Theatre History II Final

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Friedrich Schiller spearheaded which German theater?

Hamburg National Theatre

Which of the following works is an example of a Weimar classicism verse drama?

Mary Stuart

Which European aesthetic movement prized the subjectivity of genius, looked to nature for inspiration, elevated strong emotions above reasonable restraint, and often sought to embody universal conflicts within individual figures?

Romanticism

Which Russian playwright wrote stories for and about the Russian middle class?

Alexander Ostrovsky

Which Italian composer wrote La battaglia di Legnano (1849), a symbol of Italian nationalism?

Giuseppe Verdi

Why was melodrama newly popular among bourgeoise audiences in France after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars?

- Once popular Sentimental plays began to seem unrealistic. The nature of sentimental plays was to give sympathy and deep feelings to those who are considered worthy, stark difference to the seriousness of melodrama.

- Melodrama follows a good vs. bad structure -> more realistic to the bourgeoise.

Why were nationalistic examples of theatre that prioritized the bourgeoise seldom performed in Russia until the 1860s?

- Until the 1860s was a place specifically catered to aristocrats rather than the bourgeoise.

- Ruling of Alexander I, theatre was censored and banned or edited any plays that showed bourgeois values -> subversive to tsar.

- The abolishment of the serfdom system in 1861 was also instrumental.

What is antiquarianism? How did British theatre makers utilize it to emphasize the perceived grandiosity of their national history?

- The practice of using historically accurate scenery, props, and costumes to

reflect the time period being portrayed.

- People like Charles Kemble, William Macready, and Charles Kean used authentic medieval dress and decor

- Made the past appear more dignified, monumental, and majestic.

- Made the locations of the British Empire look "exotic" -> Britain is culturally advanced

What is "gesamtkunstwerk?" Who introduced it at the Bayreuth Festival? How did it impact the audience's engagement with the opera?

- When one person unifies all artistic elements into one vision.

- Introduced by Richard Wagner, who wanted control in all the aspects of his own work.

- Changed the way audiences experienced the opera by having all the arts in agreement and created a seamless environment.

- Shifted the attention of the audience, which all the audience facing the stage rather than each other.

- The orchestra and conductors were hidden, and the boxes were done away with.

- Allowed for the audience to full engage with the material showed in front of them.

How did Richard Wagner's longtime patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, utilize symbols and figures from Wagner's operas in his architecture and castle design to inextricably link the theatrical image of Wagner with Bavaria?

- Castles built by King Ludwig II in Bavaria were built as physical embodiments of

Wagnerian myths.

- The Neuschwanstein Castle has murals depicting scenes from Wagner's operas Tannhauser and Parsifal.

- The Venus Grotto is a direct replica of the Venusberg scene from Tannhauser.

- Ludwig made Wagner's fictional universe physically present in Bavarian landscapes, forever a part of it's history. Bavaria became inseparable from the myth of Wagnerian operas.

How did the World Fair's of the 19th Century utilize performance in global village expositions and demonstrations to reinforce imperialistic attitudes?

- Showed off villages and cultures of people like zoos.

-Poorly paid and housed, and so they had complete control over them.

- Solidified the idea of the "other" being outside countries.

Three reasons why Indian theatre has a distinctly different response to imperialism and orientalism despite its' emergence under British colonial rule.

1. Rise in print culture

2. European's fasination with Sanskirt

3. Included various Indian language an narrative

What forms of popular entertainment were available to the lower and working-class British audiences in the 19th and early 20th centuries?

- Music halls available, which were specific towards men. They made fun of politics and used physicality.

- Burlesque was one to satirize high art that they would go to

Which American form of variety theatre was marketed as being for families as opposed to mostly working-class men?

Vaudeville was the most family friendly of the variety shows.

Why was the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan banned for a period of time in Japan?

- It had yellow face and used Chinese names instead of Japanese names.

- A major plot of the story relates to how the main characters thwart the Mikado (The main fellow in power), which was offensive to the Emperor.

What is symbolism? What theatrical elements are signature of symbolist stage plays?

- An avant-garde movement that rejected naturalism in order to give form to the

spiritual realities that shape fate.

- Signatures: ominous silences, eerie sounds, and abstract non-realistic settings.

-The most success was of one-act plays and staged readings.

How did the Follies utilize the commercialization of glamour to sell the American public Florenz Ziegfeld's specific brand of femininity?

- Follies relied on lavish costumes and sets which upped the scale of the productions.

- Many photographs taken of the style, popularized the style of the shows (slit skirts, looser corsets, lower necklines, and simpler lingerie) all of which show off the body.

- Glamour of these costumes were seen as high fashion, luxary and was something to aspire to be able to afford.

There are two different types of "native plays" of the Harlem Renaissance. What are the two types and how can they be distinguished from one another? List an example of each.

- Race/Propaganda plays are set in urban North and deal with the issues for African Americans in that area and their

lifestyle. They also tended to push more and be more proactive on equality for African Americans. For example, Mary Burial's Aftermath

- Folk plays are set in a rural Southern setting and deals with the issues for African Americans in that area and their lifestyle. For instance, Georgia Douglas Johnson's A Sunday Morning in the South.

Two ways in which operetta differs from musical comedies.

1. Operettas introduce the "Will they/won't they" in which there is a possibility of the

couple not getting together. Musical comedies, although were rather predictable and would often end in a happy couple.

2. Differ in style and tone as well. Operettas tend to lean into more romantic tones with

a wittier sense of humor. Musical comedies tend towards lighter themes; songs emphasize emotion and is highly influenced by what is popular in Tin Valley.

Anton Chekov's play, The Cherry Orchard can be interpreted as a comedy or a tragedy. If you were directing the play, which genre would you perceive it as based on your reading of the play?

I perceive it as a tragedy.

- Portrays the destruction of a way of life and home. Through the loss of the orchard they have lost their home and the life it provides.

-Depicting the march of time as, even as they waited out selling the orchard, the day eventually came that they had to sell it.

-Ending in sadness, which is a tragedy ideal.

-Easy to understand and sympathize with the characters, giving them a choice that could happen to anyone rather than anything absurd and funny.

Why did Edward Gordon Craig propose the use of Übermarionettes?

Wanted to use Übermarionettes to make the characters more effective because they would be easier to control and be more effective in conveying and evoking spiritual realities.

Which avant-garde movement rejected symbolism due to it's "empty mysticism?"

Aestheticism

Which artists toured musical plays in the late 19th century that commented on the plight of slavery and Emancipation without the trappings of minstrelsy?

Anna Madah & Emma Hayers

Copyright protections for performance rights were ____

NOT widespread by 1870.

Songs in musical comedies of the early 20th century were _____

NOT used to move the plot

forward.

Which Russian stage director was celebrated in the 1920s for his use of Constructivism, but was later tortured and executed under Stalin's regime?

Vsevolod Meyerhold

Which director referred to his plays as "documentary montages?"

Erwin Piscator

The Indian People's Theatre (IPTA) ___

Did NOT grow stronger after Indian & Pakistani independence from

Britain in 1947.

Theatrical modernism centered _____

The voice of the playwright over the voice of the director and/or

actor.

What is "verfremdungseffekt" and how did it manifest itself on Brecht's stages?

- Brecht's concept of providing some distance between the audience by making familiar events appear unusual which allowed the audience to react rationally about the play rather than react emotionally.

- Often break the fourth wall -> actors to speak directly to the audience.

- Avoid characters that the audiences could connect with -> separated the

audience emotionally.

- Split characters into two so that there would be more contradictions for the

audience to be challenged by

What are two ways in which theatrical modernism differs from the second wave avant-garde movements?

1. Modernism was heavily reliant on voice and language, whereas second wave avant-garde movements strove the break free of theatrical realism and some forms did not even use text.

2. Modernism saw themselves as a part of a revolutionary cultural transformation whereas second wave avant-garde movements saw art as a general basis for a utopian society rather than being a transformation

2 "Second wave" avant-garde movements:

-Major tenets

-Founding members

-Legacy

1. Surrealism (Emphasized spontaneity, shock effects, and psychological imagery based in dreams.)

- Manifesto by the Andre Robert Breton (light on politics and heavy on the Freudian belief that art could reveal deeper truths by accessing the subconscious mind.)

- Antonin Artaud, who got kicked from

Breton's group in 1926 inspired Antonin to create Theatre of Cruelty, which would "break through language." And out of it came "Pour En Finir Avec Le Jugement De Dieu."

2. Futurism (condemned the art of the past, focusing on the use of machines and technology, reflecting the realities of the modern world).

- Manifesto by F.T. Marinetti and he would put out short plays known as sintesi (short experimental plays meant to emphasize speed and surprise.

- Led Vladimir Mayakovsky to attempt to align futurism with the Soviet Revolution.

How did playwright Rabindranath Tagore use traditional forms and modern (within his own time) ideas in Chitra to explore themes of love, sacrifice, and identity?

- Written in 1892 and the definition of "beauty" and what it meant to not be beautiful is very different to what it is today. In this age, in India, the ideas of beauty were strongly connected to the traditional female. (Delicate)

- Chitra not beautiful in the eyes of society and not desirable for marriage.

-Opposes the typical of what love is, by saying that you do not need to be "beautiful" on the outside to be desirable and loveable.

-Questions whether love is physical or personal.

- Chitra sacrifices her true self in order to fit into a society that is less accepting of her.

- End she does not need to fit in anymore, questioning what it means to be beautiful.

What was Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty? How did it de-center the idea of the "theatrical master?

- Textless theatre that would assault the senses, focusing on music, and dance developed by Antonin Artaud.

- Physical expression rather than dialogue.

- Centered around the playwright, in which the scripts push along the action however Theatre of Cruelty said away with the book and away with the playwright's script.

- Focused on sound, lighting, visuals, and no text.

Which Group Theatre member introduced an acting method that married the personality of the actor to the character they played through psychological techniques of extreme empathy?

Lee Strasberg

Which Japanese form of dance-drama from the 1950s employed grotesque gestures, slow movement, and all-white body makeup?

Butoh

Which playwright wrote dark comedies featuring pauses and specific rhythmic patterns?

Harold Pinter

Psychological realism is a style most closely associated with which director?

Elia Kazan

What is Theatre of the Absurd? How can the term lead to generalizations and misunderstandings of postmodern plays?

- A disparate collection of works, plays, by independent writers, unaware of others and what they are doing.

- Responds to the horrors of WWII and rejects the world of rationality.

- Often misunderstood this as an avant-garde organized movement, creating the idea that all plays from theatre of the absurd are the same.

- Word absurd itself creates the idea that these plays have no meaning which is often untrue.

In Beckett's play Not I, how does the playwright explore the idea of "an apparent meaninglessness to existence?"

- Apparent meaninglessness of existence through its staging and nonlinear plot structure.

- Staging a singular mouth, floating in a sea of darkness. Nothing to focus on but the pressing existence of this mouth.

- Mouth is a character without a body, creating sense of incompletion, meaningless.

- Mouth tells a story in a rapid pace, a story about an old woman who went through a traumatic experience. So disjointed that you cannot even understand. It feels disordered but it is actually carefully structured with repetition, rhythm and recurring patterns.

- To an audience that does not like to look deeper it would appear to have no meaning or purpose, but look deeper and you find exactly what human experience it actually tells.

After WWII, how did Germany rebuild their national theaters?

- Germany was split in two, East Germany and West Germany. 1945 Germany's national

theatre grew back slower than theatres around the country.

- The Berliner Ensemble was the only German theatre that had an international reputation until around the mid 1950s and was the most influential socialist theatre postwar in Germany. Founded in 1949 in East Berlin. Inspired many Eastern European playwrights, and directors.

- In 1960 the documentary-style playwriting

grew out of inspiration from Germany's history. East Germany theatre was shaped by socialist ideology, and West Germany theatre was supported by local governments.

Why was Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, revolutionary when it opened on Broadway in 1959?

- First black woman playwright to have a Broadway-produced play, when at the time the American theatre industry was primarily white.

- Appearing on Broadway -> reach a broader audience, presenting a view that was not typical of Broadway's white audience.

- Focuses on a black family, presenting them as multidimensional characters, with dreams, values, and morals. Often in this time black characters had been reduced to stereotypes.

- Addresses segregation directly.

- The director, Lloyd Richards, first black director on Broadway to lead a

major production such as this.

- Both of their first-time accomplishments.

How did Jo Mielziner utilize scenic design elements to highlight memory passages in Williams's The Glass Menagerie?

- The Glass Menagerie, designed by Jo Mielziner, used scrims with lighting in order to see the actor's silhouette through gauzy haze when lit from behind.

- Subtle veil that reinforces that everything we see is from a memory rather than in the moment.

-Separates the real world from a vague memory of the world.

-Creates a softened image, rather than being direct.

- Allowed for better scenic transitions to flow smoother as the scrim could become solid when lit from front.

Out of all the protest & alternative theatre of the 1960s, which do you think has had the most lasting impact on contemporary American theatre and why?

The BTM (Black Theatre Movement)

-Aligned with the Black Power Movement, where today it is a far-reaching social movement known as Black Lives

Matter.

-Aimed to create works for and by African Americans and strived to challenge the dominance of the mostly white narratives.

-Allowed for African American audiences to the past, much more accurately.

-Reshaped what stories were considered worthy to be told and allowed stories written, directed, and acted by

African Americans to have a wider mainstream reach.

-Theatre movements shaped by BTM: New Black Fest, East West Players, an Asian American Movement, and El Teataro Campesino

What new stylistic differences did actors embrace in the 18th century? What influences shaped their desire to place greater emphasis on what's seen as opposed to what's heard?

Actors embrace emotion, gestures (poses and facial expressions) over verbal performance, focusing on how we feel and how we reach physically. Due to rise in print culture, separating theatre from the written press.

What did David Garrick's popular portraiture and mezzo-tints position him as England's national model or the Lockean "sincere, natural, and virtuous" man?

Seen as a virtuous man due to wide-spread of this image of his Shakespeare role him in fancy clothes and empasizing his sincerity, verbosity, and vulnerability appealing to the image of him being more sincere.

How did Denis Diderot believe actors should be trained in his text "The Paradox of the Actor"?

Actors should enact the illusion of the character rather than be, feel or embody, the character. A degree of separation.

Why was Sentimentl drama popular aong the bourgeoisue in western Europe?

Emphasized idea to feel emotion for those worthy of it. Those "worthy" were the bourgeoisue (installing their own values).

What are two countries in which censorship occurred by the way of government? Why was theatre suppressed and how did the government go about it?

1. Uk/London: Didn't want plays to oppose the government (such as The Beggar's opera), All plays go through the Censor as said in Liscensing Act 1773.

2. Japan: Didn't want classes mingling, banned plays that included real people or events. Targetted Kabuki and Samuri who would see it.

Which year serves as the dividing line between the more complacent "Fifties" and the radical "Sixties"?

1968

Agit-prop groups who staged cartoon-like skits at rallies and elsewhere to protest the Vietnam War performed _____ theatre.

Guerilla

____ challenged the power of artistic production and how and where art is displayed or performed.

Performance Art

What are two ways in which Athol Fugard challenged apartheid policies through his playwriting artistic output in South Africa?

1. He refused to allow segregated theaters to produce his work.

2. His plays reveal the political evils and suffering that is caused by apartheid.

Which playwright uses Egungun masquerade to critique colonialism in Nigeria?

Wole Soyinka

How did auteur directors shift the focus from the play to performance in the Sixties? (Use one production to bolster your argument)

- Rather than text focused, Director has primary authorship (complete and total control over mise-en-scene)

- A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Peter Brook is set in an all white box rather than Ancient Athens as stated in text. Peter Brook has the complete control to do so.

What led to the growth of "niche" theaters in the 1970s and 1980s?

- Niche refers to the capitalistic process of sellers identifiying consumers based on population groups (ex: gender, race, sexuality...)

- Similar practice used today in marketing. It is effective as it focuses on groups of people and the issues they face, it is easier to push what the audience would resonate with.

- Grew because it worked.

What is the Suzuki Method? What are its goals in training actors?

- Suzuki (constant tension between upper and lower body, creating powerful stage presence through restrained and energized motion)

- Includes: Crouching, rhythmic foot stamping, and slow movements.

How are theatre artists responding to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty work during the sixties? Where do we see elements of Artaud in theatrical performance?

- Found it liberating, revolutionary, and inspiring.

- "Paradise Now" (Living Theatre) employed rituals , out cries against oppression and audience participation. Heavy on performance and message rather than text.

How does "A Number" by Caryl Churchill attempt to re-center text over performance?

- Non-realistic structure with fragmented scenes (difficult for anyone to stray from the text as already broad way of viewing it)

- Forces the audience to mentally assemble the core conflict through the piece given (spoken word).

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