A director invites the families of the cast and crew to the final dress rehearsal. What does an open dress rehearsal give the actors?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "DRESS REHEARSAL". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator p
A living playwright finished a new play in 2005. As a general rule, how long does copyright protect it, a fact a school must weigh before staging it without a license?U.S. Copyright Office, How Long Does Copyright Protection Last?. Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator s
A rehearsal calendar for a professional company marks one technical day as a "10 out of 12". What does that contractual term mean?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "10 OUT OF 12". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator s
After the first round of auditions for a spring musical, a director posts a callback list. What is a callback for?Wikipedia, "Audition". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator j
Show all 48 questions (44 more)
Creating, performing and producing theater, continued
An actor lists the time, the place and the situation her character is in before she decides what the character wants. In Stanislavski's vocabulary, what is she listing?Wikipedia, "Given circumstances". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator d
Before a scene begins, an improv troupe asks the audience to call out a place and an occupation. Besides giving the players a starting idea, what does this common practice show the audience?Wikipedia, "Improvisational theatre". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator b
Directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau adapted Mary Overlie's Six Viewpoints for training actors in movement and voice. What did their version set out?Wikipedia, "Viewpoints". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator h
Late in the rehearsal period, the director, the designer and the wardrobe staff watch the cast walk across the lit stage in every costume. What is this review called, and what is it for?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "DRESS PARADE". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator p
New York's Group Theatre, founded in 1931, produced three teachers who went on to teach differing approaches to "the Method". Who were they?Wikipedia, "Method acting". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator f
New York's theater standards say that rehearsal is how theater artists polish their work and practice their craft. Under which artistic process do the standards place that understanding?New York State Education Department, New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, Theater At-A-Glance (2017). Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator m
On the prop table backstage, each prop sits inside its own taped outline. Why is the table marked this way?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Props, "PROPS TABLE". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator q
The word "blocking" is traced to which practice of 19th-century directors such as W. S. Gilbert?Wikipedia, "Blocking (stage)". Framework section: Competency 0001, Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater, performance indicator n
Theater tools, media and techniques 12
A costume shop spatters and rubs a brand-new coat so that it looks as if a farmhand has worn it for years. What is this treatment called?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Props, "BREAKING DOWN". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator g
A lighting designer hangs instruments upstage of the actors, pointing toward the audience over their heads and shoulders. What is this backlight for?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Lighting, "BACKLIGHT". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator c
A school turns a plain rectangular room with black walls and a flat black floor into its second theater. Why do directors value such a black box?Wikipedia, "Black box theater". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator l
A sound designer plays quiet music beneath a long spoken scene to shape its mood without covering the words. What is this use of music called?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Sound, "UNDERSCORE". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator c
An actor has 40 seconds offstage to change from a ball gown into a traveling suit. How should the costume designer plan for this quick change?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Costume, "QUICK CHANGE". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator i
Black drapes and plain flats are set at the sides of a stage so that spectators cannot see the wings. What is this material called?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "MASKING". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator e
During a sound check a loud howl builds whenever a singer walks in front of a loudspeaker with a live microphone. What is happening?Wikipedia, "Audio feedback". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator b
For a play about a divided town, a director seats the audience in two banks that face each other, with the acting area running between them. Which form of staging is this?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "TRAVERSE". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator l
In a fight scene a chair must smash over an actor's back at every performance. Which kind of prop does the script require?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Props, "BREAKAWAY". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator d
New stage drapes arrive for a school auditorium. Which treatment makes drapes, costumes and other porous materials suitable for stage use by reducing the fire risk?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Stage Management, "FLAME-RETARDANT". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator k
One instrument in a lighting rig is focused only on a doorway and is used for a single entrance in Act Two. What is such an instrument called?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Lighting, "SPECIAL". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator a
The script calls for a table lamp that a character switches on in view of the audience, and the lamp really lights. What do technicians call such a working fitting on the set?Theatrecrafts.com, Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms, Lighting, "PRACTICAL". Framework section: Competency 0002, Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques, performance indicator d
Theater and culture 12
A commedia dell'arte troupe keeps a stock of comic routines, largely physical, that a masked performer can weave into any scenario. What are these routines called?Wikipedia, "Lazzi". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
A student who hopes to work as a professional stage manager asks which U.S. labor union would represent her. Which union represents both professional actors and stage managers?Actors' Equity Association, About Equity. Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator e
At the first Globe Theatre, built in 1599, who were the "groundlings"?Wikipedia, "Globe Theatre". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator h
August Wilson is best known for a 10-play series that includes Fences and The Piano Lesson. What does the series, called The Pittsburgh Cycle, chronicle?Wikipedia, "August Wilson". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator d
The critic Martin Esslin named a kind of postwar drama in a 1960 essay that opens with Samuel Beckett, Arthur Adamov and Eugène Ionesco. What name did he coin?Wikipedia, "Theatre of the absurd". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator b
Greek theatres were often cut into a hillside, and the slope where the spectators sat had a name that means "seeing place". What was it?Wikipedia, "Theatre of ancient Greece". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
In a play of the late Middle Ages, figures named for virtues and vices compete to sway a hero who stands for every person. Which dramatic form is this?Wikipedia, "Morality play". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
In an ancient Greek tragedy a group of performers speaks with one voice about what the audience has just watched. What was the work of this chorus?Wikipedia, "Greek chorus". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
In Japan's Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theatre, how are the large puppets handled, and who speaks for them?UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage: Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theatre. Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
In the aesthetics of Indian performance set out in the Natya Shastra, what does the term rasa refer to?Wikipedia, "Rasa (aesthetics)". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator c
In the wayang puppet theatre that began on the Indonesian island of Java, who is the dalang?UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage: Wayang puppet theatre. Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator a
Which American playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936, wrote plays that were among the first to bring the techniques of realism to the United States stage?Wikipedia, "Eugene O'Neill". Framework section: Competency 0003, Theater and Culture, performance indicator d
Responding to and analyzing theater 12
A class studies Kathakali, from the Indian state of Kerala, to see how theater draws on other arts. How is Kathakali classed?Wikipedia, "Kathakali". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator d
A director has actors change roles in plain sight, shifts the set in full view and lets a narrator speak to the house. In epic theatre, what are these choices meant to produce?Wikipedia, "Epic theatre". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator b
A neoclassical critic faults a tragedy because its story covers three years and moves among four cities. Which two of the three classical unities does the play break?Wikipedia, "Classical unities". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator a
A reviewer writes that the visual show was dazzling but the story fell apart. Which part of tragedy does Aristotle's Poetics list first, as the organization of the incidents?Wikipedia, "Poetics (Aristotle)". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator a
A student critic notes that a telescope shown at length in Act One is never used or mentioned again, and argues that it should be cut. Which principle supports the argument?Wikipedia, "Chekhov's gun". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator b
A theater teacher and a history teacher plan a unit in which students research the period of a play before staging it. New York's Anchor Standard 11, which this serves, belongs to which artistic process?New York State Education Department, New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, Theater At-A-Glance (2017). Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator e
After a student matinee a teacher has the class judge the production against a rubric the class agreed on. Which anchor standard of New York's Responding process does the task address?New York State Education Department, New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, Theater At-A-Glance (2017). Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator a
The audience has watched a letter being forged. A character then reads it aloud and praises its writer's honesty. Which device is the playwright using?Wikipedia, "Irony". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator b
In the middle of a crowded scene a servant turns to the house and mutters one sentence that, by convention, no one else on stage hears. What is this device called?Wikipedia, "Aside". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator a
Lorraine Hansberry took the title of A Raisin in the Sun from a Langston Hughes poem also known as "A Dream Deferred". Which themes does the play, about a family on the south side of Chicago, deal with?Wikipedia, "A Raisin in the Sun". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator c
Near the end of a tragedy the hero suddenly grasps who he is and what he has done. Which term from Aristotle names this change from ignorance to awareness?Wikipedia, "Tragedy". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator a
Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town to be played with no set, on a stage that is mostly bare, with a Stage Manager who speaks to the audience. How do the actors handle most everyday objects?Wikipedia, "Our Town". Framework section: Competency 0004, Responding to and Analyzing Theater, performance indicator b
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the four selected-response competencies of the NYSTCE Field 166: Theater Test Design and Framework, June 2019, authorized for distribution by the New York State Education Department (https://www.nystce.nesinc.com/content/docs/NY166_OBJ_FINAL.pdf, read 2026-10-12): Creating, Performing, and Producing Theater; Theater Tools, Media, and Techniques; Theater and Culture; and Responding to and Analyzing Theater, each 22 or 23 of the 90 selected-response items. The bank holds 12 for each, 48 in all. Every fact was read on 2026-10-12 in the public page the question names: Wikipedia articles that carried no warning banner that day, the Theatrecrafts.com glossaries of technical theatre terms, UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage pages, the U.S. Copyright Office, Actors' Equity Association, and the New York State Learning Standards for the Arts, Theater At-A-Glance (2017). Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This CST Theater practice test has 48 questions of our own on the NYSTCE Theater CST (166). It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the New York State Education Department or Pearson.
Read the full guide
The four competencies
Creating, performing and producing theater; theater tools, media and techniques; theater and culture; responding to and analyzing theater. The framework of June 2019 gives each 22 or 23 of the 90 selected-response items, and this bank gives each 12.
Timing and the written response
Exam mode runs the 48 questions in 72 minutes, the pace of 90 in 135. A written response on teaching carries 20% of the real score, and nothing here marks it.
Three questions rest on New York's own theater standards and their four artistic processes: Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting.
Questions and answers
Can I take this CST Theatre practice test online?
Yes. The questions run in your browser with no account, and each marked answer shows the page where its fact can be checked.
What score passes the Theater CST?
New York's page for the test gives 520 as the passing score, on a scale and not as a number of questions. Exam mode here reports how many you got right and gives no verdict.
Is this the NYSTCE Theatre 078 test?
The current test is Theater CST (166), with a framework dated June 2019. A 2018 notice on the NYSTCE site listed the field as 078 Theatre; the test list today shows 166 Theater.
What is on the written part of the Theater CST?
One constructed-response item on pedagogical content knowledge, planned for up to 60 minutes. The framework asks for a learning goal, a strategy or activity that uses theater resources, the reason for it, and how learning would be assessed.