Exam 1

Chapters 1-5 & 11-12

Focus your study on what the textbook and what the lectures
have discussed in regards to the following.

Names to Remember
Falstaff
Madonna
Coleridge
Aristotle
Plato
Aristophanes
Plautus
Sophocles
Shakespeare
Dionysus
Tennessee Williams
Sam Shepherd
Steven Sondheim
Samuel Beckett
Sig Freud

Play Titles
Oedipus
As You Like It
Marry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Nights Dream
Waiting for Godot
Twelfth Night
Lysistrata
Noises Off
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Glass Menagerie
Our Town

Concepts
Aristotle’s “Elements of the Theatre”
The “Theatre”
Agent for Action
“ Genres”
Distinguish Comedy from Farce
Literal meaning of the word “Tragedy”
Theatre of the Absurd and relation to Existentialism

-isms to know
Expressionism
Surrealism

Other key ideas
Chapter on Theatre Marketing
Direct Mail
How to go to the Theatre
Critical Works and Writings; Distinguish Criticism and Reviews

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Exam 2

Chapters 4-10

Questions
How quickly can a play be written?
What was the inspiration for Streetcar Named Desire?
How does the script give actors information?
What is the most important source of information for the actor about the character?
What is the typical rehearsal period in American Theatre?
Who was the first modern director?
Who probably directed Shakespeare's plays when they were first produced?
Why did the director develop in the theatre?
How do different designers analyze a script?
What are the responsibilities of each of the designers?
What does the stage manager do?
Who is the seminal artist in a play production?

Titles
The Poetics by Aristotle
Death of a Salesman
Troilus and Cressida (study whole section)

Names to Remember
Noel Coward
Laurence Olivier
George Bernard Shaw
Jean-Paul Sartre
Stanislavsky

Terms to Know
contextual structure
plot
introduction
playwright
complication
turning point
crisis
playwright's tools
actor's raw materials
empathy
call-back
Moscow Art Theatre
determinism
previews
director's responsibilities
"conceptualizing" the production
sceneographer
white model
production conferences
storyboard
front elevation
gel
"turkey"
Ilium
Achilles
costume/scene plot
theatricalism
painter's elevation

Sonnet Questions (25 points)
1. Write down your entire sonnet.

2. Imagine communicating this sonnet to someone you care about very much. What would that person do if you were persuasive in your speaking? How will your speaking change them?

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Exam 3

Questions
What are other names for the space in theatres commonly called the balcony?
What are the five basic kinds of theatre spaces?
What distinguishes each theatre space?
Which theatre space is the most common in the USA?
What are the basic kinds of stage sets?
What distinguishes the stage sets from each other?
What are the different theories of the origins of the theatre?
What are the similarities between the Shakespearean and Spanish Theatres?
What is America's greatest contribution to the theatre?
When and where did opera begin?
What is the relationship between opera and some contemporary musicals?
Why did musical theatre develop as an important form in the USA?
How well does the US Federal Government support the arts?
What are the kinds of theatres in our country (i.e. professional/commercial, not-for profit, amateur, etc.)?
What distinguishes each kind of theatre?
What are the costs involving a Broadway production?
What is off-Broadway and its relationship to Broadway?

Terms
auditorium
theatre
house
fourth wall
raked stage
proper aesthetic distance
fly loft
trap room
wings
flies
green room
first hand
mixer, sampler
deus ex machina
pageant wagon
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
groundlings
Epidaurus
Teatro Olimpico
apron
aside
soliloquy
The Provincetown Playhouse
Gilbert and Sullivan
Andre Antoine
The Lion King
Cats
Puritans (in relation to theatre)
actors as "national treasures"
501(c)3
ratio earned to contributed income
nut
royalty

Essay Question (15 Points)
What about the theatre you have experienced this semester has surprised you and why?

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