How Absurd!
This is a work of absurdist theatre that we read together for class.
What is Endgame?
While this type of theatre--known for its interest dramatizing its protagonists' abstract interior thoughts and events--was popularized in America in the 1920s with plays like The Adding Machine and Machinal, it continues to be influential into the later 20th Century.
What is Expressionism?
This actor originated the role of Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Who is Marlon Brando?
What the acronym HUAC stands for.
What is House Un-American Activities Committee?
The Glass Menagerie
Who is Tennessee Williams?
Beckett's most famous work of absurdism, this play was described by critics as a play in which "nothing happens twice."
What is Waiting for Godot?
This type of theatre highlights the meaninglessness of life that manifests itself in ridiculous or illogical events.
What is Theatre of the Absurd or Absurdist drama?
He was the first Black director to work on Broadway--and later became the head of the Yale School of Drama.
Who is Lloyd Richards?
This successful director and friend to Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams provided friendly testimony--and while he was allowed to continue directing such films as On the Waterfront, he lost many friends.
Who is Elia Kazan?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who is Edward Albee?
This Nobel-winning absurdist playwright is known for his comedies--and pauses--of malice.
Who is Harold Pinter?
This theatre style developed by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller is a type of realism that heightens certain details of action, scenery, and/or dialogue while omitting others.
What is selective realism?
A hugely influential voice on matters of race, sexuality, and American politics, this novelist, essayist, playwright, and speaker used his platform to demand change, both when he lived in America and abroad.
Who is James Baldwin?
This is the collective name for the high profile group of screenwriters and directors who were held in contempt of congress and imprisoned for refusal to answer HUAC's questions.
Who are the Hollywood Ten?
All My Sons
Who is Arthur Miller?
He coined the term "theatre of the absurd" in his key theoretical work of the same name in 1961.
Who is Martin Esslin?
Some of Tennessee Williams' work is known as ________ because it deals so closely with past events.
What is a memory play?
This theatre designer was known for their more abstract approach, which he put to use in designing the original sets for A Streetcar Named Desire and Death of a Salesman.
Who is Jo Mielziner?
This Arthur Miller play provides direct commentary on HUAC's activities.
What is The Crucible?
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black
Who is Lorraine Hansberry?
This political dissident and playwright of absurdist comedies like The Garden Party helped lead Prague's Velvet Revolution and eventually became president.
Who is Vaclav Havel?
This is one of the most famous examples of theatrical existentialism, written by John Paul Sartre. Hell is other people!
What is No Exit?
This early supporter of Samuel Beckett's work played Hamm in the original production of Endgame and directed the premiere of Waiting for Godot.
Who is Roger Blin?
This is the colorful term for the nearly fifteen year period in which people in the film/theatre industries suspected of Communist affiliation were barred from continuing their careers.
What is the Hollywood Blacklist?
The Rhinoceros
Eugene Ionesco