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Nineteenth-Century Theatre

Nineteenth-Century Theatre. Influences. 17th c. French Neo-Classical and English Restoration drama of wit and manners became 18th theatre of sensibility 18 th –19 th c. German Romantic Theatre Revival of Shakespeare Rise of “star system”: actor-managers

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Nineteenth-Century Theatre

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  1. Nineteenth-CenturyTheatre

  2. Influences • 17th c. French Neo-Classical and English Restoration drama of wit and manners became 18th theatre of sensibility • 18th –19th c. German Romantic Theatre • Revival of Shakespeare • Rise of “star system”: actor-managers • Technical advances in staging and lighting

  3. 18th –19th c. German Romantic Theater • “Stürm und Drang” • Looked to Shakespeare for models • Sweeping historical and tragic dramas • Began to emphasize historical accuracy in costumes and settings • Improved theatrical effects -- footlights, revolving stages, theatrical machinery • Goethe and Schiller

  4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832 1771: Götz von Berlichen 1775-86: Manager of Court Theatre at Weimar 1787: Iphigenie 1790: Torquato Tasso 1788: Egmont 1790: Fragment of Faust 1792: Wilhelm Meister 1808-32: Faust I and II Friedrich Schiller 1759-1805 1782: The Robbers 1787: Don Carlos 1790s: Wallenstein trilogy 1800: Maria Stuart 1801: Maid of Orleans 1804: Wilhelm Tell

  5. Victor Hugo, 1802-85 1827: Cromwell 1829: Marion de Lorme – banned by the censors 1830: Hernani –caused a riot at Theatre Francais 1832: The King Takes his Amusement – banned by the censors -- Verdi’s Rigoletto 1833: Lucrece Borgia and Maria Tudor 1835: Angelo 1838: Ruy Blas 1843: Les Burgraves • Revolt against Neo-Classicism fueled by French Revolution • Action – Passion– Human Nature • Alexander Dumas, pere, 1802-1870 • Henri III et sa cour (Henry III and His Court, 1829) • For Antony (1831) • La Tour de Nesle (1832) • Novelist: Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo • Alfred de Vigny, 1797-1863 • 1820s: Alexandrine verse adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice and Othello • La Marechale d’Ancre (1831) • Quitte pour la Peur (1833 • Chatterton (1835) French Romantic Drama

  6. English Romantic Theatre • Closet drama: drama meant more to be read than performed • Popular in the early 19th c. when melodrama and burlesque dominated the theater, and poets attempted to raise dramatic standards: • George Gordon Lord Byron: Manfred, 1817 • Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound, 1819 • Robert Browning’s Strafford (1837) and Pippa Passes (1841)

  7. Melodrama • Comes from "music drama" – music was used to increase emotions or to signify characters (signature music). • Theatre of sentimentality -- emotional appeal • Simplified moral universe: good and evil embodied in stock characters: heroes and villains -- and lily-pure heroines • Sensationalistic: fires, explosions, drownings, etc. • Episodic form: the villain poses a threat, the hero or heroine escapes, etc.—with a happy ending • Wide popular appeal

  8. Authors of Melodrama • German: August von Kotzebue (1761-1819) • domestic melodramas • “father of sensationalism” • French: René de Pixérécourt (1773-1844) • specialized in canine and disaster melodramas • theatrical effects more important than dialogue • English: Gothic Melodrama • Holcroft’s Tale of Mystery (1824) Matthew Lewis’The Castle Spectre (1797), and Isaac Pocock’sThe Miller and His Men (1813). • English: Douglas Jerrold • Nautical melodramas – success of British navy • Black ey’d Susan • American: Dion Boucicault (1822-90) • Combined sentiment, wit and local color with sensational and spectacular endings • Corsican Brothers and The Octoroon

  9. Uncle Tom’s Cabindramatizations based on novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe • George L. Aiken’s was the most popular--1853. Six acts, done without an afterpiece – established the single-play format. 325 performances in New York. • In the 1870’s, at least 50 companies doing it in the U.S. • In 1899: 500 companies. • In 1927: 12 still doing it. • 12 movie versions since 1900. • The most popular melodrama in the world until the First World War.

  10. Comic or Light Opera • Predecessors • Italian Opera Buffa • French Opera Comique • English Ballad Opera: Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera • German Singspiele • English Pantomime • Viennese Operetta • Conventions • Combination of spoken dialogue and songs • A frivolous, sentimental story, often employing parody and satire • Light, pleasant music sometimes including popular music of the day

  11. Richard D’oyly Carte and the Savoy Theatre • 1875: D’oyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together to write an opera afterpiece: Trial by Jury • 1876: Formed the Comic Opera Company and leased the Opera Comique Theatre • 1877-1881: Great successes with The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience and The Pirates of Penzance • 1878 on: touring companies (A,B,C, D) throughout the UK, Ireland, North America, Europe, and South Africa • 1881:Built the Savoy Theatre – the first London theatre to be lit with electric lights

  12. Gilbert and Sullivan • First collaborated in 1871 on Thespis, an ‘Original Grotesque Opera’ • After success of The Sorcerer and H.M.S. Pinafore partnered with Richard D’oyly Carte to form Mr. D’Oyly Carte’s Opera Company. • Success of company attributed to D’Oyly Carte’s business acumen and diplomacy as well as artistic control exercised by Gilbert and Sullivan. • Sullivan knighted in 1883 by Queen Victoria. • Gilbert knighted in 1907 by King Edward VII. ComposerSir Arthur Seymour Sullivan 1842-1900 AuthorSir William Schwenk Gilbert1836-1911

  13. The Savoy Operas Written by William Gilbert, scored by Sir Arthur Sullivan, produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte • Trial By Jury (1875) • The Sorcerer (1877) • H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved A Sailor (1878) • The Pirates of Penzance (1879) • Patience (1881) • Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri (1882) • Princess Ida (1884) • The Mikado (1885) • Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse (1887) • The Yeomen of the Guard (1888) • The Gondoliers (1889) • Utopia Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress (1893) • The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel (1896)

  14. Light • 1817: first gas lit theatre • Smelled bad • Very hazardous – many theatres burnt down as the gas lighting set the wood and canvas scenery on fire • 1826: limelight was invented • A block of quicklime heated by oxygen and hydrogen produced a bright sharp light. • Used in a hand-operated spotlights • 1881: London’s Savoy Theatre opened with electric lights • The auditorium was still lit for most of this period, which also had an effect on the lighting effects on-stage.

  15. Magic Lantern Shows • Combination of projected images, live drama, and live music that led to the movies. • Dramatic rescues of damsels in distress, dastardly villains, endangered children, hissing and booing.

  16. Eugene Scribe (1791-1861) Father of the Well-Made Play • Produced 450-500 plays during a 40 year career from comedies vaudevilles to tragedies • Most famous and lasting play was Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849) • “You go to the theatre not for instruction or correction, but for relaxation and amusement. Now, what amuses you most is not truth but fiction. To represent what is before your very eyes every day is not the way to please you; but what does not come to you in your usual life, the extraordinary, the romantic, that is what charms you. That is what one is eager to offer you” • Changed the position of playwright in business world: royalties

  17. Scribe’s formal 5-Act structure • Act I: Mainly expository and lighthearted. Toward the end of the act, the antagonists are engaged and the conflict is initiated. • Act II, III: The action oscillates in an atmosphere of mounting tension from good fortune to bad, etc. • Act IV: The Act of the Ball. The stage is generally filled with people and there is an outburst of some kind--a scandal, a quarrel, a challenge. At this point, things usually look pretty bad for the hero. The climax is in this act. • Act V: Everything is worked out logically so that in the final scene, the cast assembles and reconciliations take place, and there is an equitable distribution of prizes in accordance with poetic justice and reinforcing the morals of the day. Everyone leaves the theatre bien content

  18. The Well-Made Play • A plot based upon a withheld secret   • Slowly accelerating action and suspense sustained by such contrivances as precisely timed entrances and exits, letters which miscarry, and mistakes in identity,   • A battle of wits between two adversaries  • A reversal in the action followed by a climactic, "obligatory" scene representing the nadir and then the zenith of the hero's fortunes as a result of the disclosure of the withheld secret  • A logical, credible denouement    • Tendency to have the action center upon a stage prop, e.g. a letter, a fan or a glass of water • A nugget of morality which would appease the ordinary man's sense of guilt at enjoying himself, e.g. the lesson that momentous consequences may follow from quite trivial events.

  19. Alexandre Dumas fils1824-95 Dramas of Illicit Love 1852: Lady of the Camellias – dramatization of 1848 novel – Verdi’s La Traviata 1853: Diana de Lys 1855: Le Demi-Monde 1857: The Money Question 1858: The Natural Son 1859: A Prodigal Father

  20. Oscar Wilde 1854-1900 Middle Class Satire 1892: Lady Windermere's Fan 1893: A Woman Of No Importance 1894: Salome 1895: An Ideal Husband 1895: The Importance Of Being Earnest

  21. Actor-Managers • Star performers who held the license to the theatres, arranged the performances and hired the other actors. • Introduced reforms and innovations: • full rehearsals for the company • raised status of actors • revived Shakespearean plays • toured extensively • offered powerful management role to women • Demands of complicated technical effects (storms, fires, elaborate lighting) led actors to give artistic control to stage managers who could coordinate all production aspects • Stage manager's function became increasingly important until he was eventually elevated to the status of régisseur, or director.

  22. Some Famous Actor-Managers • Edmund Kean, English, 1787-1833 • William Macready, English, 1793-1873 • Edwin Forrest, American, 1806-72 • Edwin Booth, American, 1833-93 • Henry Irving, English, 1838-1905 • Sarah Bernhardt, French, 1844-1923 • James O’Neill, American, 1849-1920 • Eleanora Duse, Italian, 1859-1924 November 25, 1864, Julius Caesar:  The first and last appearance together of Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (right) and two of his sons, John Wilkes (left) and Edwin (middle). 

  23. Realism and Naturalism • Intellectual reaction against popular theatre • Theatre of social problems • Influenced by emerging disciplines of psychology and sociology • Emerging importance of director

  24. Realistic stage conventions • Proscenium stage • Audience as “fourth wall” • Change in acting conventions • Continued improvement in stagecraft: electric lighting, set design, costumes, etc.

  25. Middle class Pragmatic Psychological Mimetic art Objective, but ethical Sometimes comic or satiric How can the individual live within and influence society? “Well-made play” Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw Middle/Lower class Scientific Sociological Investigative art Objective and amoral Often pessimistic, sometimes comic How does society/the environment impact individuals? “Slice of life” August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, John Synge Realism vs. Naturalism

  26. Romantic Dramas Brand Peer Gynt Realistic Social Dramas The Pillars of Society A Doll's House Ghosts An Enemy of the People The Wild Duck Rosmersholm The Lady from the Sea Hedda Gabler Symbolic Dramas The Master Builder Little Eyolf John Gabriel Borkman When We Dead Awaken Henrik IbsenNorwegian, 1828-1906

  27. August StrindbergSwedish 1849-1912 • Naturalistic Plays : 1880s • The Father • Miss Julie • Creditors • Dreamplays : turn of the century • To Damascus • A Dream Play • The Ghost Sonata • Historical Dramas: turn of the century • Gustavus Vasa • Erik XIV • Charles XII

  28. Anton ChekhovRussian 1860-1904 • Physician, storyteller, dramatist • Plays: • That Worthless Fellow • Platonov • On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco • Ivanov • The Bear • A Marriage Proposal • The Wood Demon • For the Moscow Art Theatre: • The Seagull • Uncle Vanya • The Three Sisters • The Cherry Orchard

  29. George Bernard ShawAnglo-Irish, 1856-1950 • Fabian, Drama critic, Nobel Prize Winner • The Quintessence of Ibsenism, • Playwright: Over 50 plays • 1890s: Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant: Widower’s Houses,The Philanderer,Mrs. Warren’s Profession ,Arms and the Man ,Candida,You Never Can Tell • 1890s: Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple,Caesar and Cleopatra and Captain Brassbound’s Conversion (1900). • Early 20th C: Man and Superman , Major BarbaraAndrocles and the Lion and Pygmalion(My Fair Lady) • Later Plays: St. Joan, Heartbreak House, The Millionairess

  30. John Millington Synge1871-1909 • Irish poet and playwright discovered by W.B. Yeats. • Plays of Irish peasant life: • In the Shadow of the Glen, (1903), a comedy • Riders to the Sea (1904), a tragedy • The Well of the Saints (1905), a comedy • The Playboy of the Western World (1907), a comedy, caused riots • The Tinker's Wedding, published in 1908 but not produced for fear of further riots • Deirdre of the Sorrows, a mythic tragedy unfinished at the time of his death

  31. Independent Theatre Movement • Led by young intellectuals, disillusioned with the literary stagnation of the stage, the actor-manager system and indulgence with scenic spectacle • Wanted to promote new Realistic and Naturalistic playwrights • Often ran into trouble with censors • Dedicated to bringing serious drama to the working and middle class

  32. Independent Theatres • Théâtre-Libre founded by André Antoine in 1887 in Paris • Freie Bühne founded by Otto Brahm in 1894 in Berlin • Independent Theatre Club founded by Jacob Grein in 1891 in London • The Stage Society founded in 1899 in London • Moscow Art Theatre founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in 1898 in Moscow • The Abbey Theatre founded by William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory in 1903 in Dublin

  33. 20th Century Theatre:a hundred years of isms • Symbolism • Expressionism • Futurism • Dadism • Surrealism • Social Realism • Epic Theatre • Existentialism • Magic Realism • Hyper-Realism • Not to mention musicals, films, street theatre, etc., etc.

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