Test Questions & Answers Ch8 The Modern Theatre

Theatre, Brief, 12e (Cohen)

Chapter 8 The Modern Theatre

1) Realist theatre

A) has had a lasting effect on modern theatre.

B) is actually quite nonrealistic: it calls for a symbolic representation of reality that conveys the feeling of reality more precisely.

C) was short-lived as a movement.

D) arose from nostalgia for ancient Greek aesthetics.

2) Which is a characteristic of realist drama?

A) prettified settings and contrived endings

B) characters drawn true to life and subject to their individual social states

C) dramatic conventions and abstractions

D) stylized costumes and performances

3) One convention of the realist theatre is that dialogue

A) represents conversation.

B) is conversation.

C) reveals philosophical truths.

D) symbolizes abstract ideals.

4) Which movement, whose development was independent of realism, based its aesthetics on nature, particularly on humanity's place in the (Darwinian) environment and tried to create life itself on stage?

A) naturalism

B) scientism

C) romanticism

D) mesmerism

5) The founding playwright of the realist era was

A) Henrik Ibsen.

B) August Strindberg.

C) Mario Tinburgen.

D) Anton Chekhov.

6) Which of the following is true of the relationship between naturalism and realism?

A) Naturalism and realism are interchangeable terms.

B) Naturalism paralleled but existed independently of realism and sought to eliminate every vestige of dramatic convention.

C) Naturalism is a word applied to the success of the performance; realism refers to the dramatic style.

D) Naturalism refers to plays only about nature while realism refers to only the group mind.

7) The subject matter of naturalistic plays is

A) well-defined social issues.

B) the conflict among nations.

C) slice-of-life action.

D) the symbolic representation of the natural world and environment, as well as events or objects.

8) The high point of stylistic realism is best exemplified by

A) Anton Chekhov.

B) August Strindberg.

C) Henrik Ibsen.

D) George Bernard Shaw.

9) How did Stanislavsky contribute to realist theatre?

A) He brought realist acting to realist plots.

B) He introduced body doubles in scenes of realistic passion.

C) He introduced the use of complex nudity on the stage.

D) He required actors to wear their own clothes on the stage.

10) Which of the following is true of Chekhov's style?

A) Chekhov created deeply complex relationships among his characters.

B) Chekhov never used irony or understatement in his plays.

C) Chekhov builds minor characters who never seem quite real and are more symbolic.

D) Chekhov is known as the "father of dramatic realism."

11) Which of the following is true about the age of "isms"?

A) It covers many different ideological tenets such as futurism, dadaism, expressionism, surrealism, etc.

B) This is a word that meant actors were fully present on stage.

C) Realism was at the head of the list.

D) The theatre world (directors and playwrights) all agreed on one concept only.

12) Which of the following is consistent with the symbolist opposition to realism?

A) In order to subvert realism, symbolist writers attempted to draw characters more true to life than reality.

B) The symbolists did not dispense with realism but enhanced it with antirealist styles, which followed no single belief.

C) In order to assault the dimensions of lived reality, symbolist drama fostered the use of miniature by plays-within-the-plays acted by puppets.

D) In protest against realistic set and stage design, symbolist sets did away with all props and furniture on the stage.

13) Which movement can be interpreted to signal "the death of isms" in our contemporary age?

A) idealism

B) surrealism

C) postmodernism

D) dada

14) The constructivist who broke with Stanislavsky's style of realist performance to create a nonrealist "biomechanical" style of acting and direction was

A) Francois Medvedev.

B) Mikhail Bakhtin.

C) Bertolt Brecht.

D) Vsevolod Meyerhold.

15) Which production had the most violent premiere in theatre history, such that the audience shouted, hissed, threw things, shook fists at the stage, and fought duels after subsequent performances?

A) Jarry's Ubu Roi

B) Brecht's Mother Courage

C) Artaud's Conquest of Mexico

D) Shaw's Major Barbara

16) This type of drama, in vogue in Germany during the first two decades of the twentieth century, featured shocking and gutsy dialogue, boldly exaggerated scenery, piercing sounds, bright lights, and an abundance of primary colors.

A) impressionism

B) theatre of cruelty

C) expressionism

D) dada

17) The foremost American playwright, whose ventures into naturalism eventually turned toward expressionism and the authorship of The Hairy Ape, was

A) Ernest Hemingway.

B) Eugene O'Neill.

C) Alan Ayckbourn.

D) Simon Gray.

18) Which type of drama fits the following description: the theatre becomes a part of the content of play production, not merely the vehicle.

A) impressionism

B) metatheatre

C) expressionism

D) theatre of cruelty

19) In Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello uses the theme of the theatricality of human existence to show

A) that everyday life is beset by the eternal confusion between appearance and reality.

B) that appearances are always what they seem to be.

C) the ultimate authority of truth is in confusing the audience.

D) that appearance is shallow yet exciting.

20) The saying "no more masterpieces" is a tenet of

A) Stanislavsky's school of realism.

B) Artaud's theatre of cruelty.

C) Pirandello's use of theatrical magic.

D) Brecht's epic theatre.

21) This playwright, born in Germany in 1898, emerged from World War I as a dedicated Marxist and pacifist, and consolidated his theories about drama into a body of plays that include The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Good Person of Szechuan.

A) Antonin Artaud

B) Konstantin Stanislavsky

C) Herbert Hauptmann

D) Bertolt Brecht

22) This theatre attempted to distance the audience by repudiating realistic conventions through a didactic performance style, an acting style that required the actor to "demonstrate" rather than "integrate with" his character, and a stage that called attention to its own artificiality.

A) Brecht's theatre of alienation

B) Artaud's theatre of cruelty

C) Pirandello's metatheatre

D) Beckett's realism

23) Which movement was based in the idea that, although humans search for some meaning or purpose in human life, they are met with a world that is fragmented, unorganizable, and chaotic, making the effort futile?

A) expressionism

B) modern realism

C) absurdism

D) theatre of cruelty

24) What play, written by an Irish poet and playwright, follows two elderly men in bowler hats passing time at the base of a tree?

A) Major Barbara

B) Waiting for Godot

C) Jet of Blood

D) The Bald Soprano

25) Which play exemplifies the genre of contemporary allegory?

A) Beckett's Waiting for Godot

B) Baraka's Dutchman

C) Maeterlinck's The Intruder

D) Jarry's Ubu Roi

26) Realist drama attempts to break through the limitation of language and character in order to arrive at an insight into a greater metaphysical cosmos.

27) The lasting impact of Ibsen's plays lies primarily in two qualities: 1) their choice of issues and 2) the playwright's skill at showing both sides of an issue and conflict through brilliantly captured psychological detail.

28) Realist theatre aspired to be a laboratory in which an audience makes the final judgment of a social ill or the nature of relationships.

29) The theatre where Chekhov collaborated with Konstantin Stanislavsky is the Moscow Art Theatre.

30) The chief theoretician of naturalism was Voltaire.

31) Typical themes of the symbolist theatre include the inner realities that cannot be directly or literally perceived.

32) The term avant-garde comes from the military, where it refers to the "shock troops" that initiate a major assault.

33) Surrealism, which means "beyond realism," was invented by Picasso.

34) Caryl Churchill's play Cloud Nine is a devised work that emerged from a group vision that suggests that identity is a collection of masks and performances, rather than a stable essence.

35) Brecht's distance effects sought to enhance the audience's engagement with the characters and thus, have a sentimental relationship with them.

36) Ubu Roi (by Alfred Jarry) is the French avant-garde antirealistic play that shocked audiences of 1896. Describe at least two elements of this play (staging, acting, scenery, content, etc.) that might still shock or offend audiences of today and explain why.

37) Compare and contrast realist and naturalistic theatres. Can a theatre production ever truly be "real" or "natural"? Why?

38) Amiri Baraka's Dutchman (1964) employs the rhythms of everyday urban life interspersed with mythical incantation to explore issues of race and gender. Even though his theatrical form is a bit dated, do you think his play could still be relevant today? Why or why not?

39) Explain how Machinal shows expressionist principles.

40) Discuss the innovations Brecht brought to the theatre. Are such innovations visible in any aspects of today's popular culture? Where?