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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The author refers to Broadway not as a jungle, but a what?
(a) Monster.
(b) Forest.
(c) Machine.
(d) Man.

2. In regard to music, the author says we may make a personality cult of whom?
(a) The soloist.
(b) The song writer.
(c) The conductor.
(d) The musician.

3. The author writes, "Years ago I saw a girl at the Actors' Studio approaching a speech of Lady Macbeth's by..." doing what?
(a) Screaming loudly.
(b) Standing on a cliff.
(c) Pretending to be a tree.
(d) Weeping uncontrollably.

4. Which company is mentioned by the author as using time well, rehearsing approximately 12 months for performances?
(a) The National Theatre.
(b) The Berliner Ensemble.
(c) The Pekin Opera.
(d) Comedie Francaise.

5. Who does the author say is the most influential of modern writers?
(a) Bertolt Brecht.
(b) Tennessee Williams.
(c) Merce Cunningham.
(d) Clifford Odets.

6. The author claims that a "true symbol" is what?
(a) Silent.
(b) Nonexistent.
(c) Specific.
(d) Deadly.

7. What "can be anywhere, any time, of any duration: nothing is required, nothing is taboo"?
(a) A violent outbreak.
(b) An ordeal.
(c) An emotional moment.
(d) A Happening.

8. What does the author refer to Meyerhold's experiments as?
(a) Humanistic.
(b) Psychological.
(c) Bio-mechanical.
(d) Physiological.

9. "When we accept Beckett's statement as it is, then suddenly all is _______."
(a) True.
(b) Devastated.
(c) Desolate.
(d) Transformed.

10. Which Chinese Opera Company came to London and retained touch with its sources, creating something new every night?
(a) Pekin Opera Company.
(b) Formosa Opera Company.
(c) Xing Opera Company.
(d) Siam Opera Company.

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

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

13. Where did the author see a production in which a young actor "stood in front of a very old one and spoke and mimed the role with him like a reflection in a glass"?
(a) Theatre de Francaise.
(b) Comedie Francaise.
(c) Broadway.
(d) The West End.

14. 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) Harold Pinter.
(d) James Joyce.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The author writes that "the theatre of the Absurd did not seek the ____ for its own sake."

2. What artist does the author refer to as a visionary who leads a theatre company in Poland?

3. Who wrote the libretto for House of Flowers?

4. The author points out that the best dramatists explain themselves how (regarding stage direction)?

5. "The actor's work is never for _______, yet always is for one."

(see the answer keys)

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