Chapter 7

What are characteristics of extraordinary characters?

-larger than life -depicts characters at their best and worst -prestigious roles such as kings or queens

Minor characters are ______.

-typically used as a dramatic device by the playwright to move the action along -typically used to be supportive or confidante-like characters for the central character in the play -usually those in which we see only one facet of their personalities

_______ was at the heart of most plot complications in the commedia dell'arte.

Harlequin

The main representative character in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" who to this day serves as a symbol of the modern woman is ______.

Nora Helmer

An intellectual or artistic movement that breaks with tradition and therefore seems ahead of its time is called ______; literally, it means "advance guard in a military formation."

avant-garde

The technical term for revelation of background material in a play is ______.

exposition

Common structure in musical theatre requires that every song have a segment that involves the chorus.

false

Minor characters in a play are always written as basic stock characters.

false

The term "robot" was actually first used in an early twentieth-century play by Neil Simon.

false

When nonhuman characters are written into a script it is typically because the producers do not want to create a stage prop when an actor can solve the problem nicely.

false

Another word that means "contrast in the connection of scenes" is ______.

juxtaposition

A repetition or reenactment of a proceeding or a transaction which has acquired special meaning is called a ______.

ritual

A ______ reinforces or runs parallel to the major plot in an episodic play.

subplot

A tableaux structure begins with characters arranged in a visual stage picture and the action, frequently nonverbal, proceeds from that tableaux until the end of the scene.

true

As seen in some of Chekhov's plays it is possible to combine the climatic and episodic forms.

true

In a climatic drama, the plot begins early in the story.

true

Narrators in the most traditional sense remain outside the action of the play and typically comment on the action communicating directly with the audience.

true

Patterns as structure exist not only in dance but also in some plays, where the characters' movement and circumstances can be repetitive, as in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

true

We know that playwrights frequently write plays about a single family in classic climactic structure and they will also occasionally create two contrasting characters that are siblings or husband and wife in order to allow character traits to stand out more dramatically in the action.

true