theatre appreciation: chapter 16
African American theatre: since 1950
- 1950s: explosion of Black theatre that continued for next 5 decades - Take a Giant Step by Louis Patterson - Amen Corner by James Baldwin (staged by playwright-director Owen Dodson)
performance art 1970s
- 1970s: body as an art object (artists suffered self-inflicted pain or went thru daily routines in museum/theatre setting) - 1970s: site-specific or environmental pieces in which setting/context crucial - ^^ performances created for specific locations
Sam Shepard & David Mamet
- 2 American playwrights: work presented first in small alternative, nonprofits theatres --> prominent in regional + off-Broadway theatres - mix concerns of high art w/ techniques from mass entertainments - blur distinction btwn realism & abstraction - critics suggest their work is postmodernist
off-Broadway theatre
- NYC: began in 1950s - alternative to commercial Broadway (expensive) - smaller (<200 seats) - located outside Times Square neighborhood - offered more opportunity for producing serious classics + experimental works - past 5 decades: more expensive + institutionalized - Playwrights Horizons: best-known important producing agency in Broadway theatre district - continues to present many signifiant playwrights + directors - best-known dramatists: John Guare, Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein
Spiderwoman Theatre
- Native American theatre + feminist theatre - founded 1975 - longest continually running women's theatre in NA - 3 founding members: Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, Muriel Miguel - draw from storytelling + other theatrical traditions, celebrate identities as American Indian women, comment on stereotypes of women in general
theatre today
- arts cont. to reflect world where they're being created - complex bc mirrors significant changes in global society + concerns of diverse & multicultural peoples - 2 key types of contemporary global theatre: performance art, postmodernism - ^^ reflects eclecticism
alternative theatres
- crucial development in American theatre in 2nd half of 20th century (alternative theatres to Broadway commercial theatre) - offer theatre for special audiences - more daring, bold, fresh; experimental - eclectic in style + subject matter - 4 manifestations: regional theatre, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, alternative regional theatres
feminist theatre
- developed alongside general feminist movement - attempt to acknowledge women writers (past + present) -
Latino-Latina theatre
- divided into 3 groups: Chicano theatre, Cuban American theatre, Puerto Rican or Nuyorican theatre - address experiences of Hispanics living in U.S. - sometimes written in Spanish, usually in English
performance art earliest decades
- earliest: related to painting or dancing - earliest forms: text minimized/eliminated - emphasis: visual + ritualistic aspects of performing - often work of individual artist (highly personal msgs, sometimes political + social) - overall effect: continually transforming collage - affinity btwn this & painting (emphasis on visual picture formed onstage) - stage movement closely related to dance
Sam Shepard
- first developed writing skills off-off-Broadway - fused surreal & absurdist styles, abandoned traditional plot structure + development - later dramas: Buried Child (Pulitzer Prize 1979), True West, Fool for Love, A Lie of the Mind, Heartless, A Particle of Dread - ^^ deal w/ American mythology, violence of American society, degeneration of the American family
Native American Theatre Ensemble
- founded by Hanay Geiogamah - premiere performance at La MaMa Theatre in NYC 1972 - later toured widely, in NA + Europe + elsewhere
regional theatre
- important development in U.S. in past half century - a number founded in 1950s + 1960s - began to flourish in large cities around country - nonprofit - employ professional performers, directors, designers - present best dramas from past + interesting new plays - chief source of new works in U.S. in recent years - best-known: Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis), Arena State (Washington, D.C.), Goodman Theatre (Chicago)
Asian American theatre
- most of 19th century + first half of 20th century, Asians appeared strictly as stereotypes - change: developed to present Asian American identity on stage, give the artists opportunities not available in mainstream theatre - 2 groups formed: Asian Exclusion Act in Seattle, Asian-American Theatre Workshop in SF
Federal Theatre Project
- most significant development for Black theatre - 1930s - meant to help theatre artists through Depression - formed separate Black units in 22 cities - mounted plays by Black & White authors, employed 1000s of African American writers, performers, techs
Native American Theatre
- no theatre tradition; spiritual + social traditions had theatrical elements - found in ancient rituals + communal celebrations, often infused w/ cosmic significance - no audience; observers = participants - many of these outlawed by American gov in 19th century - forced to go "underground" if it continued - American Indian Religious Freedom Act, 1972: made it legal again - 2 groups led way: Native American Theatre Ensemble, Spiderwoman
performance art recently
- often associated w/ individual artists - ^^ present autobiographical extended monologues or one-person shows (portray various charas thru interconnected monologue) - some stage presentations that ft. clowning + other popular slapstick techniques borrowed from circus + other popular arts
Chicano theatre
- originated primarily in west + southwest - came to prominence during civil rights movements of 1960s - theatre troupe: El Teatro Campesino ("farmworkers' theatre"), prototypes for other Mexican + Latino theatre groups (Teatro de la Gente, Teatro de la Esperanza) - ^^ grew out of work of Luis Valdez (joined Cesar Chavez) - Valdez wrote actos
performance art past 3 decades
- past 3 decades: referred to diff types of theatrical presentations
postmodernists
- question why certain artists + groups have held position of power/privilege thruout theatre history - rebel traditional readings of texts - argue theatre productions have a variety of "authors" (incl. directors, audience members) - directors: deconstruct classic dramas - artists question categorizations of works; mix abstraction + realism, works can't be easily classified - mix popular concerns + techniques w/ those of high art
off-off-Broadway
- result of off-Broadway's transformations - produced wherever inexpensive space is available (churches, lofts, warehouses, garages) - low prices, wide variety of offerings - lots of experimentation (ex: performance art, postmodernist works) - important theatre: Cafe LaMama - significant groups: Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Performance Group, Mabou Mines, Wooster Group - 2 experimental directors: Robert Wilson & Richard Foreman - ^^ work: theme or pov determined by director, material organized units analogous to frames in tv/film
African American theatre: 1900~1950
- turn of 20th century: rhythms of ragtime had strong influence on emerging musical theatre; served as bridge for talented African Americans - wrote/produced/directed first Black musical comedy: Bob Cole & William Johnson - Bert Williams & George Walker + wives joined composers + writers to produce musicals/operettas - ^^ first time Black people on Broadway stage w/o burnt-cook makeup, speaking w/o dialect, costumed in high fashion - early 20th century: formation of African American stock companies - ^^ most significant: Lafayette Players (founded 1914, Anita Bush) (originally Anita Bush Players) - ^^ closed 1932, produced >250 productions, employed number of Black stars - famous Black performers: Charles Gilpin, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters - the Depression forced Black performers to find other ways of earning/living, invent ingenious ways to create own theatre - ^^ Run Little Children, Mulatto (both by Langston Hughes)
Silk Road Rising
A Chicago theatre company that presents works relevant to the Asian American and Middle Eastern American experiences.
postmodernism
A contemporary concept suggesting that artists & audiences have gone beyond the modernist movements of realism and departure of realism. - categorizes much of experimentation in theatre past 3 decades - difficult to define - "cool, ironic affect; overt pastiche of work from past; insouciant mixture of high & low styles" - some contemporary critics question postmodernism, argue each of artists & works so categorized is unique - questions position of power in art + idea of accepted "canon" of classics
agit-prop
A term meaning agitation-propaganda, referring to plays with a strong social or political agenda.
Rajiv Joseph
Author of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Guards at the Taj whose father immigrated from India.
Who are Irish playwrights that question traditional institutions and have gained worldwide fame?
Conor McPherson Martin McDonagh
What famous Asian American playwright, who has argued for the casting of Asian Americans, has had some of his plays produced on Broadway as well as in regional theatres?
David Henry Wang
True or False: Theatre of the Oppressed refers to an avant-garde theatrical movement started by playwright Tadashi Suzuki.
False
Noor Theatre
Founded by three women of Middle Eastern descent and presents work from Middle Eastern communities in the U.S.
What is true about playwright August Wilson?
His plays have been produced on Broadway. He wrote 10 plays reflecting the African American experience during each decade of the 20th century. Denzel Washington starred in a revival of his play Fences.
Black Watch, a Scottish documentary drama (depicted in the photo) is about soldiers and their experience in what war?
Iraq War
Identify the various themes that feminist theatre encompasses.
It urges audience members to examine gender bias. It acknowledges women writers of the past and present. It questions traditional gender roles.
What is true about early Native American theatre?
It was based on ritual and social traditions. It was outlawed in the 19th century. It was participatory in nature.
What is true of African theatre?
It was heavily influenced by colonial powers. It frequently deals with social and political issues. It is written in a variety of languages.
What is NOT a main branch of modern Japanese theatre?
Kathakali
Ayad Akhtar
Pakistani-American who won the pulitzer Prize for the play Disgraced.
Joseph Haj
Palestinian American director who became the eighth artistic director of the Guthrie Theater.
A Raisin in the Sun
Possibly the most important production of the postwar era. By Lorraine Hansberry.
What is true of postmodernism?
Postmodern productions often transform the text in order to create a unique production. Postmodern plays question authority & those in power. Critics argue about its definition.
The term Nuyorican refers to?
Puerto Rican culture, mostly in New York.
actos
Short agit-prop dramas about the lives of Chicano workers.
What festival in Canada reflects the globalization of theatre?
Stratford Festival
What theatre artist is noted for creating theatre pieces that remain distinctly Japanese while also entering into conversation with theatre across the globe?
Tadashi Suzuki
The first ground breaking play about the lives of men leading openly gay lives, written in 1968, was called what?
The Boys in the Band
Lloyd Richards
The first Black director on Broadway.
Trouble in ind
The first play by an African American woman to receive commercial production. By Alice Childress
What has hindered the development of contemporary theatre in India?
The greater emphasis on the popular film industry.
Augusto Boal was a famous Brazilian theatre artist whose theoretical idea of participatory theatre focused on social issues is known as?
Theatre of the Oppressed
True or False: Because of fundamentalism and totalitarianism, there is no longer any theatrical activity in the Middle East.
True
Augusto Boal was fascinated with what relationship in the theatre?
actors and audience
Amiri Baraka's Dutchman
african american theatre
South Africa has produced many significant playwrights and theatre companies, including in the 1970s the Market theatre, People's Space Theatre, and Junction Avenue Theatre Company; these companies frequently produced works that questioned South Africa's ____________________.
apartheid
David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly
asian american theatre
What has been perceived as a threat to the future of theatre?
computer entertainments television film
Peter Weiss' The Investigation
documentary drama
Tadashi Suzuki's training system, known as the Suzuki Method, has students spend a great deal of time focusing on their what?
feet
Maria Irene Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends
feminist theatre
Tony Kushner's Angels in America
gay & lesbian theatre
El Teatro Campesino
latino-latine theatre
Spiderwoman Theatre
native american theatre
Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight:Los Angeles 1992
performance art
What contemporary theatre form is often performed in converted, found spaces and museums?
performance art
Mabou Mines
postmodernism
What theatre style mixes abstraction with realism and high art with popular art?
postmodernist theatre
What African American musical form aided and influenced Broadway musical theatre in the beginning of the 20th century?
ragtime
____________ theaters like the Goodman Theatre and the Arena Stage, were established as nonprofit, even though they employ the same professionals as commercial theater and have played a significant role in the development of new plays in the U.S.
regional
Even though theatre was often prohibited due to islamic teaching, early Middle Eastern theatre included and developed of what?
storytelling popular comedy shadow puppets
Postmodernist directors are noted for?
textual deconstruction