Key Concepts in Modern and Postmodern Theatre & Philosophy

Existentialism

A set of philosophical ideas whose principle modern advocate was Jean-Paul Sartre. The term existentialist is applied to plays by Sartre and others that illustrate these views. Sartre's central thesis was that there are no fixed standards or values by which one can live, and that each individual must create their own code of conduct regardless of conventions imposed by society.

Absurdism

the portrayal of life as strange, chaotic, and often without clear meaning, using unconventional dramatic techniques to make audiences question reality and human existence.

The Theater of the Absurd

The term first used by Martin Esslin to describe the works of certain playwrights of the 1950s and 1960s who expressed a similar point of view regarding the absurdity of the human condition. In the theater of the absurd, rational language is debased and replaced by cliches and trite or irrelevant remarks. Realistic psychological motivation is replaced by automatic behavior and is often absurdly inappropriate to the situation. Although the subject matter is serious, the tone of these plays is usually comic and ironic.

High Modernism

A literary and theatrical movement that used experimental styles, fragmented structure, and symbolism to reflect the complexity and uncertainty of modern life. It broke away from traditional storytelling to explore themes like alienation, identity, and cultural change.

Metatheatre

Drawing attention to the artificiality of theatre, characters,

performance

Psychological/Postwar Realism in US

A post-World War II style of drama that focuses on realistic settings and deeply complex characters shaped by trauma, memory, and emotional conflict. It emphasizes internal psychology over action, often exploring themes like identity, disillusionment, and the effects of war and modern society on the individual.

Broadway & Off-Broadway Development

Broadway: Large professional productions in theaters with 500+ seats; high budgets, commercial focus, and major investors.

Off-Broadway: Smaller professional productions in theaters with 100-499 seats; lower budgets, more experimental and artistic freedom. Tests new works with audiences at lower financial risk before possible Broadway transfer.

Development Process: Shows usually begin with readings and workshops, move to Off-Off-Broadway or regional theaters, then Off-Broadway, and sometimes transfer to Broadway.

Examples: Hamilton, Rent, and Hadestown all developed Off-Broadway before Broadway success.

Cold War Containment

A U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War aimed at preventing the spread of communism by limiting Soviet influence, often reflected in American theater through themes of political tension, paranoia, and ideological conflict.

Fluxus

An art movement that crossed genres, emphasized performance outside the theatre, and blurred the lines between life and art, accident and intention, and incorporated audiences

Fluxkits

George Maciunas set up a mail- order business that sells kits for creating your own performances

Happenings

A form of theatrical event that developed out of experimentation by certain American abstract artists in the 1960s. Happenings are nonliterary, replacing the script with a scenario that provides for chance occurrences, and are performed (often only once) in such places as parks and street corners

Poor Theatre

Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his ideal of theatre stripped to its barest essentials. According to Grotowski, the lavish sets, lights, and costumes usually associated with theatre reflect only base, materialistic values and must be eliminated.

Via Negativa

A rehearsal and acting method that focuses on removing an actor's physical and emotional blocks rather than teaching specific techniques. The goal is to reveal a more truthful and authentic performance through self-discovery and discipline.

Environmental Theatre

Environmental Theater is based on the idea that the entire theater space is performance space, implying that the formal division between performers and spectators is artificial.

Minimalism

A style in theater and art that uses simple sets, limited props, and restrained performances to focus attention on essential ideas, emotions, or actions. It removes unnecessary details to create clarity and deeper meaning.

Modernism vs. Postmodernism

Modernist theater uses experimental techniques to search for meaning, truth, and order in a changing world, while Postmodern theater rejects fixed meanings and often mixes styles, uses irony, and breaks theatrical conventions to question reality and storytelling itself.

Auteur

Term borrowed from film to describe directors whose vision is so individual that they can be considered authors of the film.

Performance Art

An alternative form of theater that often uses elements of the visual arts, dance, and popular entertainment in unique configurations. Also, personal, individual, and autobiographical presentations, as well as one-person shows.

Apartheid in South Africa

A system of legalized racial segregation that heavily shaped South Africa. Restricted performance spaces, censorship, and casting, while also inspiring protest and resistance theatre that exposed injustice and gave voice to oppressed communities.

Truth and Reconciliation

A process in post-apartheid South Africa that addressed past human rights abuses through public testimony and storytelling. Often reflected in theatre by focusing on witnessing, confession, and healing through performance.

Theatre of Witnessing/Testimony

A form of theater, often in avant-garde or documentary traditions, where performers present real-life experiences or personal histories on stage. It focuses on truth-telling and bearing witness to trauma, injustice, or lived experience, rather than creating fictional stories.

Postmodernism

An intellectual movement that suggests a general distrust of objective truth, narratives, rationality, theories and definitions of art. Proponents argue that the division of artworks into modernist categories, such as realism and departures from realism, is artificial. Postmodernist works mix realistic and nonrealistic elements as well as techniques from both "high" and "low" art.

20th Century Developments in Design Technology

Advances in lighting, sound, set construction, and stage technology during the 1900s that allowed for more realistic and experimental staging, such as sophisticated sound design and mechanized sets in large-scale musicals like The Phantom of the Opera (falling of the chandelier) .

Scenography

The practice of designing all visual and spatial aspects of a performance—set, lighting, costumes, and stage space—to support meaning and atmosphere.

Megamusical

A large-scale commercial musical production characterized by spectacular staging, high production values, and mass appeal, often featuring memorable scores, elaborate effects, and long-running global success.

Immersive and Participatory Theatre

A form of performance where the audience is actively involved in the experience, often moving through the performance space or interacting with actors.

Applied Theatre

A specialized field that uses theatre as a medium for education and social change

Avant-Garde

A term applied to plays of an experimental or unorthodox nature that attempts to go beyond standard usage in form, content, or both.

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