Performance Studies Practice Questions
19 free Performance Studies practice questions for the English Literature. Tap an option to answer — you get instant feedback, the correct answer, and a detailed explanation for every question.
In the foundational framework of Performance Studies established by Richard Schechner, the concept of 'restored behavior' or 'twice-behaved behavior' refers to which of the following?
- A The exact biological replication of instinctual human reflexes during any period of crisis
- B Actions that are kept, rehearsed, and repeated, separated from their original psychological origin
- C The process of recovering long-lost theatrical scripts through careful and extensive archival research
- D A therapeutic technique used to help cure actors of stage fright before a live performance
Correct answer: Actions that are kept, rehearsed, and repeated, separated from their original psychological origin
Schechner argues that all performances—from rituals to everyday life—are composed of 'restored behavior' which consists of actions that can be rearranged, trained, and re-performed independent of the person who originated them. The archival research option is a tempting distractor for literature students, but it describes textual preservation rather than the physical, behavioral repetitions central to Schechner's concept.
According to anthropologist Victor Turner, the 'liminal' phase of a performance or cultural ritual is best characterized as a state of being:
- A Strictly bound by institutional law and traditional social hierarchy at all times
- B Betwixt and between established social positions and cultural identities
- C Completely isolated from any collective human interaction or contact
- D Permanently fixed in an economically productive and socially defined state of labor
Correct answer: Betwixt and between established social positions and cultural identities
Turner defined the liminal space as a transitional period where participants are stripped of their usual status, existing 'betwixt and between' their past and future social realities. While institutional law might govern the overall structure surrounding a ritual, the liminal phase itself represents a temporary suspension or inversion of those normal legal and social hierarchies.
In her influential work 'Gender Trouble', theorist Judith Butler uses performance theory to argue that gender identity is:
- A An internal biological essence that naturally radiates outward through clothes
- B A stable, static historical artifact that cannot be altered by individual choice
- C Performative, constructed through the stylized repetition of bodily acts over time
- D A purely legal fiction invented by modern states to control property rights
Correct answer: Performative, constructed through the stylized repetition of bodily acts over time
Butler argues that gender is not a pre-existing internal fact, but a performative reality produced continuously through a regular repetition of gestures, posture, and speech. The biological option is a common cultural assumption that Butler’s entire thesis works to deconstruct and disprove.
When adaptation scholar Diana Taylor contrasts the 'archive' and the 'repertoire', what type of cultural memory does the 'repertoire' specifically encompass?
- A Written texts, architectural blueprints, and institutional legal files
- B Digital databases and encrypted computer code stored on cloud servers
- C Dead specimens and cataloged artifacts kept inside natural history museums
- D Embodied practices, spoken word, dance, ritual, and non-verbal gestures
Correct answer: Embodied practices, spoken word, dance, ritual, and non-verbal gestures
Taylor distinguishes the archive (fixed, material objects like books and documents) from the repertoire (ephemeral, bodily practices and oral traditions passed down through performance). The written texts option describes the archive itself, which serves as the theoretical opposite of the live, kinetic repository found in the repertoire.
Consider a scenario where a political activist interrupts a corporate press conference by staging a hyper-exaggerated parody of the CEO's speech. In Performance Studies, this subversion is an application of which concept?
- A Artaudian cruelty
- B Scholastic ritualism
- C Naturalistic dramaturgy
- D Guerrilla theater
Correct answer: Guerrilla theater
Guerrilla theater involves spontaneous, public, and politically charged performances designed to disrupt dominant power structures and provoke critical awareness. While Artaud's Theater of Cruelty deals with shocking the audience, it relies on intense sensory assault within a specialized theatrical setting rather than political parody in a public arena.
In J.L. Austin's speech act theory, which is foundational to performance studies, a 'performative utterance' is defined as a statement that:
- A Describes an existing state of affairs with absolute mathematical precision
- B Accomplishes an action or brings about a new reality simply by being spoken
- C Fails to communicate any meaning due to an actor's stutter or hesitation
- D Is delivered exclusively by a professional actor on a proscenium stage
Correct answer: Accomplishes an action or brings about a new reality simply by being spoken
A performative utterance (like saying 'I do' at a wedding) doesn't just describe a state; it executes an act that transforms the social reality of the speaker. The descriptive option refers to what Austin calls a 'constative' utterance, which stands as the analytical counterpoint to a performative statement.
Which performance studies theorist wrote 'Performance Theory' (1977) and proposed the 'broad spectrum approach,' which examines human behavior from play and sports to theater and ritual?
- A Richard Schechner
- B Clifford Geertz
- C Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- D Dwight Conquergood
Correct answer: Richard Schechner
Richard Schechner pioneered the broad-spectrum approach, arguing that performance studies should not be limited to high art but must include sports, rituals, popular entertainment, and everyday activities. Clifford Geertz used performance metaphors in anthropology (such as his analysis of the Balinese cockfight) but did not write this foundational text or define the 'broad spectrum' methodology.
In his sociolinguistic and ethnographic performance work, Dwight Conquergood advocated for 'co-performative ethnography.' What does this approach require from the researcher?
- A Observing subjects from behind a one-way mirror to ensure absolute objectivity
- B Engaging in a shared, bodily, and empathetic dialogue by performing with the community
- C Reducing all physical field observations strictly into quantitative statistical graphs
- D Remaining entirely silent and refusing to speak to the subjects during the field study
Correct answer: Engaging in a shared, bodily, and empathetic dialogue by performing with the community
Conquergood argued against cold, detached observation, asserting that ethnographers must engage in dialogic, bodily collaboration to deeply understand a community's performance traditions. The one-way mirror option represents the traditional, detached positivist model of research that Conquergood's activist performance framework actively critiques.
When a theater company uses Bertolt Brecht’s 'Verfremdungseffekt' (alienation effect) in an adaptation of a novel, what is the performance specifically designed to prevent?
- A The actors from forgetting their scripted lines and improvising badly on live stage
- B The audience from falling into uncritical, passive emotional empathy with the characters
- C The set design from using elaborate lighting instruments, ornate curtains, and backdrops
- D The theater owners and producers from making a significant profit on ticket sales
Correct answer: The audience from falling into uncritical, passive emotional empathy with the characters
Brecht wanted to break the illusion of reality so that the audience would think critically about the socio-political structures on screen rather than sobbing passively over the characters' fates. The option regarding eliminating set designs is too extreme; Brecht used minimalist, functional stagecraft, but his primary target was emotional passivity, not a total ban on background objects.
According to Erving Goffman’s sociological model in 'The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life', the 'back region' or 'backstage' is a space where an individual can:
- A Drop their social mask, step out of character, and relax from the demands of a performance
- B Address the largest possible public audience using highly formal, rehearsed rhetorical speech
- C Receive legal penalties for failing to perform their corporate duties correctly
- D Display their most refined, polished, and rehearsed aristocratic manners
Correct answer: Drop their social mask, step out of character, and relax from the demands of a performance
Goffman uses a theatrical metaphor to explain that the backstage is where performers can step out of their roles, drop their front, and drop the illusions maintained before an audience. The public address option describes the 'front region' or 'onstage' behavior, where the social performance is actively maintained.
In Performance Studies, what does the term 'intermediality' refer to in a contemporary multi-media performance adaptation?
- A The strict prohibition of any electronic devices during a live theatrical production
- B The blending of different media formats together, like live actors and digital screens
- C The historical transition period between the invention of radio and the rise of television
- D A legal dispute over intellectual property rights between a novelist and a film studio
Correct answer: The blending of different media formats together, like live actors and digital screens
Intermediality describes the blur and interaction between different media systems (like theater, film, and digital feeds) creating an integrated performance space where no single medium dominates. The transition period option is a historical description of mass media timeline shifts, missing the performance-specific blend implied by the term.
A performance artist stands motionless in a gallery for eight hours a day, inviting viewers to look at her while she remains silent. Which core element of performance is being fundamentally isolated and examined here?
- A Textual literacy, classical vocabulary, and rehearsed formal dramatic vocabulary
- B The visceral, temporal co-presence of the performer's body and the spectator
- C The mechanical efficiency of modern theatrical stage machinery
- D The economic translation of literature into commodity markets
Correct answer: The visceral, temporal co-presence of the performer's body and the spectator
This duration-based performance strips away plot, text, and spectacle to focus entirely on the raw physical presence of the body over time and its relational interaction with the viewer. The textual literacy option is entirely incorrect because the artist deliberately avoids language to highlight non-textual, somatic experiences.
Victor Turner's concept of 'communitas' develops during a ritual performance. It is best described as a feeling of:
- A Intense commercial competition and individual financial ambition or personal gain
- B Spontaneous, undifferentiated social bonding and profound egalitarian equality
- C Deep paranoia and suspicion toward other members of the tribe
- D Absolute intellectual boredom caused by excessively over-rehearsing a scripted text
Correct answer: Spontaneous, undifferentiated social bonding and profound egalitarian equality
Communitas emerges within the liminal phase of a ritual when normal social roles collapse, allowing participants to experience a profound sense of shared humanity and collective unity. The competitive option describes the structured, everyday 'societas' that communitas temporarily breaks open and disrupts.
In the context of disability studies and performance theory, Tobin Siebers uses the term 'disability performance' to challenge standard aesthetics by:
- A Hiding physical differences using heavy theatrical makeup, prosthetics, and lighting tricks
- B Arguing that people with disabilities should only ever perform in silent pantomimes
- C Proving that classical ballet is the only proper method to heal physical injuries
- D Asserting that the disabled body is a site of aesthetic presence and political critique
Correct answer: Asserting that the disabled body is a site of aesthetic presence and political critique
Siebers and other performance theorists argue that casting disabled bodies onto the stage breaks conventional expectations of physical perfection, turning the performance into a site of resistance and raw critique. Hiding differences with makeup is a traditional strategy that disability performance explicitly pushes back against to showcase authentic physical variety.
When examining a courtroom trial through the lens of Performance Studies, the judge's robes, the gavel, and the formal phrase 'All rise' are analyzed as:
- A Accidental courtroom decor that has no real impact on the psychological outcome of a trial
- B Aesthetic choices designed to make the courtroom resemble a comic opera
- C Evidence that the legal system is an unregulated, chaotic game of chance
- D Ritualistic performance markers that manifest and reinforce institutional authority
Correct answer: Ritualistic performance markers that manifest and reinforce institutional authority
Performance studies analyzes legal trials as highly choreographed societal rituals where specific costumes, architecture, and language performatively construct and validate state power. The accidental decor option fails to realize that these symbolic elements are strictly maintained because they are functional in preserving legal deference.
The concept of 'performativity' in cultural studies, derived from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s work, explores 'queer performativity' as a way to:
- A Enforce traditional heterosexual marital contracts through state legislation
- B Completely ban the use of improvisational comedy in experimental theater spaces
- C Ensure that all dramatic characters conform strictly to nineteenth-century literary models
- D Subvert, tweak, and expose the gaps in mandatory societal norms of gender and desire
Correct answer: Subvert, tweak, and expose the gaps in mandatory societal norms of gender and desire
Sedgwick explores how performance and non-standard expressions can reveal the arbitrary, fragile limits of normative social structures, carving out room for queer identities. The option regarding enforcing traditional marriage contracts describes the conventional, state-sanctioned performative force that queer performativity seeks to challenge.
In his critique of western theatrical models, Augusto Boal created the 'Theater of the Oppressed'. What is the role of the 'spect-actor' in this performance style?
- A To sit quietly in the dark and take detailed notes for a newspaper's academic theater review each night
- B To handle the financial box office ticket sales and clean the entire auditorium afterward
- C To actively step onto the stage, disrupt the scene of oppression, and try out real solutions
- D To play a classical musical instrument quietly behind a heavy velvet stage curtain
Correct answer: To actively step onto the stage, disrupt the scene of oppression, and try out real solutions
Boal coined the term 'spect-actor' to transform the passive spectator into an active participant who can change the course of a dramatic conflict, practicing strategies for real-world social change. Sitting quietly in the dark describes the bourgeois passive spectator model that Boal was explicitly working to tear down.
According to Marvin Carlson’s book 'Performance: A Critical Introduction', performance is a contested concept because it always carries a hauntology of:
- A Previous iterations, memories, and cultural expectations that color the current act
- B Demonic possessions that must be exercised by a licensed religious authority
- C Purely mathematical errors made during the physical printing of a dramatic text
- D Total detachment from any historical, real-world context or lasting political consequence
Correct answer: Previous iterations, memories, and cultural expectations that color the current act
Carlson points out that performance is never entirely new; it always carries the ghosts of prior displays, contexts, and audience memories that inform how the live event is decoded. The option regarding demonic possession is an extreme literalization of 'ghosting' that misrepresents Carlson's cultural and semiotic focus.
In his classic ethnographic text 'The Interpretation of Cultures', Clifford Geertz describes the Balinese cockfight as a performance that functions as a:
- A Purely economic stock exchange with zero emotional or status investment
- B Sentimental display of ordinary animal behavior that has no relation to human politics
- C Text that the community reads to understand its own social hierarchy and anxieties
- D Religious sacrifice designed to predict changes in global weather patterns
Correct answer: Text that the community reads to understand its own social hierarchy and anxieties
Geertz famously treated the performance of the cockfight as a cultural story the Balinese tell themselves about status, pride, and masculinity. The economic stock exchange option is a near-miss because heavy gambling occurs, but Geertz explicitly demonstrates that the betting is driven by deep status rivalries rather than rational economic optimization.