Ancient Greek Theatre
Renaissance/Elizabethan
Theatre
Theatre
Modern/American Theatre
Playwrights Through the Years
Miscellaneous
100
Actors in ancient Greece used these to display emotion to audience members from very far away.
What are masks?
100
This is the term for a character with similar traits throughout every play, often played by the same actor.
What is a stock character?
100
This is the name of the street in New York City where many of the most popular plays and musicals are performed.
What is Broadway?
100
This Elizabethan playwright is regarded as the greatest ever, having written 37 plays including Macbeth and Hamlet, to name a couple.
Who is Shakespeare?
100
Literally translating to "small opera," this is the term for a show that is sung completely through with little to no spoken dialogue.
What is an operetta?
200
This is the number of actors that were on stage early on in the life of ancient Greek theatre.
What is one?
200
DAILY DOUBLE: This was the term for the three rows of above-ground seating in Elizabethan theaters, reserved for nobility or rich people who could afford the more expensive seats.
What is the gallery?
200
This American musical composer is known for a variety of successful Broadway shows including Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and West Side Story.
Who is Stephen Sondheim?
200
This ancient Greek playwright is the only writer of Greek comedy whose works still exist in whole today. He wrote plays with simple names such as Birds, Clouds, and Frogs.
Who is Aristophanes?
200
We use this perspective when referring to stage directions (left and right).
What is the actor's perspective (on stage looking out toward the audience)?
300
These are the two main types of plays written in ancient Greece, and also the two styles which the happy/sad masks represent.
What are comedies and tragedies?
300
This is the type of stage used in many Elizabethan-era theaters.
What is a thrust stage?
300
This early American playwright gave us works such as Our Town and The Matchmaker, the second of which was later adapted into a musical called Hello Dolly.
Who is Thornton Wilder?
300
This playwriting duo popularized the concept of operettas, and many of their works like Pirates of Penzance are still frequently performed today.
Who are Gilbert and Sullivan?
300
This is the estimated number of people an ancient Greek arena-style theater could seat: about 40 times more than our auditorium at the high school!
What is 15,000?
400
This small hut-like building served as a combination dressing room/prop storage, and the roof was also used as a special stage area for the Greek gods.
What is the skene?
400
This was the term for a wealthy person like Queen Elizabeth I who supported the arts by paying actors and playwrights to write and perform their plays. Being paid by a person like this was considered the only "legitimate" path to being a playwright or actor during this time.
What is a patron?
400
This type of stage is the one most commonly used and built today, named for its signature arch.
What is a proscenium stage?
400
This Elizabethan playwright lived at the same time as Shakespeare and was Shakespeare's fiercest rival until his early death just before his 30th birthday.
Who is Christopher Marlowe?
400
DAILY DOUBLE: This is reason why we refer to the part of the stage further away from the audience as "upstage."
What is: stages used to be built on an incline, so the part of the stage further away from the audience was physically higher up?
500
"God of the Machine": This is a plot device that refers to when a powerful figure swoops in at the last second and saves the heroes from a grim situation.
What is Deus ex Machina?
500
This is the name of the theatre where many of Shakespeare's works were first performed.
What is the Globe Theatre?
500
Having closed after its 35th year, this show still holds the record for longest-running Broadway show.
What is The Phantom of the Opera?
500
This Greek playwright is often compared to Shakespeare for the importance of his works, such as Oedipus Rex and Antigone.
Who is Sophocles?
500
Name a reason why the elements of theatrical performance would be useful to us in our lives today.
-Boosts confidence
-Develops ability to speak clearly
-Develops ability to communicate effectively