Theatre History

What form characterized by improvised, abusive, often obscene verse dialogue between masked clowns, did the Roman poet Horace cite as the source of Latin Drama?

What form, using stock characters, with character-specific costumes and masks performing short improvised stories based on domestic situations or burlesque of myth, and may have been related to Greek Mime?

What was the name of the oldest religious festivals where state sponsored theatrical performances were given, presenting comedy and tragedy by 240 BCE?

What was the name of the individual who wrote, translated or adapted the first literary works in Latin, writing both comedy and tragedy but excelling at tragedy, who came to Rome from southern Italy, and is said to have begun Roman Literature?

Who was the first native born Roman dramatist who began writing around 235 BCE, writing both comedy and tragedy, excelling at Comedy, who introduced Roman allusions into Greek originals and wrote plays on Roman stories?

What was the name of the guild for writers which was established following the deaths of the first two known/founding Roman dramatists?

Who is the Roman comic playwright who was admired for his Latin dialogue, varied poetic meter and witty jokes, was best known for his farce, and for whom twenty plays survive, including The Menaechmi, Pseudolus, and The Haunted House, among others?

Who is the Roman comic playwright, born in Carthage, brought to Rome as a slave, educated and freed, who wrote 6 plays – all of which survive, whose plots are more complex than his counterpart (the other known/extant Roman comic playwright?

What is the Roman name for the form of comedy based on Greek subjects?

What is the Roman name for the form of comedy based on Roman subjects?

Who is the Greek playwright most often being adapted in all of the extant Roman
Comedies?

What is the name for Roman Tragedies based on Greek originals, which comprise the
majority of Roman tragedies?

What is the name for Roman Tragedies based on Roman subjects?

Who is the Roman author who wrote De Architectura (c. 15 CE), which detailed Theatre Architecture of Rome, and described three types of sets for each form of drama?

What is the term now applied to Roman Tragedy that was written but not intended for
performance?

Plays divided into five episodes, divided by choral interludes, use of technical devices such as soliloquies, asides and confidantes, and characters dominated by a single obsessive passion driving them to doom are characteristics of whose writing?

Brief moral conclusions within the body of late Roman Tragedy are known as what “technical” (writing) device?

What minor Roman form is characterized by short, comic or serious scenes usually dealing with everyday life from a comic or satiric viewpoint, elaborate in use of spectacle and large casts, were violent and obscene, containing numerous beatings, fights and deaths, and violence included in them, and in which
Christians rites and beliefs were often ridiculed, using no masks making facial expression important, along with largely improvised dialogue, requiring skill in dialogue, business and movement, where actors were selected for physical beauty or comic ugliness?

What minor Roman form is characterized by story-telling solo dance, performed by actors noted for handsomeness and athletic qualities and their subtlety and complexity of their characterizations, accompanied by a chorus who sang a text, and by an orchestra of flutes, pipes and cymbals with plots usually taken from mythology or history, whose serious form eventually replaced tragedy on the stage, and was the forerunner of modern ballet?

What was the name of the auditorium of a Roman theatre?

What is the name of the covered entrances between cavea and scaena, in place of Greek Paradoi, leading to orchestra and auditorium?

What is the name of the 3-stories tall rear façade of the Roman stage which had niches, porticos, and statues, and was often painted and gilded, providing the basic scenic background?

What is the name of the “wings”at both ends of the stage, which had at least one door often serving as exits to the forum or city, or to the harbor or country?

When the doors/openings in the rear façade of a Roman theatre “led” to different houses and was treated as a series of houses opening onto a city street, what genre of play was being presented?

When the doors/openings in the rear façade of a Roman theatre represented a palace or temple doors all leading to the same building, what genre of play was being presented?

What is the name of the front curtain, originally lowered into a slot at the front of the stage using telescoping poles?

What is the name of the background curtain, which probably came from mime, that provided a background to temporary stages, and masking for offstage?

What was the Roman term for actors?

What is the name of the most famous of Roman actors, who was made a noble, performed in both comedy and tragedy, unlike most actors who acted only one form, and who founded a school for actors?

The works of Plautus and Terence became important models for what later form?

Who is credited with the invention of tragedy, and being the first playwright as well as the first actor?

Created dialogue, most likely exchanged with the leader of the chorus.

An ecstatic hymn sung and danced around a phallic symbol

What work cites origins and describes the nature of drama?

Which Greek Playwright added the second actor, reduced size of the chorus, and interested in the relationship of man with the gods?

What is the name of the only extant Trilogy from Greek dramatic history?

What is the part of the structure of a Greek tragedy not exposition, which provides information about events that occurred before the play?

What is the part of the structure of a Greek tragedy in which the chorus enters provides exposition and establishes mood?

What is the name of the part of the structure of a Greek tragedy that is comprised of scenes between named characters which develop them main action of the play?

What is the name of the part of the structure of a Greek tragedy that is comprised of choral scenes, provides commentary on the action, etc, and is thought to have been chanted or sung?

What is the name of the part of the structure of a Greek tragedy that is the concluding scene and exit of the characters and chorus?

Which Greek playwright added a third actor, setting the size of the chorus at fifteen, placed emphasis on individual characters, and created complex and psychologically motivated protagonists who suffer a crisis which leads to suffering and self-understanding?

Which Greek playwright’s plays questioned traditional values, utilized subjects not suited to the stage, created characters which motivated by real psychological motivations, and exhibited a tendency towards melodrama/tragicomedy?

Which Greek dramatic literary form was a burlesque treatment of a myth, often ridiculing gods or heroes, included boisterous action, rural setting, indecent language and gestures, rigorous dancing, and served as an afterpiece to the tragedies, providing comic relief?

What Greek dramatic literary form arose in the fifth century BCE, possibly gorwing out of improvisations by the leaders of phallic songs, or possibly from Greek mimes?

Who is the author of all the extant Greek comedies?

What is the name of the far-fetched idea around with the play’s plot is centered?

What is the name of the component of Greek comedy in which the chorus enters and a debate ensues over the merits of the Happy Idea?

What is the name of the component of Greek comedy in which there is direct address to the audience by the chorus, dividing the play into 2 parts, discussing some social or political problem and advocating action or to praise the author, or solicit the audience’s favor?

What type of Greek comedy is comprised of commentary on contemporary society, containing fantastic exaggerations of real life situations, usually farcical situations, with an emphasis on eating, drinking, sex, wealth, leisure, and contains some of the most obscene passages in Greek Theatre?

What type of Greek comedy is transitional form, with events based on contemporary life or burlesque of a myth, contains less personal or political satire?

What type of Greek comedy is comprised of domestic, middle class comedy, concern for love, family concerns, familial or societal relationships, and uses technical devices such as concealed identity, coincidence, and recognition?

What is the name of the major festival dedicated to Dionysus?

What is the Basic costume for tragic actors?

What is the name of the circular area where most of the action of a Greek play took place, also called
the “Dancing Place?

Name of the scene house behind the orchestra used for costume changes?

What is the name of the scenery used in Greek Theatre, similar to a modern-day flat, which could be mounted between the columns of the skene and painted to represent some scene or location?

What is the name of the three-sided device mounted on a central pivot, with a design painted on each side which could be rotated to reveal a new scene?

What is the name for the wagon like device used for revealing tableaux-scenes of violence, otherwise not shown on stage?

What is the name of the crane-like device used to raise and lower objects/people off the stage floor, most often used for appearance of the gods?

What is the name of the seating area in a Greek theatre, which means the “seeing place”?

What origin theory delineates man’s desire to reshape reality into a more satisfying form, to objectify anxieties and fear and face them of fulfill hope in fantasy, making theatre a tool we use to cope with or to define and understand our world?

What origin theory delineates Aristotle’s view of humans as naturally imitative beings who take pleasure in imitating, people, things, actions, and in seeing those imitations?

What origin theory delineates a society drawing on its oral tradition and recalling events which might be embellished by the narrator’s pantomime and/or impersonation, in which each role might be eventually portrayed individually?