Study Guide
Final
Topics to be covered:
Brechtian theatre
Purpose
Techniques
Difference from Aristotelian theatre
Absurdist theatre
History
Relationship to Existentialism
Style
Theatrical Realism
Relationship to realism and modernism (styles like absurdism)
How it works in the plays we’ve read
In general, the ways theatre tries to communicate ethical ideas to an audience – we talked about empathetic appeal, in-your-face shock appeal, and intellectual appeal. Most plays use a combination of these methods.
Ethical concepts covered in Singer, Thoreau, Jeffko and Peperzak and how they apply to the plays we have seen and read. Also consider the ethical survey you took and how the ideas you encountered there are similar to the ideas in the readings and plays.
Good Woman of Setzuan, The Visit, Not in my Name, Doubt – first of all, know the playwrights and when the play was written. Be familiar with the plots, ethical questions explored, connect the plays to the conditions of their original performance venues and cultures (see above), playwriting techniques used to present themes
The Story, Tartuffe – be able to discuss how the production presented ethical themes of the play. (I know The Story was on the mid-term, but think about it in comparison to Tartuffe; I may ask you to contrast performance styles.)
Go back over your mid-term. Those ideas are not gone. I may ask about the parts of drama, or how to analyze a character, or the performance elements of Greek or Elizabethan theatre, or the ideas (like deontology and utilitarianism) from the earlier Singer readings.
Structure of the test:
there will a section of fill-in-the-blank involving the parts of drama, theatre history, and perhaps some play questions
short answers will ask you to apply an ethical concept to a specific aspect of one of the plays, or to describe a specific playwriting technique in one of the plays (those would require answers of about a paragraph), or may ask you to identify and define terms from the parts of drama
one essay question will combine several of the topics – you may be asked to apply an ethical concept to one of the plays in terms of its performance style, or to contrast how the ethical issues in a play were seen when it was written with how they are seen today, or to outline how theatre can deal with a particular ethical issue in ways prose or theory cannot.
For each section on the test you will have a choice of questions. There will probably be two essay questions, and you will have a choice for each.
It’s not a bad idea to study in groups. Divide up responsibilities so everyone in the study group comes in having done a little work on one section, so you don’t have to spend a lot of your time looking things up. Compare notes, because sometimes people get things wrong in their notes. Imagine some possible questions (both short answer and essay) and come up with possible answers.
This test will be similar to the mid-term, only longer. More questions, and probably two essay questions.