Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York, freeing artists to...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York, freeing artists to create productions that were more experimental than typical Broadway shows. One such artist was playwright María Irene Fornés. Working with off-off Broadway theaters enabled Fornés not only to direct her own plays but also to direct them exactly as she intended them to be staged, regardless of how strange the results might have seemed to audiences accustomed to Broadway shows. In this way, Fornés ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Off-off-Broadway theaters emerged in the late 1950s as a rebellion against mainstream Broadway theaters in New York, freeing artists to create productions that were more experimental than typical Broadway shows.' |
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| 'One such artist was playwright María Irene Fornés.' |
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| 'Working with off-off Broadway theaters enabled Fornés not only to direct her own plays but also to direct them exactly as she intended them to be staged, regardless of how strange the results might have seemed to audiences accustomed to Broadway shows.' |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Off-off-Broadway theaters provided artists like María Irene Fornés with unprecedented artistic freedom to create and direct experimental work according to their own vision.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes off-off-Broadway as a movement that freed artists from mainstream constraints, then uses Fornés as a concrete example of how this freedom manifested—allowing her complete creative control over her directing.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage uses Fornés as an example to prove a point about off-off-Broadway theaters
- The right answer should connect Fornés's specific experience back to the broader point about what off-off-Broadway theaters provided
- It should show how her example proves the main claim about artistic freedom and experimental opportunity
- Suggests Fornés wrote plays that would have been too expensive for others to direct
- The passage never mentions cost or expense as a factor
- Misses the main point about artistic freedom
- Claims Fornés recognized that off-off-Broadway staging was more complicated than Broadway staging
- The passage doesn't compare complexity levels between the two
- This doesn't connect to the artistic freedom theme
- Suggests Fornés would have been more famous with mainstream plays
- The passage isn't about fame or popularity
- This contradicts the positive tone about her experimental work
- States that Fornés 'illustrates the artistic opportunity offered by off-off Broadway theaters'
- Perfectly connects her specific example back to the main point about these theaters providing artistic freedom
- Uses 'illustrates' which directly matches how examples function in arguments—to demonstrate broader points