Chapter 6: Theatre in the 1800s

Romantic truth

The belief that the less a thing deviates from its natural state, the more truthful it is.

Neoclassical rules challenge

Shakespeare's plays became the primary argument for ignoring neoclassical rules.

Melodrama (literal meaning)

"Music drama"

Poetic justice

A melodrama plot pattern where the good are rewarded and the evil are punished.

Melodrama character type

Stereotyped characters, specifically categorized as either Good or Evil.

Equestrian melodrama

A melodrama that featured live horses on stage.

Aquatic melodrama

A melodrama that featured water tanks on stage.

Panoramas

Long cloths on which continuous scenes were painted, rigged on spools to move.

Monte Cristo plot pattern

Goodness is victimized, evil triumphs temporarily, evil is punished, and goodness is vindicated.

Monte Cristo character categories

Good, evil, and functional.

Gas table

A central valve location controlling all gas lines to brighten or dim stage lights.

Limelight

A bright spotlight created by heating calcium with compressed hydrogen, oxygen, and gas.

Darwinian influence on theatre

The view of heredity and environment as the primary causes of human behavior.

Superego (Freud)

An interior, subconscious censor or judge developed through socialization.

Realist truth

Knowledge that can be verified through the five senses.

Founder of modern drama

Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House controversy

It was considered controversial because it seemed like an attack on the family.

Box set

A set enclosing the acting space on three sides like a room's walls.

Emile Zola

The chief advocate of Naturalism in the theatre.

Slice of life

A segment of reality transferred directly to the stage, championed by Naturalists.

Richard Wagner's ideal

A "master artwork" created through the fusion of all the arts.

First director to darken the house

Richard Wagner

Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

Considered the first director in the modern sense.

Independent Theatre Movement loophole

Private performances for members only were exempt from government censorship.

The Stanislavsky System

The most pervasive influence on 20th-century acting.

The "Magic If"

A Stanislavsky acting technique used to imagine a character's response to situations.

Symbolism (theatre)

The first artistic movement to reject representationalism.

Symbolist truth

Truth that cannot be discovered by the senses and must be intuited.

Scrim

A gauze curtain representing mist or a timeless void in Symbolist staging.

English Aestheticism

The belief that art's only functions are to intensify experience and provide pleasure.

Art for Art's Sake slogan

"Life imitates Art"

The Importance of Being Earnest author

Oscar Wilde