Deck 7: Modernism and Its Effect: 1885-1960

Question 1

_____In Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, one major theme is the isolation and loneliness of human beings

Answer 1

True

Question 2

_____ The widely acclaimed Group Theatre (1931-1941) had no connection to Stanislavsky and bitterly opposed his ideas and practices

Answer 2

False

Question 3

_____ Antonin Artaud advocated a "theatre of cruelty" wherein "cruelty" refers to:

A) The audience being forced to confront itself in order to purge the unconscious mind of destructive impulses
B) The audience being forced to witness cruel events which Artaud believed modern bourgeois comedy ignored
C) The audience being forced to become more politically aware of the negative repercussions of WWII
D) The audience being forced to actively participate in plays about Man's inhumanity towards other human beings

Answer 3

A

Question 4

_____ Which is a typical Futurist practice?

A) Audio-visual distortion used to suggest the dehumanized world the protagonist faces
B) Compression of a full-length play's essence into a few moments
C) Logic and reason should be replaced with chance and illogic

Question 5

_____ Artaud advocated the creation of new performance spaces wherein the formal divisions between performers and audience would be eliminated

Question 6

_____ In The Good Woman of Setzuan a kind-hearted prostitute named Shen Te disguises herself as her hard-hearted cousin Shui Ta because she finds it impossible to be good in an economic system that forces people to do bad things in order to survive

Question 7

_____Which statement most accurately defines the goals of the "new stagecraft" or modified realism?

A) Simplification and suggestion to stimulate the imagination rather than providing every detail
B) Critical reactions from the audience by making them aware that they are watching a performance
C) Empathy with protagonist by characterizing the reality of the world from his or her point of view

Question 8

_____Which is associated with Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre?

A) Creating "alienation," so that the audience watches actively and critically
B) The interplay of theatrical elements, with each making its own statement
C) The use of fragmented scenery and unmasked lighting instruments
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 9

_____ Futurism and Dadaism both advocated simultaneity and multiple focus

Question 10

_____The Federal Theatre Project

A) Was a nationwide program that aimed to provide jobs and Americans with free, adult, uncensored theatre
B) Was sponsored by the government during the economic boom of the early 1920s
C) Was limited to the state of California where the liberal state legislature strongly supported it

Question 11

_____ Artaud was at one time a member of the realistic movement

Question 12

_____ Expressionism was the first artistic movement to reject representationalism (the long-standing relationship between perception and representation)

Question 13

_____ Elia Kazan, who directed the first Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, was successful in insisting that Tennessee Williams include "Big Daddy" in the last act, and make other changes to make the overall tone of the play more positive

Question 14

_____ What musical is often cited as the first to fully integrate music, story, dance and visual elements to support the dramatic action?

A) Of Thee I Sing
B) Oklahoma!
C) Cats
D) Les Miserables

Question 15

_____Which is NOT an absurdist playwright?

A) Arthur Miller
B) Samuel Beckett
C) Eugene Ionesco
D) Jean Genet
True/False

Question 16

_____ Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" is an example of an "Epic Theatre" play

Question 17

???_____ Which are playwrights whose works characterized American psychological realism of the early postwar years?

A) Elia Kazan and Jo Mielziner
B) Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams
C) Thornton Wilder and Robert Edmund Jones
D) Samuel Beckett and Oscar Hammerstein

Question 18

_____ At which modernist group's performance might "chance poems," music, and dances be included?

A) Dadaists
B) Futurists
C) Symbolists
D) Expressionists

Question 19

_____ Adolphe Appia considered light the most flexible of all theatrical elements

Question 20

_____ Which idea or practice did Adolphe Appia urge?

A) Each production demands its own unique stylistic solutions
B) Actors could be replaced with puppets
C) Flat painted scenery should be replaced with three-dimensional structures

Question 21

Discuss Brecht's concept of "alienation" and describe the various methods he used to distance the audience from the action.

Question 22

Compare the philosophy, goals, and means of the symbolists (or expressionists) with those of the realists. Identify which movement you believe is the most worthwhile and why you judge this to be so.

Question 23

Do absurdist playwrights such as Beckett use common dramatic elements such as plot, character, and language differently than their realistic counterparts? If so, how, and to what effect? If not, explain the similarities in plot and character you see in absurdist and realistic plays.