Playwrights
Types of Plays
Theatrical Writings
Technical Theatre
Miscellaneous
100

This playwright was part of the Queen's Men and then the King's Men in Renaissance England.

Who was William Shakespeare?

100

This play is a satirical play featuring semi-man, semi-animal creatures.

What is a Satyr Play?

100

This ancient Greek believed in banning playwrights from his "ideal state."

Who was Plato?

100

This is the setting in which ancient Greek theatre was performed.

What is an ampitheatre?

100

This is the name for a type of performance in India in which the performer is elaborately costumed and makes very specific gestures.

What is kathakali?

200

This playwright was the first professional female playwright.

Who was Aphra Behn?

200

This play parodies the happenings amongst the upper class of its time period, often making sexual jokes.

What is a Comedy of Manners?

200

This ancient Greek wrote "Poetics", theorizing about the six different elements of drama and its purpose.

Who was Aristotle?

200
This device was the moveable place on which certain types of Medieval drama were performed.

What are pageant wagons?

200

What is the group, primarily in Nigeria and western Africa, from which playwright Hubert Ogunde originated and which has particular performative traditions?

What is the Yoruba?

300

This playwright co-founded the Provincetown Players and wrote early female-centered, sometimes based on her experiences as a journalist.

Who was Susan Glaspell?

300

This is the name for the work(s) put on by a guild in Medieval Europe with themes based in Christianity.

What is Corpus Christi Cycle/Mystery Cycle/Mystery Play?

300

This writing was written by Horace in ancient Rome and advises playwrights and poets.

What is the "Ars Poetica"/"Art of Poetry"?

300

This name refers to the "god from the machine" and is often used to refer to a royal/god/high-ranking character or plot device used to end what appears to be an unsolvable situation in a play.

What is "deux ex machina"?

300

This playwright was the first African playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

Who is Wole Soyinka?

400

This playwright wrote plays discussing Oedipus Rex and his *interesting* family.

Who was Sophocles?

400

This play features a clear divide between good and evil.

What is a melodrama?

400

This writing criticized theatre during the Restoration Period, especially its depictions of clergymen and questionable moral choices.

What is Jeremy Collier's "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage"?

400

Violence was staged here in ancient Greek theatre.

What is offstage?

400

This theatre was originally staged over a wharf and allowed some key American playwrights, including Eugene O'Neill, to stage some of their early plays?

What is the Provincetown Playhouse?

500

These playwrights wrote comedies during the ancient Roman time period.

Who were Plautus AND Terrance?

500

This type of theatre originated in a creek bed with female performers, who were eventually banned from its performance in place of men.

What is Kabuki?

500

This is the oldest-known "script".

What is the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus?

500

This type of stage is elevated at the back.

What is a raked stage?

500

This type of Indiana theatre is named for the language in which much of the dialogue was traditionally performed.

What is Sanskrit Drama?