Theatres After 1950: Traditional and Experimental

Adrienne Kennedy 

• African American playwright 

• Funnyhouse of a Negro (1964) 

Alan Schneider (1917-1984) 

• American director who based his productions on absurdist plays of Beckett, Albee, and Pinter 

Al-Kasaba Theatre 

• Palestine: Al-Kasaba based in West Bank, with frequent performances in London 

Amiri Baraka (1934- ) 

• Born in Newark 

• Associated in 1950s-early 1960s with Beat poets 

• you can find references to Ginsburg in Dutchman) 

• Published first poetry in 1961 

• Married, then divorced, white Jewish woman, Hettie Cohen 

Angry Young Playwrights 

• 1950s British “kitchen sink” drama 

• Focus on class structure after the war 

• “John Osborne (1929-1994): Look Back in Anger 

• Arnold Wesker: The Kitchen (1957) 

• Edward Bond (1935- ): Saved, Lear 

• English Stage Company under George Devine; Theatre Workshop featured Joan 

• Littlewood’s plays 

• Peter Shaffer (1926- ): Equus, Amadeus 

• John Osborne and Edward Bond 

Anna Deavere Smith (b. 1950) 

• African American performance artist 

• MFA in acting from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco 

• Performance/acting instructor at Carnegie Mellon, Yale, University of Southern California, Stanford, and New York 

• Known for her portrayals of real people she has interviewed, cross dressing, and racial representation within her performances. 

• She tape-records conversations and interviews to create a variety of characters, attitudes, and voices. 

• Best known works: Fires in the Mirror (1992); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994); Let Me Down (2008-2010) 

Anne Bogart (b. 1951) 

• Noted particularly for development of Viewpoints, a movement-based approach that blends different acting techniques 

• Director of collaborative work (Going, Going, Gone; Culture of Desire) 

• Works with Tadashi Suzuki; influence of Japanese acting training methods 

• Founded the Saratoga International Theatre Institute with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki 

• Based ideas from the avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham and Jerzy Grotowski, whose viewpoints combine elements of dance and stage movement with concepts of time and space 

• Subdivided time into four segments and space into five segments. 

• Viewpoints mix many different acting techniques and refuses to suggest that one element or approach is more significant than the other. 

Antonin Artaud 

• Involved with surrealists early in his career 

• Worked as actor, director, playwright 

• Founded theatre Alfred Jarry in 1926 

• The Theatre of Cruelty 

• “I use the word ‘cruelty’ in the cosmic sense of rigour . . . in the sense of that pain without whose implacable necessity life would not know how to function.” 

• Committed to institution for 10 years, during WW1 

• Artaud’s Metaphors: Alchemy, The Plague, Magic, The Hieroglyph, Fire, The Double 

Arena Stage 

• The audience sits on four sides or in a circle surrounding the stage. Entrances and exits are made through aisles or through tunnels underneath the aisles. A feeling of intimacy prevails because the audience is close to the action and encloses it. 

Ariane Mnouchkine (b. 1940) 

• French, studied in Paris and at Oxford 

• Founded Theatre du Soleil in 1964 as a collective 

• Productions weave together eastern and western traditions 

• Noh, Indian dance, Kabuki, Meyerhold, etc. 

• Importance of ritual 

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) 

• Play’s focus on individuals within society 

• Emphasis on personal responsibility (All My Sons, A View from the Bridge, The Crucible) 

• Most famous play is Death of A Salesman (1949) 

• Later plays were less successful, but he is generally seen as one of most important 

• dramatists in American theatre 

Athol Fugard (b. 1932) 

• South African (white) playwright 

• Attacked apartheid, (in South Africa) a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. 

• His plays were written in the tradition of realistic well-made plays. Dramas clearly represent the racial turmoil of South Africa during and after apartheid 

• 2011, the Fugard Theare in Cape Town was named in his honor 

• Plays: The Blood Knot (1964); Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1973); Master Harold and the Boys (1982); A Lesson from Aloes (1987); Playland (1992); Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act (1972) 

August Wilson (1945-2005) 

• Born in Pittsburgh (setting of many of his plays) 

• Poor... 5 brothers and sisters 

• Wrote series of plays about black experience in the 20th century—one for each decade 

• Wanted to reveal truth about hardships of African American experience 

• Largely self-taught 

• Given degree by Carnegie Library 

• In 1968, founded Black Horizons on the Hill, a theatre company in Pittsburgh 

• 1978: moves to St. Paul, MN 

• 1982: Meets Lloyd Richards, who directs six of his plays (including Ma Rainey) on Broadway 

• 1984: Ma Rainey opens on Broadway 

• 1999: awarded National Humanities Medal 

• 2005 dies of cancer at age 60 

Augusto Boal (b. 1931) 

• Brazilian playwright and theorist 

• Persecuted for leftist political views 

• Developed several types of theatre to give voice to the people 

• Theatre of the Oppressed, Forum Theatre 

• Turn spectators into spect-actors; get them involved in the performance, and therefore the solution, to a problem presented 

Beijing Opera 

• After the death of Mao, Peking opera and other classic forms of music-drama became popular again 

Black Arts movement 

• Civil rights movement, assassinations of Malcolm X and Medgar Evers helped to move 

• Jones towards Black Nationalism 

• Influence of post-colonial African writers 

• Founded Black Arts Repertory in 1965 

• Changed his name to Amiri Baraka in 1968 

• Black Arts Movement 

• Emphasis on black arts for black audiences 

• Social change as part of explicit message 

• “Revolutionary Theatre”: drama must “force change, it should BE change” 

Bob Fosse (1927-1987) 

• American actor and choreographer for musical theatre 

Book musicals 

• A production combining story, music, lyrics, and dance so that the production combines tone, mood, and intention in a unified whole. 

Caryl Churchill (1938- ) 

• English born, studied at Oxford 

• Early plays parallel development of women’s movement 

• Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Fen, Serious Money, Mad Forest 

• Formal innovation: doubling of characters, cross gender casting, anachronism etc. to address issues of social identities (gender, race, etc.) 

• Associated with English Stage Company and Joint Stock Company 

Charles Ludlam (1943-1987) 

• Founder of “Ridiculous Theatrical Company” in 1960s 

• Uses camp, re-stagings / re-interpretations of classics, and other techniques to break down the expectations of audiences 

• Influenced by puppet shows and Living Theatre 

• Incorporation of drag and burlesque acting style 

• Stage Blood (1975) reworks Hamlet 

• Played Camille in 1973 

• Played Hedda Gabler in 1984 in Pittsburgh 

• The metatheatrical camp and drag performances of Ludlam’s company advocated the presentation of “serious themes” in a farcical manner 

• His goal was not only to pique the audience’s interest but to eradicate damaging gender and cultural stereotypes 

Chicano theatre 

• addresses issues faced by Hispanic Americans starting in the 1960s 

• El Teatro Campesino (with Luis Valdez) performed actos (short agitprop plays) which dramatized the conditions in which many farmworkers lived 

• Los Vendidos (The Sellouts) 

• Later theatres, Teatro de la Gente, and other, spread out from the west to the rest of the US 

• Other Latino/Latina playwrights: Milcha Sanchez-Scott (Roosters), Cherie Moraga (Shadow of a Man) 

Concept musicals 

• Musical theatre emphasizes style, theme, and thematic metaphors rather than traditional plot lines. It often consists of a series of vignettes. 

Dario Fo (b. 1926) 

• Italian Dramatist  

• Nobel Prize in literature for 1997 

• Comic political playwright, in tradition of Brecht and others 

• Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Mistero Buffo 

• Return to epic theatre forms... 

• Criticism of realist/naturalist drama which posits audience as eavesdroppers 

• Plays should be written to include “interruptions”: clowning, provocations, etc. 

David Henry Hwang (1957- ) 

• FOB, M. Butterfly, Golden Child   

David Mamet (1947-) 

• One of most successful contemporary American playwright/screenwriters 

• Also directs both theatre and film 

• Sexual Perversity in Chicago, American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna, Boston Marriage, Cryptogram 

• Naturalistic language, characters struggling on economic and social edges of society; the con game 

Documentary drama 

• Developed in Germany in 1960s 

• Based on historical documents, modified for documentary effect 

• Peter Weiss (1916-1982): Marat/Sade (1964), The Investigation (1965) 

• Heinar Kipphardt (1922-1982): In the Case of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1964) 

• Rolf Hochhuth (1931- ): The Deputy (1963) 

• Non-documentary German Playwrights: Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt 

• American Documentary Drama 

• Daniel J. Berrigan, Trial of Catonsville Nine (1970) 

• Emily Mann, Execution of Justice (1984) 

• Anna Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 

• Eric Bentley, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? 

Dutchman 

• Won Obie award in 1964 for best new play 

• Premiered in 1964; film version in 1966 

• Title suggests the Flying Dutchman as well as slave ships 

• Ghostly subway as slave ship 

• White culture does not recognize Black culture 

• Oppressive traditions 

• “liberal” white conceptions of black experience are faulty and patronizing 

• Adam (Clay) and Eve myth—or Adam and Lilith 

• Sexuality and freedom 

• Education and tradition 

Ed Bullins (b. 1935) 

• The New Lafayette Theatre introduced this playwright 

• Experimented with Black Ritual and published the journal Black Theatre 

Edward Albee (1928- ) 

• Adopted as an infant by wealthy theatrical family 

• Early plays seemed more absurdist 

• Later plays are realistic, though they all have some “absurd” elements 

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; A Delicate Balance; Three Tall Women; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia 

• Teaches playwriting and founded a theatre to encourage the production of new plays 

• Absurdist plays: The American Dream, The Zoo Story 

Edward Bond (b. 1935) 

• Playwright associated with Angry young playwrights 

• Plays: Look Back in Anger and Saved(1963) 

El Teatro Campesino 

• performed actos (short agitprop plays) which dramatized the conditions in which many farmworkers lived 

Ellen Stewart (b. 1920) 

• Founder of Café La Mama 

• Introduced new playwrights (Megan Terry, Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard) 

Environmental Theatre 

• Term coined by Richard Shechner (1934-) 

• Influenced by Meyerhold, Artaud, Grotowski, and others 

• Emphasis on using entire theatre as performance space 

• Play with, and destroy, space between performer and audience 

Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994) 

• Romanian born, lived in France 

• First play, The Bald Soprano, began as parody of language textbook 

• Also wrote as theorist, championing “anti-theatre” 

• Other plays: Rhinoceros, Exit the King, The Killer, The Chairs, The Lesson 

Existentialism  

• Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1960) 

• Existence is inherently meaningless; human beings are responsible for their own 

• meaning 

Free Southern Theatre 

• Founded in 1963, based in New Orleans, toured rural Louisiana 

• Other playwrights of note 

• Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious (1961) satirized racial stereotypes 

• Adrienne Kenney (Funnyhouse of a Negro) 

• Douglas Turner Ward (Days of Absence) 

Friedrich Dürrenmatt 

• Absurdist plays: The Visit 

George C. Wolfe (1955- ) 

• The Colored Museum, Jelly’s Last Jam, Bring in da’ Noise... 

• Became director of Public Theatre in 1993 

• Directed Angels in America, among other plays 

Guthrie Theatre 

• Transformations: Liviu Ciulei became artistic director at Guthrie in 1981; Garland Wright (1986-94) and Joe Dowling succeeded him 

• More innovative directors 

• Strong permanent ensemble 

Happenings 

• Coined by Allan Kaprow in the 1950s 

• Artist/historian, musician, performance artist 

• Originated in NYC in late 50s and early 60s 

• A short-lived movement, but very influential 

• Staged, planned, but not controlled 

• Every audience member should see something different—performance itself is fragmented 

• Depended on audience participation, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not 

• Increasing emphasis on multimedia work, incorporating work of several artists from different fields 

• A Spring Happening, 1961 (Kaprow) 

• “Towards the end of the happening, a lawnmower was heard and spectators in the tunnel gasped as a man with a blank face appeared and began pushing the lawnmower through the tunnel. With nowhere to go but towards the back wall of the tunnel, participants backed against it, some beginning to cry out as the lawnmower kept approaching, the man staring blankly at the ground. Just as he seemed to overtake them, the side walls of the tunnel collapsed and spectators rushed out.” 

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) 

• Started as actor 

• First plays written in 1957 

• Has worked as screenwriter, director and writer of radio plays 

• Winner of 2005 Nobel Prize 

• Noted for the “Pinter Pause” 

• Ordinary events fill with menace; both audience and characters struggle to understand what’s happening 

• Old Times, Betrayal, The Caretaker, The Homecoming, The Birthday Party 

Jean Genet (1910-1986) 

• Absurdist plays: The Balcony, The Maids 

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) 

• Sartre’s plays: The Flies (1943, based on Eumenides), No Exit (1944) 

• Camus’s plays were less well known 

Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) 

• American Choreographer 

• Directed and created choreography for Fiddler on the Roon 

Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) 

• Polish director 

• Began as actor, influenced by Stanislavsky and Meyerhold 

• Began Polish Laboratory Theatre in 1959 and moved it to Wroclaw in 1965 

• Famous productions in the 1960s: Akropolis, The Constant Prince 

• Focused on problems of acting and actors (to the point of getting rid of audience at one point) 

• Theories are widespread and influential 

• Grotowski’s Poor Theatre 

• Tried to answer question: “What is theatre?” 

• Poor theatre strips down inessential elements (theatre buildings, scripts) 

• Extensive physical and emotional training for actors 

• No emphasis on realistic representation; emphasis on non-verbal performance 

• Experimented with different configurations of theatre space 

• “an actor cannot wait for a surge of talent nor for a moment of inspiration” 

• “it is not a matter of learning new things, but rather of ridding oneself of old habits. . . We take away from the actor that which shuts him off, but we do not teach him how to create” 

• “I AM INTERESTED IN THE ACTOR BECAUSE HE IS A HUMAN BEING” 

John Osborne (1929-1994) 

• Part of the Angry Young Men movement 

• Wrote Look Back in Anger (1956) 

Jose Quintero (1924-1999) 

• Director established reputation as leading interpreter of Eugene O’neil at the Circle in the Square 

Josef Svoboda (1920-2002) 

• Czech designer who trained as artist and carpenter 

• Experimented with new materials and techniques: projections mixed with live performers (laterna magika), platforms, plastics 

• KINETICS: the setting must be dynamic to reflect the changes in the text 

• Techniques for diffusing light 

Joseph Papp (1921-1991) 

• Founded Public Theatre in 1967 and started NY Shakespeare Festival in 1954 

• Also successful producer: Hair, A Chorus Line, David Rabe’s plays 

• Less successful at Lincoln Center 

Joshua Sobol 

• Most widely recognized Israeli playwright 

Julie Taymor (b. 1952) 

• director, designer 

• Uses puppets and masks in many of her productions: The Tempest, Gozzi’s The Green Bird, etc 

Karen Finley (b. 1956) 

• Staged performances that featured clowning and slap stick techniques. 

Kathikali 

• Indian dance drama presented in torch light featuring clashes of good and evil. 

Kishida Kunio (1890-1954) and Tadashi Suzuki (b. 1939)  

• Kishida studied with Copeau in Paris 

• Founded Literary Theatre in 1937 (only company permitted to perform during WWII) 

• Helped to bring Western dramaturgy to Japan with his theories and plays (A Space of Time, Diary of Falling Leaves) 

• Suzuki’s work is avant garde 

• Noted for ensemble work, combining traditional and experimental 

• Influenced by Brook and Grotowski: founded international theatre lab 

• Collaboration with Anne Bogart 

Kitchen sink drama 

• A group of people in the UK (lower class men) in the 1950s who represented the rigid class system.  

• John Osborne “Look Back in Anger” 

• Domestic plays set in lower class society 

• Angry Young Men / post war reaction 

Lanford Wilson (1947-2011) 

• Talley’s Folly, The Fifth of July, Burn This 

Lanterna magika 

• A design technique developed by Josef Svoboda that incorporates projections, screens with images, and multimedia 

Living Theatre 

• Founded in 1946 by Judith Malina and Julian Beck 

• Malina had trained with Piscator 

• First performed avant-garde dramas of earlier playwrights (G. Stein, Cocteau, etc.) 

• Experimented with styles (masks, vocalizations 

• Influenced by Antonin Artaud 

• Living Theatre Productions 

• 1950s: Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, The Brig, The Conection 

• 1960s: Frankenstein, Paradise Now, Mysteries and Smaller Pieces 

• 1970s: The Legacy of Cain (for non theatrical spaces) 

• 1980s: Prometheus at the Winter Palace 

• 1990s: Anarchia, and utopia 

• 2000s: Not in My Name 

• By 1960s, theatre became itinerant (tax problems plague them on and off) 

• Returns to New York in 1980s, but now in Europe 

• Some of Malina’s theories focus on immediacy of performance: 

• Audience partakes in the ritual—performer as assistant 

• “Say that [the power] comes from the art of the play, and that it comes out to us, and now we have got it” 

• Immediacy and Communality 

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) 

• From Chicago, upper middle-class family 

• A Raisin in the Sun (American Realism play) was groundbreaking, successful on Broadway without relying on stereotypes 

• Depicts lower class black family who wants to move into better (“white”) neighborhood 

• Shows African-American experience over several generations 

• Won best play of the year 

• The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (1964) was not as successful 

Luis Valdez (b. 1940) 

• Child of migrant farmworkers 

• Began with SF Mime Troupe 

• 1965: founded El Teatro Campesino to promoted Latino causes 

• Overtly political theatre: actos 

• Influenced by commedia 

• Plays: Zoot Suit, I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges, Soldado Razo, Corridos, etc. 

• Focused on issues facing “La Raza” (the race) 

• Theories: 

• Reaction against traditional American Theatre—don’t imitate 

• Chicano theatre is as complex as La Raza 

• Audience participation is expected 

• wants to emphasize the “Indio foundations of Chicano culture” 

• Need distinction between theatre and reality—theatre is not reality (a demonstration is theatre; action and change are reality) 

• Valdez’s ambivalence towards the hegemonic Anglo culture is indicative of the anxiety felt by many marginalized groups during the development of these new theatres. Recognition and acceptance by mainstream theatre may in fact indicate too close a relationship with the forms of that theatre and thereby inadvertently obviate the political power of such theatres. 

Mabou Mines 

• Founded by Lee Breuer (1937-2021) 

• Known for productions of Beckett 

• Strong visual style: use cartoons and pop culture as inspiration 

• Cross gendered King Lear in 1990 

• Peter and Wendy retell Peter Pan story with puppets 

• Breuer’s Gospel at Colonus (1983) 

• Joanne Akalaitis (1937- ): 

• Directed Shakespeare at Public Theatre 

• Production of Endgame in 1984 

• Many productions in regional theatre 

• A Doll House: Actors twittered their lines in exaggerated Norwegian accents (imagine The Muppet Show's Swedish Chef speaking two octaves up) and climbed on their hands and knees through doors and into cardboard boxes in mid-conversation.... Act one ended in a dream sequence of satyrs, masquerade demons and confetti; Act two ended with stroboscopic and colossal sheets of cloth falling from the fly bar, stitched with dialogue, while the pianist banged out the tarantella for Nora's dancing lesson. Act three closed with an oratorio-style declamation of the responsibilities of modern woman by Nora and Torvald, each singing while stripped down to bare-assed suspenders and corset as the curtains lifted to reveal box seats of porcelain Victorian marionettes re-enacting their couple dynamics. 

Maria Irene Fornes 

• Cuban-American Playwright 

• Plays are often abstract and violent, influenced by absurdism 

• Influential on a lot of contemporary playwrights (Tony Kushner, Nilo Cruz, Cherrie Moraga...) 

• Plays 

• Tango Palace 

• Mud (Obie winner) 

• The Danube (Obie winner) 

• Fefu and Her Friends 

• Sarita (Obie winner) 

• The Conduct of Life (Obie winner) 

• Abingdon Square (Obie winner) 

Marsha Norman (b. 1947) 

• Off-broadway playwright 

• Realistic play Night Mother (1983) won a Pulitzer Prize 

Martha Clarke (b.1944) 

• Performance artist who created ensemble pieces that brought elements of dance, popular entertainment, and striking visual effects. 

• Garden of Earthly Delights (1984-2007) 

Mei Lanfang (1894-196) 

• Renowned modern performer in Pecking (Bejing) Opera 

• Preserved and expanded it’s traditions 

• Acclaimed for his outstanding portrayal of female characters 

• One of the first Asian theatre artist to influence the development of Western theater  

• Father and grandfather specialized in Tan (female roles) 

• Enhanced the importance of the female role, which was considered secondary 

• Worked with Qi Rushan to expand and revise traditional repertoire to introduce historical accuracy in costume and dance 

• Performed in US in 1930 

• Refused to act and grew a mustache because of the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 

• Did not perform until Japanese surrendered in 1945 

Neil Simon (1927-2018) 

• American playwright, screenwriter, television writer, and librettist 

• Focused on the everyday lives and domestic problems of ordinary middle-class people, which examine his characters’ marital and other dilemmas and, for comic effect, play up the incongruity of their situations. 

• Plays: Come Blow Your Horn (1961); autobiographical plays Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985), and Broadway Bound (1986); Rumors (1988); Lost in Yonkers (1991) Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for best play; and The Dinner Party (2000). 

• Book: Sweet Charity 

New York Public Theatre 

• Transformations: Joe Papp succeeded by Joanne Akalaitis, but was replaced by George C. Wolfe 

Off- Broadway 

• Off-Broadway developed in response to Broadway commercialism 

• Outlet for experimental works; smaller theatres, often not proscenium 

• Revivals of O’Neill by Jose Quintero at the Circle in the Square 

• Some productions moved to Broadway after initial appearance 

• Plays by Lanford Wilson, John Guare, and others 

• Developed off-off-Broadway in 1960s 

• Found spaces, environmental theatre 

• Open Theater, Living Theatre, Performance Group all were avant-garde theatres of the 1960s-1970s 

Off-off-Broadway 

• Center for experimentation in NY theatre that developed when off-Broadway became commercialized in the 1960s. Dedicated to introducing new talent, experimenting wit new styles of production and avoiding the limitations of commercial theatre 

Ontological-Hysteric Theatre 

• Founded in 1968 by Robert Foreman 

• Off-off-Broadway theatre focused on the inability to communicate through language and used everal repeated theatrical devices including voiceover to comment on stage action, exaggerated physical and vocal techniques, and visual elements such as close lines strung across a setting 

Open Theatre 

• Founded by 1963 by Joseph Chikin after leaving the Living Theatre Group 

• Experimented with improvisation, restructuring of text, environmental staging, and acting based on externals 

Paula Vogel (b.1951) 

• Known for dramas that focus on dysfunctional families, domestic violence, and gender issues 

Performance art 

• Breaks down barriers of performance and theatre 

• Influenced by avant-garde forms of early 20th century and by Artaud/Grotowski 

• Began in relation to visual arts (body as art) or in environmental spaces 

• Less emphasis on text and narrative; focus on ritual elements of performance 

• Later, became more focused on movement and interdisciplinary work 

• Martha Clarke (1944- ): Vienna Lusthaus, Garden of Earthly Delights, Endangered Species 

• Incorporation of dance and visual effects 

• Performance art now often means personal narratives 

• Karen Finley: We Keep Our Victims Ready caused a good deal of controversy (NEA issues) 

• Deals with issues of AIDS and the [lack of] government response 

• Contemporary Performance Art 

• Performance art often focuses on political and social issues 

• Robbie McCauley (Alice’s Rape), Rachel Rosenthal, Laurie Anderson, Holly Hughes, Tim Miller 

• Others: 

• Spalding Gray: monologues of personal experience (Swimming to Cambodia. Monster in the Box) 

• Bill Irwin: new vaudeville (Full Moon, Largely New York) 

• Eric Bogosian: Drinking in America; Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll 

• Danny Hoch: Some People 

• John Leguizamo: Freak 

Performance Group 

• Founded by Richard Schechner in 1968 

• known for environmental stagings which reworked relationship between audience and performers 

• Dionysius in ’69, The Tooth of Crime, Mother Courage, The Balcony 

• Schechner continued to be influential after breakup of PG, just as PG was influential on other avant-garde theatre in the US 

• Faust Gastronome (1993): reworking of Faust legend with grotesque elements 

Peter Brook (b. 1925) 

• Well-known director of both Shakespeare and contemporary plays; Marat/Sade influenced by Artaud 

• Founded International Theatre Research Centre 

• Produced epics, including The Mahabarata, and was influenced by Grotowski 

• Multicultural and cross-cultural theatre: “one can discover in oneself the impulses behind these unfamiliar movements and sounds and so make them one’s own” 

• “THE COMPLETE HUMAN TRUTH IS GLOBAL” 

• Works to bring together people who have nothing in common 

Peter Hall (b. 1930) 

• eclectic who worked on Pinter and Beckett early in his career 

• Later career built on tours of Shakespeare and other plays 

Peter Handke (b. 1942) 

• German dramatists who created surreal plays that focus on difficulties of communication: 

• Offending the Audience, Kaspar, Ride Across Lake Constance 

Peter Sellars (b. 1958) 

• Contemporary director who began directing at ART, has directed for most of the regional theatres 

• Modern settings of classic texts (Merchant of Venice in CA); also directs opera 

Peter Stein () 

• Western European director (German) who worked with postmodern politicized work including Brecht’s The Mother and 

• Ibsen’s Peer Gynt 

Peter Weiss (1916-1982) 

• Documentary drama playwright 

• Plays: The Investigation (1965) 

Poor theatre 

• Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his idea of theatre stripped to it’s barest essentials. 

• Grotowski demand that lavish sets, light, and costumes associated with theatre reflect only base materialistic values and must be eliminated. 

Postmodernist style 

• Suggest a general distrust of objective truth, narratives, rationality, theories, and definitions of art. 

• Argues that divisions of artwork into modernist categories such as realism and departures from realism is artificial 

Postwar Realistic Drama 

• Miller and Williams lead the way  

• Their realism was selective or symbolic – focus on certain poetic or other important elements 

• Continued the legacy of O’Neill established before the war 

• Realism tended to still be strong after the war, even thought there was development of avant-garde theatre 

• Postwar American drama: 

• Broadway remained commercial, oriented towards popular taste 

• Neil Simon (1927- ): Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Lost in Yonkers, etc. 

• Musical Theatre: 

•  Oklahoma! (Rogers and Hammerstein, 1943) is seen as beginning of golden age of musical theatre in US—blended story, music, dances 

• Agnes DeMille’s choreography influenced later artists such as Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse 

• Rise of the British composer/lyricist 

• Andrew Lloyd Webber: Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom 

• Elton John: Aida 

• Revivals of older musicals are popular 

• Other new work: Bring in da Noise..., Rent, Urinetown, The Producers 

• Adaptations of film into musicals: The Lion King, Sunset Boulevard, Sweet Smell of Success 

Postwar Eclectics 

• Jean-Louis Barrault carried on Artaud’s legacy 

• Rabelais (1968) 

• Giorgio Strehler and Franco Zeffirelli 

• Peter Brook (1925- ) 

• Well-known director of both Shakespeare and contemporary plays; Marat/Sade influenced by Artaud 

• Founded International Theatre Research Centre 

• Produced epics, including The Mahabarata, and was influenced by Grotowski 

• Multicultural and cross-cultural theatre: “one can discover in oneself the impulses behind these unfamiliar movements and sounds and so make them one’s own” 

• “THE COMPLETE HUMAN TRUTH IS GLOBAL” 

• Works to bring together people who have nothing in common 

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 

• 50 plays  

• Prominent philosopher and social reformer in India  

• Manasi -- First prominent collection of poetry published in 1890 

• Incorporated both traditional forms and Western influences; influential on later Indian writers  

• Won Nobel Prize in 1913, probably more for poetry and stories as for plays; relinquished knighthood in political protest  

• Plays written in Bengali and tap into folk traditions, but use a wide variety of styles Nature’s Revenge (Sanskrit poetry, 1884), The Bachelor’s Club (realistic comedy, 1904), Chitrangada (dance drama, 1936)  

• 1924, founded Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan 

Regional Theatre 

• Began after World War II; broadened professional theatre base in US 

•  Alley Theatre (Houston) 

• Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis) 

• Actors Theatre of Louisville 

• Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles) 

• Alliance Theatre (Atlanta) 

• Often discovered new plays which move to Broadway 

• Angels in America, Children of a Lesser God, etc. 

• Difficult to maintain financially: become less experimental as a result 

• American Regional Theatre: 

• Regional theatre also spawned equivalent to off-off-Broadway 

• Chicago: Victory Bridge (Joe Mantegna), Steppenwolf (Malkovich, Sinese) Lookingglass (Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses) 

• La Jolla Playhouse (Des McAnuff): Tommy 

• Actor’s Theatre of Louisville 

• American Repertory Theatre (Cambridge): founded by Robert Brustein 

Richard Schechner (b.1934) 

• Coined the term Environmental theatre 

Richard Foreman (b.1937) 

• Work is often metatheatrical and reflexive 

• Founded Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968 

• Difficulties of communication are emphasized through theatrical devices (voice overs, exaggeration) 

• does not focus on logical sequencing, but rather on a succession of images to create an overall effect 

• contradiction is productive: “bafflement can clarify” 

• Plays include: My Head Was a Sledgehammer, Paradise Hotel, Bad Boy Nietzsche, Maria Del Bosco, Panic 

Robert Wilson (b.1944) 

• Noted for visually stunning, epic productions 

• Incorporation of visual arts, avant-garde music, not much emphasis on text 

• Deafman Glance, Einstein on the Beach, Death Destruction & Detroit (3 parts), CiVil WarS 

• Euripides’ Alcestis; Ibsen’s When We Dead Awaken; one man Hamlet 

• Directs opera as well 

• Generally better known and accepted in Europe 

Roger Blin (1907-1984) 

• French Absurdist director 

• Directed plays by Samuel Beckett 

Sam Shepard 

• Uses images of American West, pop culture, gangster mythology; storytelling figures prominently (hints of Pinter) 

• Began off-off Broadway with experimental work 

• Icarus’ Mother, The Rock Garden, La Turista 

• Later, The Tooth of Crime (a rock musical) 

• Best known plays are family plays: True West, Curse of the Starving Class, Buried Child 

• Others: A Fool for Love, A Lie of the Mind 

• Also works as actor and screenwriter 

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) 

• Leading playwright of Absurdist movement 

• Irish, but wrote first plays in French, then translated 

• Connected with James Joyce in early career 

• Plays are filled with repetition, ordinariness, misdirected movement and action 

• Fundamental isolation of all human beings; deadening effect of habit 

• Puns and wordplay, inversion of clichés 

• Plays: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Happy Days, Krapp’s Last Tape, Play 

• Godot: 2 tramps wait for undefined goal; kill time through conversation and games 

• Cyclical plot; progression may happen, but it’s not clear 

• Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 

Sarah Kane 

• A female, British playwright that attacked political and social institutions 

• Plays: Blasted, Cleansed, Crave 

Split Britches 

• satirizes canonical literature (Belle Reprieve) 

Stephen Sondheim (b.1930) 

• Very influential: combination of complex lyrics/music and subject matter (often satirical) 

• Lyrics for West Side Story, music and lyrics for A Funny Thing... 

• Most famous works: Passion, Assassins, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd (start at 3:00) 

• Winner of several Tonys and NYDCCAs 

Steppenwolf Theatre 

• Best known alternative theatre that presented classic, new plays, and experimental work. 

Suzan-Lori Parks (b.1964) 

• Topdog/Underdog, The America Play, 365/365, Venus 

• Parks on Playwriting 

• “we are taught that plays are merely staged essays and we begin to believe that characters in plays are symbols for some obscured ‘meaning’ rather than the thing itself. As Beckett sez: ‘No symbols where none intended.’ Don’t ask playwrights what their plays mean; rather, tell them what you think and have an exchange of ideas.” 

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) 

• Polish director, designer and artist 

• Resisted co-optation of avant-garde by forming Cricot 2 

• Began with “happenings” and developed interest in surrealist Witkiewicz’s plays (The Cuttlefish, The Water Hen) 

• Best known created piece: The Dead Class (1970): incorporated mannequins with live actors 

• Toured world with autobiographical pieces, including presentations at La MaMa in 1980s 

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) 

• Grew up in St. Louis; eventually graduated from U of Iowa in 1938 

• Plays often focus on outsiders crushed by a world that doesn’t understand them 

• Lyrical style in his dialogue 

• The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke, Night of the Iguana 

• Like Miller, his later plays were less successful 

The Literary Theatre 

• The only company permitted to perform during WWII 

The Wooster Group 

• Developed under leadership of Elizabeth LeCompte (1944- ) with Spalding Gray, Kate Valk, Willem Dafoe 

• Use of collage, video; de-emphasis of text 

• Became known in 1980s for deconstructions of classical texts 

• Route 1 & 9 (uses blackface vaudeville to parody Our Town); LSD (The Crucible); Brace Up (Three Sisters) 

• Recent productions: The Hairy Ape (starring Dafoe as Yank) The Emperor Jones (cross-dressed and in blackface) 

Theatre de Complicité 

• Founded in 1983 by Simon McBurnie (b.1957) 

• An alternative company that integrates that recieved global recognition for work that is integrating text, music, image, and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre. 

Theatre of Cruelty 

• Antonin Arturd visionary concept of theatre based on magic and ritual which liberated deep, violent, erotic impulses. 

• Arturd wanted to reveal the cruelty he saw as existing beneath all human actions 

Theatre of the Absurd 

• Influenced by existentialism and other movements 

• No coherent technique or style 

• Term coined by Martin Esslin to describe plays that: 

• Suggested that the world is essentially meaningless 

• Used a form that gave audience direct apprehension of the theme of meaninglessness 

• In these plays, human endeavor, language, culture, etc. is presented as meaningless; 

• Plotless or circular structure, incomprehensible dialogue 

• Applied to a wide variety of playwrights: Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Durrenmatt, Adamov, Pinter, Albee, etc. 

• Absurdist directors 

• Many of the absurdists directed their own plays (often noted for STRICT adherence to the play as originally written) 

• Other important directors 

• Roger Blin (1907-1984) made a name directing Beckett in the 1950s 

• Alan Schneider (1917-1984) built reputation on productions of Albee, Beckett, and Pinter 

Theatre of the Oppressed 

• a theatrical practice and methodology developed by Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal that aims to address social and political issues through interactive and participatory performances. 

• principles of Theatre of the Oppressed include: 

• Forum Theatre: This involves the performance of a scene depicting an oppressive situation, followed by a discussion where audience members can intervene, suggest changes, and even take on roles to explore alternative solutions. 

• Image Theatre: Using body movements and poses to create visual representations of social issues, allowing participants to analyze and critique power dynamics and societal norms. 

• Invisible Theatre: Performances in public spaces where actors interact with unaware audiences, aiming to provoke thought and discussion about social issues by blurring the line between reality and performance. 

• Legislative Theatre: Engaging communities in theatrical exercises to identify problems and propose legislative solutions, promoting dialogue and civic engagement. 

Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006) 

• Significant Off-Broadway dramatist 

• Play: The Heidi Chronicles (1988) 

Wole Soyinka (1934- ) 

• along with Fugard, the most influential and well-known African playwright writing in English 

• Born in Nigeria, educated in English schools in Nigeria and at Leeds University 

• Play reader with Royal Court Theatre 

• Founded theatre companies in early 1960s in Nigeria 

• Imprisoned 1967-69, went into exile for 5 years 

• Editor, playwright, theorist, critic 

• 1975: Death and the King’s Horseman 

• Created Guerilla Theater unit at University of Ifa—political theatre 

• 1986: Nobel Prize for Literature 

• Exiled again, convicted of treason in absentia and sentenced to death 

• Other plays: The Bacchae of Euripides, The Lion and the Jewel, The Strong Breed 

Zoot Suit (1974) 

• Political musical about zoot Suit riots in LA in 1943 

• Centers around figure of Henry Reyna and mythical figure of El Pachuco 

• Focuses on issues of what it means to be a Chicano in the US 

• Not historical; blends history and Latino/Aztec mythology 

• Engages audience through song, dance 

• Episodic structure, fluid chronology influenced by Brecht