Ism's Flashcards
Realism
- slanted toward shedding light for social reform
- hold mirror up to life
- no restricted subject matter
- banish stylization
- kill convention
- theatre=laboratory
- playwrights present evidence, you decide what to do
Naturalism
- “slice of life”
- focus on lower, gritty class and animalistic characters (humans in natural habitat)
- playwright didn’t want his voice heard
- reform through permeation
- ensemble focus
- Emile Zola, Andre Antoine (producer)
Symbolism
1880’s-1910
- start in france
- Mysticism, spirituality
- almost no plot (not well made play)
- life can’t be understood literally or directly
- poetry, music, metaphor (appeal to the senses and the soul)
- Richard Wagner (19th c. classic german opera)- “The Ring Cycle”
Symbolist Plays/playwrights
Maurice Maeterlnick- THE INTRUDER
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind-SPRING’S AWAKENNING, EARTH SPIRIT (LULU)
August Strindberg- A DREAM PLAY, MISS JULIE
Wagner- THE RING CYCLE (German Opera)
Theatricalism
1902-1930’s (Russia)
- Director centered, often restructuring classic texts
- Vsevolaud Meyerhold (director, actor, technique)
- Physical techniques from comedia, vaudeville, circus, etc.
- Expose devices of theatre
- Constructivist sets (BATH HOUSE, etc.)=set can represent many things and serve as many things
Non-Realistic Design
Aldophe Appia=lights, sensual, mystical, scrims
Edward Gordon Craig= architectural, lighting to isolate and sculpt
1915-1945 Socio/Political
WWI and WWII
- money spent to support and repair
- Great Depression, economies issues lead to dictators
- Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin
Expressionism
- Early 20th c. (Germany)
- Starts as art movement (aggressive, violent, The Scream-you know from visuals what character is feeling)
- types of characters by class/occupation (judge, clerk)
- Politically motivated
- Distorting reality to reflect inner feelings (through eyes of pro tag)
Expressionist Plays/Playwrights
Walter Hasenclaver-MORN TO MIDNIGHT
George Kaser
Ernest Toller-MAN AND MASSES
Eugene O’Neill-THE HAIRY APE
Futurism
1909 (Italy, early 20th c.)
- idealized war/machine age
- punky, aggressive
- audience antagonism
- interesting media, puppetry
Futurist Plays
Filip Marinetti- THEY’RE COMING (1915)
Dada
Swiss/French Early 20th c. (1916)
- Irrationality
- Pacifist (reaction to WW1)
- Marcel DuChamp (artist, absurd)
- Tristen Tzara (theatre, poetry=cut up words and toss up to make sentences)
Surrealism
1920’s (France)
- Subconscious accessed reality
- dream like world (Salvadore Dali art)
- Plays: John Cocteau THE INFERNAL MACHINE
Theatre of Cruelty
France 1930’s
- Antoine Artaud (30’s)
- Jerzy Grotowski (60’s)
- “Cruelly” rooting out society’s evils
- change inclination to violence
- less literary, more ritualistic
- emphasized sensory
- poor theatre (actor/aud), recognized new actor-aid configurations
Epic Theatre
Germany 1920’s-1940’s
- Alienation. Distancing the audience’s emotions.
- political, didactic climate for social change
- presentational: break 4th wall, exposed lighting, big, broad
- non-narrative: no through line
- BRECHTIAN: “what is natural must have the force of what is startling”