LAMDA Theatre Practitioners and Theory 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Vsevolod Meyerhold's system of actor training, 'Biomechanics,' was primarily concerned with what?
- Developing deep psychological characterization through memory
- Training the actor's body as a precise, reflexive machine for conveying emotion (Correct answer)
- Encouraging actors to draw on personal trauma for authentic performance
- Teaching actors to speak verse with classical precision
Correct answer: Training the actor's body as a precise, reflexive machine for conveying emotion
Meyerhold's Biomechanics trained actors in a series of physical études to develop economy of movement, balance, and expressive precision.
Question 2: Which theatre theorist introduced the concept of 'happenings' as a form of immersive, unscripted performance art in the late 1950s?
- Richard Schechner
- Allan Kaprow (Correct answer)
- Michael Chekhov
- Edward Gordon Craig
Correct answer: Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow coined the term 'happenings' to describe participatory, unscripted events that blurred the boundary between art and life.
Question 3: Edward Gordon Craig's concept of the 'Über-Marionette' proposed that the ideal performer should be what?
- A highly trained method actor with total emotional freedom
- A puppet-like figure entirely controlled by the director's artistic vision (Correct answer)
- An improvising comedian who reacts spontaneously to the audience
- A classically trained singer who combines music and movement
Correct answer: A puppet-like figure entirely controlled by the director's artistic vision
Craig argued the actor should become an Über-Marionette — a super-puppet whose performance is fully shaped by the director as total artist.
Question 4: In Stanislavski's method, what does the 'magic if' prompt an actor to consider?
- What the director would do if they were in the scene
- What the actor would do if they were genuinely in the character's circumstances (Correct answer)
- What the playwright intended if the scene were staged differently
- What the audience would feel if the staging were changed
Correct answer: What the actor would do if they were genuinely in the character's circumstances
The 'magic if' asks actors to imaginatively substitute themselves into the character's situation: 'What would I do if I were in these circumstances?'
Question 5: Richard Schechner's 'environmental theatre' challenged the traditional division between which two elements of performance?
- Script and improvisation
- Performer space and audience space (Correct answer)
- Realism and abstraction
- Comedy and tragedy
Correct answer: Performer space and audience space
Schechner's environmental theatre eliminated the separation of stage and auditorium, allowing performance to occur throughout a shared space.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes the Brechtian device of 'direct address' in Epic Theatre?
- Characters speak only to each other within the fictional world
- Actors break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience (Correct answer)
- Directors address the cast during a live performance
- Playwrights appear onstage to explain their intentions
Correct answer: Actors break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience
Direct address, where actors speak to the audience, is an Epic Theatre device that breaks theatrical illusion and reinforces the alienation effect.
Question 7: Eugenio Barba founded which internationally recognized theatre laboratory and research organization?
- The Living Theatre
- The International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) and Odin Teatret (Correct answer)
- The Royal Court Theatre
- The Berliner Ensemble
Correct answer: The International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) and Odin Teatret
Eugenio Barba founded Odin Teatret in 1964 and later established ISTA, which investigates the principles underlying diverse performance traditions.
LAMDA Theatre Practitioners and Theory 3
Vsevolod Meyerhold's system of actor training, 'Biomechanics,' was primarily concerned with what?