Theatre History II Module 8 - Experimental Theatre

What were happenings? 

• Nonstructured, minimal planning and organization

• Taking art to different settings beyond museums, galleries, concert halls -> art can happen anywhere

• Ephemeral; i.e. often taking place only once

What is multimedia performance?  

• Joining of theatre with dance, film, television, digital media

• Interaction of performers with media

Who was Joseph Svoboda?

Czechoslovakian designer, notable for early experimentation with projections, multimedia, moveable platforms, and new materials (including plastics)

What are kinetics? 

Because play exists only in performance, its setting must be dynamics changing throughout the performance to meet the demands of the text

What is laterna magica? 

Experimentation with complex integrations of performers and projected images -> Actors = part of film / film = part of action

What is the polekran?

multiscreen; i.e multiple screens at multiple angles and heights

What is the diapolekran?

Whole walls of small, square screen make up a composite image -> presenting a unified image, cubist images, or collage

Who was Jerzy Grotowski?

Polish director and theorist

By whom was Grotowski influenced?

By Stanislavski, Meyerhold, and Berliner Ensemble’s production of Mother Courage

What is poor theatre?

• Focus on actor and audience as most essential elements of theatre, with diminished importance of script, scenery, and other elements

• Experimentation with various spatial arrangements to connect actors with spectators (while still maintaining that barrier)

• Frequent modification of existing scripts

• Externally based acting with emphasis on control of body and voice (rather than inner emotions)

What are patatheatricals?

Participation in rituals of daily life to rediscover origins of theatre -> closer to religious practice/therapy than theatre

When and by whom was the term “environmental theatre” coined?

Richard Schechner

By whom is environmental theatre influenced?

Rooted in earlier work of Vsevold Meyerhold and Antonin Artaud, with primary influence of Jerzy Grotowski

What is environmental theatre?

• Entire theatre space = performance space -> pointing to artificiality of formal division between actors and audience

• Different spatial arrangements for each production

• Improvisation and re-working of text

Who was Jean-Louis Barraut?

Eclectic French director and actor, notable for Artaudian and environmental staging techniques

Who was Giorgio Strehler? 

Eclectic Italian director able productions of classical and contemporary plays -> over 200 productions including, dramas, comedies, and opera

Who was Franco Zeffereli?

Eclectic Italian director and producer in film, theatre, and opera

Who is Peter Brook?

Eclectic English producer-director

By whom is Brook influenced?

Artaud’s theatre of Cruelty, Meyerhold, and Grotowski

By whom was the Living Theater founded?

Founded 1947 by Julian Beck (1925-1985) and Judith Malina (1926-2015)

What was the Living Theater?

Avant-garde company of the 1950s and 1960s influenced by Artaud

By whom was the Open Theater founded?

Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003), Peter Feldman, Sam Shepard, and Megan Terry (B. 1932)

When was Open Theatre founded?

1963

By whom was Open Theatre influenced? 

Influenced by Grotowski’s “poor theatre:” actors wearing rehearsal clothes, no makeup, limited props, large open spaces

How was Open Theatre’s work different from Jerzy Grotowski?

• Close work with playwrights

• Playwright: outline, scenes, situations, motifs

• Actors: exploration through improv, metaphorical associations

• Playwright: selection and sharpening

Who was Ellen Stewart?

Originally fashion and millinery designer

Who was Joseph Papp?

Off-Broadway producer and director

What are the two organizations Papp founded and when?

• 1954: New York Shakespeare Festival

• 1967: New York Public Theatre

• 1973: failed running of Lincoln Center introduction of numerous playwrights including David Rabe

What is the purpose of postmodernism? 

Postmodernism: questioning of position of power and privilege in art and the idea of a canon of classics

What is postmodernism in theatre? 

in theatre: mixing of realism with abstraction, popular concerns, and high art imagery and techniques from popular culture

What was the Performance Group? 

Known for environmental stagings including Dionysus in ’69 (1969), The Tooth of Crime (1973), Mother Courage (1975), The Balcony (1979)

Out of what group was the Wooster Group formed? 

Performing Garage

By whom was The Wooster Group formed?

Elizabeth LeCompte (1944-?)

By whom was Mabou Mines founded?

Lee Breuer (1937-2021) and Ruth Maleczech (1939-2013)

Who is Richard Foreman? 

American avant-garde director who is Autobiographical and self-reflexive, with a focus on inability to communicate through language and repetition of theatrical devices, including voiceovers, exaggerated physical and vocal techniques, visual elements

Who is Robert Wilson?  

American director who is known for long, epic productions evolving around intensely theatrical images and a combination of opera, theatre, and visual art -> theatrical collage

Who is Des McAnuff? 

American-Canadian director who in 1978: founding of Dodger Productions, worked first at BAM then Public, and in 1982 has part in the revival of La Jolla Playhouse, later on was the artistic director of Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Who is Peter Sellars?

American director who is primarily known for opera work

Who is Anne Bogart? 

American Director

What is the name of the institute Bogart founded?

Saratoga International Theatre Institute (SITI)

With whom did Bogart found SITI?

Tadashi Suzuki

What is the name of the technique Bogart founded with Tina Landau? 

Development of Viewpoints

On whose ideas is Development of Viewpoints based?

Merce Cunningham and Jerzy Grotowski

What is the Development of Viewpoints technique?

division of acting into space (subdivided into 5 segments), time (subdivided into 4 segments), shape, movement, story, and emotion