Exam 2: The Background and Expectations of the Audience

While the latter part of the fifth century B. C.E. in Greece is considered to be a golden age for politics, philosophy, art, and architecture, for the theatre is was a time of decline.

Assume that you are going to the theatre. Choose a specific play, perhaps one you are asked to attend for class assignment, and list the preconceptions you might take with you (regarding subject matter, author, the play itself, the historical period in which it was written, and personal factors). Where do your preconceptions come from and why?

Which of the following is frequently limited in terms of experience and theatrical background?

There is great disagreement over the issue of whether art can create changes in a society or whether it merely reflects what is already happening. How do you feel about this? How does your opinion relate to the issue of censorship? Should art that many people believe goes against societal values be suppressed? Why or why not?

Which of the following is NOT a responsibility of a dramaturg?

While the trend toward diversity in the American theatre has given birth to many multiethnic, multicultural, and gender-based theatre companies representing groups with special interests, plays produced by these theatres rarely enter the mainstream of American theatre.

Which of the following usually works for a television station, a newspaper, or a magazine and reports on what has occurred at the theatre?

The bringing together of cultures by population shifts and swift global communication, and the challenges to long-held beliefs characterized by the writings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein, are reflected in the eclecticism and fragmentation of an inclusive, contemporary theatre.

Discuss which is more important in making a decision as to whether to attend an event: reviews, or the advice of a friend? Why?

Which of the following attempts to analyze a theatre event very closely?

No matter how knowledgeable a critic is about theatre, much of what he or she writes is simply opinion.

A critic should treat a play as an aesthetic object separate from its social, political, or cultural context.

Live theatre is actually flourishing throughout the United States; even in areas where professional theatre may not be present, there are typically active college and university theatre programs in addition to numerous amateur community theatre groups.

Women comprised the largest part of the audience in ancient Greece.

Although their societies were vastly different, both the Greek and Elizabethan theatres shared a strong connection between the type of theatre they presented and the times and social conditions they lived in.

Because a "collective mind" is created when a large number of people are gathered into a group, the background of the individual spectator has little to do with the theatre experience.

Which of the following attempts to put the theatre event into a larger context?

Discuss the relationship between the importance of reviews and the price of tickets to an event. When ticket prices are high, will people tend to rely more on reviews in making a decision about whether to attend an event?

While Broadway theatres are all within the district near Times Square in New York City, the styles of their architecture and types of their stages vary considerably.

When a person watches a play, it is expected that they will ignore their own individual memories, emotional scars, and private fantasies.