Greek Playwrights
The author responsible for New Comedy
Who is Menander
A group of characters that explain the situation and comment on the action in a play
What is a Chorus
A play based on the legends of saints
What is a Saint Play
The Elizabethan playwright who is often considered the greatest dramatist of all time; he wrote Romeo and Juliet
Who is William Shakespeare
Professional improvised comedy that used stock characters
What is Commedia dell’arte
The Greek tragedian who was a master of pathos; he wrote Medea
Who is Euripides
A term often used to refer to an actor
What is a Thespian
A stage on wheels that was used by the medieval guilds of the fourteenth century
What is a Pageant Wagon
Term meaning “rebirth”; the time between the medieval and modern ages in western Europe
What is Renaissance
Chinese drama that incorporates historical, spoken, dance, and song drama and ballet
What is Peking Opera
The Greek tragedian that wrote Oedipus Rex and Antigone
Who is Sophocles
A circular arena surrounded by tiers of seats
What is an Amphitheatre
A type of Japanese theatre that developed as entertainment for the general public; it borrows aspects of Noh and Bunraku
What is Kabuki
The Elizabethan playhouse with which Shakespeare was associated
What is the Globe Theatre
The time period following the Puritan Rebellion; theatre was decreed legal once again
What is the Restoration
The Greek tragedian responsible for increasing the number of actors; he wrote The Oresteia, the only surviving Greek Trilogy
Who is Aeschylus
The Greek god who was honored by the dramatic contests that began in the sixth century B.C.
Who is Dionysus
Created by Zeami Motokiyo, this type of Japanese drama combines words, dance, and music that are rhythmically coordinated to the events in the story
What is Noh
A speech delivered by an actor alone onstage that reveals the character’s innermost thoughts
What is a Soliloquy
The family of actors that links the early American stage with the modern
Who are the Barrymores
He received a commission to write the first work of Roman drama
Who is Andronicus
An artificial plot device that an author introduces late in a play to resolve difficulties
What is a Deus Ex Machina
A type of Japanese theatre that features four-foot-tall marionettes; also called doll theatre
What is Bunraku
The Elizabethan dramatist who introduced the first important use of blank verse; he wrote Tamburlaine the Great
Who is Christopher Marlowe
Russian author whose works are used as the basis for defining method acting
Who is Stanislavski