History of Theater and Drama 2 Final

Realism

Shows life as it is, dramatizes psychological truth.

Melodrama

Mixed music (melos) and spectacle with spoken dialogue to tell simple, emotionally touching, and morally uplifting stories.

Brechtian

Aims to provoke critical thinking rather than emotional immersion. This style uses techniques to remind the audience that they are watching a performance, not a realistic event, and encourages them to analyze social and political issues.

Expressionism

An outward expression of the internal life of a central figure.

(Modern, urban, non-realist setting)

Epic Theater

Invented by Brecht, in which major social issues are dramatized with outlandish props and jarring dialogue and effects, all designed to alienate middle-class audiences and force them to think seriously about the problems raised in the plays.

(Context through banners, title cards, and projections)

The Group Theater (1931-1941)

Ensemble theater with social consciousness.

Stanislavski to America through Strasberg's adaptation: Method Acting.

(Lee Strasberg)

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)

Author of "A Streetcar Named Desire".

A Streetcar Named Desire

Plastic Theater play.

Plastic Theater

A non-realistic theatrical style that uses expressive stage elements to convey a play's emotional truth rather than literal reality.

Expresses inner psychological states of characters' memories, desires, fears, and subjective experiences.

(Came from Realism and Expressionism)

Tragic Hero

A "noble" protagonist with a fatal flaw, which eventually leads to their demise. (MacBeth)

American Tragic Hero

An ordinary person destroyed by their refusal to surrender personal dignity within an unjust social system. (John Proctor)

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

Author of "A Raisin in the Sun".

A Raisin in the Sun

Realism and Melodrama play

Used to argue against the current representation of black people in plays (caricatures), by writing in the very same form.

Adrienne Kennedy (b. 1931)

Experimental writer, racism in the United States.

Grew up in integrated Cleveland, OH suburb.

Civil Rights Era (1954-68)

Started with Brown v. Board (1954)

A pivotal period in the U.S. focused on ending legal racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement, primarily for African Americans.

Black Arts Movement

Artistic wing of Black Power movement; building on the artistic legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.

Symbolic beginning: assassination of Malcolm X in 1965.

Amiri Baraka

Author of "The Dutchman".

Black Arts Movement Figures

James Baldwin, Ntozake Shange, June Jordan, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Chicano Movement

The goal was to fight discrimination and demand social, political, educational, and economic equality for Mexican Americans, while also reclaiming cultural identity and pride.

Delano Grape Strike (Sept 1965)

Spark of farmworkers' rights movement and reigniting union organizing.

Dolores Huerta & Cesar Chavez

Political activists, leaders of the United Farm Workers of America.

Luis Valdez

Founder of El Teatro Campesino.

Author of "Zoot Suit" + "Los Vendidos"

Center Theater Group

Prominent nonprofit theater organization in LA, Zoot Suit performed here.

Actos

Short, satirical plays about the oppression of farmworkers.

Designed to strengthen and bring people into the movement.

María Irene Fornés (1930-2018)

Author of "Fefu and Her Friends".

"I show the women as I see them, and if it is different from the way they'vebeen seen before, it's because that's how I see them".

Fefu and Her Friends

Realism and Brechtian play.

1960s & 70s Downtown Experimental Theater

Little money, sweat equity, and highlevels of experimentation: theater, dance, and, newly, performance art.

Allan Kaprow and Happenings.

Theaters 60's-70's

La Mama Experimental Theater, Caffe Cino, Judson Poets Theater, The Open Theater, Living Theater.

The rule of the stone

Its bright upper side is matched, indeed virtually overwhelmed, by the parallel underside hidden from view.

First Wave Feminism (1848-1920)

Concerned with Suffrage and the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Second Wave Feminism (1960-1970)

Women's rights; feminist consciousness-raising, broadly defining patriarchy as a system that impacts women's lives, connected to the Civil Rights movement.

Third Wave Feminism (1980-1990)

Theoretical rather than legislative; many different lines of thought, including gender performativity, intersectionality, sex positivity, and women in the workplace.

Third Wave Thinkers

Judith Butler, Anita Hill, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Andrea Dworkin

Split Britches

A lesbian theatre company known for its drag performances and satirical use of classical literature.

(Lois and Peggy)

WOW Café Theater

A crucial space for experimental theater created by and for women, especially lesbians and queer artists who were largely excluded from mainstream stages.

(Split Britches)

Hot Peaches

Multigender, political drag theater group that toured internationally in the 1970s. (Peggy Shaw)

Spiderwoman Theater

Longest continuous running Native female performance group. Storyweaving form, including poetry, dance, and song.

Gay Liberation Movement

Protests/uprisings led by queer & transpeople of color against police violence and gendered clothing supervision.

Stonewall Uprising (1969)

AIDS Epidemic (80's)

Entire queer community, women, intravenous drug users, and hemophiliacs. Minimal news coverage or acknowledgement by the Reagan administration.

AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Tony Kushner

Author of "Angels in America"

Angels in America

Realism, Expressionism, and Brechtian play

Ty Defoe

Citizen of the Oneida and the Ashinaabe Nations. Writer, interdisciplinary artist, and musician.

Kent Monkman

Cree artist and member of the Fisher River Nation. Works in painting, installation, performance, film/video, and writing. (Miss Chief)

The 1491s

Intertribal Indigenous sketch comedy troupe.

Emily Johnson (Catalyst Dance)

Member of the Yup'ik Nation. Formed large-scale performance gatherings: choreography, community organizing, and writing.

Larissa FastHorse

Author of "The Thanksgiving Play"

The Thanksgiving Play

Situational irony, Native Theater

Dramatic Irony

The audience knows everything, some characters know a lot, and others very little.

Situational Irony

Something happening that is very different from what we expected. (a fire station burningdown)

Satire

Uses humor for constructive social criticism.

Lola Arias

Author of "My Life After"

My Life After

Performers all born during the Argentine dictatorship, recreating the stories of their parents.

Arias works with performers to develop a script that blends fiction and fact.

Documentary Theater

Using interviews, news articles, documents, photographs, etc. - a projectof curation.