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History and Literature of Theatre > Notes(Midterm) > Flashcards

Notes(Midterm) Flashcards

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1
Q

efficacious

A

intended to have an effect

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2
Q

What was theatre like for the first couple thousand years?

A
  • social event
  • teach/inform
  • pass down history
  • religion
  • entertainment
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3
Q

What was Aristotle’s contribution to theatre history?

A

wrote the Poetics, outlined elements of Drama

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4
Q

What is dramatic action?

A

what drives the play forward

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5
Q

What was theatre like in the Middle Ages?

A
  • purpose was to save souls

- pageant wagons, morality plays

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6
Q

What is Neoclassicism?

A

revisiting and adherence to the classics “new classics”

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7
Q

What is the significance of the proscenium stage?

A

created a picture frame of the stage making perspective scenery possible

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8
Q

Explain the deal behind the Well Made Play

A
  • play genre codified by Eugene Scribe
  • plot driven works, story is important
  • often accused of being only plot
  • characters not always nuanced
  • dramatic irony
  • potential for no larger purpose but to entertain
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9
Q

What is dramatic irony?

A

audience knows but the character does not

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10
Q

What is Realism?

A
  • theatre genre where the stage action resembles real life
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11
Q

What were the elements of/ideas behind Realism?

A
  • believed there was a responsibility to address social problems; plays about problems in society
  • did away with stock characters
  • no more grandeur and spectacle
  • laboratory: thinking of art and theory as more of a lab
  • open ended, allowed audience to make their own decision about the meaning
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12
Q

What is Naturalism?

A

a more extreme form of Realism with more of a focus on the lower class

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13
Q

What were some elements of Naturalism?

A
  • rejection of dramatic conclusions and climaxes
  • very literal and structured
  • new levels of realism in scenery
  • wanted you to think you were watching reality
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14
Q

What’s the deal with Stanislavski?

A

He worked at the Moscow Art Theatre, and started a revolution in acting technique. He rejected theatricality and saw acting as a search for truth. His book, An Actor Prepares, is the definitive text for his new techniques.

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15
Q

Who were the Americans who learned from Stanislavksi?

A

Lee Strasberg
Sanford Meisner
Stella Adler
Uta Hagen

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16
Q

Why was A Doll’s House significant?

A

In this realistic drama, a female protagonist challenges her social and gender roles by leaving her husband at the end of the play. “The door slam heard round the world.”

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17
Q

Why was the Cherry Orchard significant?

A

This was one of the first plays to focus more on character motivation rather than the actual meaning of the text, and the dramatic tension is portrayed more subtly. This play depicts a formerly wealthy family at the turn of the century refusing to accept the social changes that affect their way of life.

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18
Q

What were some of Henrik Ibsen’s plays?

A 
Ghosts
Enemy of The People
Wild Duck
Hedda Gabler
A Doll's House
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19
Q

What were some of Anton Chekhov’s plays?

A

The Seagull
Uncle Vanya
The Cherry Orchard
The Three Sisters

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20
Q

What were some of George Bernard Shaw’s plays?

A 
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Major Barbara
Man and Superman
Pygmalion
Saint Joan 
Heartbreak House
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21
Q

What were some of Oscar Wilde’s plays?

A

The Importance of Being Earnest

Lady Windermere’s Fan

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22
Q

What were some of Bertolt Brecht’s plays?

A

Mother Courage
The Good Woman of Setzuan
Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Threepenny Opera

23
Q

Symbolism

A 
ORIGINS
(1880-1910) France but worldwide impact
ASPECTS 
mysticism and spirituality
poetry metaphor and music
life can't be understood literally or directly
almost no plot
- influenced Richard Wagner
24
Q

Theatricalism

A 
ORIGINS
1902-1930s Russia
ASPECTS
director centered
often restructuring classic texts
Vsevolaud Meyerhold - director as supreme artist
physical techniques from commedia, vaudeville, circus
exposing the devices of theatre
constructivist set
PLAYS
Maurice Maeterlinck - The Intruder
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind - Spring's Awakening
August Strindberg - A Dream Play
25
Q

What is a constructivist set?

A

machine for the acting, nonrealistic construction, less literal than a unit set

26
Q

Who are some non-realistic designers and what are they known for?

A

Adolphie Appia - abstract set, minimalist

Edward Gordon Craig - screens, sculpture

27
Q

Expressionism

A 
ORIGINS
beginning of 20th century Germany
initially a style of painting 
we see the world through the protagonist's eyes, emotional state of the character's world
ASPECTS
types instead of characters (ex. MAN, WOMAN, SOLDIER, etc)
often politically motivated
distorting reality to reflect inner feelings
PLAYS
Walter Hasenclaver - The Son
George Kaiser - Morn to Midnight
Ernst Toller's  - Man and Masses
Eugene O'Neill - The Hairy Ape
28
Q

Futurism

A 
ORIGINS
Italy 1909
ASPECT
idealized war and the machine age
audience interaction (antagonizing)
introducing variety of media, puppetry
PLAYS
Fillipo Marinetti - They're Coming
29
Q

Dada-ism

A 
ORIGINS
Swiss (France) 1916
ASPECT
Irrationality
confuse the audience
Marcel Duchamp - signed urinal, Mona lisa with mustace, weird acronym at bottom (what is art?)
Tristan Tzara
30
Q

Surrealism

A 
ORIGINS
French 1920s
ASPECT
subconscious accessed reality
dream like worlds
taking something realistic and warping it
PLAYS
Jean Cocteau - The Infernal Machine
31
Q

Theatre of Cruelty

A 
ORIGINS
France, Antoine Artaud in 1930s, Jerzy Grotowski in 1960s
ASPECT
"cruelly" rooting out societies evils
change inclination to violence
less literary and more ritualistic
emphasis on the sensory
Poor Theatre
32
Q

Epic Theatre

A 
ORIGINS
Germany 1920s-1940s
ASPECT
alienation 
political 
didactic
presentational 
entertaining
PLAYS 
Any Brecht, ever.
33
Q

Bertolt Brecht

A

theorist director and playwright
aggressive humanist
started the Berliner Ensemble
4 Great Vices: military, capitalism, industrialism, imperialism

34
Q

What is Brecht’s idea of alienation all about?

A

It ranslates as “make strange”. Its a theory that seeks to distance the audience from the action, so they can think about the ideas presented rather than being involved emotionally with the characters and or story.

35
Q

What is historification?

A

This is a technique used by Brecht where he sets the story in a time period that represents the current climate, and also is removed from the situation so people can digest it without being attached.

36
Q

What technique did Brecht employ as a director?

A

demystifying theatre techniques

37
Q

What was Brecht’s approach to acting?

A

anti-Stanislavski
rejects a complete conversion, rejects “identification”, rejected causality (actor is an actor playing a character)
appreciated the conventions of Chinese opera

38
Q

Existentialism

A 
ORIGINS
France 1940s-50s
grew out of philosophy
ASPECT
life has little meaning
God is dead
humanity is irrational
traditional structures and recognizable characters
PLAYS
Jean Paul Satre - No Exit
Albert Camus - The Flies
39
Q

Theatre of the Absurd

A 
ORIGINS
International began in the 1960s
ASPECT
human existence is futile, absurd, illogical
plots do not have traditional structures
plays are all individualistic
PLAYS
Eugene Ionesco - Rhinoceros
Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot, Endgame
40
Q

Selective Realism

A

ORIGINS
1940s - Today; mostly British and American
ASPECT
uses certain elements of reality while excluding others
plays feature realistic acting
not usually realistic in design or direction
PLAYS
Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, The Crucible
Tennessee Williams - the Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Edward Albee - The Zoo Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Goat or Who’s Sylvia

41
Q

Samuel Beckett

A

Author of Waiting for Godot, and Endgame
Existentialist themes
Really shook things up, by minimalizing

42
Q

Arthur Miller

A

Death of A Salesman
Selective Realism
Dealt with theme of American pursuit of pleasure

43
Q

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

A

by Harriett Beecher Stowe, white woman
most popular play of its time
stereotypes, racism, slavery

44
Q

Minstrel Shows

A

vaudeville style, comedic
created by black people and appropriated by white people
featured blackface and imitation

45
Q

Jim Crow

A

popular minstrel show character

46
Q

Birth of A Nation

A

made moviemaking history while telling a pretty racist narrative

47
Q

Scottsboro Boys

A

Kander and Ebb show
tells the story of case of 19 African American boys accused of raping a white woman
uses the minstrel show style to tell the story

48
Q

Lafayette Players

A

all black company, would do a new play every week
performed white plays
assimilated white culture

49
Q

Ethel Waters

A

popular performer
Sweet Mama String Bean
people lynched a black boy and threw his body in lobby of her theatre

50
Q

Paul Robeson

A

Old Man River, Showboat
one of the first Black people to be successful playing a black man on Broadway
longest running Shakespeare production on Broadway
Uta Hagen - Desdemona

51
Q

Lorraine Hansberry

A

First African American playwright on Broadway
Raisin in the Sun
show had first African American director

52
Q

Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

A 
raw plays about race
Slave Ship (1969); environmental staging
53
Q

August Wilson

A

wrote a play for every decade of 20th century about African American experience

History and Literature of Theatre (4 decks)

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