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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whose "plays are symbols in an exact sense of the word. A false symbol is soft and vague: a true symbol is hard and clear"?
(a) Tennessee Williams.
(b) Samuel Beckett.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Harold Pinter.

2. What does the author contend is "the only trouble with violent shocks"?
(a) That they are empty.
(b) That they wear off.
(c) That they are false.
(d) That they arrest thought.

3. The theatre is "the last forum" where what is still an open question?
(a) Beauty.
(b) War.
(c) Love.
(d) Idealism.

4. Where did the author, in 1946, encounter children piling into a space to watch two clowns?
(a) The Louvre.
(b) The Royal Shakespeare Company.
(c) The Hamburg Opera.
(d) The London Globe.

5. What British playwright does the author laud, who also works as a director and performer?
(a) Pinter.
(b) Shepard.
(c) Sletteland.
(d) Williams.

6. Of whom does the author say, "His aim continually is holy, metaphysical, yet he never makes the mistake of staying too long on the highest plane"?
(a) Shakespeare.
(b) Beckett.
(c) Pinter.
(d) Artaud.

7. According to the author, with most experimental products, "______ is their complaint and their excuse."
(a) Love.
(b) Poverty.
(c) Religion.
(d) Desperation.

8. What does the "inner man" express only in his words?
(a) Fear and desire.
(b) Love and hatred.
(c) Anarchy and poetry.
(d) Lust and rage.

9. Within a constrained time allotted for rehearsal, what cannot occur, according to the author?
(a) Finding truth.
(b) True impulse.
(c) Artistic risks.
(d) Creative explosion.

10. The author opines that "today the theatre of doubting, of unease, of trouble, of alarm, seems truer than the theatre" with what?
(a) A happy ending.
(b) A noble aim.
(c) A generous spirit.
(d) A sad ending.

11. "When the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of King Lear toured through Europe, the production was steadily improving and the best performances lay between" where?
(a) Paris and Sicily.
(b) Norway and Ireland.
(c) Budapest and Moscow.
(d) Moscow and Ukraine.

12. Where did the Royal Shakespeare Company's Lear find an unwilling audience?
(a) Connecticut.
(b) New York.
(c) Philadelphia.
(d) California.

13. What is the climax of the theatre, which is not the climax of applause?
(a) The climax of silence.
(b) The climax of relief.
(c) The climax of fear.
(d) The climax of intent.

14. What does the author refer to as "The Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible"?
(a) The Dead Theatre.
(b) The Holy Theatre.
(c) The Immediate Theatre.
(d) The Living Theatre.

15. The theatre has often been called what?
(a) A waste.
(b) A religion.
(c) A misery.
(d) A whore.

Short Answer Questions

1. On the first day of rehearsal of what show did its composer, Harold Arlen, arrive wearing a blue cornflower, with champagne and presents for all?

2. There is often a call for performing the classics in what way?

3. "On Broadway ticket prices are continually rising and, ironically, as each season grows more disastrous, each season's hit" does what?

4. Who theorized the "Theatre of Cruelty"?

5. The author writes of productions in Russia of classical Shakespearean works which rehearsed for how long, yet were unable to perform as well as a hack company?

(see the answer keys)

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