Download Contemporary Theatre and Its Diversity

Chapter 9: Contemporary Theatre and Its
Diversity
• Dominant (primarily white, middle-class) cultural
standards have been challenged since the 1960s
• Efforts made:
• To open mainstream theatres to plays about groups
previously marginalized or ignored
• To establish theatres to give these groups their own
voices
• Companies and directors have championed radical
change in theatrical conventions and in ideas about the
nature and purpose of theatre
Cultural Diversity
• Some groups have rebelled against marginalization
• Other groups have questioned the desirability of
absorption into the “melting pot” if their own cultures,
traditions, and esthetic sensibilities cannot be
maintained
• Argument that acknowledging, accepting, and valuing
difference is preferable to trying to achieve
homogenization
African American Theatre
• Of all marginalized groups, theatres and plays
concerned with African Americans have made the
greatest impact
• Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
▫ Writer of critically acclaimed and award-winning play A
Raisin in the Sun (1959)
▫ First play by an African American woman to be presented
on Broadway
African American Theatre
• Themes explored by A Raisin in the Sun would be
significant in future African American drama:
• Integration versus separation of races
• Inequities and injustices inflicted on African
Americans
• Aspirations for the good life and obstacles to
achieving one‟s potential
• Maintaining dignity in the face of overwhelming
circumstances
African American Theatre
• Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
• Set out to develop a black esthetic
• Founded Spirit House in Newark in 1966
• Promoted separatist black society
• Credo = theatre “by us, about us, for us”
• Best known plays =
• The Dutchman
• Slave Ship
African American Theatre
• Negro Ensemble Company (NEC)
• Founded in NYC by Douglas Turner Ward in 1968
• Produced plays meaningful to African Americans, but not
necessarily written by African Americans
• Declined during the 1990s and ceased to offer plays
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Other theatre companies were formed, which also increased
opportunities for directors and playwrights
African American Theatre
• George C. Wolfe
• Wrote The Colored Museum
• Conceived and directed popular musical Bring on ‘Da
Noise, Bring on ‘Da Funk
• Directed Angels in America
• Headed New York Shakespeare Festival Theatre
(1993-2005)
African American Theatre
• Lloyd Richards (1916-2006)
• Directed original Broadway production of A Raisin in the
Sun
• Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre & Dean of Yale
University School of Drama (1979-1991)
• Artistic Director of National Playwrights Conference at the
Eugene O‟Neill Center (1968-1999)
• Helped emerging playwrights develop including August
Wilson
African American Theatre
• August Wilson (1945-2005)
• Playwright
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Fences
• The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer Prize)
• Works concentrate on African American identity and
quests for fulfillment and dignity
• Has written a play about the African American
experience for each decade of the 20th century
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
• Set in 1927 in a recording studio in Chicago
• A 3-way power structure is established between the
musicians, who have learned to accept their lot in the
white-dominate society, the white studio owners, and
Ma Rainey, who knows she holds all the cards
• When Levee kills Toledo, Wilson seems to suggest that
the violence is an outgrowth of the power dynamic
African American Theatre
• Susan-Lori Parks
• First African American playwright to win the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama for TopDog/Underdog (2002)
Latino Theatre
• Second to African American Theatre as the most
extensively developed alternative theatre in the USA
• First known play staged in what is now the USA =
performance by Spanish soldiers in El Paso in 1598
• Late 19th century, Spanish-language theatre became
common in USA
• 1918-1930s = 5 professional Spanish-language theatres
in Los Angeles + touring companies
Latino Theatre
• 1960s = broader impact of Latino theatre on the wider
American consciousness
• El Teatro Campesino
• Bilingual Chicano company
• Founded by playwright Luis Valdez in 1965
• Early works called attention to plight of migrant
workers
• Maria Irene Fornes
• Cuban American playwright
• 6 awards for Off-Broadway productions
• Fefu and Her Friends
• The Conduct of Life
Latino Theatre
• Nilo Cruz
• Cuban exile
• Anna in the Tropics (Pulitzer Prize)
• Plays focus on character whose dignity and creative potential is
at odds with repressive circumstances under which character
lives
• José Rivera
• Puerto Rican-born, known for “Magic Realism”
• Octavio Solis
• From El-Paso, TX, his plays resonate deeply within the LatinoAmerican community
Lydia
• By Octavio Solis
• Commissioned by the Denver Center Theatre
• Characters are caught “between two ways of being,
two ways of life”
• Tells the story of a family shattered by an accident
• The arrival of an immigrant, Lydia, forces them to
confront long buried secrets and issues they have
ignored
Asian American Theatre
• Asian American theatres existed in the USA as early as
the mid-19th century
• Asian Americans rebelled against stereotyped
portrayals of Asian Americans by white dramatists
around 1965 by writing their own plays and forming
their own companies
• Frank Chin
• First Asian American playwright to be widely recognized
• Chickencoop Chinaman
Asian American Theatre
• David Henry Hwang
• Best-known Asian American playwright
• F.O.B.
• M. Butterfly
• Yellow Face
• Chay Yew
• Artistic Director: Asian American Theatre Workshop &
Northwest Asian American Theatre
• A Winter People
• Second Skin
Native American Theatre
• The Native American Theatre Ensemble
• First all-Native American company
• Founded by Hanay Geiogamah in 1972
• Company has transformed into the American Indian Dance
Theatre, with 19 members from 12 tribes
• Spiderwoman Theatre
• Founded by 3 Native American sisters
• First all-female Native American group in the USA
• Naa Kahidi (Clan House)
• Based in Alaska
• Performs adaptations of Tlingit myths at festivals
Theatre by and for Women
• While women represent 50% of the world‟s population,
throughout theatre history they have been relegated to a
minor position
• New theatres formed to present the work of feminist
writers beginning in the 1970s
• Many women playwrights have gained recognition in
mainstream theatres
Theatre by and for Women
• Marsha Norman
▫ ‘Night Mother, Pulitzer 1983
• Beth Henley
▫ Crimes of the Heart, Pulitzer 1981
• Wendy Wasserstein
▫ The Heidi Chronicles, Pulitzer 1989
• Paula Vogel
▫ The Baltimore Waltz
▫ How I Learned to Drive, Pulitzer 1997
How I Learned to Drive
• Uses „learning how to handle an automobile‟ as a
metaphor for learning how to navigate one‟s way
through life
• A unusual and sensitive look at pedophilia
• Not organized in a linear arrangement
• Looks at various moments, back and forth in time
• Shifts in time are triggered primarily by memory or an
association of ideas
• Uses very little scenery as the place of the action is
memory
Gay and Lesbian Theatre
• Only recently have plays focused on homosexuality as
their primary topic
• Matt Crowley: playwright
• The Boys in the Band (1968) as first play on Broadway
specifically about gay men
• George Ludlam: playwright, actor
• Head of the Ridiculous Theatre Company from 1967-1986
• Harvey Fierstein: playwright
• Torchsong Trilogy 1982
• La Cage aux Folles 1983
Gay and Lesbian Theatre
• AIDS crisis generated numerous gay plays during the
late 1980s, including:
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The Normal Heart
As Is
Lips Together, Teeth Apart
Jeffrey
• Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
• Written by Tony Kushner
• 7-hour epic play in 2 parts: Millennium Approaches and
Perestroika
Gay and Lesbian Theatre
• Few Lesbian plays have made their way into the
mainstream
• 1978 – Gay Theatre Alliance was formed
• GLAAD – Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation
• Provide stage and screen representation
Performance Art Since 1990
• The major creators of performance art disregarded the
boundaries between the arts to expand the means of
expression
• Some performance artists are solo performers
• Eric Bogosian, Spalding Gray, John Leguizamo,
Anna Deavere Smith
• Some blend theatre, dance, and performance art
• Laurie Anderson, Pina Bausch, Martha Clarke,
Ping Chong, Meredith Monk
• The term “Performance Art” no longer has specificity
Postmodernism
• The ideas and practices of environmental theatre
and performance art are related to
postmodernism
• Melded categories by:
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Breaching boundaries between the arts
Breaking down barriers between the spectator and performers
Remove distinctions between audience and performers
Ignoring the line between high and low culture
Blurring the distinctions between dramatic forms
Postmodernism
• Eclectic and referential
• Mingles elements from disparate styles, periods, or cultures into
a “pastiche”
• Treats text as cultural debris to be played with, recombined, or
skimmed
• Many of the aspects of postmodernism come together in the work
of Robert Wilson
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Borrows from several media, cultures, and historical periods
Creates essentially visual pieces
Time is an important element
According to Wilson, there is nothing to understand only things to
experience
Postmodern Influences on Interpretation
and Design
Modern View of Directing:
• The Director‟s task is to translate the playwright‟s script
literally from page to stage
Postmodern View of Directing:
• Since there can be no single “correct” interpretation of a text,
the Director may interpret the playwright‟s script as he/she
sees fit
The first view preferences the playwright while the
second view preferences the director.
What do YOU think?
1.
Are directors justified in reshaping a script to suit their
own vision even if it distorts the playwright‟s intentions?
Why or why not?
2.
What are the implications of demanding that directors
adhere to playwrights‟ notions about how their work
should be staged?
3.
Which model of the Playwright/Director relationship do
you prefer: Modern or Postmodern? Why?
Contemporary British Drama
• Many British playwrights have received international
recognition for their work
• Harold Pinter
• Won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005
• Tom Stoppard
• Combines verbal wit and hightly imaginative action with complex
ideas about perceptions of reality
• Caryl Churchill
• Her plays are a varied in form as they are in content
• Martin McDonagh
• His plays mix dark humor with violence and brutality
Contemporary Musical Theatre
• British imports dominated Broadway in the 1980s
• Factors have helped to revitalize the musical and Broadway
• Dynamic New Musicals
• Rent,
• Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk
• Urban renewal of the 42nd Street area
• Disney as a producer of Broadway shows
• Family-friendly fare with an enhanced image
• Musicals based on films, books, and pop music
• The Full Monty, Hairspray, Mama Mia, Wicked, etc.
• Original musicals with intriguing topics or conventions
• Avenue Q, The Drowsy Chaperone, In the Heights, etc.
The Next Wave of Contemporary American
Playwrights
• There are a number of new voices in American drama
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Richard Greenberg
Lynn Nottage
Tracy Letts
Naomi Iizuka
Tony Kushner
Quiara Alegría Hudes
Sarah Ruhl
As this chapter indicates, theatre has become quite diverse,
and transculturalism is becoming the new paradigm