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Who is the overall head of the production and has "the final say?"
The Producer
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Who writes the words to the songs?
The Lyricist
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Who stages the play and gives the actors their blocking?
The Director
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Who writes the storyline and the book of a musical?
The Playwright
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True or False: The Lyricist and the composer are always the same person.
False
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Who stages the dances?
The Choreographer
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Who is responsible for designing the enviroment of a production -- the place?
The Set Designer (Scenic Designer)
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Who works directly with the: actors/singers/dancers to teach and interpret the music of a production?
The Music Director
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Who leads the orchestra in the pit?
The Conductor
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Who writes the melodies, harmonies, and accompaniment?
The Composer
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Who finances the production either by their own money or through investors("the angels")?
The Producer
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Who writes the dialogue for the characters?
The Playwright
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What is a person who invests money in a production called?
Investors or Angels
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Who is frequently responsible or the "vision" or "concept" of a production?
The Director
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Who designs the clothing worn by the actors in a production?
The Costume Designer
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Who hires the creative team for a production?
The producer
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The dialogue of the play is referred to as what?
The Book
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What is another name for the book and lyrics?
The libretto
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What is a person who writes a libretto called
A Librettist
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True or False: A composer always writes the orchestration of the music.
FALSE - this person is the orchestrator and may or may not be the composer.
-
Who picks the actors?
The Director (sometimes with the input of the producer, choreographer, music director, or other creative team members)
-
Who is responsible for coordinating the designs and actors?
The Director
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True or False: 534 BCE is when al theatre began.
FALSE - it is the official beginning of WESTERN theatre
-
What does BCE mean?
Before the Common Era
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This may be the same as:
BC - Before Christ
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So does Western theatre officially begin in the 6th century BC or AD?
BC [BCE]
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The first dramatic festivals were sponsored by what city-state?
Athens
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What were the theatre festivals of Athens called?
The City Dionysia
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In what centuries were these festivals held?
4th and 5th Centuries BCE
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True or False: The chorus usually had 100 members.
FALSE - 24 chorus members
-
Who was obliged have the chorus trained?
The Producer
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Who was responsible for the masks and costumes>
The Producer
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How many women were in a Greek Chorus?
None - all men
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How many lead actors were there?
Three to five
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True or False: The acting style of Greek Tragedy was very naturalistic.
FALSE - it was stylized.
-
True or False: Greek actors were amateurs.
FALSE - they had intense training in both voice and dance.
-
Who paid the salaries of the actors?
The state
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Actors were typecast by their ______?
Voice type
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True or False: Male actors played female roles.
TRUE
-
True or False: Actors played multiple roles in a play
TRUE
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How did they do this?
By changing masks and sometimes costumes
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True or False: Actors used standard gestures and poses recognizable by the audience.
TRUE
-
What were the three types of Greek plays?
Tragedies, Comedies, and Satyr plays
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What was the structure of each entry in the City Dionysia?
Three plays by the same playwright followed by a 4th play that ridiculed the previous three.
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True or False: The playwright was obliged to write all four plays for an entry.
FALSE - He had to write the first three; the 4th was frequently written by someone else.
-
Which plays were burlesque treatments of mythology?
The Satyr plays (the 4th play)
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In Greek Comedy when did the various acts (similar to vaudeville - songs, dances, chorus girls, animal acts, magicians, jugglers, etc.) perform?
Between the sections of the Greek Comedy plays
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True or False: We have records of exactly what Greek choreography looked like.
FALSE - actual movement is unknown
-
What instruments accompanied the dancing?
Flutes, lyres, and sometimes Drums.
-
What is the term for "god from the machine" or "god in a machine"?
Deus ex machina
-
Does deus ex machina mean "a turntable"?
NO ! ! !
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What is the MODERN definition of this term?
A contrived ending
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True or False: Greek New Comedy was edgier and more political than Greek Old Comedy.
FALSE - political satire was eliminated.
-
Which had more complicated plots - Old or New Comedy?
New Comedy
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What happens to the singing chorus in New Comedy?
It disappears.
-
Do you find socially orientated domestic stories in Old or New Comedy?
New Comedy
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True or False: Stock characters emerge in Old Comedy.
FALSE - they emerge in New Comedy
-
Who stated in his "Republic" that poets (playwrights) tell corrupting lies about men and the gods?
PLATO
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Why was this?
He believed the way the theatre portrayed everything would have been easily believed by the public.
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Who refuted this position in his "Poetics?"
Aristotle
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What was his claim?
That the people weren't as stupid as Plato sought them out to be.
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______ presents men worse than they are.
Comedy
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______ presents men better than they are.
Tragedy
-
In which plays would you find the stories of the lives of "noble persons?"
Tragedies
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In which plays would you find the stories of ordinary people?
Comedies
-
The early Roman empire was mostly concerned with ___?
W A R
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True or False: In the early empire, there was little theatre and little literature.
TRUE
-
What form contained abusive and obscene festival verses and stock characters?
Entertainments
ex. Madea in Greek theatre would kill and curse off stage, Romans would give you a visual of the children being killed.
-
Whose plays did the Romans steal as the basis for their plays?
The Greeks
-
Who developed the Roman rules for drama in "Ars Poetica" - "The Art of Poetry?"
Horace
-
True or False: Roman mime was performed in masks?
FALSE - performed without masks
-
True or False: Women performed in mimes.
TRUE
-
What are three things that Roman playwright PLAUTUS introduced into his plays?
- More elaborate plots
- MUCH more "song and dance"
- He assigned material directly to the chorus
-
What was the main reason for Roman theatre?
S P E C T A C L E
-
Who condemned the Roman theatre's arousal of passions and thought theatre sought to destroy Roman manners and morality?
Saint Augustine
-
In what work?
His "Confessions"
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What were some of the Romans innovations in the theatre?
- First air conditioning
- First tap shoes
- First extended orchestrations
- First reserved seats
- First claques
- Fitst ushers
- First lip-synched performances
-
What was a "claquer?"
Someone hired to applaud and cheer in an audience
-
What institution thought theatre was immoral and issued edicts forbidding it?
The Roman Catholic Church
-
Where did the performances go?
They took to the streets and began traveling throughout Europe.
-
What were the two physical structures used at the churches to stage biblical stories?
Pageant Wagons and Mansions
-
True or False: This period used exclusively professional actors.
FALSE - this was the heyday of the amateur performer
-
True or False: The professional spotlight was developed in this period.
TRUE
-
What does "renaissance" mean?
Rebirth - it was the reawakened interest in all the arts.
-
What form started in Italy and included stock characters and was lively and vulgar?
Commedia Dell-Arte
-
True or False: In Commedia Dell-Arte, actors specialized in one type of character.
TRUE
-
Commedia performers sometimes used slapsticks.
TRUE
-
Actors in Commedia wore _____ and _____ that identified the characters.
Actors in Commedia wore masks and costumes that identified the characters.
-
Acting styles became more naturalistic as the productions _____.
moved indoors.
-
What technical advancement allowed the plays to be performed indoors and at night?
The first articial lights - oil lamps
-
Who raised comedy to the stature of tragedy?
Moliere
-
True or False: Moleire's plays demanded an extremely naturalistic performance style.
FALSE - they demanded a broad, farcical style
-
True or False: Women played all female roles in Moleire's plays.
FALSE - men still played the older female roles.
-
Who commissioned lavish "comedy ballets?"
King Louis XIV
-
Who originally performed in these pieces?
Court Nobility
-
Who took over those roles?
Professional performers
-
In 1642, what happened that caused the theatres to close?
The puritans took control of the government
-
True or False: The "Restoration" period refers to royalty being "restored" to the throne of England.
TRUE
-
What were the two distinct forms of "musical theatre" in France in this period?
Popular Entertainments and Comic Opera
-
Which form included fairytales, fantasticall spectacles, and burlesques?
Popular Entertainments (in France&&England - 1700s)
-
What is a "pasticcio" score?
Borrowed tunes, popular melodies, pilfered musical pieces - often with new lyrics - a score that is "scotch taped" together from different sources
-
What was the most famous ENGLISH-language Popular Entertainent:
"The Newgate Pastoral" - better known as "the Beggar's Opera"
-
Who wrote the libretto for "the Beggar's Opera?"
John Gay
-
What was the subject matter of the piece?
Corruption in high places ... social and politcal satire ... a tale of lowlife thieves and prostitutes.
-
True or False: Dr. Pepusch wrote the music for the score of "the Beggar's Opera."
FALSE - he borrowed popular melodies and upmarket music (Handel, Purcell, Italian operas)
-
True or False: John Gay wrote new lyrics for this music.
TRUE
-
Which form of musical theatre in this period had written specifically for the productions?
Comic Opera
-
What is one of the main distinctions between grand opera and comic opera?
Comic opera had music AND dialogue
-
Who was the manager of the Gaiety Theatre in London?
John Hollingshead
-
What playwright and composer did he bring together to write a Christmas piece?
William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
-
What was the name of that piece?
Thespis
-
True or False: Thespis burlesqued Greek mythology.
TRUE
-
What was the first international success of Gilbert and Sullivan?
H.M.S. Pinafore (or the Lass that Loved a Sailor)
-
True or False: This work was rehearsed French humor and situations.
FALSE - distinctly British in flavor and humor
-
True or False: Gilbert and Sullivan were known for their suggestive lyrics and sexual innuedo.
FALSE - They were known for their productions containing "good clean fun"
-
True or False: Gilbert and Sullivan were known for witty dialogue and brilliant burlesque humor.
TRUE
-
Who was the producer that moved Gilbert and Sullivan works to the Savoy Theatre?
Richard D'oyly Carte
-
What did the Gilbert and Sullivan works became known as after this move?
The Savoy Operas
-
True or False: Eventually Gilbert and Sullivan developed their own style and no longer simply parodied styles of the period.
TRUE
-
True or False: Eventually Gilbert and Sullivan cleverly conocted plots
TRUE - they may seemcorny to us, but not to their audiences.
-
What was the longest-running of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas?
The Mikado
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