Theatre History 1800s and 1900s
Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792-1822 Poet-first Gothic novel was Zastrozzi (1810) He wrote "The Necessity of Atheism"-got him expelled from Oxford. Left England with his new wife and produced all his major works. (Prometheus Unbound) Drowned in a storm at sea.
William Charles Macready
1793-1873 English Actor and manager Leading figure in development of acting and production techniques in the 19th century. Second only to Englishman Edmund Kean. Played: Hamlet, Lear, Othello, and Richard III Edwin Forrest fans hated him. (Astor Place Riots)
The Napoleonic Wars
(1803-1815) were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire led by Emperor Napoleon I against an array of European powers formed into various coalitions.
Anna Cora Mowatt
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Augustin Daly
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Ira Aldridge
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Modernism
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Steele MacKaye
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Surrealism
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The African Grove Theatre
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The Astor place riots
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The Farren Riots
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The Operetta
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Walter Gropius
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William E Burton
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John Augustus Stone
... American actor, dramatist, and playwright. He suffered periods of insanity and he committed suicide by jumping into a river. Best friend of Edwin Forrest.
Eleanore Duse
... Italian actress, dramatic innovator. Began acting as a child. Associated with Ibsen's work.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
...English actor manager of Haymarket Theatre in 1880s and 1890s
Stephane Mallarme
...French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet. Associated with Dadaism and Surrealism
George Bernard Shaw
...Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays.
Konstantin Stanislavski
...Russian actor and theatre director, developed the Stanislavsky system, a progression of techniques used to train actors and actresses to draw believable emotions to their performances.
Federal Street Theatre
...also known as the Boston Theatre. It was "the first building erected purposely for theatrical entertainments in the town of Boston."
Edmund Kean
...celebrated Shakespearean actor born in England. Performed allover Europe and America. He was well known for his short stature, volatile personal life.
The Unification of Germany
18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there Proclaimed Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor
Romanticism
1800-1850, it emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature.
The Belle Epoque
1870-1914, a period of peace and optimism in Europe, from this came advancements in technology and science.
Realism
1870-1960 that developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances. Part of a broader artistic movement, it shared many stylistic choices with naturalism, including a focus on everyday (middle-class) drama, ordinary speech, and dull settings. Realism and naturalism diverge chiefly on the degree of choice that characters have: while naturalism believes in the overall strength of external forces over internal decisions, realism asserts the power of the individual to choose. Ibsen.
Naturalism
1880-1920. Theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings everyday speech forms (prose over poetry); a secular world-view (no ghosts, spirits or gods intervening in the human action); an exclusive focus on subjects that are contemporary and indigenous (no exotic, otherworldly or fantastic locales, nor historical or mythic time-periods); an extension of the social range of characters portrayed (away from the aristocrats of classical drama, towards bourgeois and eventually working-class protagonists); and a style of acting that attempts to recreate the impression of reality Naturalism was first advocated explicitly by Émile Zola in his 1880 essay entitled Naturalism on the Stage.
Stendhal
19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism, as is evident in the novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839).
Joanna Baillie
A Scottish poet and dramatist. She was very well known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage.
August Strindberg
A Swedish Realist writer, he wrote "the father" and "miss Julie"
Edwin Forrest
A prominent nineteenth-century American Shakespearean actor. His legendary feud with the British actor William Charles Macready helped spark the deadly Astor Place Riot of 1849.
The Royal Court Theatre
A significant theatre in London founded in 1904 and closed in 1907
John Philip Kemble
Acting manager of Drury Lane and during its time it had fallen in popularity.
The Irish National Theatre Society
Also known as the Abby Theatre opened in1904 and was the first state subsidized theatre in the English world. It was associated with the writers of the Irish Literary Rival.
Thomas D Rice "Jim Crow"
American performer and playwright who appropriated African-American vernacular speech, song, and dance to become one of the most popular minstrel show entertainers of his time.
Arthur Wing Pinero
And actor turned writer, his major success was "The Magistrate". He paved the way for Ibsen
Bauhaus
Art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. Translates to School of Building
George Frederick Cooke
As famous for his erratic habits as for his acting, he was largely responsible for initiating the romantic style in acting that was later made famous by Edmund Kean.
William Henry Brown
Assembled the first known company of African American actors in the United States in New York.
Charles Kemble
Brother of Philip. He managed the covent garden. Worked to show antiquarianism an used historically accurate costumes in the shows.
Junius Brutus Booth
Came to the United States from England. A touring theatre star. Did more than any other performer to create America's taste for tragic acting.
Max Reinhardt
Austrian director who did theatre in Berlin until WWII when he moved to America and opened Reinhardt School of Theatre in California.
The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Began an experimental acting group begun in 1866 and directed by George II, duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and his wife, the actress Ellen Franz. It was one of the first companies in which the importance of the director was stressed.
The minstrel show
Blackface Theatre in America in the 1830s and 1840s.
Granville Barker
English Actor, manager, director, playwright. He played the lead in Richard II under William Pole.
John Keats
English Romantic poet.
Oscar Wilde
English playwright wrote "the importance of being earnest".
Dadaism
European avant-garde art movement, associated with anti-art and randomness.
The Freie Buhne (or Free Stage)
Founded in 1880 by 10 writers supervised by Otto Brahm
Theatre de l'oeuvre
Founded in Paris 1893. First theatre to support symbolist movement. Ubu Roi premiered here
Jacques Copeau
French critic Inspired by Rouche, he opened his own theatre. He liked the bare platform stage because it placed emphasis on the actor.
Eugene Scribe
French dramatist and librettist. He is known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play"
Alfred de Musset
French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle (The Confession of a Child of the Century, autobiographical) from 1836.
George Sand
French novelist and memoirist. She is equally well known for her much publicized romantic affairs with a number of artists, including the composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin and the writer Alfred de Musset.
Victor Hugo
French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Les Misérables, 1862, Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
Emile Zola
French writer, the most well-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism.
Alexandre Dumas Pere
French writer. His works have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.
Richard Wagner
German composer of operas
Georg Buchner
German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was also a revolutionary, a natural scientist, and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. His literary achievements, though few in number, are generally held in great esteem in Germany and it is widely believed that, had it not been for his early death, he might have joined such central German literary figures as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller at the summit of their profession.
Heinrich von Kleist
German poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.
Henrik Ibsen
He established a reputation as a radical thinker, he used symbolism and subjects with more personal relationships than social problems. He told stories of the everyday life
The Independent Theatre
It was a by-subscription-only organisation in London from 1891 to 1897, founded by Dutch drama critic Jacob Grein to give "special performances of plays which have a literary and artistic rather than a commercial value
William Wordsworth
Major English Romantic Poet. Launched the Romantic Age in English Literature and co-wrote Lyrical Ballads with Samual Taylor Coleridge.
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris
Married to Armand Vestris. She was a famous dancer. She performed in London and Paris. Became famous for her 'breeche's role' in "Giovanni in London" which is a burlesque.
Marxism
Marxist methodology uses economic and sociopolitical inquiry and applies that to the critique and analysis of the development of capitalism and the role of class struggle in systemic economic change.
Chestnut Street Theatre
Philadelphia. Built for Thomas Wignell's theatre company. Burned down and rebuilt twice.
Henry Arthur Jones
Playwright who wrote the silver king, the dancing girl and the liars.
A abstract expressionism
Post World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York in the 1940s. Movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
John millington Synge
Put the styles of Yeats and Lady Gregory together, made the mythic familiar and the familiar mythic. "In the shadow of the glen"
Anton Chekov
Russian Playwright, wrote the Seagull and the Cherry Orchard, and Uncle Vanya. His characters aspire for a better life but lack the skill or initiative to pursue it.
Vsevelod Meyerhold
Russian director, producer,actor. Left Stanislavsky to create his own troupe. He was unconventional.
Sir Walter Scott
Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet. His works were popular internationally. Judge and legal administrator.
The festival theatre in beyreuth
Since its opening in 1876, the Bayreuth Festival has been a socio-cultural phenomenon. The inauguration took place on 13 August 1876, with a performance of Das Rheingold. Present at this unique musical event were Kaiser Wilhelm, Dom Pedro II of Brazil, King Ludwig (who attended in secret, probably to avoid the Kaiser), and other members of the nobility, as well as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who committed much effort to helping his then good friend Wagner establish the festival,[3] and such accomplished composers as Anton Bruckner, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Franz Liszt, and the young Arthur Foote.
Francois Delsarte
Sought to analyze emotions and ideas and determine how they are outwardly expressed.
Gordon Craig
Started as an actor in Iverings company, then he became and designer at the Imperial theatre in London
The "noble savage"
Stock character that expresses the concept of an outsider, or "other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness.
Adolphe Appia
Swiss Scenic and lighting designer and believed in 3 dimensional sets. He designed for Wagners plays.
Maxim Gorkey
The famous writer of realistic stories like "the lower depths". He helped with political revolution which lead to his exile. Head of the soviets writers Union.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The major theorist of romanticism in England. He wrote "Remorse"
Expressionism
The modernist movement in art originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. It sought to express meaning and emotional experience rather than physical reality. The painting "The Scream" epitomizes this.
Sarah Bernhardt
The most famous actress the world has ever known, called "The Divine Sarah"
"The Yankee" character
The symbol of the American common man, simple and naive on the surface,but upholding democratic principles and despising pretense an sham. The first American actor of the Yankee role was James H. Hackett.
The Industrial Revolution
The transition to new manufacturing processes 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools.
Bowery theatre
Theatre in New York City opened in 1826-catered to working class audience. Burnt down 5 times in 17 years but remained in business until 1929.
Louis-Jacques Daguerre
Twas a French artist and photographer, accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre. Inventor of the daguerreotype process of photography.
William Butler Yeats
Wrote 30 plays, poetic style. Wrote "at the hawk's well"
Alfred Jarry
Wrote Ubu Roi, known as the first absurdist drama.
Lady Augusta Gregory
Wrote one act peasant comedies one of which was "the spreading of the news". She wrote in a familiar style about familiar subjects.
Maurice Maeterlinck
Wrote the best French dramas of his time. Wrote "the intruder" "the blind" and the "death of tintagiles".
Rene Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt
a French theatre director and playwright, active at the Théâtre de la Gaîté and best known for his modern melodramas such as The Dog of Montarges, the performance of which at Weimar roused the indignation of Goethe.
August Wilhelm Schlegel
a German poet, translator, critic, and a foremost leader of German Romanticism. His translations of Shakespeare made the English dramatist's works into German classics.
Vladimir Demirovich danchenko
a Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre organizer, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898.
Sarah Siddons
a Welsh-born English actress, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was most famous for her portrayal of the Shakespearean character, Lady Macbeth, a character she made her own. The society in her name gives an Award in her name in Chicago every year to a prominent actress.
Royall Tyler
an American jurist and playwright.In 1787, his comedy The Contrast was performed in New York City, the first American comedy to be performed by professional actors.
Robert Browning
an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax.
The Syndicate
an organization that controlled the booking of the top theatrical attractions in the United States, starting in 1896. The organization was composed of six men, each of whom controlled theatres and bookings.
Mme de Stael
commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era. She was one of Napoleon's principal opponents. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.
Melodrama
dramatic or literary work in which the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization.
The Moscow Art Theatree
is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas that were Russia's dominant form of theatre at the time. The theatre, the first to regularly put on shows implementing Stanislavski's system, proved hugely influential in the acting world and in the development of modern American theatre.
