Hist Lit 3 Midterm

Romantic Drama-France

- 1791 Comedie Francaise splits --> Théâtre de la Republique - 1799 (Napoleon) reunited fragments of CF - 1801 add Theatre National de l'Opera-Comique - Napoleonic control: censorship, state control. Only innovation in boulevard theatres: MELODRAMA --> Very popular commercial public theatres - French Romantic Drama -- 5 acts, no happy endings; Victor Hugo (1802-1885) flouted neoclassicism; Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) pere (father) - Louis-Jacques Daguerre (pioneer of photograph → leads us a step forward towards realism) -- Panorama/Moving panorama = huge sweeping sike that creates the illusion of movement -- Diorama (3D recreation of something in a box) = Used in set design and museums → impact of diorama on set design (move towards realism)

Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)

- A Month in the Country (w. 1850, p. 1870) - first fully realized work of realism - daily routine of country estates - used domestic detail to reveal inner turmoil --> Christine washing plate (our behavior to give us a peak inside her -- SUBTEXT) - 1882 abolition of monopoly of state run theatre in St. Petersburg and Moscow - 1898 Moscow Art Theatre

Impressionism

unintentionally manifestation of Impressionism emerging into the reality of the world - individual perception of world and reality becoming one

Stanislavsky Training

- Dance - Fencing - Movement - Voice-/Diction - Relaxation → if you are comfortable with the character (comfortable in their movement) than it will reflect on stage (more realistic) - Analysis → analyze world in which the character is living and who the character is in order to fully embody who they are fully - Concentration → marge lived experience and creative experience in the moment - Observation - Improvisation → exploring what naturally comes to you in the world and mind of the character allows you to understand who that character is better (Concept of "magic if") - Imagination

Georg Buchner (1813-1837)

- Danton's Death (1835) post French Rev. - Woyzeck (1836) lower class protagonist, foreshadows naturalism and expressionism --Fractured nature of style (like Beckett); Understanding the human mind -- Motivation behind why he kills Marie -- Human behavior as not religious - Advanced for time

where middle class morality is skewed (in Pygmalion)

- Eynsford Hills → satirizing the middle class - Alfred Doolittle subplot --> become working class bc Higgins writes a letter to an American millionaire saying Doolittle is the best economist -- gets a grant (satire = joke to Higgins) - possible to manipulate social class so they can move through, but ultimately not true with gender - economic status is something you can work toward, gender is not so easily overcome in society

well-made play

- Formulaic dramas focused less on well-developed characters than on complicated plots and well-timed confrontations, fast moving action, intrigues, alliances and sudden revelations - introduced by French neoclassicist Eugene Scribe (1791-1861) - issued rules for what constituted a well made play - introduction, conflict, resolution --> structural pattern - often used as a term of derision (because it is an artifice) -- naturalism and realism attempt to strip away this artifice - combination and perfection of dramatic devices --> exposition, cause and effect, building to climax, withheld info, styling reversal, suspense - dealing with plot in a very careful structure - this is not the ideal anymore, EXCEPT for Ibsen --> used techniques to keep audience engaged in different way than Scribe

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

- subject matter of realist play was not suitable in neoclassical plays or in theatre of restoration - A Doll's House (1879) --> slam of the door at the end -- Nora finder her identity and is able to leave her husband and kids behind that symbolizes more than just a door slamming (in neoclassical play, she'd be destroyed) - Ghost (1871) -- woman and son, son is dying of syphilis from the father (didn't talk about this disease before) - An Enemy of the People (1882) -- often called "problem plays" --> dealing with subject matter that wasn't polite in society -- virus in water than is killing people --> tells people not to go and the man become a pariah

George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (1913)

- A Romance in Five Acts --> move back to 5 act structure - Romance in the way Shakespeare in which there are mythic transformations beyond the time (Cymbeline and the Winter's Tale) - Lack of narrative closure → Shaw doesn't want them together - Shaw is messing with expectations → Eliza and Freddy could end up together - Plot → Eliza, Pickering, and Higgins - Subplot → Doolittle saga expecting to get money - The opening scene reveals the dangerous information that leaks out whenever people open their mouths to speak --Way someone says something without actually thinking about what they're saying - Professor Higgins proves that class divisions are permeable, but neglects to consider gender barriers that prohibit women from self-determination and independence -- Permeable because he is forcing it to be proven → not everyone has the chance that Eliza had to delineate social class - The Pygmalion dynamic, in which the artist falls in love with his creation, thwarts the romantic fable between Higgins and Eliza (realistic use of myth --> ambitious end, romantic nature, expectation about what is going to happen - multiple endings

Anton Chekov (1860-1904)

- A doctor, began writing plays late in life - Worked with director and acting teacher Konstantin Stanislavsky at Moscow Art Theatre - The Seagull (1896) - Uncle Vanya (1899) → about decimation of old way of being, old way of provincial living in Russia, being wiped away for urban and sophisticated life - The Three Sisters (1901) → daughters of a deceased general who live in a rural down and just want to get back to Moscow (city where they grew up) - The Cherry Orchard (1904) - All set on country estates - Large ensembles of characters that are interconnected with detailed backstories that are revealed through dialogue - Deal in some way with demise of aristocracy and changes that are afoot in Russia that will eventually manifest in revolution - Deeply complex relationships among characters

Pygmalion as a Realist play

- Ambiguity/nuance nature of the end - Psychology - Class struggle is what drives the action - Observable in real life and tangible and understandable - Connection between linguistics and class - Realism + → additional kick is that the characters have a verbal facility that is heighten

Age of Revolution

- American and French - Inspired by Enlightenment philosophers (Voltaire, Kant, Jefferson) - Social organization based on reason, thought and NOT religion - Eventual "Romantic" rejection of Enlightenment rationality

Theatre Libre

- Andre Antoine (1858-1943) - naturalistic staging AND writing

Aesthetic movement (Wilde)

- Art for art's sake/parallel to French Symbolists - Choosing art for art's sake view to show biblical experience - All of his other plays look like well made play following it to satirize it - "Desire to elevate life to a work of art" Views realism as a less elevated art form - Beauty and kind of art that creates a feeling in us - Counter to realism is to not just imitate life, but to exalt art to be something beautiful and something to aspire to be - Earnest parodies stock elements of comedy --> satire lies in the intense elements of well made play - parodies social convention and sentiment - EPIGRAM = a concise, witty and often paradoxical remark or saying; a witty form of expression (perfect one liner) - Lover = Lord Alfred Douglas (Bozzie)'s father was a lord and showed up at Wilde's club in London -- Wilde served 2 years under hard labor for this - Resist the moral seriousness of 19th c lit and the philistine miserys of the upper classes -- The only function art should serve is to elevate

realism

- Art: Brockett quote --> science is an influence of realism (from naturalism) - Theatre: -- initially any production with realistic visual detail -- ordinary people, daily life -- historical drama that used spectacular scenery and accurate costuming (father of directing, King George II) -- "Scientifically observed actions in physical spaces that demonstrated the interdependence of character and environment (Brockett)" --> Brings in parts of naturalism -- Is naturalism more extreme realism? No, BUT where do they overlap and use each other - First appearance in Russia --> Alexander Ostrovsky (1823-1886) -- middle class life, eliminate caricature and spectacle, concentrate on character interrelationships -- in 1866 founded Russian Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers -- OBSERVATION based

Eleanor Duse (1859-1924)

- At 7 prompter of Humble Family - At 14 played Juliet in Verona - At 20 was picked up by company and toured → brought her to New York - Played Camille → reviewer says: changes the variety of mood -- Didn't try to play a french character but put her background into the character (Engaged by her projection of her own persona was recognizable character) - Duse is in opposition to Bernhardt - Duse is about emotion and insertion of actor into the character - Communal lamentation among women is sweeter than is granted to them by men - Disdainful of acting, Empathizing with characters, Key to actors skill is in the ability to take on the character -- To just "act" these characters would be a disservice to these women → make them real and heard on stage in a way that the men writing these characters could not - Projects herself into the characters

AUDITORIUM changes: ala Wagner/Bayreuth

- Classless theatre/continental seating - Orchestra is straight row → not center aisle or hierarchy of seats - Absence of boxes and specified seating space

The Cherry Orchard (1904)

- Comedy comes from the characters deviation form the norms - Characters are psychologically based → connects to ideas of mental illness to the characters being childish (manifestations of Darwin and Marx) - comedy lies in irony of it they were 2 dimensional we'd see them as stereotypes and tropes - play exists somewhere in between comedy and tragedy because it is Realistic - Lopakhin --> gets what he wants in the end; emergence of thematic idea of fall of the aristocracy and march toward Socialism (trofimov as well) - Darwinist ideas within play --> no implied reason why societal structure exists; not much narrative sense; in real life, sometimes things just end - NOT a well-made play --> not contingent on plot, far more focused on characters (broken expectation --> gun never goes off in Act 2) - Anne Beaugard's company embedded in Suzuki - Liubov Andreyevna hosts a ball on the day that the cherry orchard is to be sold at auction --> can't accept reality of situation and holds onto small piece of hope (she doesn't actually want to stay at the estate) - The future happiness that Trofimov foresees is an abstract (impractical) concept, in comparison to the cutting down of the orchard for summer cottages that Lopakhin plans and executes - Much of it is up to the actor to parse out the subtext and what a character wants to say but doesn't say --> Dynamic between performance and the script changes and evolves as part of the Realistic approach - Realistic plan for Gayev is to go to the aunt and get money from her so that the cherry orchard will not be sold --> won't accept reality and takes pleasure in "fixing" and providing a solution to their problem - Failed or lacking love and romance indicate the immense challenge of embracing everyday life as it occurs - The estate is an untenable refuge from the world. Liubov Andreyevna returns to her childhood home because she wants to teach her lover in Paris a lesson - Self-dramatization among the characters simultaneously adds comic theatrically and pathos to the drama

18th Century Theatre

- Continuation of Restoration drama - Continuation of Neoclassicism, BUT add to that The Enlightenment: incorporate religion with newfound philosophy to make them match up (source of tension), The Industrial Revolution: plays produced faster (increase in literacy) -- Increase in population in urban setting (less agrarian), and the Birth of The Middle Class: people become more skilled (work in factory) --People aren't peasants but TRADESMEN - Pushes us in a direction towards realism - Public stages, renovations and newer, larger buildings - Scenic innovation—leading towards realism: perspective scenery, point of view - Acting still stylized, still rhetorical BUT tiny steps being taken towards closer realism, more natural quality (more individual interpretation of character)

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923)

- French, Dutch, Jewish - Spent time at Augistinian school at Versailles - Family council decided she wouldn't become a nun and be an actress instead at the Conservatoire - Got contract with Commedia Francaise - Became actor manager and took her company all over the world - Played Phaedra, Cleopatra, and other classical/neoclassical roles - Duse is her only rival - Off stage dramatics - She was on stage after leg amputation in her 70s - "Work is my life. [...] I shall resume the stage (after being fitted with a prosthetic leg..." - Provided much to women's equality within the theatrical art form - Most talk about her is about her peculiarities/idiosyncrasies --> slept in a coffin, wanted to play male roles - The Art of the Theatre (her book) → actors version of George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen's book -- everything visual moving toward historical accuracy -- "The actor should not shock the modesty of those who listen to him" "should not be too natural" -- Balance between calculation and well thought out movement -- "Art is deliberate" → illusion of off hand cannot actually be off hand - Comedy Francaise, then tours through Europe and US "Grand actress" Camille, Tosca, Phaedra

Royal Court Theatre

- Harley Granville Barker, John Vardenne - SHAW, Galsworthy - ensemble acting, no stars - Style should suit each work produced, from Euripides to Yeats --> found in National Theatre of London -- every work is different -- every team will work to make the story

Hedda v. Nora

- Hedda is content with being a dysfunctional person - Hedda is a continuation of where Nora is at the end of A Doll's House - We think Hedda is an independent woman → ACTUALLY, Hedda is stuck in the decisions she has made in the past, which determines her future - Way to regard realism is let concern with dramatic action stay in the present - A Doll's House is a study into what Hedda Gabler would become - Hedda is characters reacting to events that have already happened rather than a new plot that Ibsen has created - Both understand what they need to do within the confines of their environment to get what they want --> Nora is working within the system of the play(well made play) and the conventions of her environment and gains power in the end and Nora grows and get her independence without harming anyone, but Hedda destroys everyone - Nora is trying to save herself where Hedda has a different motivation (in the present) - Hedda is an evolution of character complexity from Nora because there is so much about Hedda that is different

Romanticism

- Higher truth: God, spirit, idea, ego; Eternal truth—part of the whole - Observation of the pure, unspoiled gives insight into the whole -- Untamed nature, unspoiled natural people, rebellion against society and bureaucracy - Dualities --Body/soul, physical/spiritual, temporal/eternal, finite/infinite, Longing for the ideal - Profound respect for imagination/artistic genius - For theatre -- Makes theatre a larger realm (opens it up to people like Buchner); Can't say writer is wrong because they are respected; Leads to supernatural and sublime that shows something unknown; Going back to primitive ideas; Lots of sword play; Alexander Dumont → Romantic writer was put onstage

Romantic Drama

- Ideals unattainable within the restrictions of convention - Freedom of "closet drama" → plays meant to be read not necessarily produced - Rejection of unity of time and place, separation into genre, rationalism, didacticism (not about moral lesson) → more about feeling/passion - Power 1830 Germany/"Young" Germany - Subsidized Berlin/Vienna - Introduction of box set (diorama) → everyone in theatre is looking at box on stage - Ludwig Tieck, Karl Immermann

Neoclassical principles

- If a character stepped out of natural order, they must be punished - Form and style = no mixing of drama (comedy can't be drama, drama can't be comedy) - Verisimilitude = had to resemble life in one way or another - Sense of morality and an error had to punished - Five act structure and follow unities of time place, and action

Light bridges

- Incandescent lamps, 1000 watts by 1913 - Elimination of footlights → didn't create realistic enough lighting source/convention - Reliance on electrical light and light from above - Mariano Fortuny (light shone onto silk, reflected on kuppelhorizont - ambient light)/ complex system to shift and change - NOT widespread

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

- Inversion → realizes his lie has been the truth, when usually it is the other way around and apologizes for his lie being the truth (QUOTE) - Epigrammatic wit critiques and satirizes Victorian society 2 levels -- (1) plot information (wit and banter is focus instead of action) and (2) get an idea too the nature/essence of these guys --> Idea that you can be "jack in the country and Ernest in the city" in order to escape the world in which you are currently living in and get away from the rules and values of society - At the same time, the trivial comedy also satirizes other intrigue dramas and melodramas of the period - Bunburyism promotes male transgression as a means of survival --Whether this is intentional or comes after the fact is a question of homosexual attributes from Wilde come into question - Focus on how essential where one is born in is to the character of a person - Women are usually smart and clever, but can't utilize that but here they are smitten over men (dramatic irony) - Aesthetic prospective = play glorifies style over substance - Trend to cast Lady Bracknell in drag

Independent Theatre

- J.T. Grein 1862-1935 - subscription basis, to avoid censorship (not subject to state rule of decorum) - Ibsen, Zola, Shaw (off to consider realist) -- aspects of Shaws work that really expand beyond realism

Edwin Booth (1833-1893)

- James Wilkes Booth is his brother James Brutus Booth (father) competed against Edwin Keene Forest -- Didn't want Edwin Booth to become actor - "Could not paint with big brushes [...] too much gentile" → Booth is quieter and more sophisticated in his acting style -- Detail and specificity(in language) which is a characteristic of realism that is very early on in the process and evolution; Booth picks this up on the way into Realism - Shakespearean star in NY, Booth's Theatre -- "Free plantation of scenery" self supported(not nailed to the back wall/backdrop → if you walk behind a tree, you're actually behind the tree), hydraulics/traps, box sets -Vocal prowess → move toward realistic acting - "Imitation is a slur on the actor alone [...] Led to imitation of faults, rather than limitation of virtue" -- if acting is imitative, it's more impersonal; show signs of affection for realism and respect for the generation that came before

Hedda Gabler, Ibsen

- Judge Brack --> TRIANGLES and a sleazy tone -- slithery underneath (subtext) -- utilizing a realistic diction in order to drive home his point --> PUNCTUATION (REALISTIC - pauses and restatements and parentheticals to get his points across - Ibsen adapts the well-made play formal to rework the past in the present - The language rips the polite veneer off bourgeois life - The dramaturgy sports a series of triangles to achieve and sustain dramatic tension --> The past history characters share is not apparent or known to the third person in the triangle - Moving toward realism → dynamics existing simultaneously → not privileging single plot with subplots - Hedda manipulates others, but she lacks courage to control her own life --> Reference to the guns makes her suicide her calculated rather than impulsive (Well-made play → if a gun is on stage it has to be fired) - George Tesman does not love his wife

French Revolution

- Modest beginnings to the Revolution -- Demand for "constitutional" monarchy - Louis XVI guillotined 1793 -- "reign of terror"/Bloody revolution until 1795 - Napoleon comes to power 1799--REFORM! -- BUT, names himself emperor 1804 -- Ended HRE 1806 -- Unifies most of European states by placing members of his family or army on the thrones - Deposed 1814 - 1815 Battle of Waterloo, exiled to Elba - Post 1815, rise of repressive regimes throughout Europe -- economic hardship --> Industrializaiton, urbanization, nationalism and imperialism - 1899-1850 fundamentals of Romanticism

Olga Knipper (1870-1959)

- Mrs. Chekov, originated Mme. Ranevskaya (Cherry Orchard)

George Barnard Shaw (1856-1950)

- Mrs. Warrens Profession (1902) --> she is presenting her daughter to her society but people find out she runs a string of brothels and that's how she pays for her life - Major Barbara (1905) --> Major in a religious organization (evangelical), but Barabara's money comes from father who is a munitions manufacturer - He wrote many plays with topics called "problem plays"

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko

- Nemirovich had a little acting career but gave it up → focused on role of director as facilitator in actors project - Regisure(director) → take choreography from one place and teach it to another company of dancers (the only way we use/understand it now BUT during Chekov's time it meant director) - Regisure Interpreter → how to play/instruction on how to do it (regisure actor/pedagoge) - Regisure Mirror → reflects individual qualities of actor/To be able to mimic "this is how your doing it, is this what you intended" and be the mirror of the actor - Regisure Organizer of production → public only knows this one (Mise-en-scene, Design, Sound, Lighting, Staging and blocking; i.e. What Saxe-Menegin gave us → responsibility of director -- It is whole and complete and integrated so all the aspects sing as a group, an entity, and artwork → transcendent step into creating a theatrical work - Interpreter and mirror are invisible because they have sunk themselves into the actors

German Nationalism

- New focus away from theatre located solely in Italy, Spain, England and France - Nationalism = quest for national identity - Decline of neoclassicism -- retreat from RATIONAL to EMOTIONAL - Idealize distant past, natural instincts → pure and unspoiled - German origin, Goethe, Schiller, Kant: grew into school of though that defined German Nationalism -- Das Athenaeum

A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

- Nora is a spendthrift → in her behavior and the lines Refused to see her kids at the end of Act 1 → worried about being a harm to them - Dr.Rank intimates that he loves her - Mrs. Linde persuades Krogstad to Meet with nora and forgive the loan - Torvald brings nora down from the party early to have sex - Nora needs a miracle to preserve her ideal marriage --> about the entry point: curtain up with Nora in a situation because of things she's done before the dramatic action begins - The villain(Krogstad) of the piece turns out to be not so bad --> villain with complexity and layers - Letters from krogstad drive the suspenseful plot in the second half of the play → what draws the audience in while not making the development of the characters because of the letters --> About character evolution that nora goes through over the play - Nora changes clothes abruptly to signal dramatically her change of mind and transformation from a doll to a human being --> conveys message without too much spectacle or stylization (metaphor in a realistic way) - Power dynamic shifts and now she is viewed as a human being and at the same level (maybe above) Torvald - Nora ultimately and ironically concludes that her husband's conventional notions of morality and motherhood, with respect to genetics and the environment in the late 19th c. are correct --> victim of her environment; recognition that it exists in the world, ut REFUSAL to accept the reality of it (not her reality)

Buchner's Woyzeck

- Pushing away from religious guilt idea/offer excuse for why he is not virtuous (because he is poor) - Social hierarchical and class based - Posters: Woyzeck is stabbing Marie/posers make it seem like a horror movie - Play gives director a lot of freedom to decide how they want to depict/perform - The motives for Marie's murder remain intentionally overdetermined. --> ultimately NO ANSWER why (requires audience to make that decision) - Radical politics expose the hypocrisy of capitalist society - Woyzeck presages much of modern drama. (20th c.) --> opens up Realism with common protagonist and plot line that is uncommon for comedy of manners

Romanticism in Woyzeck

- Rejection of unities of time, place and action → time is spread out around characters experiences (fragmented scenes where time is linear, but it's not working very well) -- Can't tell the passage of time and time between scenes -- Unity of action → moments don't function in the way Aristotle would set a plot (Woyzeck almost fits the model of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution because we are missing some things) - Fact that we can interchange things shows us that the interconnectedness of the events is not connected at all - Idea of focusing on primal distinctive behavior Language of plays leads it to believe that it is not romantic in nature → nonsequecuters - Dualities and ideals that are unattainable (Romanticism) → shaving scene in which Woyzeck is physically higher and holds a knife, while the Captain is socially higher and leads conversation - Lots of nuances and theses that can either bring one in and push one away - Psychological aspect → makes you feel like you are reading a case study and getting into Woyzeck's mind for why he does what he does (complex matrix of a bunch of different factors) -- Pushes back against neoclassicism --> plot it not most important, CHARACTER is)

Stanislavsky's Techniques

- Relaxation - Concentration and observation as tools for creating focus and illusion of spontaneity with observable behavior to use as a catalogue/toolbox - Attention to detail/specifics → not painting with broad strokes anymore - Inner truth (Truth NOT reality) - Emotional recall**** -- Sensory recall/memory; "Magic if" - Action on stage: What? Why? How --Meticulous breakdown on stage from motivation - "Through-Line" of a Role -- Zadaka/What is the worldview of the character that leads them to make the choices they do throughout the play - Ensemble playing - Training of the voice and body

Revolve Stage

- Residenz Theatre, Munich 1896 - Revolving stage → realistic free plantation of scenery (3D on a rotating stage)

Miss Julie (character)

- Strindberg wrote a good complex woman --> appeal in challenges of writing and strong woman - Miss Julie makes a choice --> Miss Julie commits suicide because of the external influences that force her to do it -- roles where women have agency run counter to Naturalistic ideal that she is a product of her environment - complexity and duality --> she has agency but is also affected by her environment; how she deals with these dualities would be interesting for an actor to explore; want audience to see conflict in her -- fighting multiplicity of ideas and behaviors → VERY HUMAN and interesting to be able to see the difference on stage

Miss Julie, Strindberg

- Sweden - Dynamic of scene between Jean and Miss Julie grows and evolves throughout - Subtext - the character's motivation on making decisions all come from gossip --> dancing together - Strindberg himself rose through the socio economic ladder throughout his life --> he critiques what life is like when you manage to get out of poverty and transition into a different social world and economic class - info about a move toward naturalism and scenography --> actual pots and pans with real 3D furniture (rather than painted backdrop) - Strindberg's modernism lies in his rejection of all previously established and inherited modes of drama --> rejects higher power controlling action, any real imposed morality (moral is ambiguous and constantly evolving), and unities of time (act breaks are gone) - title character manipulates Jean to bring about her own destruction --> requires more judgement on our part and this statement doesn't work in naturalism bc she is product of her own environment - the "ballet" masks and expresses the sexual encounter between Julie and Jean that divides the 2 halves of the play --> kitchen is a metaphor for Julie's body that has been violated by an outside source (very anarchist -- animal and primal) --> who is more animalistic, the peasants during "Ballet" or Jean and Julie - evolution towards Realism --> plays become more ambiguous as we go

Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946)

- The Weavers (1892) --> spans the gap between naturalism and realism

Rolling Platform Stage

- Wheels are in tracks or grooves - Requires offstage space as on stage space - Royal Opera House, Berlin 1900

naturalism

- a more extreme version of realism --> product of your environment and takes elements (characters, set) of realism and teases them out to an extreme - sheer verisimilitude presented as artlessly as possible (truth presented with little ornamentation as possible) -- "artlessly = artifice (without fakery as possible, as authentic as possible) - behavior determined by environment - "Slice of Life"

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

- acting is more energetic in how it is written -- stage direction are clear and detailed to create the world in which these scenes take place (VERY REALISTIC -- realism with a kick) - critic of art form and founder of the Fabian society (Marxist in his ideals) - constructed his own devilish appearance forcing his red beard to jut out (quote) - no modern artists has been as effective and striking dramatic proses --> people wanted to sculpt, paint, etc. him - sardonically aware that his poses were masks and not actually himself (impish double who debunked the idea of his famous persona - made no pretense of neutrality or objectivity - wanted to transform British theatre and it's public (audience) --> wanted a REALISTIC THEATRE OF IDEAS - master of backhanded comment (to Herbert Beerbohm Tree) - actors job is to make the audience believe real things are happening to characters on stage but authors job to make the point and make it appealing to the audience - Shaw believed the playwright should be in control of it and doesn't like when actors take things into their own hands (like Tree did) - Actors tendency to adapt their personality to the play v. authors desire to adapt the actors personality to the play - playwright creates the scaffolding upon which the actor adds to and develops

Modern Theatre

- begins 1875 - Romanticism first moment of note --> sought to free itself from structures of Neo-classicism -- rejection of the unities -- emphasis. on free-from picaresque (coming of age) stories, exotic locales, sprawling dramatic structures (scene attempt at Romantic scenery) - proscenium stage came to dominate theatre production -- world is in frame, theatre space is becoming more interactive with the real world (creates more of a 4th wall and separation between world on stage and people around us - focusing our energy and our vision and our sense into one particular artistic product - idea of perspective is changing in a step towards realism --> gives illusion of depth

Freie Buhne ("fee stage") 1869-1894

- democratic organization, Otto Brahm - introduces cooperative style of company management

Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

- father of directing (before him, the actor/manager company followed an individual star) -- first to acknowledge the necessary connection between staging, design, and performance - Company, toured between 1874-1890 - 38 cities in 9 countries - widespread influence - Works of Shakespeare, Schiller, Grilparzer, Ibsen - Accuracy → he makes theatre look more organic (tricks and directives are design to give the impression of organic reality, but missing the actual organic nature [not creating it from scratch, putting it on top]) -- historical accuracy - divisions of centuries, national differences -- Realistic costuming, realistic, heavy upholstery, Realistic weaponry, props, furniture, strongly colored scenery(richness and fullness of design) -- ASSYMMETRY --> chaos over order; symmetry is NOT realistic (stage must always depict movement and move the action of the story along; actor should only travel through the center, never stop) --- Stagger people so they're not standing directly in one line --- Posture needs a rhythmical line (captain morgan stance) → one foot lower than the other (makes him look at ease) -- ENSEMBLE ACTING - crowd scene; everyBODY on stage needs to have a full character and human experience -- long rehearsal periods --> rehearsal process involves everybody

Herbert Beerbohm Tree

- first actor to play Henry Higgins - Haymarket theatre, actor-manager -primary producer of Shakespeare/Realistic details -- put forests full of trees and live animals to frolic among the characters

American Laboratory Theatre: US School of the "Method"

- in 1919 Boleslavski and Ouspenskaya: American Laboratory Theatre - inspired American artists to develop "the Method" --> push aspects of Stanislavsky's method - notable members: Lee Strasberg: Group Theatre (1931) and Actors Studio (1947) - Marlon Brando, Stella Adler, Marilyn Monroe, and many more (James Dean → mumbling, broody, camera never gets a good look in his eyes - Desirable American "method" is very different than what Stanislavsky wanted/advocated for -- becomes more about losing yourself in the character which is NOT sustainable

Kuppelhorizont

- like cyclorama but plaster (architectural) - Dome → ¾ of inside of dome over top of the stage - Architectural roof that lives over the top of stage space - Gives illusion of delpt - Curved cyc/dome

Emile Zola (1840-1902)

- novelist and writes a LOT about naturalism in his novels - Naturalism in Theatre -- props = exact replication of what appears in real life -- set never has any effect on the play, takes place nowhere in particular and characters just exist --> scenic elements have nothing to do with the characterizations as opposed to naturalistic ideals with realistic scene environments, which creates more interaction between environment and character -- used to be real characters moved around inseam settings, but NOW today sham characters move around in real settings --> sham characters are easy to transform --- characters not filled by environment are more characters than the ones living in this realistic setting -- true v. real --> true = real in the world of the play, real = accurate to history/science and the world we are living in -- Zola is aware of evolution and direction that theatre is moving towards - Zola's description lends itself to why he chooses to promote naturalism --> to look on stage and see/smell/feel the stage lends itself to the audience to embody the characters more - he is struggling to focus/make clear what they're look at stresses importance of what's there and what's being seen --> quest to see more clearly

Miss Julie as a Naturalistic Tragedy

- preface to play -questioning idea of naturalistic tragedy - Naturalist --> what's on stage is an exact reflection of what the world looks like -- set = working fireplace and running water sink - Naturalist movement -- a literacy and theatrical movement that thrived in 19th century --> writers sought to depict life truthfully, objectively, and with scientific accuracy - Emile Zola - behavior of characters is a product of the environment in which they are a part of - Actions of protagonists and characters if caused by their environment - Science → combination of genetics and nurture affect how people act - Scientific method (Darwin's theory of evolution) → where we are now is because we are a product of evolution - Like we are study characters in a lab by studying them as a product of something - Naturalism fits perfectly in proscenium theatre → gives us insight to characters - Naturalistic drama tells us they're acting because of their environment - Tragedy = Recognition and Reversal of fortune, Personal hubris is fatal flaw rather than belief in being a product of fate, Recognition of flaw leads to downfall; World causes character to act, Relationship of free will, Higher power (Romanticism) and fate in Tragedy connect → acknowledgement of spirituality - Miss Julie action is continuous --> highly realistic, on set - Julie is a product of her environment/product of birth and upbringing --> Make observations that requires more engagements and more understanding of psychological actions she takes throughout the play

James O'Neill (1847-1920)

- swashbuckling romantic era - Eugene O'Neill's father

Konstatin Stanislavsky (1863-1938)

- the most influential acting theorist in the West - Developed techniques that were meant to pass on and change idea of acting - Developed idea of "acting from the inside" --> motivation to replicate the complexity of inner life; actors break down a character in terms of motivation - most critical notion = EMOTION MEMORY --> the recollection by an actor or actual emotions to create the emotions of the role - became aware of the "Method" in 1906, outlined ideas in 1909, and in 1911 made a studio for students - 1949 --> Published "Building Character and Creating a Role" -- reconstruction of his notes to explain methodology and used at Moscow Art Theatre (MISINTERPRETED/mistranslation) - emphasized both emotions and control

Realism

- the movement with the most persuasive and long-lived effect on modern theatre -- EVERY movement before made modern theatre what it is -- true in a western context, maybe not so much a global one - Goal: likeness to life (memisis = "like life" --> literally mimicking life - actors should BE characters (put the character in you and emulate human characters more than ever before) - dialogue = everyday conversation - sets look like ordinary environments - plots deal with though provoking moral and social questions - **While may seem absent of style, still is a style --> Dynamic because it changes with the times, and seems like it has no style, but in reality it's just a reflection of our lives -- still deliberate and not accidental (but LOOKS accidental, spontaneous, and organic)

Proscenium stage (dioramas)

- vary with proportions to stage house and to audience - struck by rows representing human bodies facing the same direction, sharing the same work -- ordering and organizing people into rows to watch something happen -- different level of participation

3 Big Ideas of 20th Century Realism

1) Marx and Das Capital 2) Social Science --> intro to psychology (Freud) 3) Darwin's Theory of Evolution

Stanislasky's 7 Principles

1) Training of body/voice --> without demands of theatre space, period, style, etc. 2) Stage techniques to project character WITHIN CONTRIVANCE --> don't let them see artifice (skill is in doing something well without looking like your trying) 3) Observation as a tool for building a role -- actors should be skilled observers in reality as a basis for building a role 4) Inner justification for everything done one stage → motivation behind why we chose to make a move -- all behavior comes from some form of Zadaka (motivation) 5) Throrough dramaturgy for GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES --> In order for actors to create the given circumstances(create the world), it is necessary that they know the world 6) Illusion of the first time --> Action is happening for the first time for the character so you have to make it look immediate and real for the audience watching (Stay in the moment and react) 7) Constant study (actor needs to be in constant state of study) -- Goal is not the effort it takes, but to make it effortless (state of constant challenge)

Hydraulics/lifts

Budapest Opera House, 1884 Entire sets that can rise out of the ground

Moscow Art Theatre

REALLY LONG REHEARSAL TIME

Melodrama

Simple, powerful stories, unequivocal moral tone POPULAR 3-acts