MTLE Theatre Practice Test

Unofficial practice questions for Minnesota's MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) test, Subtest 1 (108) and Subtest 2 (109).

Subtest

Subtest 1 (108): history, literature and analysis; creation and performance. Subtest 2 (109): design and production; integration and vocation.

Commedia dell'arte performers, especially those playing the masked Arlecchino, kept a repertoire of stock comedic routines to work into a scenario. What are these routines called?

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Exam mode: 25 questions, 30 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board or Pearson. Bank checked October 15, 2026.

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Subtest 1: all 25 questions

History, literature and analysis 10

  • A student analyzing a script marks a speech in which a character, alone on stage, says her thoughts aloud and so reveals plans that no dialogue with others would give the audience. Which term belongs in the margin? Wikipedia, Soliloquy. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • Aristotle credits which Athenian tragedian with adding a third actor, a change that reduced the importance of the chorus in presenting the plot? Wikipedia, Sophocles. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • The audience has watched a character hide a letter in a desk. Later another character, unaware of it, says there is nothing in the room worth finding. Which device gives the audience information the characters lack? Wikipedia, Irony. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
Show all 25 questions (22 more)

History, literature and analysis, continued

  • Bertolt Brecht wanted performance that hindered the audience from simply identifying itself with the characters, so that it accepted or rejected their actions on a conscious plane. What is this concept called? Wikipedia, Distancing effect. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
  • Commedia dell'arte performers, especially those playing the masked Arlecchino, kept a repertoire of stock comedic routines to work into a scenario. What are these routines called? Wikipedia, Lazzi. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • In the Poetics, Aristotle calls one part of tragedy the organization of incidents: an imitated action that evokes pity and fear and involves a change of fortune. Which part is it? Wikipedia, Poetics (Aristotle). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0003
  • Which classical Japanese dance-drama, performed since the 14th century and brought to its present form by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, integrates masks, costumes and props in a dance-based performance? Wikipedia, Noh. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001
  • Which play by Samuel Beckett, one of the playwrights grouped under the Theatre of the Absurd, was first performed at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris on 5 January 1953? Wikipedia, Theatre of the Absurd. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
  • Which playwright moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1978, had a long association with the Penumbra Theatre Company there, and wrote a cycle of ten plays, each set in a different decade? Wikipedia, August Wilson. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0002
  • Which three-act play by Henrik Ibsen, premiered in Copenhagen in December 1879, concerns the fate of a married woman, Nora Helmer? Wikipedia, A Doll's House. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0001

Creation and performance 15

  • A blocking note has an actor exit stage left, and a patron's ticket puts her seat at house left. How are the two lefts named? Wikipedia, Blocking (stage). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • A class builds a play with no script at the start: the text grows out of the ensemble's collaborative, often improvisatory work. What is this method of theatre-making called? Wikipedia, Devised theatre. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • A script calls for a sword fight. Which specialised technique creates the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers? Wikipedia, Stage combat. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • A student of Stanislavski taught that the actor physicalizes a character's need or internal dynamic as an outward gesture, then suppresses the gesture and carries it internally. Who developed this Psychological Gesture? Wikipedia, Michael Chekhov. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • A student playwright wants a character to make a brief comment to the audience that, by convention, the other characters on stage do not hear. Which device should she write? Wikipedia, Aside. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • A teacher steps into role as a town mayor while the class, also in and out of role, works through a town's problem in unscripted drama. Which methodology, developed primarily from the work of Brian Way, Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton, is this? Wikipedia, Process drama. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0008
  • A voice coach works on speaking so that each word is clearly heard and understood, a matter of pronunciation, not volume. Which skill, also called articulation, is this? Wikipedia, Diction. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • An actor cannot be heard in the back row. In normal talking a speaker may use air from the top of the lungs. From where does a properly projected voice draw its air? Wikipedia, Voice projection. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0007
  • The directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau adapted Mary Overlie's theory into nine physical and five vocal elements for thinking about movement, gesture and the use of space. What is the technique called? Wikipedia, Viewpoints. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • In an improvised scene one student says the ship is sinking. Her partner accepts the premise and adds that he will lower the lifeboats. Which rule of thumb of improvisational theater is the partner following? Wikipedia, Yes, and .... Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0008
  • The modern theatre director is said to have originated in the staging of elaborate spectacles, with large numbers of extras to manage, by which company? Wikipedia, Theatre director. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • Stanislavski's system asks the actor to imagine being in a set of fictional circumstances and to envision the consequences in terms of action. What is this ability called? Wikipedia, Stanislavski's system. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0006
  • Students interview neighbors about a flood and build a script from the interviews, newspapers and government reports, mostly without altering the text. Which kind of theatre are they making? Wikipedia, Documentary theatre. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0004
  • The terms upstage and downstage, which a director uses in blocking, come from a once common kind of stage. What was it? Wikipedia, Blocking (stage). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0005
  • Whose acting exercises, which she called Theater Games, were published in the book Improvisation for the Theater and enabled directors and actors to create improvisational theater? Wikipedia, Viola Spolin. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 1, objective 0008

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 1 (test code 108) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Theatre (Grades K–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN108_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN108_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-15): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 229; Theatre History, Literature, and Analysis (objectives 0001 to 0003, 19 questions, 38%) and Theatre Creation and Performance (0004 to 0008, 31 questions, 62%). This set holds 25: 10 and 15. Every fact was read in the Wikipedia article named under its question. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

Subtest 2: all 25 questions

Design and production 18

  • A costume shop building a sixteenth-century court gown needs the structure worn under the skirts to support them in the desired shape. What is it called? Wikipedia, Farthingale. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • A designer wants a wall that looks solid until a scene behind it is lit and shows through. Which material appears opaque when only it is lit and nearly transparent when only the scene behind it is lit? Wikipedia, Scrim (material). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • A drama club plans a free public performance of a copyrighted play and assumes that no license is needed because nobody is paid and no admission is charged. Section 110(4) of the Copyright Act exempts such a performance only for which works? 17 U.S.C. 110(4), Legal Information Institute. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
Show all 25 questions (22 more)

Design and production, continued

  • A realistic play set in one living room is staged behind a proscenium arch with three walls, the proscenium opening serving as the fourth. What is this kind of set called? Wikipedia, Box set (theatre). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • After analyzing the script, the costume designer drafts a document outlining which character is in which scene, when the actors change, and what costumes the script mentions. What is it called? Wikipedia, Costume design. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • After the last crew member leaves, one exposed bulb in a wire cage is left lit near centre stage in the dark theatre. What is the practical purpose of this ghost light? Wikipedia, Ghost light (theatre). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • An ellipsoidal reflector spotlight, which gives a hard-edged beam, has a gate at its focal point. What is inserted there to shape the beam of light? Wikipedia, Stage lighting instrument. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
  • At a technical rehearsal the stage manager starts a scene with its first few lines, then skips to the lines and blocking for the next lighting or sound cue. What is this way of running the rehearsal called? Wikipedia, Technical rehearsal. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • At load-in, physical custody of the costumes passes from the costume designer and the shop staff to the person who supervises the dressers for the run. Who is that? Wikipedia, Wardrobe supervisor. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • During a sound check a howl builds as a performer's microphone picks up its own amplified signal from a loudspeaker, again and again. What is this loop called? Wikipedia, Audio feedback. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
  • The first Guthrie Theater building in Minneapolis, used from 1963 to 2006, had a 1,441-seat stage that extended into the audience on three sides. What is this kind of stage called? Wikipedia, Guthrie Theater. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • In a theatre, which term covers the auditorium and foyers, the part of the venue that is open to the public? Wikipedia, Front of house. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013
  • In the McCandless method of lighting an acting area, two lights reach the actors from opposite sides, about 45 degrees above them and about 90 degrees apart. What is the key difference between the two lights? Wikipedia, McCandless method. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
  • Which adhesive, made mostly of alcohol and resin, is used primarily for affixing wigs and false facial hair? Wikipedia, Spirit gum. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0011
  • Which basic scenic unit is a flat piece of scenery, soft covered with cloth such as muslin or hard covered with plywood, painted and placed to give the appearance of buildings or other background? Wikipedia, Flat (theatre). Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0010
  • Which small lighting fixture, named for the ridged lens on its front, gives a soft-edged spot or pool of light? Wikipedia, Stage lighting instrument. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0009
  • Which system of ropes, pulleys and counterweights lets a stage crew quickly, quietly and safely hoist curtains, lights and scenery? Wikipedia, Fly system. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0012
  • Who is primarily responsible for providing or procuring the money for a production, and oversees its budgeting and its contracts with venues, personnel and investors? Wikipedia, Theatrical producer. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0013

Integration and vocation 7

  • A history class studying the New Deal stages factual information on current events for a popular audience, in the form most associated with the Federal Theatre Project of 1935 to 1939. What is the form called? Wikipedia, Living Newspaper. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • A unit on opera and the musical needs the word for the text used in an extended musical work of that kind. What is that text called? Wikipedia, Libretto. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • In a theatre, whose job is it to make sure the technical equipment is functional, maintained and safe, and to generate the working drawings for construction? Wikipedia, Technical director. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015
  • Readers theater, which a teacher can use in a reading lesson, is also known as theater of the mind. What do its actors rely on to help the audience understand the story? Wikipedia, Readers theater. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • Which American labor union represents those who work in live theatrical performance and negotiates wages and benefits for performers and stage managers? Wikipedia, Actors' Equity Association. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015
  • Which traditional Japanese theatre, founded in Osaka at the beginning of the 17th century, brings together three kinds of performers: puppeteers, chanters and shamisen musicians? Wikipedia, Bunraku. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0014
  • Who has overall responsibility for the smooth execution of a theatrical production, working alone on a small show and heading a team of assistants on a larger one? Wikipedia, Stage management. Written to the MTLE Theatre (Grades K–12) framework, Subtest 2, objective 0015

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to Subtest 2 (test code 109) of the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations field Theatre (Grades K–12) in the test framework on the MTLE website (https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Content/Worksheets/MN108_FrameworkWorksheet.html; test page https://www.mtle.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/MN108_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-15): 50 multiple-choice questions in 1 hour, passing score 227; Theatre Design and Production (objectives 0009 to 0013, 35 questions, 71%) and Theatre Integration and Vocation (0014 and 0015, 15 questions, 29%). This set holds 25: 18 and 7. Every fact was read on the public page named under its question: the named Wikipedia articles and 17 U.S.C. 110 at the Legal Information Institute. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

This MTLE Theatre practice test is unofficial: 50 questions written for this page, 25 for each subtest of the Grades K–12 test. It is not connected with the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board or with Pearson.

Read the full guide

MTLE Theatre: most of the weight is on making and producing

Read on October 15, 2026, the framework weights Subtest 1 (code 108) as Theatre History, Literature and Analysis 38% and Theatre Creation and Performance 62%. Subtest 2 (code 109) is Theatre Design and Production 71% and Theatre Integration and Vocation 29%. The sets here follow suit: 10 and 15 questions, then 18 and 7.

Minnesota's own stages

One question starts from the thrust stage of the first Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, another from August Wilson's move to Saint Paul and his long association with the Penumbra Theatre Company. A copyright question asks which works section 110(4) of the Copyright Act exempts when a performance is free.

  • Subtest 2 is largely backstage: lighting, sound, scenery, costume, makeup and running a show.

Questions and answers

Is the MTLE Theatre practice test free?

It is free and asks for no sign-up. Every question was written for this page from the framework's objectives, never from the real test or its official practice materials, and each one shows the public page that confirms its answer.

How long is the MTLE Theatre test?

Two subtests, each with 50 multiple-choice questions in one hour of testing time. An appointment adds 15 minutes for the tutorial and nondisclosure agreement, and you may sit one subtest or both at one appointment.

What score do you need to pass MTLE Theatre?

229 on Subtest 1 and 227 on Subtest 2, as the test page read on October 15, 2026, and both are required. This page reports a number right only, which says nothing about a scaled score.

What is on MTLE Theatre Subtest 1?

Eight objectives: world theatre through the nineteenth century, theatre from the twentieth century to the present, analysis and evaluation, creating dramatic texts, directing, acting theory, physical and vocal technique, and creative dramatics with improvisation.

What does a Minnesota theatre teaching license cover?

Minnesota Rules 8710.4300 authorizes a teacher of dance and theatre arts to teach kindergarten through grade 12 students to understand the creative works and the process of producing dance and theatre art forms. A candidate completes a theatre or a dance specialization.

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