Test Bank Docx 12th Edition Ch.10 Theatre Today

Theatre, Brief, 12e (Cohen)

Chapter 10 Theatre Today

1) Today's theatre is difficult to categorize because

A) there are so few masterpieces being produced.

B) it is difficult to predict which plays will stand the test of time.

C) all of the theatrical conventions used in earlier eras have been abandoned.

D) former drama critics now focus their attention on film.

2) One recent example of a mainstream Broadway musical that addresses issues of sexuality is

A) The Book of Mormon.

B) Once.

C) Avenue Q.

D) Mary Poppins.

3) The hit downtown New York production of Sleep No More, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, takes place in a giant warehouse and allows the audience to wander wherever they wish. This is an example of

A) macaronic theatre.

B) dangerous theatre.

C) solo performance.

D) site-specific theatre as well as immersive theatre.

4) The artist Karen Finley, who had her NEA grant revoked after she smeared her naked body with chocolate, was working in the genre of

A) puppet performance.

B) performance art.

C) dance-theatre.

D) dangerous theatre.

5) Nudity, profanity, simulated sex, and violence have become commonplace in American theatre due to

A) lack of family values in the United States.

B) being trained in this style of acting.

C) legal censorship that has become locally unenforceable in America.

D) publishers who are requesting these types of plays.

6) Which of the following playwrights has received a Pulitzer Prize?

A) Suzan-Lori Parks

B) Lynn Nottage

C) Charles Gordone

D) Naomi Wallace

7) Which American playwright created works, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, and The Piano Lesson, that portray different aspects of African American life in each decade of the twentieth century?

A) August Wilson

B) Langston Hughes

C) Amiri Baraka

D) Lorraine Hansberry

8) Which of the following is NOT true of the role of women in the history of drama?

A) Until the seventeenth century, women were virtually unrepresented in the theatre.

B) Several contemporary women theatre artists have garnered prestigious awards, such as the Pulitzer and Macarthur.

C) Women currently represent one-third of all U.S. directors.

D) Women are more under-represented today in theatre than at any point since the 1650s.

9) Founded by Luis Valdez in 1965, which contemporary Chicano theatre was created to dramatize the farm workers' situation in California?

A) Carmina Burana

B) Teatro Campesino

C) Teatro Milagro

D) Teatro la Raza

10) Anna in the Tropics was written by which Latinx playwright?

A) Lin-Manuel Miranda

B) Nilo Cruz

C) Octavio Solis

D) José Rivera

11) Which play represented the watershed moment for Asian American theatre, in terms of sheer popularity?

A) Golden Child

B) Yankee Dawg You Die

C) Yellow Face

D) M. Butterfly

12) The emergence of spectacular theatre was facilitated mainly by

A) higher ticket prices.

B) advanced theatre technology.

C) the audience's desire for pure entertainment.

D) a decline in performance art.

13) Where should a site-specific production of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet be mounted?

A) at the original theatre where it premiered in London

B) at the home of the real-life Romeo, on whom the character is based

C) on a precise replica of an actual balcony, rebuilt inside the theatre

D) on an actual balcony outside, at night

14) What kind of theatre puts on plays for their own enjoyment and is considered amateur?

A) regional theatre

B) off-Off Broadway

C) summer stock

D) community theatre

15) Professional theatres operating on significantly reduced budgets and located primarily in New York neighborhoods, some very near actual Broadway theatres, became collectively known in the 1950s as

A) Broadway.

B) off-Broadway.

C) the other Broadway.

D) the Great White Way.

16) Which of the following is NOT true of nonprofit theatres?

A) "Nonprofit" means strictly noncommercial, so that nonprofit theatres rely upon funding sources other than box office receipts.

B) "Nonprofit" is strictly a legal designation. The theatre has no owners and makes no profit.

C) "Nonprofit" means that no one makes a profit; therefore, actors, stage designers, and all members involved in the production receive no salaries.

D) Nonprofit theatres are exempt from most taxes.

17) Which of the following is TRUE of performance art?

A) Performance art honors the traditional conventions of drama.

B) Performance art is primarily conceptual without having a clear narrative, character development, or structure, but can be arresting and provocative.

C) There is a clear plot in performance art.

D) The performers always act in character, never as themselves.

18) The theatre company Native Voices performs ________ plays regularly at the Autry Theatre in Los Angeles.

A) Latinx

B) Asian American

C) genderqueer

D) Native American

19) Theatre Breaking Through Barriers employs actors ________ for all their productions.

A) with disabilities

B) trained in performance art

C) of Native American descent

D) that have worked in prisons

20) Eastern European directors created a theatre of ancient plays produced with

A) no interest from the community at all.

B) no political agenda within their productions.

C) hidden, often subversive meanings clear to audiences, but lost on the government.

D) adaptions that irritated the local governments.

21) The founding of the Yale Drama Department (now known as the Yale School of Drama)

A) signaled an expanded commitment on the part of American higher education to train and educate future theatre artists.

B) was at the community theatre level.

C) was considered a waste of funding.

D) was not an important part of American theatre history.

22) Which of the following is NOT true of Broadway performances?

A) A new play rarely premieres on Broadway, and despite high ticket prices, most new plays on Broadway are in fact financial failures.

B) Broadway producers await new plays whose worth is proven in the subsidized European (chiefly English) theatre or on the not-for-profit regional stage.

C) Only the star-studded revival or Tony Award-winning new musical is likely to be bankable.

D) The "Great White Way" has offered breakthrough teaching and acting positions through government-funded mentorships and apprenticeships.

23) What description best characterizes the Borderlands Theatre?

A) spectacle-heavy entertainments that typically transfer to Broadway

B) bilingual productions for the local Mexican American community with minimal staging and has no permanent home of their own

C) disciplined and mannered pieces lasting upward of ten hours

D) raw, boundary-pushing work filled with violence and graphic sexuality, oftentimes meeting unified protest by the community

24) Which of the following plays was used in a work of applied drama at the San Quentin State Prison in 1957?

A) Yellow Face

B) Fences

C) The Glass Menagerie

D) Waiting for Godot

25) Which region in Europe has been producing, according to many critics, the most exciting theatre of today, featuring subversive political ideas and artistic flamboyance conveyed through classical plays?

A) Scandinavia

B) Eastern Europe

C) Ireland

D) Rural France

26) Productions that consist almost entirely of expressive movement, dance, music, and light are referred to as physical theatre.

27) Athol Fugard is one of the world's most prominent playwrights from Australia.

28) The term "dangerous theatre" is highly ironic: this movement's plays are straightforward and fun and avoid any political or physical altercations.

29) The Borderlands Theatre is in Tucson, Arizona and presents the struggles of the Latinx community.

30) Theatre of community features works created for a community, by members of that same community, that often express, celebrate, and sometimes critique the culture of their creators.

31) The variety of theatre introduced in the 1960s that denotes semi-professional or even amateur theatre in the New York/Manhattan area, often in locations such as church basements, YMCAs, and coffeehouses, is commonly known as off-off-Broadway.

32) Although American artists are largely protected from direct censorship by the U.S. Constitution's first amendment, government funding is subject to approval by local and national legislators who sometimes balk at funding the work of certain artists.

33) Dinner theatres were introduced to suburban America in the 1970s offering a "night on the town" package of dinner and a play in the same facility.

34) Shakespeare festivals, which began in the Great Depression and which now exist in every state, originated with summer stock productions.

35) America does not embrace community theatre and looks down on it.

36) The current emphasis on multiculturalism, globalization, and the changing state of international politics has broken the theatre away from many artistic conventions. With this in mind, discuss the relationship between historical change and theatrical change. What historical changes might account for performance forms that have recently emerged or gained new popularity?

37) Consider some of the challenges involved in presenting "dangerous" theatre today, given that this type of theatre often engages with violent content. How might directors depict the violence of the modern world, while still acknowledging that audience members may have experienced their own traumas?

38) You are an artistic director of a brand new community theatre! You are overwhelmed by all the theatre genres to choose from. Explain how you will go about narrowing your season selections down. Think about budget, audience, board of directors, and so on.

39) Discuss the relationship between theatre and current news stories, describing their connection. What role does the political world play in theatre? Could you use the new wave of technology to explore current events in a production to reach all ages?

40) Discuss why the theatre of today truly represents our lives right now. Think of culture, politics, social media, social issues, and so on. Give examples from specific plays you are familiar with to further explain your ideas.