Chapter 12Chapter 12

Modern TheatreModern Theatre

Western Influence on World Western Influence on World TheatreTheatre

Spoken Drama inSpoken Drama inIndiaIndiaChinaChinaJapanJapanThe Arab WorldThe Arab WorldPre-colonial AfricaPre-colonial Africa

The Advent of RealismThe Advent of RealismAntecedentsAntecedents

William Fox Talbot (1800-1877)William Fox Talbot (1800-1877) Invented the photographic negative around 1840Invented the photographic negative around 1840

Thomas Edison Thomas Edison Invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879Invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Wrote about evolution in The Origin of Species in 1859Wrote about evolution in The Origin of Species in 1859

Karl Marx (1818-1883)Karl Marx (1818-1883) Critiqued capitalism and other aspects of the Industrial Critiqued capitalism and other aspects of the Industrial

revolution in revolution in Das Kapital Das Kapital in 1867in 1867 Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Wrote about the complexity of human psychology in Wrote about the complexity of human psychology in The The Interpretation of DreamsInterpretation of Dreams in 1900 in 1900

August Strindberg (1849-1912)August Strindberg (1849-1912) Problem playsProblem plays

Realism in the Modern Realism in the Modern TheatreTheatre

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Father of RealismFather of Realism A Doll’s HouseA Doll’s House (1879) (1879)

Anton Chekhov (1860-Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)1904) Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art Theatre The SeagullThe Seagull (1896) (1896)

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Importance of The Importance of

Being EarnestBeing Earnest (1895) (1895) George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw

(1856-1950)(1856-1950) PygmalionPygmalion (1912) (1912)

Box Sets and Fourth WallsBox Sets and Fourth Walls Olympic Theatre in Olympic Theatre in

London London Oscar Wilde

Naturalism in the TheatreNaturalism in the Theatre

Emile Zola (1840-1902)Naturalism as a documentary of everyday life“Slice of life,” or photographic reality

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)The Lower Depths (1902)

André Antoine, (1858-1943)Theatre LibreComedies rosses

Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde Theatre

DefinitionTo be ahead of To experiment withTo break conventional expectationsTo explore new realities

Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde TheatreSymbolism/FuturismSymbolism/Futurism

Impressionism/ExpressionismImpressionism/Expressionism

Symbolism – emphasized the suggestive and metaphoric over the literal and real

Futurism – glorified power and speed of the Industrial revolution

Impressionism – emphasized the subjectivity of perception over that of objectivity

Expressionism – used subjective theatrical metaphors to create a sense of how a character experiences his or her subjective realityElmer Rice’s (1892-1967) The Adding Machine

(1923)Eugene O’Neill’s (1888-1953) The Hairy Ape (1922)

Avant-garde TheatreAvant-garde TheatreDadaism and SurrealismDadaism and Surrealism

Dadaism – made us of sound poems and nonliteral images to underscore the madness of their perception of the reality of World War I

Surrealism – sought to portray the fantastic images associated with the unconscious mind as a way by which to reveal deeper realitiesTheatre of Cruelty

Antonin Artuad (1896-1948) The Theatre and Its Double (1938)

Avant-Garde TheatreAvant-Garde TheatreAbsurdismAbsurdism

AbsurdismFatalist

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)Waiting for Godot (1953) Endgame (1957)

ExistentialistJean-Paul Sarte (1905-1980)

No Exit (1943)Hilarious

Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994)The Bald Soprano (1949)Rhinoceros (1959)

Avant-Garde TheatreAvant-Garde TheatreEpic TheatreEpic Theatre

Epic TheatreBertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Emphasis on the underlining causes for a story rather than the story itself

Alienation effect – distancing the audience from theatrical illusion so they can analyze and discuss the reasons for what is happening to the characters on the stage

Understands that all art is fundamentally political and that the artist and his audience share responsibility for that fact of life

The Three Penny Opera (1928) and Mother Courage and Her Children (1941)

American Theatre 1945- 1960American Theatre 1945- 1960 Arthur Miller (1915-2005)Arthur Miller (1915-2005)

Death of a SalesmanDeath of a Salesman (1949) (1949) Mixes Realism with Mixes Realism with

ExpressionismExpressionism Tennessee Williams (1911-Tennessee Williams (1911-

1983)1983) The Glass MenagerieThe Glass Menagerie (1945) (1945)

Poetic realismPoetic realism Lorraine Hansberry (1930-Lorraine Hansberry (1930-

1965)1965) A Raisin in the SunA Raisin in the Sun (1959) (1959)

Employs Realism to Employs Realism to dramatize the plight of an dramatize the plight of an African-American family in African-American family in Chicago in the 1950sChicago in the 1950s

American Theatre in the American Theatre in the 1960s1960s

Little Theatre Movement Subscription audience based theatres that permitted

American to see example of the “new stagecraft” artists from Europe and America

Off-Broadway Staged noncommercial productions of artistically

important plays in small theatres Off-off-Broadway

Staged noncommercial productions that are often experimental in theatres of 99 seats or less

Happenings Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) and the Polish Lab Theatre

Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Regional TheatreRegional Theatre

Alley Theatre in HoustonFirst permanent professional regional theatre

in the U.S. founded in 1947 by Margo Jones

Others include:Arena Theatre in Washington, D.C.Guthrie Theatre in MinneapolisActors Theatre of LouisvilleMark Taper Forum in Los AnglesAlliance Theatre in Atlanta

Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Performance ArtPerformance Art

Characteristics mixes theatre, visual arts, music, dance, gesture and

ritualRejects traditional elements of drama such as plot,

dialogue, characters and settingMost interested in conveying a state of being

Examples of Performance Artists include:Laurie AndersonTim Miller

Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Political and Cultural TheatrePolitical and Cultural Theatre

David Henry Hwang (b. 1957)David Henry Hwang (b. 1957) M. ButterflyM. Butterfly (1988) (1988)

Caryl Churchill (b. 1938)Caryl Churchill (b. 1938) Cloud NineCloud Nine (1979) and (1979) and Top GirlsTop Girls (1982) (1982)

David MametDavid Mamet Glengarry Glen RossGlengarry Glen Ross (1984) and (1984) and OleannaOleanna (1992) (1992)

August Wilson (1945-2005)August Wilson (1945-2005) Ma Rainey’s Black BottomMa Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) to (1984) to Golf Golf (2005)(2005)

Sam Shepard (b. 1943)Sam Shepard (b. 1943) Buried ChildBuried Child (1978) and (1978) and Fool for LoveFool for Love (1982) (1982)

Contemporary Theatre:Contemporary Theatre:Recent Nobel Prize Winning Recent Nobel Prize Winning

PlaywrightsPlaywrights

Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)Dario Fo (Italy)Dario Fo (Italy)Goa Xingjian (China)Goa Xingjian (China)Harold Pinter (England)Harold Pinter (England)