Theatre Appreciation, Test 1: Part 4

Question 1

True/False: Suspense is the unfolding of events so that the audience wants to know what happens next.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

True/False: The “theme of the play” is the most important thing to which audiences respond.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

True/False: A convention is a kind of shorthand based on a performer-audience “contract.”

Answer 3

True

Question 4

True/False: Style and genre are the same thing.

Answer 4

False

Question 5

True/False: Material (that is, what something is made of) is an aspect of style.

Answer 5

True

Question 6

True/False: A good piece of performance analysis must be, among other things, defensible.

Answer 6

True

Question 7

True/False: As an audience member, you have to choose between observing the performance and enjoying it.

Answer 7

False

Question 8

True/False: Actors and the characters they play can get mixed up in the audience’s mind.

Answer 8

True

Question 9

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.

Answer 9

True

Question 10

True/False: The difference between reading a play and participating as an audience member in a performance is slight.

Answer 10

False

Question 11

True/False: In performance analysis, evidence exists in seeing the performance or relying on accounts of others who saw the performance.

Answer 11

True

Question 12

True/False: An actor’s spoken words and sentences affect audiences through their music as well as their meaning.

Answer 12

True

Question 13

True/False: In dramatic analysis, scripts cannot be repeatedly consulted for analysis.

Answer 13

False

Question 14

True/False: Invented lives are often more interesting and compelling than real ones.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

True/False: Surprise, like suspense, requires preparation.

Answer 15

True

Question 16

True/False: Idea is the element of performance of most interest to theatre artists.

Answer 16

False

Question 17

True/False: Audiences that do not understand the nature of theatre may respond to a performance inappropriately.

Answer 17

True

Question 18

True/False: All individuals in the same audience will respond to the performance the same way.

Answer 18

False

Question 19

True/False: Suspense requires that expectations be raised and then satisfied.

Answer 19

True

Question 20

True/False: The given circumstances of a play and those of a performance are necessarily the same.

Answer 20

False

Question 21

True/False: The same play being produced three times in three different theatres could be performed in three different styles.

Answer 21

True

Question 22

True/False: A performance that uses only a series of wooden cubes and rearranges them to form different places has established a convention.

Answer 22

True

Question 23

True/False: Changes in style can result from changes in the number and kinds of details selected for presentation.

Answer 23

True

Question 24

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?

Answer 24

Spectacle

Question 25

MC: Raising and then answering the question “And then what happened?” is a function of:

Answer 25

Suspense

Question 26

MC: Endless discussion persists about the political insights, if any, afforded by Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros. To what are the audiences most likely responding?

Answer 26

Idea

Question 27

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:

Answer 27

Character

Question 28

MC: Most powerful in performances, as distinct from text, are:

Answer 28

Music and spectacle

Question 29

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):

Answer 29

Convention

Question 30

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):

Answer 30

Convention

Question 31

MC: Even before a particular performance begins, a prepared member of an audience will probably want to know something about which of these?

Answer 31

The art of theatre, the play itself, the contents of the program, and the inside of the theatre auditorium (all of the above)

Question 32

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):

Answer 32

Convention

Question 33

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:

Answer 33

Style