Download Reasons 1/2 People think that theatre must be entirely self

Off-Broadway and
Off-Off-Broadway
Jason & Serena
Reasons 1/2
• People think that theatre must
be entirely self-supportting.
• The government had financed the
Federal Theatre during the
1930s in order to reduce
unemployment.
Reasons 2/2
• After the Federal Theatre came
to the end in 1939, no further
government assistance was given
until the mid-1960s.
• Following WWII, a number of
nongovernmental groups were
looking for means to
decentralize the theatre.
Beginning
• The financial conditions forced
Broadway producer to cater
almost exclusively to mass
audiences.
• Theatrical groups found out of
the way buildings where low
production costs permitted them
to offer short runs of plays.
Features
• Forced to experiment with
spatial arrangements.
• Many Off-Broadway companies
played to small audiences.
• Also contributed to the
preference for intimate theatre.
Circle in the Square
• The original Circle in the
Square did not have a theater
license, but the founder was
able to get a cabaret license;
the production staff and off
duty actors served as waiters
if anyone insisted on ordering
food or drinks. Many of the
theater personnel, both acting
and technical, lived on the
premises.
Circle in the Square
• It won critical acceptance both
for itself and for Off-Broadway
when in 1952 it achieved
resounding success with
Tennessee Williams’s Summer and
Smoke,a failure on Broadway.
Change
• By the 1960s, Off-Broadway had
become so successful that
theatrical unions insist on
stricter working conditions and
higher wages. The production
costs rose.
• This promoted the development
of Off-Off-Broadway.(in more
out of the way spaces where
unions were largely ignored)
LaMama
• Of the early Off-Off-Broadway groups,
the most important was the LaMama
organization, founded in 1961 by
Ellen Stewart.
• It provided a place free from
restrictions where dramatists could
see their plays performed.
• It presenting many innovative,
defying and altering accepted notions
of dramatic effectiveness, and this
kind of spirit also extended to
directorial techniques.
Tom O’Horgan
• Tom O’Horgan was the most
successful of LaMama’s
directors.
• He subsequently directed
Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar
and Lenny, on Broadway ,
using the approach he had
perfected at LaMama, which
seemingly owed much to
Artaud.
Artaud
• Extensive use of nonverbal
vocal sound , overamplification
of sound , highly varied
lighting , oversized effigies
or symbolic stage properties,
and the “ physicalization ” of
almost every moment.
• Look at p.190 ch7 Artaud and the Theatre of Cruely
LaMama
• When LaMama toured abroad, it
seemed so innovative that it
was asked to establish branches.
• So its influence was
international.
• By 1970, the distinctions
between Off-Broadway and OffOff-Broadway were so eroded that
they were indistinguishable.
• A few of these organizations have
been especially important.
• The most influential of these
organizations is New York
Shakespeare Festival Theatre,
head by Joseph Papp.
New York Shakespeare
Festival Theatre
• After a modest beginning in the 1950s,
Papp persuaded municipal authorities to
let him stage plays free of charge in
Central Park.
• And then this program become very
popular.
New York Shakespeare
Festival Theatre
•
Not only does this
organization maintain a heavy
production schedule, composed
of Shakespeare’s plays,
revivals, and new plays , but
also it provides performance
space for many other companies.