final other info Flashcards
pre WW1
Pre-World War 1 Germany was booming: Germany had replaced England as the largest industrial power in Europe.
Between 1875-1910, the population of Berlin doubled; Munich’s tripled.
Political theories of socialism and communism were particularly strong in Germany.
Brecht’s hometown of Augsburg had a Social Democratic newspaper by 1900.
Universal male suffrage had been introduced in 1871; there was a growing push for female suffrage.
These new political ideas were seen as a threat to the old world order.
WW1
World War 1 breaks out in 1914.
The War was seen as a chance for the German-Austrian Empires to at last defeat their enemies and continue expansion.
Germany regarded it as a chance to reassert the manly virtues of the mythic German past.
The first few months of the war were characterized by a high degree of national unity and optimism.
The war devastated Germany: 2.4 million German soldiers were killed.
1 million of the Germans who died on the Western Front died in the first 5 months of the war.
During the war, there was a food shortage in Germany during the war because of an Allied naval blockade, and poor harvests at home.
An estimated 700,000 German citizens died because of hunger and disease.
Brecht was conscripted as a medical orderly in 1918.
It’s clear that his exposure to the war instilled in him a deep disillusionment with the patriotic ideals to which he had been so enamored only a few years earlier.
After WW1
The Treaty of Versailles ends World War 1 in 1918.
Germany is forced to accept total responsibility for the war:
Germany has to pay war reparations (est. at $33 b)
They have to shrink their army
They are forbidden from manufacturing arms
They lose territory
Not surprisingly, the Treaty is deeply unpopular with the German people.
Although conditions of the Treat were harsh, Europe was lax in enforcing them.
Many historians believe that the harsh treaty and the subsequent lax enforcement of it helped to cause the rise of fascism and Hitler in the 1920’s and 30’s.
After the war, the German monarchy collapsed.
There was essentially a civil war inside Germany as faith in the old order collapsed, and those on the left and right struggled to gain control.
Street fighting last for about a year between hard-line communists and democratic socialists.
the cabaret of berlin
The cabaret of Berlin was a particular style of cabaret, and had a strong influence on Brecht.
It featured a variety of performances, including music and comedic sketches.
It also made heavy use of satire, and hosted by conferencier, or a master of ceremonies.
Cabaret wasn’t just about entertainment: it set out to shock, scandalize, and satirize.
They were very liberal and commented on topical subjects, including politics.
Performances were often avant garde in nature and audiences were rowdy and fervent hecklers.
Even as the Nazis were gaining power, the cabarets made fun of them.
Cabaret strongly influenced Brecht, who both attended and performed in cabarets.
the great deppression
1929: the world economy collapses (the Wall Street crash - which leads to the Great Depression).
Instability in Germany increases.
The weak Weimar government is unable to contain the growing hostility between the two biggest political forces in Germany:
The Communist Party
The National Socialists (Nazis)
The streets are almost in a state of open warfare. The republic relies on the military to put down uprisings, and the military therefore gains political influence.
Unemployment rises and the number of those impoverished in Germany rises.
By 1932, approx 30% of the German population is unemployed.
The government responded by cutting salaries, wages, and public spending.
There were large scale demonstrations, heightened police presence, and an explosion in popularity of the National Socialist Germany Workers Party, or the Nazis.
The Nazis largely appealed to…
unemployed, single men
many identified with the Nazi message of nationhood and family and as a force that could restore traditional values.
Nazis also promised that they would seek reprisals for the unpopular Treaty of Versailles.
1933: in a general election, the Nazis win 43% of the vote. By numbers, they have the most seats in the house, but are not a clear majority.
Hitler is appointed Chancellor.
February 1933: The Nazis burn the Reichstag, the German parliament.
It is a staged event; the Nazis blame the Communists, giving them an excuse to suspend the constitution and end civil rights.
Brecht leaves Germany the day after the fire.
Within seven months, all political parties in Germany are illegal except the Nazi party.
Communists, labour unions, and artists are amongst the first targets of the Nazis
brecht
Brecht was strongly influenced by the tradition of the German cabaret.
For example, he uses music in all of his plays.
Scenes are often introduced by a master of ceremonies kind of character.
Scenes are episodic and not causally linked.
There is often direct address to the audience, the way there would be in cabaret.
Brecht’s impact on theatre is significant
his deliberate move away from the theories of Aristotle is nothing short of revolutionary
he is often criticized that he fails to give his characters a true sense of life or individuality
however, theatre has not really been the same since his work, and his plays are regularly produced and adapted today
Ruined by Lynn Nottage is an adaptation of Mother Courage
Augusto Boal, who wrote Theatre of the Oppressed, was also influenced by Brecht
other writers, such as Tony Kushner, who often employs deliberate moves away from realism, show his influence
his company, the Berliner Ensemble, still exists and performs in Germany
Suzin-Lori Parks
Parks is a playwright and theatre theorist. She is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
she began writing stories at an early age
she attended college in Massachusetts. One of her instructors was James Baldwin, whose plays are particularly noted for his passionate discussion on race in America.
Now considered an icon, he was particularly active during the Civil Rights Era
Baldwin encouraged Parks to keep writing plays, describing her as, “an utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time.”
she actually studied acting for a year at the to better understand theatre; she wrote her first play, The Sinner’s Place in 1984 while she was still a student
She won Obie awards for her plays Imperceptible Mutabilities of the Third Kingdom (1989) and Venus (1996).
Topdog/Underdog premiered in 2001 and moved to Broadway in 2002.
It won the Pulitzer Prize that year, and Entertainment Weekly listed it as one of the best 50 Plays of the Last 100 years.
Her more recent plays include a new adaptation of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (nominated for Best Revival of a Musical in 2012) and…
Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2, and 3, was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer, and she has plans to write 6 more parts of the play.
Parks was named by Time Magazine as one of “100 Innovators for the Next Wave.”
Her writing is known for its poetry, irreverence, and humour.
It has been compared to jazz music for its improvizational structure and wordplay.
She says she writes in the “drama of accumulation,” where story is built by tension and theme.
inter war years
INTER-WAR YEARS (1919-1939)
Giddy hedonism (the Roaring Twenties in North America and Golden Twenties in Germany)
Prohibition and rise of organized crime (in the USA)
The beginning of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance
Artistic experimentation in all disciplines
Great Depression (1929 onwards) and widespread poverty
Political instability and rise of populist movements, such as socialism and communism
Rise of fascism, primarily in Europe, but also Japan
fascism
Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual
Comes from the Italian word fascio “group, association,” literally “bundle.”
in essence, the Treaty of Versailles worked in precisely the opposite way it was intended to: instead of preventing war and disarming Germany, it enabled it.
Fascism rose in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan
As Nazis gained control in Germany and then in more and more territories, they maintained strict control of all media and the arts.
Only radios that could received limited signals from German government were legal.
All arts became propaganda. Those that couldn’t, or didn’t meet the Nazis’ standard of “proper” art, were destroyed or outlawed. There were government-organized book burnings.
samuel beckett
Born and raised in Ireland to a Protestant family. He was a teacher for a time, but hated it.
Influenced by James Joyce, another Irish writer, who wrote Ulysses. Beckett worked with Joyce for a time in Paris in the 20’s.
Ulysses tells the story of one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, and is full of puns, parodies, and literary allusions.
Before World War 2, although he despised fascism, Beckett was of the mind that politics and nationalism were temporary, where as art was timeless.
He was in Paris during WW2, and witnessed the persecution of Jews, some of whom were his friends.
He fought with the French Resistance, until he was forced to flee from Paris in 1942.
He and his wife fled to the south of France on foot
it was from that time that he began to write in French
After the war, Beckett’s work changed.
his works have an atmosphere of confusion, nameless authority figures, and cruel punishments.
Although less connected to the recognizable world, you could argue that his work became more political.
Perhaps his plays came from idea that even if human suffering is inevitable, then it is all the more intolerable that people should be tortured and humiliated by other people.
Later in life, he refused to allow his plays to be performed in South Africa during Apartheid
When he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, he said, “Quelle catastrophe!”
aurther miller
Arthur Miller is best known for three of his earliest plays: All My Sons from 1946, about a manufacturer of airplanes who is revealed to have put profit above safety
Death of a Salesman from 1949 (written the same year R & H did South Pacific) and The Crucible from 1953
Milller’s plays are similar in style to those of Williams and Hansberry: dialogue is rooted in realism with a reliance on subtext
but realism is challenged in staging, dialogue and stage symbols—all of which show a psychological or subjective truth rather than a literal truth
Streetcar and A Death of a Salesman were both directed by Elia Kazan, who had been a founding member of The Group Theatre from the 1930’s
thefurther spread interest and use of acting methods based on Stanislavksy
in Death of a Salesman, the main character of Willy Loman has been discarded by a system to which he has devoted his life (and which he still idealizes)
The play a direct attack on materialism and the “American Dream,” which was so dominant at that time
it is often considered the first American tragedy
told in a montage of scenes that jump through time and portray dreams, it explores the psychological damage experienced by the protagonist
It won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best New Play (1949)
Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, which was an attack on the House for Un-American Activities Committee Hearings
Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe at the time, and it’s believed that her celebrity protected him from the worst of the hearings
Elia Kazan, who had directed Salesman, testified “named names,” implicating eight members of the former Group Theatre as having been involved with the Communist Party
this irrevocably damaged his friendship with many people, most notably Miller
Miller left the American stage for long periods starting in the mid-1950’s, largely disgusted with the increasing commercialism of Broadway
his attacks on the American Dream and features of American society continue to influence American theatre, notably by writers like Annie Baker (The Flick) and Dominique Morrisseau (Detroit, Pipeline)
Tom Stoppard
another seminal British playwright in the 60’s is Tom Stoppard, arguably most famous for his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The play is an absurd look at two incidental characters from Hamlet, and what happens to them when they are “off stage”
main characters from Hamlet make short appearances, but the focus is on R & G, who come up with word games and other sort of activities to pass the time
first produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, it was produced 1967 at the National Theatre, it made Stoppard an overnight sensation
influenced by Beckett —where two characters must while away the time in an unidentified landscape, in this case, the abstracted landscape that is essentially “off stage”
it toured to Broadway the next year
the civil rights movement
Jim Crow Laws were established in the South after the American Civil War to institute racial segregation
Blacks couldn’t use the same public facilities as whites; they couldn’t go to the same schools; in some cases, they couldn’t live in the same towns; interracial marriage was illegal
Blacks were legally allowed to vote, but in many places they barred from voting, or even registering to vote
in 1941, President Roosevelt issued an executive order that opened national defence jobs to anyone, regardless of race; Black men and women served heroically in WW2
after the war, President Truman issued an executive order to end segregation in the military.
This set the stage for the movement that was to come.
activists deliberately went into areas where the white community would fight back
In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man
she was arrested.
Her arrest is usually seen as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
Parks’ arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for over a year.
activists wanted to was the push the Federal Government to outlaw segregation at the federal level
it worked: in November 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that seating segregation was illegal
Martin Luther King Jr. was made leader of the movement, and would remain at the forefront of the movement in general until his murder in 1968
part of the reason the movement was successful was because it deliberately used non-violence.
Black people legally had the right to vote, but were often prevented from doing so by illegal (but accepted) means.
The disenfranchisement of Black voters had far-reaching effects. For example, you could not sit on a jury unless you were registered to vote.
to protest voter suppression, activists planned to march 54 miles from Selma, Alabama to the capital of Montgomery
when they came to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, troopers attacked (and were cheered on by white bystanders).
the attack was televised and sparked outrage
King called on people of conscience for support. Thousands from all over the country came to join the march.
on March 21, King led marchers out of Selma, over the bridge, and to Montgomery
their initial numbers are estimated at 3-5000 people; by the end of the 5 day march, it had grown to 25,000
the Voting Rights Act was adopted into law in August of that year
During the Civil Rights Movement and the increasing protests over the war in Vietnam, Broadway in NYC was dominated by R & H musicals like The Sound of Music and South Pacific, as well as others like My Fair Lady
all of these exuded the optimism of post-war America
more info on the 1968 theatre act
English theatre had been subjected to censorship by a 1737 law that made the Royal Chamberlain the Royal Examiner of all Plays
Waiting for Godot, for example, when it was brought to England, was subject to attempts to censor it—even ban it—in 1953
the censor didn’t like the fact that the character Vladimir and Estragon kept leaving the stage to urinate
this law came to a head in 1965, over a play called Saved by playwright Edward Bond
in 1965, the English Stage Company wanted to present the play
the primary source of controversy was from a scene in which three young men goad each other over a baby in a pram, abusing it until their violence culminates when they stone the baby to death
Set in south-east London, Saved tells the story of a young man, Len, struggling to find hope as the girl he loves gives birth to another man’s unwanted child
the audience reacted as well: opening night saw shouts of disgust from the audience and violence in the foyer of the theatre
Although some reviewers admired the play, most reviewers attacked it
living theatre
another company of the late 1960’s, whose work speaks to the radicalism and experimentation of the time was a company called The Living Theatre
The Living Theatre not only wanted to present challenging subject matter, but wanted to change the way theatre itself worked
the founders, Julian Beck and Judith Malina, were influenced by several different things, including Bertolt Brecht and Anarchism.
in the 60’s especially, they were influenced by hippie drug culture, and also the works Antonin Artaud
Produced by Living Theatre in 1968, during increasing protests against the war in Vietnam, Paradise Now was a chaotic, participatory performance that was “just this side of a public orgy”
it featured protests about laws restricting freedom; actors performing tableaux and “spiritual voyages” that created more and more contact between the audience and actors
they re-created scenes and photographs of the war in Vietnam
the audience was encouraged to break off and form “revolutionary cells,” smoke marijuana, experience “flying” - jumping off a high platform into the arms of others below and swept into a “ritual of love” - after which actors were supposed to lead everyone naked through the streets
this was to incite non-violent anarchist revolution
Antonin Artaud
Artaud was a playwright, poet, and theatre theorist who had been most active in France during the 1930’s and was part of the Experimentalism of the inter-war period
however, it was the Living Theatre (and others) who picked up his theories in the 60’s and beyond
alarmed by the rise of violence and fascism in his lifetime, his ideas were aimed in part to combat that violence
he believed that civilization had made humans sick and repressed
he argued that the true function of the theatre was to rid humankind of these repressions and liberate each individual’s instinctual energy.
He proposed removing the barrier of the stage between performers and audience and producing mythic spectacles
royal Shakespeare company
When the Shakespeare Memorial Company, based in Stratford, England, reinvented itself in 1961
It re-named itself the Royal Shakespeare Company
It began producing work with a particular mandate: it wanted to revitalize Shakespeare not as a playwright, but for contemporary audiences.
It was interested in stripping away past traditions of playing Shakespeare, and instead making them speak powerfully to the present
past traditions of performance were called “the grand style” where actors emphasized the seriousness of the subject and the language…and didn’t speak to contemporary tastes at all
another important aspect of late 60’s and 70’s theatre in the west
another important aspect of late 60’s and 70’s theatre in the west was the explosion of female playwrights and emergence of theatre companies with feminist agendas
for example, Marsha Norman and Beth Henley, two American playwrights who eventually won Pulitzer Prizes (for ‘Night, Mother by Norman and Crimes of the Heart by Henley) both began writing in the late 60’s/early 70’s
Wendy Wasserstein, also American, had an impact with her play Uncommon Women and Others in 1977, a collage play about the struggles of young women in college
she won the Pulitzer with her The Heidi Chronicles in 1988, which traces over a 20 year timespan the protagonist’s awakening feminist consciousness
Caryl Churchill also emerged from this time in the UK, along with fellow British writer Timberlake Wertenbaker
during this time, many feminist theatres were founded
just in the USA, this included Women’s Experimental theatre, Spiderwoman Theatre, the Women’s Project of the American Place Theatre — all in NYC
Lillith Theatre was founded in San Francisco
At the Foot of the Mountain was founded in Minnesota
Feminist theatre companies often sought to subvert the typical structure of theatre itself
feminist companies often organized themselves as collectives, and approached the creation of works in non-traditional ways, such as through improvisation
Nightwood Theatre, based in Toronto, is one of these companies founded during this time (1979)
they continue to support, train and produce female and female-identify artists, as well as advocate for gender equity in the theatre
Goodnight Desdemona, Good morning Juliet by Ann-Marie MacDonald was first produced by Nightwood.
Maria Irena Fornes, a Cuban-American playwright, is often noted for her play Fefu and Her Friends, which was produced in New York City in 1977
It is told in episodic structure and experiments with form and characterization
it featured a 2nd Act that was performed with simultaneous scenes, where the actors performed in 4 different locations and the audience, in different groups, walked to each one
the Arena Theatre (Teatro de Arena)
the Arena Theatre (Teatro de Arena) had been founded in 1953 by José Renato in São Paulo, who wanted to produce serious drama with an emphasis on ensemble playing and high production values
however, in its early days the company had no dedicated performance space and relatively few resources
So they began to stage shows in the round—in arena staging
this eliminated the necessity for expensive sets
this type of staging was very unusual and innovative in Brazil at the time
Arena’s work shifted the focus from the artistry of set design and production and focussed instead on the actors
their first shows were successes and led to the establishment in 1955 of the first theatre in the round in downtown São Paulo.
João Goulart
in 1964, the president of the time, João Goulart, was overthrown by an military coup
Goulart had been a reformer but had been criticized by both the left and the right
General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco came to power in 1964
Branco’s government tried to get inflation under control (which was at 100% in 1964)
He also suppressed labour protests, cut ties with Cuba and supported the American-led invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965
Branco amended the constitution in 1965 to allow “the government to abolish [all other] existing parties and to make all future elections of president, vice-president, and governor indirect.”
this effectively ended democracy in Brazil for the next 20 years
