ID the Quote
"This is like you've Googled the French etymology of an English person's name, but you're not English and thinking about it in Dutch."
Narrator/Javaad Alipoor in Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
In comedy, confusion generally moves toward this outcome.
Unity, often through a wedding in romantic comedy
The title Machinal means mechanical or automatic. Name two qualities of modern life that the play emphasizes.
Any two: repetitive, impersonal, oppressive, or mechanical.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, marriage, reputation, and respectability shape the characters' choices. What does this reveal about Victorian society?
Social expectations exert power over identity, behavior, and desire.
An actor presents a character while acknowledging the audience and emphasizing the fact that a performance is taking place. What kind of acting is this?
Presentational acting
"You stood against our deaths, as a tower for my land. From that time onward you were called my king, and you have received the greatest of honors, ruling in this, the greatest of cities, in Thebes."
Chorus from Oedipus
Wilde uses witty, elegant language to expose the absurdity of high society. What two concepts describe this approach?
High comic style and satire
Realism emphasizes recognizable settings and everyday language. What does expressionism emphasize instead?
Inner reality, distorted reality or time, feelings, internal thoughts, and subconscious experience.
Things Hidden Since the End of the World asks who is made visible and who exists in the gaps. Which principle from Alipoor's manifesto most directly addresses this concern?
Inclusion & Representation
A director changes the actors' physical positions to show that one character has more power than another. Which of Clayton's production elements is being used?
Spatial relationships
"I’ve been free, Father! For one moment—down here on earth—I have been free! When I did what I did I was free! Free and not afraid! How is that, Father? How can that be?"
Helen/Young Woman in Machinal
In tragedy, the central character's fortunes generally move in this direction.
Fortunes fall, moving from threat to disaster
Machinal uses this theatrical style to make us experience Helen's internal reality rather than simply observe her life.
Expressionism
In Oedipus Tyrannus, the chorus can represent this larger group whose values and fears help establish the world of the play.
The community
A character speaks directly to the audience instead of maintaining the illusion that the audience is absent. Name one theatrical convention this may disrupt.
The fourth wall
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune—to lose both seems like carelessness."
Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest
Oedipus's determination to discover the truth is a strength, but it also contributes to his downfall. Which tragic concept helps explain this?
Fatal flaw or error in judgment
In Episode One, To Business, urban sounds, repetition, loud volume, and chaotic rhythms create anxiety. What can this sound communicate beyond the literal environment?
Helen's subjective experience, emotional state, or subconscious experience.
A character who opposes the central character's goals is not automatically the same thing as a character who reveals the central character's qualities through contrast. Name these two roles.
the Main Oppositional Character (MOC) and the foil
A play draws on real people, historical events, and documentary evidence to investigate a subject. What theatrical form commonly uses this material?
Documentary theatre
"I looked at that book for hours—Just… stared at it. Memorized all the pictures. And there was this one page I loved more than any of the others—I kept the book open to that page all the time."
Sarah from A Rare Bird
Both Oedipus Tyrannus and The Importance of Being Earnest feature central characters whose actions shape the plot. What distinguishes the general movement of their genres?
Tragedy moves toward disaster and disunion; comedy moves toward improved fortunes and unity.
The nine episodes of Machinal include To Business, At Home, Maternal, The Law, and The Machine. What larger idea can be explored by dividing a human life into these social and institutional categories?
How social institutions and expectations categorize, constrain, and oppress human experience, particularly women's lives.
In Things Hidden, the audience participates in research and investigation. How does this change the usual relationship between performer and audience?
The audience becomes part of the investigation, complicating the boundary between performer and audience and between information and interpretation.
A performance addresses spectators directly, projects text, and makes the audience aware of the performers creating the event. Identify two conventions that this performance challenges or emphasizes.
It disrupts the conventional fourth wall and emphasizes the performer/audience relationship; multimedia and text also become part of the theatrical language.