Download Absurdism and Expressionism *The Magic of Imagination*

A G3 Presentation
Endorsed By: The Non-realism Theatre
Society
Let’s get the basics
down!

Basics

 Around this time period there were many
things happening.
 WWI and WWII
 The shift in theatre focus occurred.; from realism
to non-realism.
 The times of war caused people to look for
things to take their mind off of tragedy.
The Shift

 Realism to Non-realism.
 What did this involve?! Three types of theatre included…
 Symbolism
 Absurdism
 Expressionism
The Anti-realists

 These men and women wanted to…..
 Focus on higher spiritual powers.
 Provide a depth in imagination.
 Have a creative outlet and develop dramatic
techniques and styles.
Questions

1: What did the antirealists want to focus on?
a. Provide depth of
imagination.
b. Prevent people from
thinking realistically.
c. Distract people from
the war.
Answer: Provide depth of
imagination.
Questions

2: Describe briefly the
effects that the world wars
had on the theatre?
Answer: The world wars
gave people the urge to
want to escape and think
of things other than war.
Provide a necessary and
appropriate distraction for
difficult times.
Questions

3: What were the three types
of theatre the stage shifted
to?
a. Absurdism, realism, and
sentimentalism.
b. Absurdism,
Expressionism, and
melodrama.
c. Absurdism,
Expressionism, and
Symbolism.
Answer: Absurdism,
Expressionism, and
Symbolism.
Playwrights

Samuel Beckett
• He was born on April 13, 1906,
in Dublin, Ireland.
• In 1928, Beckett became a
student of James Joyce
• Within 5 years, he wrote
Eleutheria, Waiting for Godot,
Endgame, the novels Malloy,
Malone Dies, The Unnamable,
and Mercier et Camier, two
books of short stories and a
book of criticism
Samuel Beckett won a Nobel Peace Prize for
literature…
But did not accept the prize due to the dislike of speeches.
He died on December 22, 1989 in Paris, France
Eugene O’Neill
• Eugene was born on
October 16, 1888 in
New York City
• In 1900, he returned
to NYC and attended
De La Salle Institute
for 2 years
• 1906, he attended
Princeton University
and later dropped
out
After enrolling in a writing class at Harvard
University, O’Neill had his first play produced
In 1920, he took the theatrical world by storm with Beyond the Horizon, which won a Pulitzer
Prize and later that year, The Emperor Jones made it’s Broadway debut
In the late 1930’s, he became the first American
playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for
Literature
Bertolt Brecht
• Born under the name Eugen
Berthold Friedrich Brecht on
February 10, 1898 in Augsburg
Germany
• He went into exile in Scandinavia
between 1933-1941 and then into
exile in the United States between
1941-1947, where he did some
filmwork for in Hollywood
• Between 1937-1941 he wrote most
of his great plays, his major
theoretical essays and dialogue,
and many poems
In 1949, after going to Berlin to help stage one
of his productions there was the formation of
his own company, The Berliner Ensemble.
In 1955, he received a Stalin Peace Prize
The following year, he died of a heart attack in
East Berlin
Questions

1: True or false: Samuel
Beckett declined accepting
the Nobel Prize for
literature personally to
avoid making a speech
Answer: True
Questions

2: Who was the first
American to be rewarded
to Nobel Prize for
Literature?
a. George Washington
b. Samuel Beckett
c. Eugene O’Neill
Answer: Eugene O’Neill
Questions

3: How many times did
Bertolt Brecht go into
exile?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
Answer: 2
Plays

“The End Game”
“A Dream Play”

“The Three Penny
Opera”
Questions

1: Describe the irony of
“The End Game”
Questions

2: The plot of the “Dream
Play”?
Questions

3: “The Three Penny
Opera” is what kind of
play?
Conventions

Lighting

 In 1902 the Sky-Dome was formed.
 In 1912 the lights were placed in the auditorium.
 The colored gelatin light covers were invented to
provide a depth of color.
Sound

 Until this time period the sound development had
not changed for over 2,000 years
 Sound effects began to be used.
 Pre-show music began to be being recorded.
Scene

 Scene designers in the early 20th cent., opposed to
naturalism, strove to show the essence of a play
through simplification, suggestion, and, often,
stylization; selective realism was the keynote.
Makeup

 After the 1950s rubber latex makeup was used to
give the skin the look of old age, to make bald caps,
to make realistic-looking false noses, and to make
other forms of sagging flesh.
 Makeup usage increased during this time period.
Costumes

 German advocates reasoned that, since the actor is
enclosed in the space of the stage, either the stage
must be arranged according to the illusion of reality
so as to fit the actor as a “natural” human being, or
the actor must be transformed to match the cubist
and abstract space of the stage.
Questions

1: In what year was the
sky-dome formed?
a. 1903
b. 1905
c. 1902
d. 1917
Answer: !902
Questions

2: What type of makeup
began to be used in this
time period?
Answer: Latex makeup
Questions

3: How many years had
the elements of sound for
the theatre not have
changed?
a. 3,000
b. 2,001
c. 2,000
d. 3,400
Answer: 2,000
Kristin Stone
Pastoria
Laramie Moon
Tryxie and the Tin Man
Gillian Kick
Dorothy and Riskitt
Katherine Gross
The Scarecrow
Questions

1: What retort does the Scarecrow
come back with when Dorothy asks
her to go look for the groan?
a.
I fear lighted matches! If
ever I bump against one of thosepeace to my ashes!
b.
I fear nothing! Peace to my
ashes!
c.
I fear nothing, but a lighted
match, or a cigarette smoker. If ever I
bump up against either of those twopeace to my ashes.
d.
I fear nothing, but a lighted
match, or a cigarette smoker. If ever I
bump against either of those twopeace to my straw.
Answer: C
Questions

2: What is happening in
the beginning sequence
with Pastoria and Riskitt?
Questions

3: What is relatively ironic
about the scene in which
Tryxie is complaining about
being hungry?
a.
She just ate dinner.
b.
She was fat.
c.
She was currently
eating.
d.
She was complaining
in the kitchen.
Answer: C
Sources

 https://prezi.com/sira4xnm8pnl/non-realism-in-the-theatre/
 http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0767430069/student_view0/part
3/chapter9/index.html
 http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/scene-designstage-lighting-the-twentieth-century.html
 http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/costume-twentiethcentury-costume.html
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/562420/stagecraft/278583
/Realism#toc278584
 http://www.samuel-beckett.com/
 http://www.biography.com/people/samuel-beckett-9204239#synopsis
 http://www.biography.com/people/eugene-oneill-9428728#leadingplaywright
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/78614/Bertolt-Brecht
 http://boucher.webs.com/realismandantirealism.htm