• 47 questions

Theatre Praxis Practice Test Free

Unofficial practice for Praxis Theatre (5641): teaching, performing, production and history, in the proportions of the ETS outline.

Whose acting exercises, later called theater games, became a first body of work for improvisational theater?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with ETS (Educational Testing Service). Bank checked October 13, 2026.

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All 47 questions

Curriculum, instruction and classroom practices 13

  • A class builds a play from the exact words of neighbours it has interviewed about a local flood. What form is this? Wikipedia, "Verbatim theatre". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), D.3 material that addresses contemporary social issues (e.g., oral history, ethno-theatre).
  • A student can play a scene truthfully only with side coaching from the teacher. In which range is this task for her? Wikipedia, "Zone of proximal development". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), A.4 applying knowledge of human growth and development.
  • A teacher hands out a table of criteria with a description of each level of quality for an audition monologue. What is this tool? Wikipedia, "Rubric (academic)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), B.2 a variety of assessments.
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Curriculum, instruction and classroom practices, continued

  • During an improvisation unit a teacher watches each scene and gives short notes that carry no grade. Which kind of assessment is this? Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University, "What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), B.2 a variety of assessments.
  • How do actors present a readers theater piece? Wikipedia, "Reader's theatre". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), A.1 selecting materials that reinforce learning objectives.
  • In forum theatre, what may the audience members, called spect-actors, do? Wikipedia, "Forum theatre". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), D.3 material that addresses contemporary social issues (e.g., forum theatre).
  • The National Core Arts Standards group their anchor standards under four artistic processes. Which are they? National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, "National Core Arts Anchor Standards". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), A.3 aligning curriculum with current standards.
  • Students perform a scene from a published play during a lesson in their classroom at a nonprofit school. What does 17 U.S.C. 110(1) say about it? Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 110(1). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), C.1 appropriate use of performance and production opportunities in class.
  • What does Anchor Standard 11, the last of the National Core Arts anchor standards, ask of students? National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, "National Core Arts Anchor Standards". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), A.3 aligning curriculum with current standards.
  • What does authentic assessment measure? Wikipedia, "Authentic assessment". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), B.2 a variety of assessments (e.g., authentic).
  • What is the goal of a summative assessment, such as a graded final performance? Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University, "What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), B.2 a variety of assessments.
  • What marks process drama as a method of teaching? Wikipedia, "Process drama". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), D.4 appropriate use of discussions, games, presentations, dialogues.
  • Whose acting exercises, later called theater games, became a first body of work for improvisational theater? Wikipedia, "Viola Spolin". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), I. Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices (29%), A.1 selecting materials (e.g., acting exercises, improvisation games).

Creating and performing 13

  • An actor plays a polite line so that the audience senses anger beneath it. What is the unspoken meaning called? Wikipedia, "Subtext". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • How does an aside differ from a soliloquy? Wikipedia, "Aside". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • In Gustav Freytag's outline of a story, which section comes between the rise and the return or fall? Wikipedia, "Dramatic structure". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • In improvisation, what does the "yes" part of the "Yes, and..." rule encourage? Wikipedia, "Yes, and...". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • To which playwright is the distancing effect, also translated as the alienation effect, credited? Wikipedia, "Distancing effect". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • What does Stanislavski's "magic if" describe? Wikipedia, "Stanislavski's system". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • What does the word blocking mean in a rehearsal room? Wikipedia, "Blocking (stage)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • What is a soliloquy? Wikipedia, "Soliloquy". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • What is the fourth wall? Wikipedia, "Fourth wall". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • What is the goal of the Meisner approach, with its repetition exercises? Wikipedia, "Meisner technique". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • Where does the performance score of a devised piece come from? Wikipedia, "Devised theatre". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • Which part of the stage is called upstage? Wikipedia, "Blocking (stage)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).
  • Whose version of the Method has actors imagine a scene's given circumstances, and not recall experiences from their own lives? Wikipedia, "Method acting". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), II. Creating and Performing (29%).

Production 12

  • A designer wants a scrim to look solid and then to seem to vanish. How is the second effect made? Wikipedia, "Scrim (material)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What does a fly system let a stage crew do? Wikipedia, "Fly system". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What does a technical rehearsal focus on? Wikipedia, "Technical rehearsal". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is a color gel? Wikipedia, "Color gel". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is a cyclorama? Wikipedia, "Cyclorama (theater)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is a flat? Wikipedia, "Flat (theatre)". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is a thrust stage? Wikipedia, "Thrust stage". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is the prompt book? Wikipedia, "Prompt book". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What is the safety curtain of a large proscenium theatre for? Wikipedia, "Safety curtain". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • What kind of beam does a Fresnel lantern give? Wikipedia, "Fresnel lantern". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • Which parts of an ellipsoidal reflector spotlight let a designer shape the beam and change its pattern? Wikipedia, "Ellipsoidal reflector spotlight". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).
  • Why can a black box theater host many stage configurations? Wikipedia, "Black box theater". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), III. Production (25%).

History, literature and criticism 9

  • A class scans a line of verse drama in iambic pentameter. What is an iamb in English? Wikipedia, "Iambic pentameter". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • At which Athenian festival, held in honour of a god, was theatre institutionalised? Wikipedia, "Theatre of ancient Greece". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • For what is kabuki theatre known? Wikipedia, "Kabuki". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • What do the texts of a medieval morality play feature? Wikipedia, "Morality play". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • Which change to Greek tragedy does Aristotle attribute to Sophocles? Wikipedia, "Sophocles". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • Which form is characterized by masked types, standard characters shared across all productions, and improvised performances based on scenarios? Wikipedia, "Commedia dell'arte". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • Which playwright, a pioneer of theatrical realism, is often called "the father of modern drama"? Wikipedia, "Henrik Ibsen". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • Who coined the term "theatre of the absurd", in an essay of 1960 on Beckett, Adamov and Ionesco? Wikipedia, "Theatre of the absurd". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).
  • Who played the female parts in the companies of the English Renaissance theatre? Wikipedia, "English Renaissance theatre". Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641), IV. History, Literature, and Criticism (17%).

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the content topics of the ETS Study Companion for Praxis Theatre (5641) (https://www.ets.org/pdfs/praxis/5641.pdf, read 2026-10-13; test page https://praxis.ets.org/test/5641.html): four content categories, Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices 29%, Creating and Performing 29%, Production 25%, History, Literature, and Criticism 17%. The bank holds 13, 13, 12 and 9 questions. Every fact was read on 2026-10-13 on the public page the question names: the anchor standards page of the National Core Arts Standards (nationalartsstandards.org), the assessment page of the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University, the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 110, law.cornell.edu) and Wikipedia articles on acting, stagecraft and theatre history. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

This free theatre Praxis practice test asks 47 questions of our own on the four content categories of test 5641. It is unofficial practice, and the site has no tie to ETS: not affiliated, endorsed or sponsored.

Read the full guide

Theatre Praxis test question breakdown

ETS lists 120 selected-response questions in 2 hours (Study Companion, read October 13, 2026): Curriculum, Instruction, and Classroom Practices 35 questions, Creating and Performing 35, Production 30, History, Literature, and Criticism 20. This bank holds 13, 13, 12 and 9.

A theatre Praxis study guide in four lines

Teaching: arts standards, assessment, forum and verbatim theatre. Performing: Stanislavski, Meisner, Brecht, blocking, improvisation. Production: stage shapes, lighting instruments, flats, fly systems, the prompt book. History: Athens, commedia dell'arte, kabuki, Ibsen, the absurd.

Where the answers come from

Every explanation names its page: the National Core Arts Standards, Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center, 17 U.S.C. 110 and Wikipedia articles on stagecraft and theatre history.

  • ETS writes the test for people who will teach kindergarten through grade 12, so expect questions set in a classroom or a school production.
  • The two largest categories are equal at 35 questions each: classroom practice counts as much as performance.

Questions and answers

Is this the real Praxis Theatre test?

No. The 47 questions were written for this site from the ETS content topics for test 5641. None is copied or reworded from a real test or an ETS sample question, and a result here says nothing certain about a real score.

Is there a theater Praxis study guide from ETS?

ETS publishes a free Study Companion for Theatre (5641) with the full list of content topics. The question breakdown on this page follows it category by category.

What is the passing score for Praxis Theatre 5641?

It depends on where you apply. ETS reports the score, and each state or licensing agency sets its own qualifying score. Look it up on that agency's page. Here you get a number right, with no pass or fail.

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