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Essay Quiz
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1

In his book titled "The Theatre of the Absurd", Martin Esslin observes that the early playwrights of absurd theatre used this genre as a means to convey their sense of bewilderment, anxiety, and wonder in the face of an inexplicable universe. The Second World War greatly influenced their point of view. Given current world events including war, terrorism, corporate corruption, and natural disasters, give reasons why you think this theatre movement is still as pertinent in this century as it was in the last, and how you imagine modern playwrights might express today's world in absurdist ways.
2

Stock characters like the rebellious servant, the rich miser, or the gossipy neighbor were a staple of commedia dell'arte plays. Many characters on sitcom television today are contemporary descendants of the stock characters that abounded in the commedia dell'arte of Renaissance Italy. Drawing on sitcoms you've seen such as Seinfeld, Cheers or Will and Grace, name three characters who could be described as stock characters and discuss the broad "types" that each of these characters represents.





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