(Theatrical Movements of the 19th & 20th Century)
In roughly chronological form
A French term that literally means "advance guard" in a military formation. It has come to stand for an intellectual or literary or artistic movement in any age that breaks with tradition and appears to be ahead of its time. Usually experimental and unorthodox, avant-garde movements in the 20th Century have included expressionism, surrealism, absurdism, and the theories of Anonin Artaud and Jersy Grotowski.
1550-1780. A set of rules. conventions, and beliefs that dominated much drama and theatre from the Renaissance to the end of the 18th Century. Neoclassicism recognized only two forms of legitimate drama (tragedy and comedy), arguing that the two forms should never be mixed, All plays should be written in 5 acts, observe the unites (of time, space, character), and uphold poetic justice in their endings. Verisimilitude, Academy.
(originated 16th Cent.) A form of comic theatre which originated in Italy in which dialogue was improvised around a loose scenario calling for a set stock of characters, each with a distinctive costume and traditional name. The best known characters are probably the zanni, buffoons who usually took roles of servants and who had at their disposal a large number of slapstick routines, called lazzi, which ranged from simple grimaces to acrobatic stunts..
1780s-1870s: Arose in England partially as a result of the Sturm und Strang drama of Germany. Larger than life, Epic, Adventure & individuality, Awesome theatricality. Nature often defeats technology. Non conformity and individuality. A literary and dramatic movement which developed as a reaction to the strictures of neoclassicism. Usually a loose episodic structure that sought to remove all strictures from the playwright and looked to unfettered inspiration of artistic genius as the source of all creativity. There is usually more stress on mood and atmosphere than on content. Finally became popular in France in the 1830's (after its popularity in England and Germany was going away- replaced by Melodrama, and was the first real threat to Neo-classicism there.
(Early 19th century) Rapid rise in popularity all over Europe and the United States due to the increase in audiences enable by the industrial revolution, it emphasized actions and spectacular effects and employed music to heighten the dramatic mood. Strong Romanticist influences, it employed stock characters and clearly defined villains and heroes often based upon Rousseau's "noble savage". Such characters as Davy Crockett and Jack Tar and the Toby charcter. Often featured songs loosly connected tothe plot- but were often a performer's "turn" piece. Generally an effort to be historically accurate in scenery and costume. More generally, the term is applied to any dramatic play which presents an unambiguous confrontation between good and evil. Characterizations are often shallow and stereotypical, and because the moral conflict is externalized, action and violence are prominent, usually culminating in a happy ending meant to demonstrate the eventual triumph of good. This remains as one of the dominant forms of tv script writning techniques. Alsmost all soap-operas are melodrama.
(19th and 20th cent.) Typified by scripts by Eugene Scribe, a type of play which combined apparent plausibility of incident and surface reality with a tightly constructed and contrived plot. Well-made plays typically revolved about a question of social respectability, and the plot often hinged on a piece of incriminating evidence which threatened to destroy the facade of respectability. Although less popular now, techniques are still used by modern playwrights and many tv script writers.
"A likeness to life" a drama without abstraction. "Pure realism can be seen as an artistic laboratory in which society is examined and experimented with. Psychological and physical problems exposed. Pioneers of realism: Ibsen (ordinary people. Real problems discussed in public- shocking for the times) and Checkov (Very deep relationships. Story or plot is not always apparent- Checkov is often referred to as an impressionist because he used a series of impressions and indirect techniques to create reality in the minds of the audience) Strindberg an early realist, but turned to symbolism and surrealism.
Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry
Exposes the poetry of societal issues. Odets (waiting for lefty), Garcia Lorca (Blood wedding), and Kirkland (Tobacco Road), sometimes Miller. Also David Mamet, David Rabe, Marsha Norman, Charles Fuller, Maria Irene Fornes area considered in this list (these are sometimes considered part of the supra-realists)
Realistic elements combined with Mythos. Early on in Ireland: Lady Gregory, Synge, Yeats, O'Casey, then spread to America: O'Neil (Desire under the elms a retelling of the Phaedra myth)
Darwinian Realism or Pessimistic Realism. Artless Realism. Survival of the Fittest. Man's place in the natural environment. A special form of realism. The theory of naturalism came to prominence in France and other parts of Europe in the last quarter of the 19th C.. French writer Emile Zola advocated a theatre that would follow the scientific theories of the age- especially those advocated by Charles Darwin. Drama should look for the causes of disease in society the way a doctor looks for disease in a patient, exposing social infection in all its ugliness. Human beings should be shown as products of heredity and environment. The result was often a drama depicting the ugly underside of life and expressing a pessimistic point of view. Gorky (Lower Depths), O'Neil (Hairy Ape), Schnitzler
(also known as New British Realism): On the surface it is realistic or naturalistic drama but seems to be infused with symbolic meanings based on cultural mythos. Language is made obscure with the use of mundane language or a lack of communication skills. Characters are often products of modern industrialized society and plays deal with the theme of the corruption of natural innocence by up-bringing and environment. Sam Shepherd ( True West), Arnold Wesker, John Osbourne, Shelagh Delany, Edward Bond, David Storey, Caryll Churchill, David Mamet, David Rabe, Marsha Norman, Charles Fuller, Maria Irene Fornes
1880s Paris (Paul Fort) Hatred of all literal detail. No truth exists except within the poet- through the poets eyes. Often called "negative realism" A short-lived movement but the spawning ground of new thought and a number of new forms sprang from it. Strindberg, Maeterlink, Poe.
(early 20th Century) Beyond Realism. Seeking a deeper more profound reality than that presented by rational thought, the surrealists replaced realistic actions with the strange logic of the dream and cultivated such techniques as automatic writing and free association of ideas. In all things the dream-state is the basis of interpretation. Totally an excess often meant to shock. Traces the unconscious of the mind distorting reality for emotional purposes. What we assume to be real is always questionable. Pirandello (6 char.), and Strindberg (A Dream Play).
Often very broadly defined, yet powerful because it has influenced so many theorists and has had a great impact on realism because it forcefully demonstrated that dramatic imagination need not be limited to either theatrical conventions or the faithful reproduction of reality. It is a stylization of facts, stories, characters, scenery, etc. Its aim is to give external expression to inner feelings. It is characterized by an attempt to dramatize subjective states of mind through the use of distortion, striking and often grotesque images, and lyric, unrealistic dialogue. Dramatic conflict often was replaced by the development of themes by means of visual images.
A revolt against realism. It insists that the stage be "self-conscious"- used in an unrepresentational way. Rather stark, yet often grand in design and execution. Use of sound, music, human sound, and spectacle to tell stories. Often used to show ancient Greek plays and myths but also some modern plays are produced in this manner. Producers identified with it are: Meyerhold, Max Reinhardt, Bertholdt Brecht, Peter Brook, Peter Sellers.
1940-50's and later (text calls it Philosophical melodrama) A philosophy of inter-personal relationships from the works of Jean Paul Sartre as a result of his experiences in World War II. Tenets: It is impossible to derive meaning from the events of our lives. Each individual constantly seeks affirmation outside himself- and we never find it. Most traditional philosophies hold the essence precedes existence (there is a quality for everything present before it exists- a quality for an apple before it appears on the tree- a self for each person before our existence). Existentialism says existence precedes essence- a person creates himself in the process of living. In theatre, characters have no personal background, no history, and therefore no specific reasons or causes for their actions. There is no exposition. We catch the characters in mid-flight, as it were, and they are in the struggle to make sense of their existence as we watch them.
1950's and after (an outgrowth of existentialism primarily identified with the works of Samuel Beckett (an Irish playwright who lived much of his life in France and had many similar experiences as Sartre) This is a view of theatre as essence- cutting out all the trappings of realism. Often there are no actors, some plays have no plot, others have no words. The world is viewed as meaningless unless we, individually, make an effort to give it significance. There are no rules in the universe, the world is absurd and the process of trying to create significance is often repetitious. Absurdism rejects meanings that rely on institutions or traditions. The universe is empty except for us. Beckett's best known plays: Waiting for Godot, Krapps last tape, Endgame.
1930's to the 60's and after. Identified and created through the writings and plays of Bertholdt Brecht. Often seen as a sequence of actions or episodes of the kind found in Homer (Iliad and the Odyssey) with the understanding one is always watching a play. Audiences should never be allowed to be immersed in realistic illusion or to become emotionally involved with the play- theatre has the power of convincing audiences that what they see is how it should be, not how it really is, and they should be alienated from that belief. Alienation Effect sought in all aspects of production. Didactic theatre, episodic, with narrative songs separating the segments and large posters announcing the various scenes. Three-penny Opera, Mother Courage, Good woman of Sterna, Gallileo, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagony
(identified with the writings of Antonin Artaud. More an ideal than an actual style or genre based on Artaud's essays on the essence of theatre. The idea behind a theatre of cruelty is the unmasking of the elemental building blocks of the dream-state. A freeing of the conscious self through a manipulation of elemental obsessions, sexual and otherwise, and savagery. Language is viewed as often inadequate as are most stage effects. Was not directly interpolated into a production style, but has been very influential as a philosophy and theory of drama.
A term used by Richard Schechner and others to refer to a branch of avant-garde theater that aims to eliminate the distinction between audience space and acting space with a more flexible approach tot he interactions between audience and performers. Often these plays feature multiple actions going on in the same scene.
A form of theatrical event which was developed out of the experimentation of certain American Abstract artists in the 60's. Happenings are nonliterary, replacing the script with a scenario which provides for chance occurrences. They are performed, usually, only once in such places as parks, and street corners, with little attempt being made to segregate the action form the audience. Emphasizing free association of sound and movement, they abandon logical action and rational meaning.
A type of experimental theatre prominent in the 80's. Combines elements of dance, cinema, television and the visual arts with theatre. With little stress on a written text, the performer and perhaps a director coordinate various aspects of the performance. When a director is in charge, the stress is on picturization, ritual, and choreographed movement. With the performer in charge, he or she may tell stories,, make political commentary, perform acts, or play roles- again, sometimes in conjunction with music, painting, or video.
A broad category that includes opera, operetta, musical comedy, rock opera, and other musical plays (the term lyric theatre is sometimes used to distinguish it from dance). It includes any dramatic entertainment in which music and lyrics form an integral and necessary part. The various types of musical theatre often overlap and are best distinguished in terms of their separate historical origins, the quality of the music, and the range and type of skills of the performance. Opera is usually defined as a work in which all parts are sung to musical accompaniment and has a separate and much older tradition than modern musical comedy (which recognizes in its ancestry such musical forms as the interlude, the minstrel show, vaudeville, and the Zingspiele).