Term
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Definition
-Comic and sentimental songs
-Dramatic and farcical skits
-Jigs and shuffle dances
-Peppering of dialect jokes |
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Term
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Definition
| Use of burnt cork to blacken face with mouth and eyes enlarged by red and white lines |
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Term
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Definition
| One end of semi-circle in minstrel show – played sheep bone castanets |
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Term
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Definition
| Other end of semi-circle in minstrel show – played a tambourine |
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Term
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Definition
| Master of ceremonies in minstrel show – only white character not in black face |
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Term
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Definition
| Parodies of serious plays like those of Shakespeare and popular melodrama |
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Term
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Definition
| -Members of the audience paid to applaud the play |
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Term
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Definition
| Songs, Dances, Acrobatics, Animal acts, Eventually scenes from popular plays, often with famous stars |
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Term
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Definition
-Fascinated by stars
-Improved transportation to rural areas
-Growth of cities
-Niche marketing |
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Term
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Definition
-Rejected all artistic rules, suggested that genius creates its own rules
-Often used supernatural elements
-Many plays episodic in structure and scope
-Often more interested in creating mood and atmosphere than in developing believable plots or depth of character
-Did not believe in purity of genre – all subject matter appropriate for the stage
-Romantic hero usually a social outcast questing for justice, knowledge, truth
-Most common theme is gulf between people’s spiritual goals and their human limitations
-Often full of independent spirit of the age – Romantic hero fiercely defends this |
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Term
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Definition
-Background music played during the play
-Plays written to evoke strong emotions and feelings like suspense, fear, nostalgia
-Heroes and heroines clearly defined and in sharp contrast to bad guys
-Audience sympathizes with good characters, despises bad – boo – hiss
-Easily recognized stock characters
-High moral tone, conflict between good and evil clear – good always win |
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Term
| Stock characters in melodrama |
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Definition
| Stock characters in commedia delarte of the Italian Renaissance |
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Term
| Original melodrama and current form |
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Definition
-Domestic – soap opera
-Frontier – westerns
-Crime – detective and mystery
-Nautical – swashbuckler – includes 3 musketeers
-Equestrian – shows with animal heroes or bad guys |
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Term
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Definition
-Emphasizes careful cause and effect development
-Usually a tightly constricted crisis drama
-Action often revolved around a secret audience knows but characters don’t
-Opening of play provides all needed exposition
-Dramatic foreshadowing used throughout
-Each act build to a climactic moment – think of magazine serials
-“obligatory” scene – major scene in which characters face each other in a showdown
-Plot carefully resolved so there are no loose ends
-Often had devices like letters and lost documents to motivate action |
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Term
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Definition
| Stars, sets, supporting players, costumes all tour – not just the star |
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Term
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Definition
-Troupe of actors performing together for a set period of time in a number of plays
-Actors hired for set length of time – a season
-Young performers train in minor roles |
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Term
| Long runs and their impact |
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Definition
-Expanding audience base, smaller theatres, niche marketing
-Made actors’ lives unstable – had to audition for each role, not just for the company
-Made onstage training for difficult to come by
-Led to demise of many repertory companies because the long run took audience share and actors |
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Term
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Definition
-Dignified
-Carefully planned
-Detailed performances |
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Term
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Definition
o Emotional outbursts
o Punctuation of dramatic moments with strong physical gestures
o Made “vocal points” – emphasis of specific speeches and lines
o Relied on inspirations
o Edmund Kean – England
o Edwin Forrest – America
o Sarah Bernhardt – France |
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Term
| Melodramatic acting style |
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Definition
o Portrayed specific character types
o Emphasized physical and emotional display |
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Term
| Transitional acting style |
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Definition
o Based on everyday life
Stage movements
Vocal patterns
Characterizations
o William Charles Macready – England – the Macready Pause
o Eleonorea Duse – France
o Edwin Booth – America – one of America’s finest early actors, played Hamlet for 100 consecutive nights in New York) |
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Term
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Definition
o Based on stereotypical physical gestures and vocal patterns
o Based on observations from everyday life
o Also considered the founder of the principles of modern dance |
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Term
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Definition
o Famous black American actor
o Toured Europe for 40 years
o One of leading Shakespearean actors of 19th century
o Couldn’t perform in US because of racial tension and prejudice
o African Grove – 1820 – 1st formal black theatre company in America
o King Shotaway – 1823 – 1st play both written and performed by blacks |
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Term
| Innovative actor-managers prototypical directors |
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Definition
o Building on the work of David Garrick
o Created a more unified stage picture
o More rehearsal time
o Historical accuracy in scenic and costume design
o More realistic style of acting for some of them
o Experimented with blocking patterns
o Often the star actor |
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Term
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Definition
o Music, words, actions, scenery, lighting – all integrated
o Richard Wagner – also a well-known opera composer
o 20th century total theatre and modern ideas of a director
o Turn off house lights to focus attention on stage |
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Term
| Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen |
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Definition
o Lighting
o Sound effects
o Historically accurate and practical settings – practical means working
o Costumes which helped establish character
o Sometimes considered 1st modern director
o Important influence on future direction of realistic dramas |
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Term
| Anna Cora Mowatt – one of America’s 1st significant female playwrights |
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Definition
Wrote: Fashion – one of the 1st successful attempts to create a distinctly American comedy of manners
Had a career as a solo performer – a reader – prior to her stage career
Her respectability made it possible for future women to have successful “platform” careers |
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Term
| Madame Vestris – singer, actress, producer, designer |
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Definition
In 1840, staged a relatively uncut version of Midsummer Night’s Dream
Started a tradition of female Oberons that lasted 70 years |
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Term
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Definition
o Stage not raked
o No wing and shutter grooves
o Fly space – enough so no drops need to be rolled
o Modern orchestra and balconies – not pit and galleries
o Boxes in the proscenium arch
o Armchairs in orchestra
o Used heavy set pieces and free-standing braced scenery to create historically accurate sets
o Introduced elevator stage
o Used uncorrupted texts of Shakespeare before England did |
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Term
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Definition
o Elevator stage
o Revolving stage
o Moving panorama |
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Term
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Definition
o Could control
o Dim both stage and house lights
o Could bring house lights back up |
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Term
| Box set and Madame Vestris |
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Definition
o Flats hinged together to represent a room
o Sometimes with a ceiling
o Sometimes with working doors and windows |
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Term
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Definition
| o Used real furniture and real props, not just ones painted on flats |
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Term
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Definition
o Historical accuracy
o Move towards realism |
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Term
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Definition
o Depending on how set pieces arranged and referred to they could represent anything – mountain, palace
o People walk in a circle – meant now in a new location
o Makes the performance lean towards the presentational |
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Term
| Playwrights influenced by the Peking Opera |
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Definition
o Bertolt Brecht
o Thornton Wilder |
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Term
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Definition
o Ushered in modern theatre
o Sought to convince audience action represented everyday life
o Character behaved, talked and dressed like everyday people – molded by environment and heredity
o No heroes, villains, stereotypes
o Felt purpose of theatre to address social concerns people would rather not see
o Morally relative – refused to make simple moral judgments or resolve action neatly |
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Term
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Definition
o Founder of realism
o Norwegian
o Mastery of dramatic technique – well-made play
o Psychological insights
o Poetic symbolism
o Well-made play
o Individual amidst conflicting social pressures |
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Term
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Definition
| o Sprang up because the public so shocked by subject matter realistic plays were censored |
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Term
| 4 most famous and their location |
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Definition
o Théâtre Libre – France
o Freie Bühre – Germany
o Independent Theatre – England
o Moscow Art Theatre – Russia |
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Term
| Théâtre transformed business practices |
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Definition
| o They sold subscriptions, ie season tickets, to build a loyal customer base and reliable financial support |
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Term
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Definition
o Thought drama should address social reform
o Thought id didn’t have to be gloomy, depressing
o Used satirical ridicule to make his points
o Plays could be characterized as realistic comedy of manners |
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Term
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Definition
o Relies on indirect action and character development to create tension
o Interested in ordinary incidents of middle-class provincial life and outside forces that change it
o Perfect example of modern tragicomedy
o Tragicomic characters unable to fulfill deepest desires
o Makes us see tragedy underlying comedy – his comedy increase our awareness of tragic circumstances |
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Term
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Definition
o Most famous acting teacher, founded a system to train actors realistically – Constantin Stanislavski
o Most famous direct with ties to the Moscow Art Theatre – Meyerhold – started an anti-realistic movement that influenced avant-garde theatre in the 1960’s |
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Term
| Meyerhold and the 4th wall |
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Definition
o Staged performers in the house
o Left house lights up
o Brought the apron into the house – beginnings of the thrust stage?
o Trained actors in commedia, circus, vaudeville
o Experimented with multi-media |
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Term
| Stanislavski method of acting |
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Definition
o Set of techniques for and theories about acting
o Promotes a realistic style, use of given circumstances in the script
o Stresses psychological gestures and emotional truth
o Opposed to conventional theatricality – big gestures, prescribed movements, unnatural vocal cadences and delivery |
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Term
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Definition
| o Action key to emotion NOT emotion key to action |
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Term
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Definition
o Developed by Mikhail Chekhov
o Performer could create a realistic stage portrayal by finding physical characteristics for a role that would then trigger an internal response |
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Term
| Visual elements in realistic theatre |
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Definition
o Everything was to be as life-like and imitative of life as possible
o Costumes match those wore in real life by people of that class, age, gender
o Light comes from real sources onstage – lamps, candles, windows
o Box set furnished with real things – not stuff painted on flats – influenced of Madame Bestris (British actress, opera singer, and manager you inaugurated tasteful and beautiful stage décor and set a standard in stage costumes) |
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Term
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Definition
o Favors illusionistic and openly theatrical techniques and devices
o Dream sequences
o Illogical stage pictures rooted in subconscious or dream world
o Fantasy
o Poetry
o Ghosts and spirits |
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Term
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Definition
o Present mystery of cosmos
o Characters representative of human condition
o Deals with images
o Looks like in dream world
o Major goal to evoke mood and atmosphere – not tell a story
o Stage picture – bare essentials
o Leading symbolist playwrights and their plays
Later Ibsen Plays – The Master Builder
August Strindberg – A Dream Play
William Butler Yeats – The Hour Glass |
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Term
| Modern stage design (fathers of) |
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Definition
o Adolphe Appia – Switzerland
o Edward Gordon Craig – England |
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Term
| Modern stage design (elements) |
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Definition
o Platforms
o Levels
o Spaces functional for performers
o Lighting is an integral visual element – can control it now |
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Term
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Definition
o One basic set that can represent various locales through movement of its elements and slight additions or changes in props
o Established by Edward Gordon Craig
o Possible influence? Peking Opera |
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Term
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Definition
o Exposes devices of stage machinery
o Wants audience to know watching a play
o Borrows techniques from circuses, music halls, and other popular entertainments
o Meyerhold used these techniques |
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Term
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Definition
o Skeletal frames, ramps, stairways, platforms
o Highly theatrical – exposes stage machinery
o Not meant to indicate a specific locale
o Is a practical apparatus for actors |
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Term
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Definition
o Max Reinhardt from Austria was the leader of this movement
o Design and produce each play as it needs to be, not one style/form for all plays |
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Term
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Definition
o Movement developed and flourished in Germany around WW1
o Related to symbolism
o Representation of reality distorted to communicate inner feelings
o Drama characterized by an attempt to depict subjective states through
Distortion
Shrinking, often qrotesque images
Lyric, unrealistic dialogue |
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Term
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Definition
o Highly subjective, action seen through eyes of protagonist
o Distorted, dreamlike
o Characters are representative – names = clerk, man
o Language = telegraphic – most speeches 1-2 lines, alternating with long lyrical passages
o Protagonist journies through series of unrelated incidents
o Referred to as “station dramas” to release the plays to the stations of the cross and protagonist to Christ |
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Term
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Definition
o both new art forms and use multimedia
o both break down barriers between actor/audience
o irrational, illogical short p lays
o futurists were for war and machine age
o Dadaist for peace |
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Term
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Definition
o Grew out of dada
o Subconscious = highest place of reality
o Plays attempted to recreate the workings of the subconscious dramatically
o Many set in dream plays
o Mixed a recognizable event with fantastic happenings |
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Term
| French Surrealistic Playwright |
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Definition
o Jean Cocteau
o Took greek myths and contrasted modern ideas with these traditional stories
o Antigone |
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Term
Theatre of cruelty
(Antonin Artaud) |
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Definition
o Off-shoot of surrealism
o Theatre should be a sensory experience
o Viewer’s sense must be bombarded
o Audience center of attention
o Acting stylized and ritualistic
o Theatre needs to get back to ritualistic roots, not literary
o Based on magic and ritual which would liberate deep, violent, erotic impulses
o Wanted to reveal the cruelty existing beneath all human action
Pervasiveness of evil
Violent sexuality
o Theatre of cruelty wanted to accomplish the following:
Artaud thought he could purge modern society of all that was ugly
This is very similar to the Greek concept of Katharsis (theatre of cruelty uses a lot of biomechanical movement) |
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Term
Epic theatre
(Bertolt Brecht) |
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Definition
o Germany
o Aimed at intellect rather than emotions
o Seeks to present evidence regarding social questions in such a way than a considered, objective, intelligent conclusion is reached
o Like other epic theatre it
Covers a long time period
Shifts locale frequently
Has many characters |
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Term
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Definition
o Each production element should independently convey the political message – not a unified work
o Narrators frequently comment on dramatic action
o Audience is aware the actor is playing a part - presentational theatre
o Multi-media used
o Lighting structures visible
o Placed modern issues in historic and/or foreign settings
o Used title cards before scene to reveal action and force the audience to think about the political and economic implications
o Songs comment on the thematic implications of the dramatic action |
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Term
| Brecht’s most important works |
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Definition
o Threepenny Opera
o Mother Courage and her Children
o The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui
o Caucasian Chalk Circle
o Galileo
o Good Person of Setzchuan |
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Term
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Definition
o Jean Anoulin, Jean Giraudoux, and Jacques Copeau were the main figures in the text-based theatre movement in France.
o Copeau’s possibly greatest contribution to theatre was: theatre is an on-going process, not a finished work |
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Term
| Tyrone Guthrie’s contributions to directing |
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Definition
o Interpreting the classics imaginatively
o Unique production concepts
o Shakespeare in modern dress |
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Term
| Revues and the Book musical |
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Definition
o The revue was the most popular type of commercial theatre in the US in the 1920s and 1930s
o Revues consist of dramatic sketches and musical numbers
o The American Book Musical carefully integrates music, song, and dance with plot and character development
o Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II – wrote Showboat, which is considered one of the first book musicals
o Richard Rodgers |
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Term
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Definition
| o Uses only details to suggest specific locales and to reinforce the characterization of the dramatic action |
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Term
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Definition
o Saw theatre as a calling - a high art
o Wrote in every genre imaginable – considered part of the eclectic movement
o Paved the way for meaningful drama in the US
o Recognized as the finest dramatist the US has produced
o Won 4 Pulitzer Prizes, the last posthumously
o 1st American dramatist to win the Nobel Peace Prize for literature |
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Term
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Definition
o The Little theatre movement is important because
It is the heir of the independent theatres in Europe
Was founded as an alternative to commercial Broadway
It gave new playwrights and designers venues for their work
A good example is the Provincetown Players, the first theatre to present the works of Eugene O’Neill. |
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Term
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Definition
o Was produced in the Broadway district, though it was non-commercial
o Brought Stanislavski’s methods to the US
o Produced socially relevant drama
o Hoped to motivate political and social action through drama – (Brecht) |
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Term
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Definition
o Resident playwright of the Group theatre
o His work set standards for realism in writing and performance for several decades |
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Term
| The breakup of the Group Theatre |
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Definition
o Differences in interpreting the Stanislavski method
o Lee Strasberg – focused on emotional recall, the calling on a past experience to create a present emotion
o Stella Adler – focused on the ”given circumstances” of the script and the study of character
Actually met with Stanislavski to discuss his work
Her view is more like Stanislavski’s later views |
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Term
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Definition
o Both a singer and Shakespearean actor
o Othello in Othello
o Ran for 296 performances
o Ended up in Europe and the Soviet Union for a number of years due to views on racism – similar to Ira Aldridge |
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Term
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Definition
o The Federal Theatre Project was part of the WPA and gave jobs to unemployed theatre artists
o It helped the growth of black theatres because it set up separate black units
o Also produced “Living Newspapers”, dramatizations of newsworthy events of the 1930’s |
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Term
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Definition
o Founded in New York in 1914 (1914-1932)
o Founder: Anita Bush
o Brought broadway to African – American audiences
o Established Black actors’ skill with serious drama |
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