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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of the second note Artaud writes in "Two Notes"?
(a) "Animal Crackers."
(b) "Thoughts on Film."
(c) "Monkey Business."
(d) "Autour D'une Mère."

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

3. In his last letter from "Letters on Language," Artaud says that in fact, the theater he is defining has to assume another _____ in order to function.
(a) Meaning.
(b) Definition.
(c) Civilization.
(d) Theme.

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

5. 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) Renewed exorcisms.
(c) Religious ecstacy.
(d) Tribal rites.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Artaud say has "maintained us for ten years in an ineffectual torpor"?

2. What is the first note titled in "Two Notes"?

3. According to Artaud, "the Theater of Cruelty proposes to resort to a" what?

4. According to the author, "Our long habit of seeking _____ has made us forget the idea of a serious theater."

5. What is the name of the final act of Artaud's proposed production?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss how Artaud's time and place impact his vision of the theater.

2. What does Artaud write in his "Letters on Language" regarding the psychology of characters?

3. How does Artaud describe the correlation between actions and language in his "Letters on Language"?

4. Discuss and describe Artaud's depiction of lighting for the Theater of Cruelty in the First Manifesto.

5. What does Artaud write of in his third letter of "Letters on Language," which follows the publication of his Manifesto?

6. What are the different types of breathing the author refers to?

7. What is Artaud's approach to the audience in the theater of cruelty?

8. What is the author's criticism of the performance he writes of in the second of "Two Notes"?

9. How does Artaud describe what "cruelty" is not referring to in his letters?

10. To whom is Artaud's third letter written in "Letters on Cruelty"? What is the author's tone in this letter? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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