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    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test"
    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test"
    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test"
    Ebook33 pages22 minutes

    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 12, 2016
    ISBN9781535840866
    A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Stephen Gregg's "This is a Test" - Gale

      11

      This Is a Test

      Stephen Gregg

      1988

      Introduction

      Published in 1988, This Is a Test is playwright Stephen Gregg's most popular play. According to its publisher, Dramatic Publishing Company, it continues to be one of the most widely produced one-act plays in high schools across America, even decades after its debut. The author himself indicates that according to Dramatics, an educational theater magazine, the play immediately shot to the number-one slot in performances and stayed there for fourteen years.

      Like his other eight dramas, This Is a Test is about young adults with real-life issues. In this case, Gregg primarily explores test anxiety and self-image. Although these two themes are common to many works written about teens, Gregg's approach differs in that he takes his reader inside the head of his main character, Alan, through a dream sequence.

      The play is popular among middle- and high-school drama clubs because it allows much room for interpretation and flexibility to cast actors according to who is available. For instance, most characters in the play can be played by males or females, so the play lends itself well to any mix of student actors. Gregg wrote the drama so that liberties could be taken with staging as well.

      Author Biography

      Gregg was born on May 19, 1963, in Sacramento, California. After spending his childhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gregg returned to California, where he studied English literature and microbiology at Stanford University. By the time of his graduation in 1985, he had already begun writing plays.

      Gregg received a 1990 Jerome Fellowship from the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, and two years later earned a Heideman Award from the Actors Theatre of Louisville for best ten-minute play. That same year, he was awarded a

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