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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In his second letter from "Letters on Language," Artaud states, "My plays have nothing to do with ______ improvisations."
(a) Copeau's.
(b) Racine's.
(c) Jarry's.
(d) Nietzsche's.

2. In his last letter from "Letters on Cruelty," Artaud writes "the desire characteristic of _____ is cruelty since it feeds upon contingencies."
(a) Athena.
(b) Lust.
(c) Eros.
(d) Power.

3. What is the "distinct poetic state of mind" which Artaud terms for the film he discusses in "Two Notes"?
(a) Realism.
(b) Surrealism.
(c) Comedy.
(d) Absurdism.

4. To what does Artaud compare the ability of the theater's "magical means of art and speech to be exercised organically and altogether"?
(a) Entertainment.
(b) Tribal rites.
(c) Renewed exorcisms.
(d) Religious ecstacy.

5. Artaud claims that "everything that ____ is a cruelty."
(a) Acts.
(b) Murders.
(c) Dominates.
(d) Exists.

6. What did the performer replicate in the production Artaud speaks of in his second note of "Two Notes"?
(a) A centaur-horse.
(b) A bear.
(c) A unicorn.
(d) A bull.

7. What does the author say of "Works" in his first manifesto?
(a) They will elicit new playwrights.
(b) They will reinvent classics.
(c) They will perform classical plays.
(d) They will not perform written plays.

8. What does Artaud accuse the "current" theater of turning its public into?
(a) Peeping Toms.
(b) Idiots.
(c) Monsters.
(d) Slaves.

9. In "An Affective Athleticism," the author writes, "The actor is an athlete of the ____."
(a) Body.
(b) Mind.
(c) Heart.
(d) Soul.

10. Of the word "cruelty," Artaud writes in his letters that the word represents "irreversible and absolute" what?
(a) Determination.
(b) Loathing.
(c) Rage.
(d) Inspiration.

11. To whom is Artaud's first letter in "Letters on Language"?
(a) M. R. de R.
(b) J.P.
(c) M.B.C.
(d) Aguste Francois.

12. Artaud writes, "At the point of deterioration which our sensibility has reached, it is certain that we need above all a theater that _________."
(a) Wakes us up.
(b) Enables us.
(c) Frightens us.
(d) Enrages us.

13. "The soul can be physiologically reduced to a skein of" what, according to the author?
(a) Movement.
(b) Breath.
(c) Vibrations.
(d) Thoughts.

14. In Artaud's Second Manifesto, he describes the spectacle itself as being formed along the lines of _________ which will be materialized in gestures and movement before decaying into sounds and words.
(a) Ancient myths.
(b) Dream sequences.
(c) Current events.
(d) Bible verses.

15. Of whose performance does Artaud write in his second note of "Two Notes"?
(a) The Marx Brothers.
(b) Jean-Louis Barrault.
(c) Charlie Chaplin.
(d) Buster Keaton.

Short Answer Questions

1. In his second note of "Two Notes," Artaud writes, "everything that is ______ is sacred and since his gestures are so beautiful that they take on a symbolic significance."

2. To whom does the author address the second letter from "Letters on Cruelty"?

3. Upon what was the performance based which Artaud discusses in his second note of "Two Notes"?

4. Artaud claims that the public thinks first of all with its what?

5. In his first letter of "Letters on Language," Artaud insists that the task of ______ must not be subordinated to spoken or written words as if this task was simply an accessory to theater."

(see the answer keys)

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