Chapter 6 Q&A

1. What is the basic purpose of theatre design?

Answer: to transform something for it to be seen by a willing viewer
2. In ancient Greece, all of the actors were men. True or False?
Answer: True
3. What is the initial framework for design?
Answer: the play itself
4. What fostered the first great phase of scene design?
Answer: development of European indoor stage
5. When did controllable indoor lighting first come into use?
Answer: 1879
6. What is a box set?
Answer: three dimensional construction of interconnected hard covered flats representing the
walls and occasionally the callings of a real room
7. What is the difference between realistic scene design and metaphoric scene design?
Answer: Realistic scenery attempts to depict in great detail a specific time and place in great
detail, whilst Metaphoric scenery targets the use of visual images that seeks to evoke the plays
theme, mood or political/social implications.
8. What are the traditional building blocks of stage scenery?
Answer: platforms, flats, and draperies
9. What is a scrim?
Answer: a theatrical fabric woven so finely that when lit from the front it appears opaque and
when lit from the front it appears opaque and when lit from behind it becomes transparent. A
scrim is often used for surprise effects or to create a mysterious mood.
10. What are the two purposes of properties (props) and furniture?
Answer: establishes realism and enhances mood and style
11. What was the purpose of the overhead fluorescent lighting in Arnold Bennet's History Boys?
Answer: To convey the institutional rigidity of modern education, in which both student and
teacher struggle in engage and assert their basic humanity.
12. Read Photo Essay: Scene Designer Tony Walton (pg. 151-153)
13. What 2 inventions brought stage lighting into its modern phase?
Answer: electricity and gas light
14. What was the major advantage of electricity over gas lighting?
Answer: fully self starting and can turn off whenever need be
15. What are the two primary considerations of lighting design?
Answer: focus and visibility
16. What are two common goals of the lighting designer?
Answer: verisimilitude and atmosphere
17. What are lighting practicals?
Answer: any unit on stage that needs to be electrified
18. What are the two major preparations of the lighting designer?
Answer: light plot and cue
19. What are the four functions of modern costume design?
Answer: first, it retains at least a hint of the ceremonial magic that ancient priests and shamans
once conjured; second, the costumes of a play show us what sort of world we are asked to enter,
not only in its historical place and period but by implication its social and cultural values as
well; third, the individual costumes can express the specific individuality of each character's
role; fourth, the costume serves as wearable clothing for the actor
20. What is the difference between costume roughs and renderings?
Answer: roughs are quick sketches in black and white, renderings are the fully drawings
with color and detail
21. What are the two functions of stage makeup and be able to give examples of illustrative makeup
and stylized makeup.
Answer: the 2 functions are ceremonial and illustrative. Illustrative make up is used change the
appearance of an actor to that of the character. E.g. Brain d Arcy as shrek, in T.S Elliots Cats,
Cyranos big nose and Peter Pan. Whilst ceremonial make up represents the actor as a super
human presence and is used to reflect ones own individual self or traditions e.g. traditional
Chinese xiqu actor, African shaman and black grease stripes under the eyes for the New York
Giants.

Chapter 7 Q&A

1. On what continent did Theatre originate?
Answer: Africa
2. What are the two foundations of theatre?
Answer: rituals and story-telling
3. Be able to name four 5
th
century Greek playwrights.
Answer: Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides
4. Ancient Greek actors were all male. Why did they wear masks?
Answer: To indicate age, gender, personality and social standing and also to amplify their
voices.
5. what was the purpose of the Greek chorus?
Answer: They represented the local populace and chanted their lines in unison.
6. During which historical period was Shakespeare writing and producing plays?
Answer: The Renaissance
7. What are the Japanese characteristics of No and Kabuki theatre?
Answer: No is Japan's most revered and cerebral theatre, oldest continuously performed drama,
very ceremonial drama, and almost always portrays supernatural characters. Kabuki is more
spectacular and accessible than No, it is very gaudy and exhilerating.
Chapter 8 Q&A

1. What is the goal of the theatre genre REALISM?
Answer: To provide the theatre with truth and accuracy.
2. Why is realistic theatre conceived to be a laboratory?
Answer: The realistic theatre is perceived to a laboratory because it portrays the ills of society,
familial problems, and the nature of relationships that could be "objectively" presented for the
judgment of impartial observers. Its goal, of likeness to life, demanded that settings resemble
their prescribed locales precisely and seem like rooms from real life in which one wall has been
removed.
3. What playwright is considered the father of realism?
Answer: Henrik Ibsen is considered to be the father of modern drama or father of realism.
4. Waiting for Godot is characterized as theatre of the absurd. What are the central themes of
theatre of the absurd?
Answer: Some common characteristics of absurdist plays include this general existential
philosophy coupled with a rejection of narrative continuity and the rigidity of logic, as well as
(and perhaps most importantly) a radical devaluation of language which is seen as a futile
attempt to communicate the impossible. The general effect is often a nightmare or dreamlike
atmosphere in which the protagonist is overwhelmed by the chaotic or irrational nature of his
environment. Most absurdists also doggedly resist the traditional separation of farce and
tragedy, intermixing the two at will, creating an unpredictable world that mirrors our own, in
which the poignantly tragic may come upon the heels of the absurdly funny, or vice versa.

Chapter 9/10 Q&A

1. How many performances for The Fantasticks which ran between 1960 and 2002?
Answer: The show ran off Broadway for 42 years and a total of 17,162 performances.
2. What was the great age of the musical comedy?
Answer: The great age of the musical comedy occurred during the 1930s.
3. What are the characteristics of musical drama?
Answer: An opera that avoids discrete numbers such as arias, recitatives, or ensembles, and in
which the music reflects or embodies the action of the drama.
4. What musical first used ballet choreography to advance the plot?
Answer: The Nutcracker.
5. What musical with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim was a retelling of Romeo & Juliet?
Answer: West Side Story.
6. What do Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, and Susan Stroman have in common?
Answer: Theyve all received Tony Awards for Best Choreography.
7. How did Stephen Sondheim influence modern musical?
Answer: It is an influence because the manner in which the story is told is provocative and very
exciting. It also related an old story to modern times.
8. What is a black musical?
Answer: A black musical is a musical with an all black cast apparently.
9. What English Composer is know for lush musicals?
Answer: John Barry.
10. Who was the composer for Billy Elliot?
Answer: Elton John.
11. Juke box musical, what is it?
Answer: A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular
songs as its musical score.
12. How many theatres make up today's Broadway music district?
Answer: 41 theatres, sheesh thats a lot.

Chapters 8 9 & 10 provided by Carlos Then