Final Spring

Question 0

Melodrama

Answer 0

Music drama, used to get around the licensing of theatres. Plays such as The Poor of New York, written by Boucicault

Question 1

Minstrel Show

Answer 1

Began in the 1820s by Thomas Dartmouth Rice. Used as a means to show “authentic” authentic slave culture. White actors put on black face. Had a three part format: a semicircle with Tambo and Bones on the ends, the olio which would be specialty acts, and the after piece which would be a scene or full one act play.

Question 2

Well-made play

Answer 2

Created by Eugene Scribe. Had an Aristitilian structure, like the ancient Greeks. Play moved by cause and affect, scenes built to a climax. There was still intrigue though. Important because it is the dramatic structure that Ibsen is going to use.

Question 3

Romanticism

Answer 3

A 19th century movement that completely moved away from neoclassical values. It dealt with emotion, and showed how nature was greater than humanity. Theatre became more like real life and this movement gave birth to the theatrical genre of melodrama.

Question 4

Neoclassicism

Answer 4

Rebirth of classicism, a movement throughout Europe in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries to revive the forms and values of art exemplified by ancient literature; associated with the recovery of Aristotle’s The Poetics and its translation into prescriptions for the stage. It was very orderly and manicured. It was sophisticated. In art, sculpture represented it, it was thought to be truthful.

Question 5

Beijing Opera (Peking Opera)

Answer 5

Began in 1790. Had a visual language and focused on symbolic gesture to tell the story. They used a type of doll puppet. Theatrical Performance Aesthetics: roundness (circular movements), beauty (even the lowest characters are beautiful), synthesis of the elements, and Liang Xiang (movements/poses of sustained intensity)

Question 6

Liang Xiang

Answer 6

A performance aesthetic of Beijing Opera. A movement/pose of sustained intensity.

Question 7

Symbolism

Answer 7

An avante-guard movement in the 1880s that looked for the essential truthes of life under superficial surfaces. It dealt with intuition, occult, and dreams. The used an open space for experimentation and focused on mirrors, doorways, and windows to create alternate worlds. It wanted to put the audience into a meditative state and the performance was very static and slow moving.

Question 8

Futurism

Answer 8

An avante-guard movement in 1909 that was a chaotic theatre that wanted to provoke agitation. They put influences of technology into their shows such as machines (tanks, trains, planes). It rejected cultural forms and was very political. It exulted the masses and modernity and was more of a cabaret form.

Question 9

Expressionism

Answer 9

An avante-guard movement in 1906-07 that started in Germany. It was episodic and used archetype names such as “Woman” and “Man”. It was meant to show the internal emotions of the characters, for instance if the character was confused the theatre may open in darkness with fog. They used colors to show the emotions.

Question 10

Brecht’s Epic Theatre

Answer 10

An avante-guard movement that was overtly political that dealt with socialism and Marxism. Brecht wanted to expose capitalism and show the labor of theatre meaning that people would push the sets, turn on the lights, and at times actors would just walk off stage. He believed in the alienation affect which made the audience aware of why characters are making decisions.

Question 11

Alienation affect

Answer 11

A component of Brecht’s Epic Theatre that made the audience aware of why characters are making decisions.

Question 12

The Syndicat

Answer 12

A nationwide organization of booking agents that was solely commercial. Shows we’re aimed at a broad audience and they thwarted competition by monopoly.

Question 13

New Stagecraft

Answer 13

It simplified realism and moved away from kitchen sink realism. It had European trends and was driven by more of an idea. It isn’t just about the environment, lighting is a big deal, it had expressionist elements. It wanted to find the spirit in the text and believed that the core experience of a play is visual.

Question 14

Federal Theatre Project

Answer 14

1935-39, part of FDR’s New Deal. They put on thousands of productions and had different units such as Children’s, Puppet, African American, etc. It’s the only time we ever really had a national theatre. It was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. Notable artists associated with it were Orson Welles, Arthur Miller, and Elia Kazan.

Question 15

Black Arts Movement

Answer 15

1960s. Leroi Jones was a part of it. It had mostly male members and preached about a black consciousness and the art that was created should be “by us, for us, about us, and near us” It was to be feared by white men because it spoke the truth. An example would be The Dutchman. It was “to aide in the destruction of America AS WE KNOW IT” it was meant to force change.

Question 16

Theatre of Cruelty

Answer 16

Created by Artaud and it was a rejection of psychological realism, cinema, and film. Believed theatre should focus on what it does best live. It wanted us to react with our five senses and communicate through these. It evokes instincts and the primal parts override reason. Artaud says that the flesh is burdensome and it is cruel to deny our primal instincts. He wanted this theatre to purge like the plague and consume the audience full body like a disease.

Question 17

Theatre of the Absurd

Answer 17

Playwriting movement that saw playwrights united around a mode of writing. There’s a lack of causality and you can’t rationally understand the world. It has repetitive language and the characters make sense out of irrationality. It shows how language fails and that not all modes of communication needs to be reasonable.

Question 18

Performance Art

Answer 18

1960s Mostly solo works that relate to the audience and they aren’t formal performances. It’s not traditional acting, it meant for something to really happen. They used monologues, physical performance, music and dance. They used outside venues to be part of everyday “performance of street life” Example: Clit Notes. It was about storytelling, lack of a fourth wall, autobiographical, it HAS to be live.

Question 19

Post colonialism

Answer 19

It was made of resistant reading, tries to find balance between collective and individual.

Question 20

Historiography

Answer 20

How history came to be, what traps and assumptions we have to watch out for in order to progress to document something that is unbiased.

Question 21

Theatre de las Chicanas

Answer 21

A movement in the 1960s and 70s, it was a female theatre troupe and the women performed in a number of settings (political rallies, high schools, community centers, etc) and brought up social issues like women’s rights. It was seen as an education device. Ex E.T. - The Alien.

Question 22

Little Theatre Movement

Answer 22

1920s small theatre companies in America that were committed to mounting new and uncommercial works. Ex: The Chicago Little Theatre, The Toy Theatre of Boston. The Provincetown Playhouse provided a model, started with amateurs but the Eugene O’Neill became a part of it. They used simple and realistic performance (couldn’t afford expensive sets). Closed because they couldn’t transition to the larger demands of a self-sustaining professional company.

Question 23

Independent Theatre Movement

Answer 23

Beginning of the 1900s, small avant-guard theatres in Europe had playwrights and directors make a name for themselves outside the commercial mainstream. Works such as Strindberg, Ibsen, and Chekhov were produced. They were often part of nationalist movements as well.

Question 24

Theatre Libre

Answer 24

Founded by Andre Antoine in 1887 in Paris, means “Free Theatre”. It was a subscription theatre so he could avoid censorship and produce plays he wanted to see, which were mostly naturalistic. The theatre also became the proving ground for production techniques, by reproducing an environment (meat in a butcher’s shop).

Question 25

Avant-guard

Answer 25

The “advance guard” refers to the most innovative, experimental, or unorthodox artists, mainly used in the late 19th and 20th century movements. Such as symbolism, expressionism, futurism, and Brecht’s epic theatre.

Question 26

Saxe-Meiningen troupe

Answer 26

A troupe that began in the 1870s in Germany. They demonstrated the value of unity towards realism in the theatre. Founded by Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. They went for historical accuracy and produced Schiller and Shakespeare. Their success led to the establishment of theatrical supply houses.

Question 27

Astor Place Riot

Answer 27

1849 conflict between McCready (British) and Forrest (American). McCready doing Macbeth at the Astor Place Opera house (more upperclass audience). Forrest fans (lower class than frequenters of APOH) ambushed the theatre may 7 and 10. The 10th 22 people killed. Deals with nationalism and class.

Question 28

Naturalism

Answer 28

Late 19th century. Attempt to achieve an objective, verisimilitude in art-chiefly in theatre and literature-by adopting a “scientific” attitude toward its subject matter. Thematically, naturalism emphasizes the role of society, history, and personality in determining the actions of its characters, usually expressed as a conflict between the characters and their environment. Ex Miss Julie