counterpart Greek tragedy, Old Comedies have a scene between two forces representing opposite sides of an issue, which is called ______.

Agon

______, like so much else in theatre, got its start in Greek drama, and Sophocles's play King Oedipus is a good example.

Climactic structure

True or false: Regardless of the characters they played, the Greek chorus was made up of only women.

False

Unlike the Greeks, Romans were noted for ______.

Jupiter

This rendering of the original stage area at Valenciennes, France is a good example of medieval, outdoor staging wherein the action moved from one scene to the next. These individual scenic stages are called

Mansions

This type of vernacular drama used allegorical characters and themes to teach lessons. Everyman is a good example of this kind of play.

Morality plays

Greek ______ comedy makes fun of social, political, or cultural conditions, and its characters are often recognizable personalities.

Old

A ceremony about which Egyptian god was performed over a period of nearly 2000 years beginning around 2500 B.C.E. in a place called Abydos?

Osiris

For a Greek festival, a choregus would be the equivalent of a modern-day ______.

Producer

Formal, repeated ceremonies that are found in cultures around the world are called

Rituals

plot

The arrangement of dramatic events.

The Oberammergau Passion play has been performed regularly since 1634 because members of the community promised to stage a play about the life of Christ if they were spared from ______.

The bubonic plague

language

The dialogue and poetry.

thought

The ideas explored.

music

The music in the play

character

The people represented in the play.

spectacle

The scenery and other visual elements.

The audience in the amphitheatres observed the play from the ______.

Theatron

This is another word for a stage performer, named after the first actor to step out of the chorus and impersonate a character.

Thespian

The most widely admired form of drama during ancient Greek festivals was ______.

Tragedy

While we do not know where or when theatre originated, we do know that many elements related to its origin include ______.

costuming ritual or religious ceremonies imitation

The seeds of this dramatic structure can be traced back to medieval religious plays, such as The Second Shepherd's Play, due to its shift in time and location, number of characters, and serious as well as comic scenes.

episodic structure

King Oedipus ______.

feared the prophecy that he would kill his parents was written by Sophocles

Various elements of theatre were first combined and transformed into theatrical events ______.

in ancient Greece

Ironically, after several hundred years of being suppressed by the church, theatre reemerged during the Middle Ages in the form of

liturgical dramas.

Unlike the Greeks, Romans were noted for ______.

military might and conquest practical achievements comedy and popular entertainments

Wagon stages and how they were used is debated by scholars. Some argue that they may have ______.

moved through the town stopping at points along the way paraded through the town to a central location rather than stop along the way

We know, using this photograph, that the structure in Orange, France, is a Roman theatre because ______.

of the elaborate stage house that is several stories high and has a facade with niches the structure is a single unit connecting the audience, the stage, and the stage building

In the Greek amphitheatre, the circular playing area, or stage, is called the ______.

orchestra

Contemporary versions of the mystery plays that depict the life of Christ that continue to be staged for large audiences in many parts of the world are called _____ plays

passion

Often acting as ordinary citizens, the Greek chorus in a tragedy ______.

provided background information or exposition necessary for understanding the plot was a moderating voice of reason or balance between the extreme behaviors of the central characters made observations about the action of the play

Actors, who performed a ribald take-off of Greek mythology or history, were costumed as these mythological creatures that were half-man and half-goat.

satyrs

Unlike their Greek predecessors who built theatres on hillsides, Romans built freestanding theatres in which the seating, the orchestra, and the stage house, or ______ were connected into a single structure.

scanea

Many theatre festivals revolve around ______.

specific playwrights like Shakespeare

Written by Aristotle, which one of these works was the first and most important example of dramatic criticism?

the Poetics

Antigone is ______.

the daughter of King Oedipus

The Greeks significantly influenced Roman culture particularly in the areas of ______.

theatre architecture sculpture

Today's theatre festivals are similar to those that began in Classical Greece because ______.

they help to create a sense of community they remind audiences of the centrality of theatre in our lives