Theatre around the world
Seats, status, and spectators
Show me the money
Stagecraft & Tricks
Your side hustle is acting?
100
The 1500s English theatre is famous for this playwright, often called "The Bard."
Who is William Shakespeare?
100
True or False: If the crowd didn’t like the performance, they showed it by tossing tomatoes at the actors.
What is false?
(Rotten tomatoes may be associated with Shakespeare's Globe Theater, but tomatoes were just being introduced to Europe at that time and were feared to be poisonous!)
100
Who usually paid for the performances?
What is the Church or local guilds/town councils?
100
Where were most plays like Everyman performed during the Medieval era?
What are town squares, church steps, or on pageant wagons?
100
True or false: Actors were seen as regular citizens and not worshipped
What is true?
200
This Italian theatrical style from the 1500s featured masked characters and improvised performances.
What is commedia dell’arte?
Pronunciation: kawm-MEY-dyah del-LAHR-teh
200
People of higher social class, such as nobilities, sat in these during plays to show off their social status.
What are luxury boxes or stage seats?
200
True or false: Actors made their living full-time as professional celebrities in the Medieval period.
What is False?
200
What were costumes designed to do in Medieval theatre?
What is to be symbolic?
200
What would actors join?
What are guilds?
300
This country’s theatre in the 1500s was heavily influenced by court performances and included dance-drama forms like Kathakali.
What is India?
300
This is the area in which the common people would stand and watch the play.
What is the pit or the yard?
300
Besides money, what were two other ways actors might be compensated for performing?
What are food and lodging?
300
What kind of stage was often used that could be rolled through town to perform in different locations?
What is a pageant wagon?
300
True or false: Actors back then got paid the same actors do today
What is false?
400
In the 1500s, performances in this East Asian country used slow, stylized movements and masks to tell spiritual stories in Noh theatre.
What is Japan?
400
Common people who paid one penny to stand and watch the play were called this.
Who are "Groundlings"?
400
Why did guilds sponsor plays during the Medieval era?
What is to teach religious and moral lessons?
400
Name one “special effect” that could be used to make plays more exciting during the Medieval period.
What is fire, smoke, or sound effects like drums?
400
What religion would most Actors portray in a performance?
What is Catholicism?
500
This Chinese theatre form, known for its colorful makeup and acrobatics, was flourishing during the Ming Dynasty in the 1500s.
What is Peking Opera or Beijing Opera?
500
Since there was little to no scenery, the audience expected these other elements of the plays to help them visualize.
What is Language or Spectacles?
500
In what way did Medieval theatre funding connect to the economy of the town?
What is that guilds and towns would pool money and resources to pay for plays?
500
Why were sets and props kept simple in Medieval theatre?
What is because the focus was on storytelling and moral lessons?
500
Why might acting have been considered a “side hustle” rather than a main career?
What is Acting was not a steady income?