GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of American Plays
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #4 : Identification Of American Plays After 1925
This Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tony Kushner focuses on sexuality and the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York City.
The Way We Live Now
As Is
Andre’s Mother
Safe Sex
Angels in America
Angels in America
Although all the titles listed above are American plays dealing with AIDS, only the 1993 Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes was written by Tony Kushner. It is by far the most famous work of the Kushner’s and includes character doubling, interweaving storylines, and various angels and imaginary friends.
Example Question #1 : Identification Of American Plays After 1925
This 1965 comedy by Neil Simon follows the ill-suited relationship between roommates Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison. What play is it?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The Philadelphia Story
Waiting for Lefty
A Raisin in the Sun
The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple
The play described is The Odd Couple, which follows the tiffs and jokes of Oscar, a notoriously laidback slob, and Felix, an extremely organized neat-freak. The play’s main premise is that the two recently divorced main characters become roommates out of financial necessity but end up forming their own close relationship.
Example Question #11 : Identification Of American Plays
Which 1959 play takes its title from the Langston Hughes poem “A Dream Deferred”?
A Raisin in the Sun
The Philadelphia Story
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Glengarry Glen Ross
A Raisin in the Sun
The play in question is A Raisin in the Sun, a work that portrays the experiences of an impoverished black family in mid-century Chicago. It is known for its cast of almost exclusively African-American characters as well as its involvement in a U.S. Supreme Court case about racist housing policies.
Example Question #12 : Identification Of American Plays
What theatrical genre is characterized by its series of unrelated music, magic, comedy, dancing, and/or circus acts all on one playbill?
burlesque
Broadway
vaudeville
talkies
satire
vaudeville
The theatrical genre described in the question is vaudeville, a genre that developed in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. It has its roots in a range of different disciplines, including stage magic, burlesque, circus sideshows, and musical theater.
Example Question #13 : Identification Of American Plays
Who wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Edward Albee
Tennessee Williams
Tony Kushner
Tom Stoppard
Leonard Woolf
Edward Albee
The author is Edward Albee, an award-winning American playwright who was born in 1928. The play follows the disintegration of the marriage of an impotent middle-aged couple and is remarkable for its interplay of reality and illusion.
Example Question #14 : Identification Of American Plays
Which of the following is the title of an absurdist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard?
Waiting for Godot
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Arcadia
Glengarry Glen Ross
Not I
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The play described in the question stem is Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which follows the offstage adventures of Hamlet’s two hapless friends. The conceit is that the eponymous characters are confused by the plot of Hamlet, which they aren’t privy to, and this conceit allows Stoppard to pose strong existential questions about human purpose and determinism.
Example Question #15 : Identification Of American Plays
Glengarry Glen Ross was written by which American playwright?
Tony Kushner
David Mamet
Edward Albee
Tom Stoppard
Tennessee Williams
David Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross was written by David Mamet and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. It centers on the machinations of four unscrupulous real estate agents in Chicago who are trying their best to sell the two pieces of real estate in the play’s title. It is known for its exquisite dialogues and attention to language.
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