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Transcript
THEATRE HISTORY
Part 3:
1800 to the Present
Romance & Realism

Romanticism




Dramatic style that established itself in the early 19th century
Emotional escape into adventure, beauty, and sentimental ideals
Started in Germany and moved to France
Realism



Appeared mid-19th century
Depicts a selected view of real life
Henrik Ibsen


Father of realism
His themes completely revolutionized the theatre, shocking spectators
Realism

Contributors

Anton Chekov


The Cherry Orchard
Konstantin Stanislavski

Great Russian director


Contributed with his experimental Moscow Art Theatre
 Trained actors in a technique of realistic acting
George Bernard Shaw
English
 Satire comedy
 Said to be prolific


Pygmalion
Realism & Romance

Many authors continued to write noteworthy
romantic plays
 Symbolic

or mystical
Oscar Wilde
 The
Importance of Being Earnest
American Theatre pre


Century
Theatre was regarded as “sinful”
 Theatre

th
19
in America was sparse
New York colony passed an act in 1709 forbidding
plays
Theatre faced better in the Virginia colony
 College
students performed a play in 1702
 First
playhouse in America was build in Williamsburg in
1716

First American play worthy of consideration was The
Contrast by Royal Tyler in 1787.
American Theatre in the 19th century



American theatre blossomed in America during the 19th
century
Showboat entertainment
Playhouses were built in major American cities


Followed the new trend of smaller auditoriums, narrow
aprons, box settings, and incandescent lighting
Investments began to be made in actor training

Edwin Booth (1833-1893)
Considered to America’s best actor
 Played Hamlet 100 nights


Touring shows did great business; more than 50 years
theatre companies toured the country
American Theatre in the 19th century


Increased railroad rates brought a decline in
traveling show business
Long-run performances on Broadway began
 New
York City became the theatrical center for the US
 Theatre

became BIG BUSINESS
Three major types of native 19th century American
Theatre
 Minstrel
shows
 Vaudeville
 Melodramas
th
19

century American Theatre
Minstrel shows
Performed in black face
 Featured African-American songs and jokes
 Exceptionally popular throughout America and England


Vaudeville
Variety show featuring everything: trained seals, singers,
acrobats, jugglers, dancers, comedians, and animal acts
 Family show


Melodrama
Sentimental theatre that really thrived during this time
 “the plight of the poverty-stricken heroines in the clutches of
evil villains”

Theatre in the 20th century & beyond

Impressionistic theatre




New stagecraft methods that revolutionized the theatre at the
beginning of the 20th century
Used color and line to evoke the mood of a place rather than realistic
painting
Revolving stages, projected scenery, and a variety of amazing lighting
effects
Epic Theatre






Developed by Bertolt Brecht in Germany
Encourage audience members to think critically and to promote social
reform through political actions
Broke the realistic illusion and stressed theatricality
Inserted narration and songs between episodic scenes
Stage light units visible to the audience
Encouraged societal changes
Post-War Drama & the Absurdists

Known as the time of the “angry young men”


Absurdism






Post WWII
Avant-garde theatre
Argue that all life is meaningless
Characters speak and act at random with not societal or
theatrical rules
Rejected traditional plot lines
Life ruled by chance
Theatre of the Absurd proponent includes Samuel Beckett,
who wrote on themes of the sense of loneliness and
alienation that results when people face the task of
establishing real communication with one another.
The American Scene


The US began developing its own unique theatre
Eugene O’Neill
The leading American dramatist in the first part of the 20th
century
 Realistic and expressionistic plays

Dealing with difficult psychological truths
 Mastered the one-act form and then turned to longer scripts


Thornton Wilder

Our Town

Depicts American small-town life in the early 1900s and shows
eternal patterns of human existence
The American Scene

Tennessee Williams





Arthur Miller



Southern characters that were often neurotic and nearly always
desperate
Unique form of poetic realism
Universal truths
The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire
Wrote of the dilemma of American families and the tragedy of common
citizens
Death of a salesman
Neil Simon


Remains one of the world’s most popular writers of comedy
Combines wisecracks and barbed wit with family realism and serious
themes
American Scene

African-American theatre hs been enriched by
 Lorraine
A
Raisin in the Sun
 August
A
Wilson
history of the black America with a cycle of plays
 Charles
A
Hansberry
Fuller
Solder's Play
 Suzan-Lori
 Vibrant
Parks
language
 Overtly political themes
 Pulitzer Prize winner in 2002
Beyond Broadway


Today the theatre is alive with activity
Broadway
The hub of professional theatre
 Rising costs have kept producers away from newer more risky
ventures
 Most shows are comedies or musicals

Mass appeal
 Ensure commercial hit status



New plays have had to find homes elsewhere
Off Broadway

Welcomes new names & plays
Production is less expensive- less risk to investors
 Allows for experimental productions; can become hits and move to
Broadway

Beyond Broadway

Professional theatre outside of New York City
 Regional
theatres were established during the 1960s in
many major cities

Non professional community theatre
 Usually
perform New York successes several years after
original run
 Involve townspeople