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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What animal does the author say has a mysterious affinity with the plague?
(a) Cats.
(b) Dogs.
(c) Cows.
(d) Swine.

2. Artaud says that the reason the public is not interested in "higher" art and in theater in particular, is because people do not react to what?
(a) True gesture.
(b) Musical contribution.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Old language and forms of expression.

3. What is the mise en scene composed of?
(a) Acting.
(b) Everything around production.
(c) Psychological awareness.
(d) Poetry.

4. Artaud writes, "Compared with the murderer's fury which exhausts itself, that of the ______ remains enclosed within a perfect circle."
(a) "Director."
(b) "Poet."
(c) "Comedian."
(d) "Tragic actor."

5. In order for theater to resume its necessary role, we must reverse the roles of the text and the ________.
(a) Mise en scene.
(b) Stage.
(c) Director.
(d) Actor.

6. The "gold" of the theater evokes in the spirit what, according to Artaud?
(a) True understanding.
(b) Absolute and abstract purity.
(c) Answers to man's questions.
(d) Poetry.

7. Artaud compares totemism to what in the Preface?
(a) A mask.
(b) An actor.
(c) A disaster.
(d) A god.

8. In Balinese theater, voice and speech are given an entirely new role, in part because the power of the director, or __________ of a play is absolute.
(a) Dictator.
(b) Metteur en scène.
(c) Mais de scene.
(d) Raison d'etre.

9. Artaud asserts that in the Occidental version of theater, _____ are everything.
(a) Sounds.
(b) Costumes.
(c) Gestures.
(d) Words.

10. What is the name of the ship in Artaud's metaphor of the plague?
(a) Sardinia.
(b) Grand-Saint-Antoine.
(c) Saint-Remys.
(d) Calgiari.

11. Artaud comments that anything obsessive may be considered what?
(a) Red.
(b) Green.
(c) Black.
(d) White.

12. The author of Occidental theater is replaced by what in Balinese theater?
(a) Auteur de theatre.
(b) Metteur en scène.
(c) Raison d'etre.
(d) Mise en scene.

13. In the Preface, Artaud writes, "If confusion is the sign of the times, I see at the root of this confusion a rupture between things and ____".
(a) Beauty.
(b) Life.
(c) Love.
(d) Words.

14. In order to put theater back on its original path, it will be necessary to link it with everything that can exist as an ______ on a stage.
(a) Emotion.
(b) Entertainment.
(c) Action.
(d) Expression.

15. Artaud suggests that "true theater" should not mirror human life but instead should evoke what?
(a) A world of the gods and goddesses of old.
(b) A world of artistic vision.
(c) A reality where humans must have little influence or effect.
(d) Heaven and Hell.

Short Answer Questions

1. Of whom does Artaud say, "has nothing to do with the theater and must give way to specialists in its objective and animated sorcery"?

2. Which filmmakers/performers does Artaud make reference to in "Metaphysics and Mise en Scene"?

3. Of the performers of the Balinese theater, Artaud writes, "They are like huge _____ full of lines and segments drawn to connect them with an unknown natural perspective of which they seem nothing more than a, kind of detached geometry."

4. Artaud believes that theater should be the art of creating a higher meaning that cannot be what?

5. Artaud claims that while Occidental theater is focused on the psychological, Oriental theater focuses on what?

(see the answer keys)

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