Theatre Appreciation, Test 1: Part 4 Flashcards
True/False: Suspense is the unfolding of events so that the audience wants to know what happens next.
True
True/False: The “theme of the play” is the most important thing to which audiences respond.
False
True/False: A convention is a kind of shorthand based on a performer-audience “contract.”
True
True/False: Style and genre are the same thing.
False
True/False: Material (that is, what something is made of) is an aspect of style.
True
True/False: A good piece of performance analysis must be, among other things, defensible.
True
True/False: As an audience member, you have to choose between observing the performance and enjoying it.
False
True/False: Actors and the characters they play can get mixed up in the audience’s mind.
True
True/False: It can be said that in performance, the six parts of a play are embodied simultaneously for the audience, whereas in reading, the six parts can be dug out individually by going back, re-reading, taking time out to think.
True
True/False: The difference between reading a play and participating as an audience member in a performance is slight.
False
True/False: In performance analysis, evidence exists in seeing the performance or relying on accounts of others who saw the performance.
True
True/False: An actor’s spoken words and sentences affect audiences through their music as well as their meaning.
True
True/False: In dramatic analysis, scripts cannot be repeatedly consulted for analysis.
False
True/False: Invented lives are often more interesting and compelling than real ones.
True
True/False: Surprise, like suspense, requires preparation.
True
True/False: Idea is the element of performance of most interest to theatre artists.
False
True/False: Audiences that do not understand the nature of theatre may respond to a performance inappropriately.
True
True/False: All individuals in the same audience will respond to the performance the same way.
False
True/False: Suspense requires that expectations be raised and then satisfied.
True
True/False: The given circumstances of a play and those of a performance are necessarily the same.
False
True/False: The same play being produced three times in three different theatres could be performed in three different styles.
True
True/False: A performance that uses only a series of wooden cubes and rearranges them to form different places has established a convention.
True
True/False: Changes in style can result from changes in the number and kinds of details selected for presentation.
True
MC: When The Phantom of the Opera first appeared on Broadway, the audience members often applauded as soon as the curtain opened–before the actors spoke a word. To what were they most probably responding?
Spectacle
MC: Raising and then answering the question “And then what happened?” is a function of:
Suspense
MC: Endless discussion persists about the political insights, if any, afforded by Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros. To what are the audiences most likely responding?
Idea
MC: An audience member who talks with you about the differences between David Schramm’s, William Hutt’s, and Lee J. Cobb’s portrayal of Shakespeare’s King Lear is most likely responding to:
Character
MC: Most powerful in performances, as distinct from text, are:
Music and spectacle
MC: A “contract” that exists between performers and audience members to do things a certain way for the artistic good of all is called a(n):
Convention
MC: At the beginning of the play the curtain opens to reveal the interior of a house–its living room. The raising of the curtain is an example of a(n):
Convention
MC: Even before a particular performance begins, a prepared member of an audience will probably want to know something about which of these?
The art of theatre, the play itself, the contents of the program, and the inside of the theatre auditorium (all of the above)
MC: An actor stands in the middle of the stage and talks aloud. None of the other actors on the stage appears to hear him. He is engaging in an example of a(n):
Convention
MC: A play reviewer writes: “An actor wears a solid black leotard, stands on a solid black plastic cube, and speaks in a monotone.” The reviewer is most probably trying to communicate something about the play’s:
Style
