View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The author contends that "we do not know how to celebrate, because we do not know ____ to celebrate."
(a) Where.
(b) When.
(c) What.
(d) Why.

2. "The job of shifting oneself totally from one character to another--a principle on which all of Shakespeare and all of Chekhov is built--is a _______ task at any time."
(a) Tangible.
(b) Easy.
(c) Incomprehensible.
(d) Super-human.

3. The author writes that "the theatre of the Absurd did not seek the ____ for its own sake."
(a) Unreal.
(b) Truth.
(c) Glory.
(d) Realism.

4. When did the author first go to Stratford?
(a) 1954.
(b) 1945.
(c) 1961.
(d) 1949.

5. In America, the author writes, "Years ago, ______ came into being to give a faith and continuity to those unhappy artists who were being so rapidly thrown in and out of work."
(a) The Stanislavsky Method.
(b) The Stella Adler Studio.
(c) The Neighborhood Playhouse.
(d) The Actor's Studio.

6. The author writes that in New York the most deadly element of the theatre is certainly what?
(a) Economic.
(b) Artistic.
(c) Socialist.
(d) Space.

7. The author contends that the whole of pop music is a series of what on a level to which we have access?
(a) Superficiality.
(b) Rituals.
(c) Journeys.
(d) Discoveries.

8. What is the theatre district in London called?
(a) SoHo.
(b) East End.
(c) West End.
(d) Broadway.

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

10. The theory of what is: "a spectator can be jolted eventually into new sight, so that he wakes to the life around him"?
(a) Absurdism.
(b) Happenings.
(c) Surrealism.
(d) Cruelty.

11. What play does the author juxtapose against Peter Weiss' play for an example of clarity of meaning?
(a) King Lear.
(b) Hamlet.
(c) Henry V.
(d) Romeo and Juliet.

12. The author points out that the best dramatists explain themselves how (regarding stage direction)?
(a) Creatively.
(b) The most.
(c) The least.
(d) Intricately.

13. Who "spent his life railing against the theatre of illusion, but his most treasured memories were of painted trees and forests and his eyes would light up as he described effects of trompe d'Å“il"?
(a) Stanislavsky.
(b) Meyerhold.
(c) Schindler.
(d) Gordon Craig.

14. 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?
(a) Five months.
(b) Two years.
(c) Six years.
(d) One year.

15. Brook claims there are two ways of "speaking about the human condition: there is the process of inspiration" and the process of what?
(a) Honest vision.
(b) Fear.
(c) Desire.
(d) Truth.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Brook, "Beckett's dark plays are plays of ______, where the desperate object created is witness of the ferocity of the wish to bear witness to the truth."

2. The author writes of an actor who studied the part of Hamlet for how many years and never played it because the director died before it was finished?

3. The author writes that "a most powerful explanation of the various arts is that they talk of..." what?

4. A word is an end product which begins with what?

5. What does the author refer to as "The Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 514 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample