DRAMA Quiz #3
Sigmund Freud
"The Interpretation of Dreams": look for the causes of human behavior in the subconscious to explain why people did what they did
Dr. Rank
- A Doll House - Friend of Torvald and Nora - Confesses to being in love with Nora and tries to help her
Mrs. Linde
- A Doll House - Nora's friend - Practical and the voice of reason - She had to marry rich and not for love in order to save her family - In love with Krogstad
Torvald Helmer
- A Doll House - husband - very controlling and treats his wife as if she is a child
Nora
- A Doll House - wife of Torvald - illegally borrowed money in order to save her husband, said she got the money from her father - When borrowing the money, she forged her father's signature - She leaves her husband at the end of the play because she claims Torvald doesn't understand her
The Well-Made Play
- Careful exposition - Tight cause/effect relationship of event (emphasis on suspense) - Emphasis on plot, not character - Scenes build to climax - Withheld information/reversals of fortune - Everyday language - Resolution of events
Biff
- Death of a Salesman - football star in high school with scholarship prospects - failed math, and didn't go to summer school because he caught his father cheating on his mom - has dreams that contradict with his father's
Willy Loman
- Death of a Salesman - traveling salesman - sees visions of past memories as his mental health declines - commits suicide
Expressionism vs. Realism
- Expressionism interpreted a moment, actively, while Realism captured a moment, passively - Expressionism uses subjective interpreting, while Realism uses objective reporting - Expressionism focuses on how the artist feels/the artist's experience
Goals of Epic Theatre
- Force critical thinking about the issues - Provoke the audience to act for change
Emile Zola
- French Philosopher - Naturalism: a person's fate was a result of heredity and environment - influenced the Well-Made Play
Konstantin Stanislavsky
- Moscow Art Theatre - Actor Training: "The Method" - This acting technique enabled Chekhov's plays to be performed as he wanted - The Seagull was Chekhov's first successful play with the MAT - A seagull has been the symbol of the Russian company ever since
Dramatic Techniques of Epic Theatre to Achieve the Goals
- Prevent audience empathy because emotions can cloud judgement - Confound expectations: distance them, make them feel estranged ("alienation" - "verfremdungseffekt")
August Strindberg
- Realistic plays - Dream Plays: not on the pattern of cause and effect; time moves both forward and backward
Mrs. Ranevsky
- The Cherry Orchard - Owner of the estate and cherry orchard - Mother - Went to Paris for 5 years, fell in love with a man who robbed her and left
Varya
- The Cherry Orchard - adopted daughter - In love with Lopakhin - Estate's manager
Anya
- The Cherry Orchard - daughter
Trofimov
- The Cherry Orchard - in love with Anya - tutor - idealistic
Lopakhin
- The Cherry Orchard - son of serfs from the estate - buys the orchard and estate - chops down all the cherry trees - Is in love with Varya but never proposes
Shen Te
- The Good Woman of Setzuan - former prostitute who bought a tobacco shop with the money she received from the gods after she gave them a place to stay - taken advantage of for being too good - disguises as Shui Ta, her supposed visiting cousin, and is not so good
Wong
- The Good Woman of Setzuan - water seller - interacts with the gods
Political Background of The Cherry Orchard
- feudal system until 19th c. featured master/serf relationship, like slavery - The Emancipation of the Serfs - 1/3 of the population was freed - Govt. paid landlords to give former serfs land. Serfs paid back the govt. in annual payments - Some wealthy families adjusted/others didn't
Realism technological advances
- gas lights replaced candlelights, which allowed greater intensity of light and more control - limelight: used for moon light effects - Electric lights replacedd gas - Actors moved up "into" the setting - Apron (downstage front lip) of stage got smaller - Costumes and furniture became more historically accurate
Brecht
- greatly influenced by Erwin Piscator - Epic Theatre - Drama must serve revolutionary ends (all about change, disruptive) - Style should be simple, direct, clear - New techniques to help convey meaning
Charles Darwin
- influenced Naturalism - All creatures have a common ancestry - Through evolution and "survival of the fittest" begins become what they are - influenced the Well-Made Play
Henrik Ibsen
- originator of modern drama - adapted well-made play - early plays in verse, historical drama - famous for "realistic" plays about the problems of Norwegian middle class - Later plays use more poetic and symbolic treatment of reality
Miller's dramatic, narrative use of memories (and sometimes memories within memories) was used to achieve what goal(s) of the play?
- to dramatize, subjectively and expressively, how the human mind under great stress functions - to show what it was like inside Willy's head during his last days - to expose Willy's internal searching for answers of where he went wrong with Biff - to dramatize Willy's internal seeking of validation that he was right in how he raised his boys
Shu Fu
- wants to marry Shen Te - injures Wong by hitting his hand with a curling iron
Krogstad
- works for Torvald - lends Nora the money, and blackmails her with the forged signature
Epic Theatre: achieving distance through
1) Cultural/Historical setting 2) Episodic Structure: "one thing after another" not "one thing out of another" 3) Music and songs that comment on action 4) Projected/Written Titles or Text 5) Presentational Stagecraft 6) Presentational Acting 7) Antithetical Elements (contradictions) 8) Epic in scope (subject, time, distance)
The Well-Made Play playwrights
1. Augustin-Eugene Scribe 2. Victorien Sardou
Miller writes that the sound which begins and ends Death of Salesman should be 'small and fine, telling of grass and trees and the horizon.' What sound does he ask for?
A flute
When Nora forces Torvald to sit down with her at the end of A Doll House, what does she observe that is so striking?
After 8 years of marriage it is the first time that they (as husband and wife) have ever talked seriously with each other
The harp string sound occurs twice. When?
After the sunset in Act Two and at the end of the play
Which audience reaction would Brecht have preferred for Shen Te's predicament?
Anger
"I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were... I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need to be, to secure one thing - his sense of personal dignity." Who wrote this?
Arthur Miller
"I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw - the sky. And I said to myself what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be?"
Biff
In Ibsen's A Doll House, what do Nora and Krogstad have in common?
Both committed a similar crime
This playwright wanted his audience to react to the happenings on stage with analysis and clarity, actively choosing one side over another
Brecht
The Andy Warhol soup cans and fur-covered bowl and spoon were shown as an example of
Brechtian estrangement technique
"Life on the stage should be as it really is, and the people, too should be as they are... People are having a meal, just having a meal, but at the same time their happiness is being created or their lives are being destroyed." Who famously wrote this?
Chekhov
This book would prove influential in the development of theories supporting the rise of realism
Darwin's The Origin of Species
Well-Made Play: Function of drama
Drama is now about what we as a society can do to fix our collective problem
This philosophy of theatre sought to force critical thinking and provoke the audience to act for change
Epic theatre
As your anthology's critical introduction states, this playwright "almost single-handedly brought a new seriousness to drama, and in doing so he won enduring acclaim as 'the originator of modern drama'"
Ibsen
The success of Checkhov's plays was due in part to the realistic acting style taught by this co-founder and director of the Moscow Art Theatre
Konstantin Stanislavsky
Which playwright sought "to capture the lived experience of time.." and wanted a play "that would cut through time like a layer cake..." ?
Miller
While one could infer that Firs dies at the end of the Cherry Orchard, does Chekhov's text state, definitively, that he does?
No, the text follows the ambiguity of the play and shows that he "lies there, no longer moving." He could just be sleeping
"I believe that, first and foremost, I'm a human being - just as much as you - or at least I should try to become one."
Nora Helmer
"I have such a huge desire to say - to hell and be damned!"
Nora Helmer
Allowing the audience to sit in a dark theatre (for the first time) and to peek in on a slice of life as it happened before them is most closely associated with which movement?
Realism
"The time came when pity was a thorn in my side/And, later, when kind words turned to ashes in my mouth/And anger took over/I became a wolf"
Shen Te, a prostitute, later a shopkeeper
The "troubles" mentioned in The Cherry Orchard refer to what?
The emancipation of the serfs
T/F: "Realism," as practiced by Ibsen, depended as much on what the plays were about as on how they were presented
True
T/F: A Doll House utilized a finely detailed stage description because the 'environment' of the play was now considered important in determining human behavior
True
T/F: Chekhov intentionally wrote in 'pauses' in his plays. He thought they contributed to the play a truer rhythm of life, one less concerned with an artificial building of climatic suspense
True
T/F: In addition to Willy Loman, the play's title, Death of a Salesman, also refers to Dave Singleman, the man who, at 84 years old, could make his living in his green velvet slippers and by just picking up the phone, and, importantly, was remembered and loved
True
T/F: The ending of A DOLL HOUSE was so disturbing to some that early productions in Germany and England changed the play so that it included a 'happy ending' where Nora does not leave
True
"Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way."
Uncle Ben
There is a recurrent musical theme of a flute playing in Death of Salesman. What connection does Willy have with the flute?
Willy's father used to make, play, and sell flutes
To the degree that it called attention to real-world power inequities in our society, would Brecht have approved of the framing device in the Donmar Warehouse production of Julius Caesar?
Yes
Chekhov insisted that The Cherry Orchard was
a comedy
The distant, mournful sound that occurs during The Cherry Orchard is described by Chekhov as sounding most like
a harp string breaking
A play calling for placards or projections listing the events about to occur in the next scene is most characteristic of which kind of drama?
epic theatre
A Doll House shows us Krogstad and Mrs. Linde finally talking together and beginning to reconcile their differences. Why does Ibsen show us this?
it's an example that a true, communicative partnership between a man and woman is possible
Checkhov's portrayal of Lyubov Andreyevna (the mother of Anya and Varya) shows that
she is a flawed, yet sympathetic character
Checkhov's use of action is deceptive because his character's needs are sometimes acted on in ways that are not always apparent from their dialogue. This subtle treatment of action is called:
subtext
Why is it significant (in Ibsen's method of utilizing every aspect of storytelling) that Nora performs a tarantella where she dances at the Christmas party?
the tarantella is a dance which originally imitated someone who had been bitten by a tarantula spider and is dancing to stay alive (and, for Nora, likewise, it is a dance of survival)
Realism
turning theatre away from spectacle to "using it for good"; more realistic setting and dialogue
