survey of theatre quiz 2

tragic verse

language used in traditional tragedy is VERSE, bc the epic highs and lows of human experience can be the best expressed through poetry.

dues ex machina

literally "god in a machine", a resolution device in classic Greek drama ; hence, intervention of supernatural forces - usually at the last moment - to save the action from its logical conclusion. in modern drama, an arbitrary and coincidental solution, a term used to describe any outside intervention at the end of a play to bring the play to a close.

Romanticism

nineteenth-century dramatic movement that imitated the episodic structure of Shakespeare, and thematically focused on the gulf between human beings' spiritual aspirations and physical limitations.

After the opening scene, we reach what?

obstacles and complications.

In theatre, a ritual is where the ___ and ___ come together.

old, new

melodrama

one of the most popular forms of theatre in the 18th and 19th centuries and we still see it today. The word, melodrama, comes from the Greek, meaning music drama. This genre emphasizes action and spectacular effects, and also uses music to underscore the action ; it has stock characters, usually with dearly defined heroes and villains.

anatagonist

opponent of the protagonist in a drama.

subject of theatre is always ______; meaning what?

people, the dramatic characters on stage.

Nonhuman Characters

sometimes characters are nonhuman, although they usually have human characteristics.

subplot

sometimes referred to as parallel plot, a secondary plot that reinforces or runs parallel to the major plot in an episodic play.

techniques of comedy : plot complications

still another way the contradictory or the ludicrous manifests itself in comedy is in plot complications, including coincidences and mistaken identity. things like coincidences mistaken identity, other wordly interventions narrow misses.

Plot is based on a _____.

story.

Traditional plot structure calls for what?

strongly opposing forces; the antagonist opposes the protagonist ;one group opposes another.

What does the opening scene tell us?

tells us what lies ahead and sets everything in motion.

Who suggested that tragedy arouses pity and fear in the audience and that this genre purges the audience of those emotions?

the Greek philosopher Aristotle in Poetics (c.335BC).

In continental Europe and Great Britain, the 18th century was known as what? and the 19th century?

the age of enlightenment, the century of progress.

tragic circumstances

the central figures of the play are caught in a series of tragic circumstances. in traditional tragedy, the universe seems determined to trap the hero or heroine in a fateful web and for that character to suffer a tragic fall.

Domestic Comedy

the comedic counterpart domestic drama. We see this genre most clearly in things like sitcoms, which feature families and friends caught in a series of complicated but amusing situations. ex : the simpson's.

what two periods where conductive to the creation of tragedy were...

the golden age of Greece in the fifth century BCE and the Renaissance in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries CE.

acceptance of responsibility

the hero/heroine accepts responsibility for his or her actions and shows willingness to suffer and an immense capacity for suffering. part of traditional tragedy.

climax

the highpoint in the development of a dramatic play.

In the world of theatre, the storyteller is called what?

the playwright

What also affects the outlook of individual artists in terms of whether they create tragedy, comedy, or other genres.

the viewpoint of society.

Nonverbal Theatre

theatre in which gestures, body movements, and sounds without words are stressed rather than logical or intelligible language.

traditional tragedy

three noteworthy periods of history in which traditional tragic dramas were written are Greece in the 5th century, England in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, and France in the seventeenth century.

More important than the actual playing time of a performance is the ...

time limit or deadline within the play. this means the time that is supposed to elapse during the events of a play, the time covered by those events-a few hours, a few days, or longer.

What two terms are used in theatre to denote the impersonation of a character by an actor or an actress?

to act and to perform

Absurdist Plots: Illogicality

traditional plots in drama proceed in a logical way from a beginning through the development of the plot to a conclusion, an arrangement that suggests an ordered universe. In contrast, many absurdist plays not only proclaim absurdity but also embody it.

When the elements of ________ _____ are combined, they appear to produce two contradictory reactions simultaneously : ________ and ___________.

traditional tragedy, pessimism, affirmation.

stock characters

two dimensional, stereotypical characters. are generally fully rounded figures.

slapstick

type of comedy or comic business that relies on ridiculous physical activity- often violent in nature- for its humor

Well-Made Plays

type of play popular in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century that combines apparent plausibility of incident and surface realism with a tightly constructed, highly casual, and contrived plot. also known as climatic dramas.

Quintessential Characters

typical, ordinary people but representative of a group. certain key characters in drama, especially in modern drama, are not extraordinary or exceptional in the same way as royalty or military leaders, but become important bc they embody qualities of an entire group of people.

theatre : limited space

usually limited to a stage, but there is also a limit within the play itself. the action of the play itself. the action of a play is generally confined to a "world" of its own-that is, to a fictional universe that contains all the characters and events of the play-and none of the characters or actions moves outside the orbit of that world. sometimes the world of a play is restricted to a single room.

In the __ century, ______ people began taking over from royalty and the nobility as heroes and heroines of drama - a reflection of what was going on in the real world.

18th, ordinary.

complication

Introduction, in a play, of a new force that creates a new balance of power and entails a delay in reaching the climax.

Point of View

Point of View is particularly important in the arts. Under ordinary circumstances, those who attempt to influence our point of view, such as advertisers and politicians, frequently disguise their motives. They use subtle, indirect techniques to convince us that they are not trying to impose their views on us, though people who understand the process know that this is exactly what an advertiser or a politician is trying to do. In the arts, on the other hand, the imposition of a point of view is direct and deliberate. The artist makes it clear that he or she is looking at the world from a highly personal and perhaps unusual angle, possibly even turning the world upside down.

Theatre of the Absurd

Twentieth century plays expressing the dramatists' sense of absurdity and futility of human existence through the dramatic techniques they employ, example of modern comedy. plays falling into the category of absurdism convey humanity's sense of alienation and its loss of bearings in an illogical, unjust, and ridiculous world. Although serious, this viewpoint is generally depicted in plays with considerable humor ; an ironic note runs through much of theatre of the absurd.

tragic irretrievability

Ultimately this means that there us no turning back once events have been set in motion. a part of traditional tragedy.

Incongruity refers to ...

a character's inappropriate behavior or actions for a specific circumstance resulting in our laughter.

Comedy of Ideas

a comedy in which the humor is based on intellectual and verbal aspects of comedy rather than physical comedy or comedy of character. A drama whose emphasis is on the clash of ideas, as exemplified in the plays of George Bernard Shaw.

avant-garde

a group active in the invention and application of new techniques in theatre, a french term that means "advance guard in a military formation". sometimes arranges events in a random way to suggest the random or haphazard manner in which life unfolds in everyday situations.

Pun

a humorous use of words with the same sound but different meanings, usually considered the simplest form of wit.

absurdist language : nonsense and non sequitur

a latin term for "it does not follow"; it implies that something does not follow from what has gone before, and it perfectly describes the method of theatre of the absurd. sentences do not flow in sequence, and words do not mean what we expect them to mean.

Forms of Comedy : Burlesque

a ludicrous, comic imitation of a dramatic form, play, piece of literature, or other popular entertainment

Stage Directions

a playwright writes not only the dialogue but they also write whats called stage directions which are the unspoken lines of the play that tell the director and actors what the action is.

crisis

a point in a play when events and opposing forces are at a crucial moment, and when the course of further action will be determined. there are many be a series of crises leading to the definitive climax.

Ritual

a repetition or reenactment of a proceeding or transaction that has acquired special meaning.

Serial Structure

a series of scenes that do not follow a continuous story or even include the same characters offered as a single presentation.

tragedy

a serious drama in which there is a downfall of the primary character. asks questions very basic questions about human existence, assumes that the universe is indifferent to human concerns and often cruel and malevolent.

absurdist language : existential beings

a significant feature of absurdist plays is the handling of of characters. not only is there an element of the ridiculous in the character's actions, but they frequently exemplify an existential point of view. In theatre, existentalism suggests that characters have no personal history and therefor no specific causes for their actions.

Epigram

a sophisticated form of verbal humor.

Difference between Story and Plot

a story is a full account of an event, usually in chronological order, while a plot is a selection and arrangements of scenes taken from a story for presentation onstage. It is what actually happens onstage, not what is talked about.

Forms of Comedy : Farce

a subclass of comedy with emphasis on exaggerated plot complications and with few or no intellectual pretensions.

Malaprop

a word that sounds like the right word but actually means something quite different.

At its heart, theatre involves _____.

action.

In musical theatre, structure often includes what two things?

alteration and juxtaposition

juxtaposition/contrast

another technique of episodic drama, short scenes alternate with longer scenes, public scenes alternate with private scenes, we move from one group to an opposing group, and comic scenes alternate with serious scenes.

Tragic Heroes and Heroines

extraordinary people- kings, queens, nobles, a person of stature. part of traditional tragedy.

Comedy of Manners

form of comic drama that became popular in the English Restoration, that is set within sophisticated society, while poking fun at its characters' social pretensions, usually through verbal wit.

Commedia dell'arte

form of comic theatre, originating in sixteenth-century Italy, in which dialogue was improvised around a loose scenario involving a set of stock characters, each with a traditional costume, name, and often mask. stock characters of commedia were either straight-forward or exaggerated and were divided into servants and members of the ruling class.

Episodic

found in plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. begins relatively early in the story and covers an extensive period of time-sometimes many years. does not compress the action but expands it. unlike climatic drama, episodic plays do not necessarily follow a close cause-and-effect development.

What does the word "drama" derive from?

from a Greek root, the verb "dran", meaning "to do" or "to act".

techniques of comedy : comedy of character

has to do with the way characters see themselves or pretend to be, as opposed to the way they actually are.

Characteristic of Comedy : The Comic Premise

idea or concept in a comedy that turns the accepted notion of things upside down an idea or concept that turns the accepted notion of things upside down and makes this upended notion the basis of the play.

comedy

in general, a play that is light concerned with issues that point out the excesses and follow of human behavior, has a happy ending, and is designed to amuse.

tragicomedy

in the 20th century theatre, the new genre came to the forefront. a play that is happy and sad ; during the Renaissance, a play having tragic themes and noble characters but a happy ending ; a play in which serious and comic elements are integrated. Many plays of this type present a comic or ironic treatment of a serious theme.

Modern Tragicomedy

in the modern period-the past 100 years or so-tragicomedy has become the primary approach of many of the best playwrights.

tableaux

in theatre, it is a static scene onstage featuring performers in costume.

Good drama never lacks what?

incentive or motivation for its character.

exposition

information necessary for an understanding of the story but not covered by the action onstage; events or knowledge from the past, or occurring outside the play, that must be introduced so that the audience can understand the characters of the plot.

Most theatrical performances last anywhere from ...

1 to 3 hours.

Forms of Comedy :Satire

comic form, using irony and exaggeration, to attack and expose folly and vice.

The suspension of natural laws and the establishment of a comic premise in comedy involve what two things?

exaggeration and incongruity.

Heroic Drama

serious but basically optimistic drama written in verse or elevated prose, with noble or heroic characters in extreme situations or unusual adventures. differs from tragedy in having a happy ending, or in assuming a basically optimistic worldview even when the ending is sad.

obstacle

That which delays or prevents the achieving of a goal by a character. An obstacle creates complication and conflict.

T OR F : Though we often separate the episodic and climatic scenes, there have been a number of times when the two forms were combined, joining together characteristics from each.

T

Modern Tragedy

begins in the late 19th century (late 1800's) and does not feature kings and queens as the main characters and they are written in prose not poetry.

Climatic

begins late in the story, was created by the Greeks and adopted by many cultures in the years after that. usually has a limited number of characters, covers a short space of time, and takes place in a limited space-often one room. has a limited number of locations and scenes, little or no extraneous material, and tight construction, including a cause-and-effect chain of events.

technique of comedy : verbal humor

can be anything from a pun to the most sophisticated discourse

Representative characters

characters who embody characteristics that represent an entire group.

One way to provide action is to...

create a test of human worth and endurance - a trial by fire.

What does the playwrighter do?

creates the entire world of the play deciding what story to tell, the time and place of the story, the characters who will take part, the tone and emphasis of the story, the way the story is told, and how it unfolds and ends. must also determine the order of events in a play.

Bourgeois or domestic drama

drama dealing with problems, particularly family problems, of middle and lower class characters, there are serious and comic domestic dramas. these dramas became popular in the 18th century, when there was a "call" for serious drama.

Characteristic of Comedy : Suspension of Natural Laws

prime examples of this are found in film and television cartoons. In animated cartoons, characters are hurled through the air like missiles, shot full of holes, and are flattened on the sidewalk when they fall from buildings. But they always get up, with little more than a shake of the head. In the audience, there are no thoughts of a real injury like cuts or bruises, because the cause-and-effect chain of everyday life is not operating.

protagonist

principal character in a play, the one whom the drama is about.

In theatre, with its time and space limitations, plot must be more ...

restricted.

When does Point of View begin in theatre?

when a dramatist, a director, or a performance artist takes a strong personal view of a subject, deciding that it is grave, heroic, or humorous.