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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. This is a perversion of theater to represent psychological and social conflicts and daily life, simply because the object of theater is not psychological but rather plastic and essentially what?
(a) Transcendental.
(b) Spiritual.
(c) Material.
(d) Ungodly.

2. In the Preface, Artaud contends we must "break through ________ in order to touch life to create or recreate the theater."
(a) Performance.
(b) Reason.
(c) Order.
(d) Language.

3. Of whom does Artaud say, "has nothing to do with the theater and must give way to specialists in its objective and animated sorcery"?
(a) The author.
(b) The actor.
(c) The musician.
(d) The director.

4. 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) Expression.
(b) Emotion.
(c) Action.
(d) Entertainment.

5. What form of the virus resulted in the deaths of more people than the previous plague?
(a) Australian.
(b) African.
(c) American.
(d) Oriental.

6. On what island does Artaud's metaphor of the plague take place?
(a) Monte Blanc.
(b) Indonesia.
(c) Greenland.
(d) Sardinia.

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

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) Metteur en scène.
(b) Raison d'etre.
(c) Dictator.
(d) Mais de scene.

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

10. In "The Alchemical Theater," Artaud writes, "All true alchemists know that the alchemical symbol is a _____ as the theater is a ______.
(a) Smokescreen.
(b) Mirage.
(c) Art.
(d) Mirror.

11. Artaud writes that "the symbols of alchemy provide the spiritual means of decanting and transfusing matter and must have evoked the passionate and decisive transfusion of matter by ____."
(a) Chemicals.
(b) Science.
(c) Magic.
(d) Mind.

12. Who had a prophetic dream about a plague destroying his city?
(a) Lord Bastillion.
(b) Saint-Remys.
(c) DuPlace.
(d) Artaud.

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) Love.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Words.
(d) Life.

14. Artaud believes that theater should be the art of creating a higher meaning that cannot be what?
(a) Repeated.
(b) Vilified.
(c) Glorified.
(d) Abandoned.

15. Artaud writes, "it is the _______ that is the theater much more than the written and spoken play."
(a) Performance.
(b) Director.
(c) Mise en scene.
(d) Actor.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the Balinese theater, Artaud writes "The drama does not develop as a conflict of feelings but as a conflict of" what?

2. Describing the Balinese theater, Artaud writes, "And there is in the truly terrifying look of their devil (probably Tibetan) a striking similarity to the look of a certain ______ in our own remembrance."

3. What sense has contemporary theater lost, according to Artaud?

4. Which form of the theater does Artaud admire in contrast to Occidental forms?

5. What is the duration of all of the great plagues, according to Artaud?

(see the answer keys)

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