Theater Appreciation, Chapters 13-15

Who ________________ was known as the father of tragedy and the earliest writer of Greek tragedy whose plays still exist?

Aeschylus

French tragic playwrights wrote in ________, which sounds rather boring to modern ears.

Alexandrine Verse

Which of the following playwrights was a good friend of William Shakespeare and is buried upright in Westminster Abbey?

Ben Jonson

What are tropes?

Chanted or sung phrases incorporated into Mass as an embellishment on a religious lesson

In 1453, what city of the Eastern Roman Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks and prompted the Renaissance?

Constantinople

How did the fall of Athens to the Spartans, which ended the Peloponnesian War, affect the growth of theatre in Greece? a. The pragmatism of Spartan thinking produced few poets, artists, actors, or playwrights. b. Freedom of speech was strictly controlled so playwrights turned to safe themes, more mundane topics, such as marital misunderstandings and meddling in-laws. c. Greek tragedy became shallow, scripts were mediocre, and performances seldom noteworthy. d. All of these affected the growth of Greek theatre.

D.

The term "rum and fun" comes from the Roman politicians, who knew that if they gave the general population enough food (rum) and entertainment (fun), the public would not question the government. True or False

False

What distinguishes Euripides' work from the other great playwrights of ancient Greece's Golden Age?

He was one of the first writers to treat women as major characters.

This French playwright's upbringing was so strict, he was even forbidden to read. But his love of classical Greek plays led him to write his most famous play, Phaedra.

Jean Racine

How were contemporaries Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare similar?

Marlowe wrote plays filled with classical allusions.

Who was one of Rome's greatest tragic playwrights and, as the tutor of the future emperor Nero, greatly influenced the ruler in becoming one of the greatest supporters of art and theatre in Western history?

Seneca

Which of the following reflects the prevailing attitude toward theatre in the Dark Ages?

So few people risked attending theatre performances that actors went underground and performed only when and where they could.

This ancient Greek playwright's plays are known for their complex characterization, harmonious lyrics, and effective dialogue. He also concentrated his plays on just a few critical moments within a character's life.

Sophocles

Which of the following statements about mystery plays is false?

They were about theological mysteries, beliefs that cannot be fully understood but are taken on faith as true.

In fifteenth century, Italy, a university student who rejected the traditional curriculum of theology, and instead studied the classical subjects of history, poetry, painting, architecture, music, and classical literature was called ____________________.

a humanist

This small, secular play was performed between other forms of entertainment and created a transition between medieval plays meant to moralize and teach biblical lessons to the more secular plays of the future.

an interlude

The purpose of Greek tragedies was not to make the audience feel somber but to enable them to experience an intense twofold feeling known as ______________, which occurs when one truly encounters life and confronts its many riddles.

catharsis

These impromptu farces were performed by professional acting troupes throughout Italy in the 1500s.

commedia dell'arte

Two basic elements of humanist theatre popular in Italy were adherence to Aristotle's unities________________ and ___________________.

declamatory acting

____________________ plays told stories about the lives of the saints.

miracle

The earliest liturgical dramas were written by priests and monks, with the exception of one ____________ who wrote six short dramas about the lives of saintly women, modeling the plays of the Roman comic playwright Terence.

nun

Horse-drawn wagons used to stage religious performances in the town square were called ________.

pageant wagons

Which of the following led to the beginning of mass media and the popularization of ideas?

the printing press

Which of the following was blamed for causing the Black Death during the Middle Ages?causing

the theatre

The main features of ancient Greek theatres were a seating area called the __________________, or "seeing place" and a circular playing area called the ______________________ or "dancing place,"

theatron, orchestra

What kind of theatre did Romans prefer?

unsophisticated comedy

The scenery of Elizabethan theatre was minimal, so playwrights' words painted pictures so that the audience could "dress" the stage in their imagination. This technique was known as:

verbal scene painting

Which of the following is not characteristic of the commedia dell'arte plays?

All parts were played by either men or boys.

Which playwright of Greek comedies is famous for caricatures of Greek leaders, stinging attacks on society, lampooning celebrities in the audience, and writing about a father who advises his spendthrift son to take lessons from Socrates on logic and argumentation to outfox his creditors?

Aristophanes

During the High Middle Ages, the seeds of the Renaissance were planted with the fall of Muslim Spain and the rediscovery of the writings of the philosopher, ________.

Aristotle

Who was Alexander the Great's teacher, who instilled a passion for Greek theatre?

Aristotle

Which playwright wrote many of the masques staged by Inigo Jones, which offended the Puritans?

Ben Jonson

Aristophanes' famous comedy Lysistrata? a. is an anti-war comedy. b. is about a woman who organizes the women of Athens and Sparta to deny their husbands sex until the men stop the war. c. was written during the Peloponnesian War which lasted 27 years. d. All of these describe Lysistrata.

D.

How did Aristotle's theory of causality critically influence Christianity and the development of theatre in the High Middle Ages? a. To Christians, Aristotle's philosophy reinforced the idea that everything has a purpose and all things are connected. b. Everything results from cause and effect; everything is a sign of God's pleasure or wrath—or possibly the work of Satan. c. Actors and playwrights now understood people's behaviors as resulting from a struggle between God and the Devil, so the characters of morality plays are allegorical. d. All of these are Aristotelian influences.

D.

Which of the following originated in Italy and influenced theatre throughout Europe? a. commedia dell'arte, b. humanist theatre c. perspective scenery d. All of these originated in Italy.

D.

Which of the following statements about Euripides and Medea is false?

Euripides is the least produced of the ancient Greek tragic playwrights

True or False: Two types of permanent public playhouses began appearing around London: small indoor theatres such as the Blackfriars, which were open to the general public, and huge outdoor theatres such as the Rose and the Globe, which catered to wealthy clientele and echoed the arena-like design as in ancient Rome.

False

True or False: Women were not allowed on stage in Shakespeare's England. It was considered unseemly for women to appear on stage; however, the Puritans approved of boys playing the younger female roles and mature men playing the parts of older women.

False

This French playwright was supported by King Louis XIV. He wrote scathing comedies, such as Tartuffe, that satirized French life.

Molière

Which of the following French playwrights was called "a demon in flesh" and told that he should be burned at the stake as "a foretaste of the fires of hell" for writing plays about a religious hypocrite and freethinker who doesn't believe in heaven, hell, or devils?

Molière

After the Peloponnesian War, playwrights were denied freedom of speech and turned from political satire to these comic plays, known as ______________, which were mundane and steered clear of insulting those in power:

New Comedy

Which of the following was one of Sophocles' most famous characters?

Oedipus Rex

These comic plays were written before the end of the Peloponnesian War, when playwrights enjoyed a relatively high degree of freedom of speech in Athens.

Old Comedy

Which influential playwright during The Golden Age of Spanish theatre was ahead of his time because he attempted to explain the human character as shaped by environmental and psychological causes, rather than by fate or dictated by "final cause"?

Pedro Calderón de la Barca

This French playwright refused to follow the strict writing code of l'Académie française (the French Academy). His popular play Le Cid was loved by the public, but criticized by the Academy.

Pierre Corneille

Which of the following did not contribute to the end of religious theatre many parts of Europe?

Pope Innocent III's building of a ballroom theatre at the Vatican.

Which institution or group in England attacked the theatre because they believed that the only way to escape the fires of hell was through hard work, abstinence from all profane amusements and sensual pleasures, and careful observance of religious rites?

Puritans

These popular entertainers had shows filled with jugglers, acrobats, comic skits, buffoonery, and plenty of vulgar language, indecent songs, and nudity.

Roman mimes

Which of the following statements about theatre in the Dark Ages is false?

Roman mimes used puppet plays to perform their unruly skits.

Religious dramas called autos sacramentales were still being performed in ____________________ two hundred years after liturgical plays had lost popularity in the rest of Europe. Even though secular plays were allowed, they often had liturgical and ____________ themes.

Spain, patriotic

When the Vatican (papal government) sensed that it was losing the common people, it allowed theatrical elements into the Mass to strengthen people's faith. Priests acted as "living impersonators" of biblical figures in short plays on religious topics. Which language did the priest use when performing these little plays?

The language of the local people

These rigid rules for playwriting insisted that 1) the action of the play take place within twenty-four hours; 2) the play must never combine comedy and tragedy; and 3) all the settings in a play could be reached within twenty-four hours.

The three unities

True or False. During the Dark ages in Europe, except in Muslim Spain, there were few new inventions and fewer innovative thinkers.

True

True or False: Shakespeare's name first appeared in London in 1592, as an actor with the Lord Chamberlain's company.

True

True or false: Once scholars rediscovered the great Greek tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and the Roman comedies of Plautus, Terence, and Seneca, university students were performing these classics for their fellow pupils and small invited audiences, which helped pave the way for introducing more secular theatre.

True

Although there are many theories about how theatre began in Athens, many scholars accept Aristotle's claim that theatre grew out of a ritual called the ____________________, a hymn sung at the altar of the god Dionysus.

dithyramb

The word "Renaissance" means ____________________.

rebirth

Greek tragedies were presented in groups of three and were followed by a short comic-relief play. This comic-relief play was called a _________________________.

satyr play

Ancient Greek plays have a framework consisting of five elements: a prologue, a parodos, alternating episodes and ________, and an exodos.

stasimons

According to this Aristotle's theory of causality four causes brought order to the world. Which of these defines the "efficient cause"?

the agent that actualizes the material, who acts on the material to make it into something