chapter 12 modern theatre. western influence on world theatre spoken drama in spoken drama in india...
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 12Chapter 12
Modern TheatreModern Theatre
Western Influence on World Western Influence on World TheatreTheatre
Spoken Drama inSpoken Drama inIndiaIndiaChinaChinaJapanJapanThe Arab WorldThe Arab WorldPre-colonial AfricaPre-colonial Africa
The Advent of RealismThe Advent of RealismAntecedentsAntecedents
William Fox Talbot (1800-1877)William Fox Talbot (1800-1877) Invented the photographic negative around 1840Invented the photographic negative around 1840
Thomas Edison Thomas Edison Invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879Invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Wrote about evolution in The Origin of Species in 1859Wrote about evolution in The Origin of Species in 1859
Karl Marx (1818-1883)Karl Marx (1818-1883) Critiqued capitalism and other aspects of the Industrial Critiqued capitalism and other aspects of the Industrial
revolution in revolution in Das Kapital Das Kapital in 1867in 1867 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Wrote about the complexity of human psychology in Wrote about the complexity of human psychology in The The Interpretation of DreamsInterpretation of Dreams in 1900 in 1900
August Strindberg (1849-1912)August Strindberg (1849-1912) Problem playsProblem plays
Realism in the Modern Realism in the Modern TheatreTheatre
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Father of RealismFather of Realism A Doll’s HouseA Doll’s House (1879) (1879)
Anton Chekhov (1860-Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)1904) Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art Theatre The SeagullThe Seagull (1896) (1896)
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Importance of The Importance of
Being EarnestBeing Earnest (1895) (1895) George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950)(1856-1950) PygmalionPygmalion (1912) (1912)
Box Sets and Fourth WallsBox Sets and Fourth Walls Olympic Theatre in Olympic Theatre in
London London Oscar Wilde
Naturalism in the TheatreNaturalism in the Theatre
Emile Zola (1840-1902)Naturalism as a documentary of everyday life“Slice of life,” or photographic reality
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)The Lower Depths (1902)
André Antoine, (1858-1943)Theatre LibreComedies rosses
Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde Theatre
DefinitionTo be ahead of To experiment withTo break conventional expectationsTo explore new realities
Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde TheatreSymbolism/FuturismSymbolism/Futurism
Impressionism/ExpressionismImpressionism/Expressionism
Symbolism – emphasized the suggestive and metaphoric over the literal and real
Futurism – glorified power and speed of the Industrial revolution
Impressionism – emphasized the subjectivity of perception over that of objectivity
Expressionism – used subjective theatrical metaphors to create a sense of how a character experiences his or her subjective realityElmer Rice’s (1892-1967) The Adding Machine
(1923)Eugene O’Neill’s (1888-1953) The Hairy Ape (1922)
Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde TheatreDadaism and SurrealismDadaism and Surrealism
Dadaism – made us of sound poems and nonliteral images to underscore the madness of their perception of the reality of World War I
Surrealism – sought to portray the fantastic images associated with the unconscious mind as a way by which to reveal deeper realitiesTheatre of Cruelty
Antonin Artuad (1896-1948) The Theatre and Its Double (1938)
Avant-Garde TheatreAvant-Garde TheatreAbsurdismAbsurdism
AbsurdismFatalist
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)Waiting for Godot (1953) Endgame (1957)
ExistentialistJean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980)
No Exit (1943)Hilarious
Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994)The Bald Soprano (1949)Rhinoceros (1959)
Avant-Garde TheatreAvant-Garde TheatreEpic TheatreEpic Theatre
Epic TheatreBertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Emphasis on the underlining causes for a story rather than the story itself
Alienation effect – distancing the audience from theatrical illusion so they can analyze and discuss the reasons for what is happening to the characters on the stage
Understands that all art is fundamentally political and that the artist and his audience share responsibility for that fact of life
The Three Penny Opera (1928) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1941)
American Theatre 1945- 1960American Theatre 1945- 1960 Arthur Miller (1915-2005)Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
Death of a SalesmanDeath of a Salesman (1949) (1949) Mixes Realism with Mixes Realism with
ExpressionismExpressionism Tennessee Williams (1911-Tennessee Williams (1911-
1983)1983) The Glass MenagerieThe Glass Menagerie (1945) (1945)
Poetic realismPoetic realism Lorraine Hansberry (1930-Lorraine Hansberry (1930-
1965)1965) A Raisin in the SunA Raisin in the Sun (1959) (1959)
Employs Realism to Employs Realism to dramatize the plight of an dramatize the plight of an African-American family in African-American family in Chicago in the 1950sChicago in the 1950s
American Theatre in the American Theatre in the 1960s1960s
Little Theatre Movement Subscription audience based theatres that permitted
American to see example of the “new stagecraft” artists from Europe and America
Off-Broadway Staged noncommercial productions of artistically
important plays in small theatres Off-off-Broadway
Staged noncommercial productions that are often experimental in theatres of 99 seats or less
Happenings Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) and the Polish Lab Theatre
Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Regional TheatreRegional Theatre
Alley Theatre in HoustonFirst permanent professional regional theatre
in the U.S. founded in 1947 by Margo Jones
Others include:Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.Guthrie Theatre in MinneapolisActors Theatre of LouisvilleMark Taper Forum in Los AnglesAlliance Theatre in Atlanta
Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Performance ArtPerformance Art
Characteristics mixes theatre, visual arts, music, dance, gesture and
ritualRejects traditional elements of drama such as plot,
dialogue, characters and settingMost interested in conveying a state of being
Examples of Performance Artists include:Laurie AndersonTim Miller
Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Political and Cultural TheatrePolitical and Cultural Theatre
David Henry Hwang (b. 1957)David Henry Hwang (b. 1957) M. ButterflyM. Butterfly (1988) (1988)
Caryl Churchill (b. 1938)Caryl Churchill (b. 1938) Cloud NineCloud Nine (1979) and (1979) and Top GirlsTop Girls (1982) (1982)
David MametDavid Mamet Glengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen Ross (1984) and (1984) and OleannaOleanna (1992) (1992)
August Wilson (1945-2005)August Wilson (1945-2005) Ma Rainey’s Black BottomMa Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) to (1984) to Golf Golf (2005)(2005)
Sam Shepard (b. 1943)Sam Shepard (b. 1943) Buried ChildBuried Child (1978) and (1978) and Fool for LoveFool for Love (1982) (1982)
Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Recent Nobel Prize Winning Recent Nobel Prize Winning
PlaywrightsPlaywrights
Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)Dario Fo (Italy)Dario Fo (Italy)Goa Xingjian (China)Goa Xingjian (China)Harold Pinter (England)Harold Pinter (England)