Final exam

Question 1

Trifles, 1916

Answer 1

Susan Glaspell

Question 2

Long Day’s Journey Into Night, 1942/1956

Answer 2

Eugene O’Neill

Question 3

A Raisin in the Sun, 1959

Answer 3

Lorraine Hansberry

Question 4

Clybourne Park, 2010

Answer 4

Bruce Norris

Question 5

The Exception and the Rule, 1930

Answer 5

Bertolt Brecht

Question 6

Polaroid Stories, 1997

Answer 6

Naomi Iizuka

Question 7

Fires in the Mirror, 1992

Answer 7

Anna Deveare Smith

Question 8

Realism

Answer 8

Bringing the realities of life to the dramatic form; personal, social, ordinary

Question 9

Naturalism

Answer 9

Everything is predetermined

Question 10

Well-made Play

Answer 10

all actions contribute to the climax and the plot and everything is tied up at the end

Reversal of fortune followed by pity and fear.
The McGuffin (Hitchcock term).

Question 11

Major Forms of Theater

Answer 11

Melodrama, Comic Opera, Spectacle

Question 12

Glaspell (1876-1948)

Answer 12

Pronounced Players (1915-1923)
Civic Repertory Theater (1930’s)
Federal Theater Project (WPA-1930’s)

Question 13

O’Neill (1888-1953)

Answer 13

Theater Guild (1918-1950’s)

Question 14

Arena Theater

Answer 14

Circular theater with vomitorium.

Question 15

Black Box/Flexible Theater

Answer 15

No set plan; do whatever

Question 16

Environmental Theater

Answer 16

Moving, room to room

Question 17

Thrust Stage

Answer 17

Bellows out

Question 18

End Stage

Answer 18

No proscenium

Question 19

Proscenium Theater

Answer 19

Has an arch that serves as the 4th wall

Question 20

Hansberry (1930-1965)

Answer 20

Assimilationist, Unity, Pride, Masculinity and Femininity (agency), futurity, children, fatherhood.

Labor: home change, cooking, etc…

Question 21

Brecht (1898-1956)

Answer 21

Learning Play

Thinking about theater: form -> deliverance, context -> what it is

Question 22

Iizuka (1965-)

Answer 22

like Ovid’s Metamorphosis

Question 23

Political Theater

Answer 23

Theatre that comments on political issues, political action or protest that has a theatrical quality to it, and any action by politicians that is intended to make a point rather than accomplish something substantive.

Question 24

Learning/Teaching Play

Answer 24

A radical and experimental form of modernist theatre developed by Bertolt Brecht and his collaborators from the 1920s to the late 1930s. The Lehrstücke stem from Brecht’s Epic Theatre techniques but as a core principle explore the possibilities of learning through acting, playing roles, adopting postures and attitudes etc. and hence no longer divide between actors and audience.

Question 25

Distanciation

Answer 25

The effect of distancing or estranging a spectator through means within the form or content of a text that challenge basic codes and conventions, and therefore mainstream ideological expectations.

Question 26

Epic Theater

Answer 26

Primarily proposed by Bertolt Brecht who suggested that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage.

Question 27

Federal Theater Project

Answer 27

Government -> WPA
Employs hundreds of unemployed actors, directors, etc…

“Living Newspaper” Series

Question 28

Documentary Theaters vs. Verbatim Theater

Answer 28

Wholly or in part uses pre-existing documentary material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, etc.) as source material for the script, ideally without altering its wording.

A form of documentary theatre in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic.

Question 29

Soliloquy

Answer 29

An act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play.

Question 30

Repertory

Answer 30

The performance of various plays, operas, or ballets by a company at regular short intervals.

Question 31

Pronounced Players (1915-1923)

Answer 31

The Provincetown Players was an influential collective of artists, writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell, the Players produced two seasons in Provincetown, Massachusetts and six seasons in New York City between 1915 and 1923. The company’s founding has been called “the most important innovative moment in American theatre,” in part for launching the career of Eugene O’Neill and building an audience for American playwrights.

Question 32

Theater Guild (1918-1950’s)

Answer 32

The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner’s wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players. Its original purpose was to produce non-commercial works by American and foreign playwrights. It differed from other theaters at the time in that its board of directors shared the responsibility of choosing plays, management, and production. The Theatre Guild contributed greatly to the success of Broadway from the 1920s throughout the 1970s.

Question 33

Verisimilitude

Answer 33

The appearance or semblance of truth; likelihood; probability. The “lifelikeness” or believability of a work of fiction.

Question 34

Irma Vep

Answer 34

Charles Ludlam (1943-1987)
-melodrama and theater of the absurd (more specifically, theater of the ridiculous)

Question 35

The Importance of Being Earnest

Answer 35

Oscar Wilde

Question 36

Who’s afraid of Virgina Woolf?

Answer 36

Edward Albee

Question 37

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Answer 37

William Shakespeare

Question 38

Edward Albee

Answer 38

Theater of the Absurd, melodrama

Question 39

Melodrama

Answer 39

exaggerated feel of emotion, appeals to emotions above all else, considered to be a “trope”. Gothic literature, Penny dreadful, silent melodramas

Question 40

The Ridiculous Theater Company

Answer 40

Ludlam founded in 1967

Question 41

Camp

Answer 41

about effect, a sensibility, not really an idea. Stylized, aesthetic (glamour and over glamorous). Artifice, exaggeration, not deliberate – thrives off of failure, but an appreciation for it.