Theatre History Test 1 – Flashcards
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The word "theatre" comes from the Greek "theatron", which means ________?
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"Seeing place"
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The minimal requirement for a theatre "building" is __________ and ___________
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A place to act and a place to watch
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A term for a long-standing, collective group of theatre practitioners who have worked together
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Companies/Troupes
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The theatrical craft in which 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
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Crewing
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The person who has 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
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Producer
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The person who has the responsibilities for admitting, seating, and providing for the general comfort of the audience
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House Manager
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The person who controls and develops the artistic product and provides it with a unified vision
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Director
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A theatrical craft that is usually achieved away from the theatre building and its associated shops
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Playwriting/ Composing
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Historically, what have theatres developed in close relationship to?
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Games
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The distinctive feature of theatre, which separates it from other arts, is that theatre employs what?
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Impersonation
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Theatre is an art because it combines emotions, intellect, and what else?
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Aesthetics
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In the ancient Greek theatre, _________ was used as a physical and symbolic separation of the actors from the audience?
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Masks
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The ________ mode of performance acknowledges the audience- as in the case of the nightclub performer who sings, dances, jokes, and responds overtly to applause
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Presentational
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The audience watches interaction that are staged as if no audience were present in the ___________ mode of performance
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Representational
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Coleridge's term for the audience participation engendered by way of empathy
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Willing suspension of disbelief
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Theatrical performance differs from other kinds of performance because theatre is live, scripted, and __________.
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Rehearsed
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T/F: The theatrical performance is live, with the audience and performers, who are aware of each other and mutually interact in their shared presence
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True
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T/F: Since the development of motion pictures, theatre has suffered declining attendance, revenues, and numbers of theatres in America
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False
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Although films are recorded, we perceive them as having a greater immediacy that theatre due to the fact that plays are __________.
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Rehearsed and repeated
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Theatre audiences assume a one-on-one relationship with what is being viewed and do not communicated with other viewers, unlike viewers of ___________.
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Television drama/ Movie-house films
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What is a full account of an event or series of events, usually in chronological order called?
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Story
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A main difference between episodic and climatic forms of structure is that _________ emphasizes a broader view with a cumulative effect
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Episodic
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The selection and arrangement of scenes that actually happen onstage is called what?
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Plot
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Reasonable balance, conflict and plot are essential aspects of what?
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Dramatic structure
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The final and most significant crisis
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Climax
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Shakespeare's plays typically included ________, which are secondary plots that reinforce or runs parallel to the major plot
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Subplots
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________ is the imparting of details about the past that are essential but not covered by the action onstage
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Exposition
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The dramatic structure that piles up people, places, and events
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Climatic
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Strongly opposed forces and limited time and space are conventions of common _________ dramatic structure.
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Climatic
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The central conflict and movement through a drama is referred to as the ________ of the play
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Action
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___________ dramatic structure requires extensive exposition
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Climatic
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The structure of William Shakespeare's plays
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Episodic
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The dramatic structure that features a restricted number of scenes
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Climatic
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In _______ dramatic structure, the plot begins relatively early in the story
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Episodic
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_________ dramatic structure features large numbers of locales
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Episodic
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_________ dramatic structure features a restricted number of characters
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Climatic
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In _________ dramatic structure events have a strong cause-and-effect relationship with the action of the play
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Climatic
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_________ dramatic structure often features many characters
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Episodic
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________ dramatic structure may have a single parallel subplot or even multiple subplots
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Episodic
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_________ dramatic structure uses the technique of juxtaposition and contrast to connect scenes
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Episodic
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In ________ dramatic structure, the construction of the plot is very tight
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Climatic
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In _________ dramatic structure, the plot or action of the play begins very late in the story
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Climatic
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T/F: The plot and the story are essentially the same thing
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False
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A ______________ delays the climax of a play
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Complication
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The presence of ____________ is necessary for drama to exist
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Conflict or Tension
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The term deus ex machina ("god from a machine") is used contemporarily to describe a playwriting device that allows for a __________ to the central conflict of the play
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Resolution (Coincidental Resolution)
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When asking "What is being attempted?", the critic is addressing the work of the ____________.
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Director and playwrighter
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Critical criteria includes the question "How well has the attempt _______?"
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Succeeded
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The last question for critics would be "Was the attempt _________?"
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Worth making
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In _________, the hero or heroine is a person of social stature: a king, a queen, a general, a nobleman, etc.
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Traditional tragedy
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In __________, the language used in the play is prose.
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Modern tragedy
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In traditional tragedy, the heroes or heroines ____________ with dignity after finding themselves in a situation from which there is no honorable avenue of escape
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Meeting their fate
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In traditional and modern tragedy, the central figures of the play caught in a series of __________.
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Tragic (Calamitous) circumstances
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In modern tragedy, the characters tend to be __________.
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Average people
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In ________, the situation becomes irretrievable; there is no turning back, there is no way out.
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Both types of tragedy
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The comic form of ______ relies on sophisticated language to attack evil and foolishness
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Satire
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All comic forms require a temporary suspension of the natural laws of ____________.
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Probability and logic
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The comic form __________ has few intellectual pretensions; its humor arises as the result of ridiculous situations.
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Farce
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The comic form __________ relies on gross exaggeration and occasional vulgarity
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Burlesque
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All comic forms turn the accepted notion of things ___________.
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Upside down
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Two ideas essential to tragic drama are the concept that human beings are capable of extraordinary accomplishments, and the notion that the world is ________.
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Potentially cruel and unjust
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The word "genre" means _________.
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Category or type of play
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___________ is a form of comic drama that emphasizes a sophisticated atmosphere and witty dialogue.
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Comedy of manners
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Many of the plays of playwright George Bernard Shaw can be placed under the special heading of _________.
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Heroic drama
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A "fourth wall theatre" describes a(n) ___________.
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"Picture"; an invisible or transparent wall through which the audience looks at the other 3 walls of a room
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______ provides the most intimate performance space.
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Arena stage
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The type of performance space associated with street theatre is the ____________.
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Guerilla theatre
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The ________ theatrical space utilizes the greatest amount of scenery and stage machinery
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Fly loft
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Elaborate scenery on/in a(n) ________ is impossible because it would block the view of other audience members.
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Arena stage
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Most Broadway performance spaces were built with the __________ configuration
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Proscenium/ Picture-frame
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The _________ is of special interest to experimental or avant-garde practitioners.
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Created space/ found space
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The ________ uses unusual structures with their original architectural elements intact, carving out special areas for acting and viewing.
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Created space/ found space
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The audience sits on three sides of a _________.
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Thrust stage
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Chinese and Japanese dramas are performed on a ________.
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Thrust stage
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In one form or another, the __________ has been the most widely used of all the theatre spaces.
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Thrust stage
