Test Bank Docx Ch1 What Is Theatre?

Theatre, Brief, 12e (Cohen)

Chapter 1 What Is Theatre?

1) The word "theatre" comes from the Greek theatron, which means

A) acting place.

B) seeing place.

C) singing place.

D) listening place.

2) What is the relationship between "child's play" and the theatre?

A) Both are unconcerned with serious issues and focus only on having fun.

B) Both can be easily categorized into different genres, such as comedy and tragedy.

C) Both involve acting out different roles.

D) They are, in fact, nothing alike.

3) Which of the following is NOT a possible meaning of "theatre"?

A) the building where the play is performed

B) the company of players

C) a major downtown ticket center

D) the occupation of acting, directing, designing, building, crewing, managing, producing, and playwriting

4) The minimal requirement for a theatre "building" is

A) a platform and an orchestra pit.

B) a curtain and bleachers.

C) a director and actors.

D) a place to act and a place to watch.

5) One term for a long-standing, collective group of theatre practitioners who have worked together is

A) corporation.

B) collection.

C) troupe.

D) posse.

6) Which theatrical craft fits the following description? Technicians execute in proper sequence, and with carefully rehearsed timing, the light and sound cues, the shifting of scenery, the placement and return of properties, and the assignment, laundering, repair, and change of costumes.

A) house managing

B) producing

C) directing

D) crewing

7) The task of securing all necessary personnel, space, and financing; supervising all production and promotion efforts; fielding all legal matters; and distributing the proceeds derived from receipts falls to the

A) stage manager.

B) producer.

C) director.

D) manager.

8) The responsibilities for admitting, seating, and providing for the general comfort of the audience fall to the

A) house manager.

B) assistant stage manager.

C) director.

D) designer.

9) The person who controls and develops the artistic product and provides it with a unified vision is the

A) builder.

B) director.

C) producer.

D) stage manager.

10) Which of the following theatrical crafts is usually executed away from the theatre building and its associated shops?

A) running

B) producing

C) stage managing

D) playwriting

11) Historically, theatres have developed in close relationship to

A) eating places.

B) medicinal baths.

C) sports activities.

D) political events.

12) While both theatre and sport are public spectacles, theatre differs from sports activities because

A) sports activities have more players.

B) theatre has a preordained ending.

C) theatre has a central protagonist.

D) only sports involves conflict.

13) The distinctive feature of theatre, which separates it from other arts, is that theatre employs

A) impersonation.

B) verse.

C) lots of separate tools.

D) symbolism.

14) Theatre is an art because it

A) is not always enjoyable.

B) is always restricted by form.

C) combines emotions, intellect, and aesthetics.

D) provides an escape from life.

15) In the ancient Greek theatre, what physical and symbolic element separated the actors from the audience?

A) The actors spoke in verse.

B) The actors wore masks.

C) The actors' names were printed in the program.

D) The actors danced in special costumes.

16) An action taken for the attention, entertainment, enlightenment, or involvement of someone else is called

A) theatre.

B) drama.

C) spectacle.

D) performance.

17) The difference between theatre and performance is that

A) theatre takes place only within specialized spaces but performance can be anywhere.

B) theatre makes performance into a formal mode of artistic expression.

C) theatre is made only by professionals but anyone can create performance.

D) theatre includes identity behaviors such as gender but performance does not.

18) Which mode of performance makes the drama "dramatic" as opposed to simply theatrical, enabling the audience to concentrate on the events that are being portrayed and not on their method of demonstration?

A) representational

B) presentational

C) transparent

D) imperative

19) Which mode of performance acknowledges the audience—as in the case of the nightclub performer who sings, dances, jokes, and responds overtly to applause?

A) the soliciting mode

B) the entertaining mode

C) the presentational mode

D) the symbolic mode

20) The mode of performance in which the audience watches interactions that are staged as if no audience were present at all is called

A) the presentational mode.

B) the representational mode.

C) the feigned mode.

D) the treacherous mode.

21) Coleridge's term for the audience participation engendered by way of empathy was

A) willing suspension of disbelief.

B) inadvertent involvement.

C) harmonic conversion.

D) synergy.

22) Theatrical performance differs from other kinds of performance because

A) the audience is charged an admission fee.

B) theatre is live, scripted, and rehearsed.

C) theatre employs dialect and scenery.

D) theatre uses actors.

23) Why did the playwright-director Bertolt Brecht use songs, signs, chalk talks, arguments, and slide projections in his productions?

A) He wanted to encourage active audience participation through empathy.

B) He wanted to discourage stage "magic" in order to appeal to the audience directly about social issues.

C) He wanted to create a more realistic vision of life.

D) He wanted to bring theatre to a primitive level to reach all kinds of audience ages.

24) How does a theatrical performance differ from a filmed performance?

A) The theatrical performance has a script whereas filmed performances are most often impromptu.

B) Regional dialect is more effectively used in film than in theatre.

C) Symbolism is far more important in theatrical performances than in film.

D) The theatrical performance is live, with the audience and performers, who are aware of each other and mutually interact in their shared presence.

25) Which of the following is true of the relationship between the play script and the performance?

A) The script is a silhouette or outline of the play itself, which fully exists in performance only.

B) The script is the master plan, containing indications of the gestures, expressions, and movement that the actors need to mount it faithfully.

C) Most scripts in the past were completed and published prior to the initial production.

D) Scripts in the past always emerged out of improvisations done prior to performance.

26) The rigid distinction between the acting space and the audience space came to be formalized when acting became an unsavory, often illegal profession.

27) Theatres built in Elizabethan London to accommodate both plays and bearbaiting provide an example of the shared history of theatre and sport.

28) Cultural behavior such as gender can be viewed as performance.

29) The advantages of live performance include its two-way communication between audience and actors, unification of group responses, and live immediacy that makes every show novel and different.

30) Representation performers directly acknowledge the presence of audience members.

31) Although films are recorded, we perceive them as having a greater immediacy than theatre due to the fact that plays are rehearsed and repeated.

32) Adult plays and children's games share the ability to help develop means of coping with life's challenges and uncertainties.

33) Theatre performances can elicit the audience's participation by arousing in the audience the feeling of empathy.

34) Theatre creates a communal effect on the audience.

35) Published scripts offer a complete, perfect record of a play's productions.

36) Define four major categories of Work in the Occupation of Theatre. Use an example when appropriate.

37) Discuss the implications of this statement: Theatre is not simply a collaborative art that requires the coordination of many crafts; it is also a collaborative experience because it requires an audience.

38) Discuss the ways in which theatre, as an event and an audience experience, differs from television and film.

39) Discuss the difference between a house manager and a stage manager. List their duties (rehearsal and performances).

40) Discuss the range of meanings contained in the word "theatre."