Chapter 14

Question 1

What kind of plays depict a descent from optimism to disillusionment or pessimism?

Answer 1

Expressionism

Question 2

What “Verfremdungseffect” can be translated as…

Answer 2

Alienation Effect

Question 3

Who argued that the subconscious was the highest plan of reality and attempted to recreate its workings dramatically?

Answer 3

Surrealists

Question 4

What many historians believe that political and economic unrest set the stage for the rise of…

Answer 4

Totalitarianism

Question 5

Who made his reputation at the Old Vic in London?

Answer 5

Tyrone Guthrie

Question 6

What originated in Switzerland with a series of manifestos written by Tristan Tzara?

Answer 6

Dadaism

Question 7

Who could more justifiably claim to have developed the concept of Epic Theatre?

Answer 7

Erwin Piscator

Question 8

Who believed in dictatorial government and forcible suppression of opposition?

Answer 8

Fascists

Question 9

Who idealized war and the developing machine age?

Answer 9

Futurists

Question 10

What was the closest the United States has come to establishing a national theatre?

Answer 10

The Federal Theatre Project

Question 11

Who used a narrator in “Our Town” to paint a picture of a small town life and set it against larger issues?

Answer 11

Thornton Wilder

Question 12

Who believed theatre was not a literary event but a sensory one?

Answer 12

Antonin Artaud

Question 13

What country’s theatre between the world wars remained the most commercially oriented theatre in the world?

Answer 13

America

Question 14

What theatre was often referred to as America’s Moscow Art Theatre?

Answer 14

The Group Theatre

Question 15

Who was sent to one of Stalin’s prison camps and died there in 1940?

Answer 15

Meyerhold

Question 16

Lee Strasburg

Answer 16

Method Acting

Question 17

Luigi Pirandello

Answer 17

Surrealism, “Six Characters in Search of an Author”

Question 18

Elmer Rice

Answer 18

“Adding Machine”

Question 19

Antonin Artaud

Answer 19

Theatre of Cruelty

Question 20

Noel Coward

Answer 20

“Blithe Spirit”

Question 21

Frederico Garcia Lorca

Answer 21

Spanish Plays

Question 22

Cole Porter

Answer 22

American Musical Theatre

Question 23

Aspects of Theatre of Cruelty

Answer 23

• Antonin Artaud believed that western theatre needed to be totally transformed and its literary tradition which emphasized language was antithetical to its ritualistic origins and western theatre artists should study Asian theatres.
• He did not believe texts were sacred; he felt that a script should be reworked to be relevant
• Theatre for Antonin Artaud was not a literary event but a sensory experience
• Artaud did not use the term “cruelty” to mean that theatre artists should literally assault their audiences - although some later avant-garde theatre artists did think of cruelty as actual physical confrontations with spectators, viewers sense should be bombarded
• He wanted to reorganize theatre space to make the audience the center of attention

Question 24

Erwin Piscator

Answer 24

Epic Theatre

Question 25

Aspects of Surrealism

Answer 25

• The surrealists argued that the subconcious was the highest plane of reality and attempted to re-create its workings dramatically
• Many of their plays seem to be set in a dream world, mixing recognizable events with fantastic happenings.
• Cocteau’s best known plays are reworkings of Greek myths that contrasted modern ideas with traditional stories
• Luigi Pirandello became one of the most well known surrealistic playwrights whos works engaged in philosophical debates questioning the relationship between appearance and reality.

Question 26

Four Bertolt Brecht plays

Answer 26

“Mother Courage and her Children” “Galileo” “The Good Person of Setzuan” and “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”

Question 27

Aspects of Brecht’s Epic Theatre

Answer 27

• Written in Episodic structure
• Usually dealt with history or foreign lands, covered long periods of time, shited locale frequently, have intricate plots, and include many characters
• The goal of Epic Theatre was to instruct
• Theatre should create an intellectual climate for social change