Chapter 12 Modern Theatre Western Influence on

Chapter 12 Modern Theatre

Western Influence on World Theatre l Spoken Drama in l India l China l Japan l The Arab World l Pre-colonial Africa

The Advent of Realism Antecedents l l l William Fox Talbot (1800 -1877) l Invented the photographic negative around 1840 Thomas Edison l Invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879 Charles Darwin (1809 -1882) l Wrote about evolution in The Origin of Species in 1859 Karl Marx (1818 -1883) l Critiqued capitalism and other aspects of the Industrial revolution in Das Kapital in 1867 Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) l Wrote about the complexity of human psychology in The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 August Strindberg (1849 -1912) l Problem plays

Realism in the Modern Theatre Henrik Ibsen (1828 -1906) l Father of Realism l A Doll’s House (1879) l Anton Chekhov (1860 -1904) l Moscow Art Theatre l The Seagull (1896) l Oscar Wilde (1854 -1900) l l The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) George Bernard Shaw (18561950) l Pygmalion (1912) l Box Sets and Fourth Walls l Olympic Theatre in London l Oscar Wilde

Naturalism in the Theatre l Emile Zola (1840 -1902) Naturalism as a documentary of everyday life l “Slice of life, ” or photographic reality l l Maxim Gorky (1868 -1936) l l The Lower Depths (1902) André Antoine, (1858 -1943) Theatre Libre l Comedies rosses l

Avant-garde Theatre l Definition l To be ahead of l To experiment with l To break conventional expectations l To explore new realities

Avant-garde Theatre Symbolism/Futurism Impressionism/Expressionism Symbolism – emphasized the suggestive and metaphoric over the literal and real l Futurism – glorified power and speed of the Industrial revolution l Impressionism – emphasized the subjectivity of perception over that of objectivity l Expressionism – used subjective theatrical metaphors to create a sense of how a character experiences his or her subjective reality l l l Elmer Rice’s (1892 -1967) The Adding Machine (1923) Eugene O’Neill’s (1888 -1953) The Hairy Ape (1922)

Avant-garde Theatre Dadaism 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 l Surrealism – sought to portray the fantastic images associated with the unconscious mind as a way by which to reveal deeper realities l l Theatre of Cruelty l Antonin Artuad (1896 -1948) l Theatre and Its Double (1938)

Avant-Garde Theatre Absurdism l. Fatalist l. Samuel Beckett (1906 -1989) l Waiting for Godot (1953) l Endgame (1957) l. Existentialist l. Jean-Paul Sarte (1905 -1980) l No Exit (1943) l. Hilarious l. Eugene Ionesco (1912 -1994) l The Bald Soprano (1949) l Rhinoceros (1959)

Avant-Garde Theatre Epic Theatre l Bertolt Brecht (1898 -1956) l Emphasis on the underlining causes for a story rather than the story itself l 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 l Understands that all art is fundamentally political and that the artist and his audience share responsibility for that fact of life l The Three Penny Opera (1928) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1941)

American Theatre 1945 - 1960 l Arthur Miller (1915 -2005) l Death of a Salesman (1949) l l Tennessee Williams (1911 -1983) l The Glass Menagerie (1945) l l Mixes Realism with Expressionism Poetic realism Lorraine Hansberry (1930 -1965) l A Raisin in the Sun (1959) l Employs Realism to dramatize the plight of an African-American family in Chicago in the 1950 s

American Theatre in the 1960 s l Little Theatre Movement l l Off-Broadway l l Staged noncommercial productions of artistically important plays in small theatres Off-off-Broadway l l Subscription audience based theatres that permitted American to see example of the “new stagecraft” artists from Europe and America Staged noncommercial productions that are often experimental in theatres of 99 seats or less Happenings l Jerzy Grotowski (1933 -1999) and the Polish Lab Theatre

Contemporary Theatre: Regional Theatre l Alley Theatre in Houston l l First permanent professional regional theatre in the U. S. founded in 1947 by Margo Jones Others include: Arena Theatre in Washington, D. C. l Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis l Actors Theatre of Louisville l Mark Taper Forum in Los Angles l Alliance Theatre in Atlanta l

Contemporary Theatre: Performance Art l Characteristics l mixes theatre, visual arts, music, dance, gesture and ritual l Rejects traditional elements of drama such as plot, dialogue, characters and setting l Most interested in conveying a state of being l Examples of Performance Artists include: Laurie Anderson l Tim Miller l

Contemporary Theatre: Political and Cultural Theatre l David Henry Hwang (b. 1957) l l Caryl Churchill (b. 1938) l l Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Oleanna (1992) August Wilson (1945 -2005) l l Cloud Nine (1979) and Top Girls (1982) David Mamet l l M. Butterfly (1988) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) to Golf (2005) Sam Shepard (b. 1943) l Buried Child (1978) and Fool for Love (1982)

Contemporary Theatre: Recent Nobel Prize Winning Playwrights l Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) l Dario Fo (Italy) l Goa Xingjian (China) l Harold Pinter (England)