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Socialist Realism
- Realistic in form, Socialist in content
- declared proper style in 1934
- Gradual supression of Avante-Garde
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Meyerhold after socialist realism
- apolitical interpretations displeased officials, theatre closed in 1938
- 1939: "The piticul and wretched thing called socialist realism has nothing in common with art."
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German theatre and WWI
- Through WWI theatre continued without interruption
- did not turn primarily to popular entertainment
- After the way royal theatres renamed state theatres, but few changes in organization or policy
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German theatre after 1920
- Poor economic conditions rendered private rep companies unviable
- Turned toward new works tailored to popular tastes
- Most private companies eventually taken over by municipalities, increasing state influence over theatre
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Max Reinhardt
- most important of the pre-war producers
- Wost-War activites basically continuation of what he was doing before 1914
- managed Deutches Theatre and Kammerspiele
- Also remodeled Circus Schumann into Grosses Schauspeilhaus, seating more than 3500
- 1922 he became director of Vienna's Theater in dem Redoutensaal, converted from an imperial ballroom
- Intimate space where he presented plays and operas from the 18th century
- Continued to work until Hitler's rise to power forced him to give up his theatres and move to the U.S.
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Expressionism
- first used in France around 1901 to distinguish Van Gogh and Gouguin from impressionists
- project strong feelings onto objects, portray them as modified by painter's own vision
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Expressionism in Germany
- Term introduced around 1910
- Soon came to be applied to any departure from realism
- Project human emotions and attitudes into inanimate objects, and seek truth in humanity's spiritual qualities than in external appearances
- opposed realism and naturalism because those form focused on surface details and implied that observable details represented fundamental truth
- rather, external reality is malleable and should be altered until it is brought into harmony with humanity's spiritual nature
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The Beggar by Reinhard Johannes Sorge
- often considered to be first true Expressionist play
- shows struggle between established conventions and new values
- attempt of visionary poet to achieve fulfillment in a materialistic and insensitive society.
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Expressionist Plays
- Distorted line, exaggerated shape, abnormal coloring, mechanical movement, telegraphic speech often used
- often all action shown through eyes of protagonist, whose view might alter emphases and impose dramatic interpretations
- structurally episodic, deriving unity from central idea or argument
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Expressionism in WWI
- With the coming of the war, concerns of Expressionism shifted from the personal to the social
- pleas for reformation of of humanity and society, arguing against war and unjust autocratic leaders
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1918 in Germany
Widespread revolution overthrew the German government and brought an end to the war
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Expressionism post-WWI
- Little performed before 1918 due to censorship, but post-war expressionism flourished
- Dominated until 1924
- After 1924 optimism driving expressionism gives way to disillusionment and disappointment
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Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller
- Works show progress of Expressionists from optimism to despair
- Kaiser's trilogy Coral (1917), Gas (1918), and Gas II (1920)
- first two show protagonists setting out to regenerate society; third shows world undergoing cataclysm and destruction
- Toller
- Transfiguration (1918): written while serving prison sentence for antiwar activities, naive soldier's transformation to antiwar revolutionary
- Man and the Masses (1921): woman's struggle to aid workers, defeated by those who place ideology above humanity
- Hurrah, We Live!(1927): Shows former idealists settled into comfortable lives, repeating mistakes they rebelled against.
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Expressionist Production in Germany
- Became major style between 1919 and 1924
- Leopold Jessner - imaginative use of steps and platforms
- designers discarded representational scenery for stylized pieces selected for emotional and symbolic properties.
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Epic Theatre
- Erwin Piscator: first practitioner, sought to create proletarian drama
- Primarily associated with Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht
- Experimented with dada and expressionism in early work
- Arrived at his characteristic style with Man is Man (1926)
- first major success Three Penny Opera (1928)
- went into exile in 1933, during which he wrote most of his major works
- works little produced until he returned in 1947
- called his techniques epic to emphasize broad sweep and mixture of dramatic and narrative elements
- Wished for the audience to take active rather than passive role
- verfremdungeffekt - "alienation effect" make things sufficiently strange so the audience thinks critically
- stage machinery visible, musical interludes, captions
- opposed Appia and Craig's desire for unified effect and Stanislavsky's approach to acting
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The Bauhaus
- Established in 1919 by Walter Gropius
- break down traditional barriers between craftsmen and artists
- unite architecture, painting, sculpture, and other arts into communal expression
- Wished to shape daily surroundings into master artwork
- sought to end elite status of art, no longer confined to museums and the homes of the wealthy
- '23-'29 under directinon of Oskar Schlemmer
- rather than adjust stage space to human form, altered the human form through costumes that transformed actors into "ambulent architecture"
- Perhaps best viewed as a kind of reasearch, and has been especially influential in dance.
- Forced to close when Nazis rise to power
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Gropius's total theatre
- Designed in 1927, but never built
- According to Gropius. 3 basic theatre forms: arena, proscenium, and thrust
- sought to accommodate all three
- rotating platform with acting area and audience area, could be rotated to form the different spaces
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Neorealism or new objectivity
- Though not the most influential, dominated the German theatre in the 1920s
- reaction to expressionism, documentary concentration on mundane topics.
- Not many good plays from this school
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Rise of the Nazis
- With Hitler's rise in 1933, many important artists left Germany
- many who remained underwent "inner emmigration," distancing their works from the contemporary situation
- Nazis preferred grandiose outdoor spectacles meant to evoke a larger-than-life picture of an all-powerful Nordic world.
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France Post WWI
- WWI severely depleated French acting companies.
- Almost all actors inducted and others spent much of their time performing for the military
- wartime turned theatre toward popular entertainment, continued to dominate boulevard theatres after the war
- series of revolts against tradition helped break realism's hold and push experimentation in new forms
- fauvism, cubism, futurism, contrucivism, dada and surrealism
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Dada
- During WWI, many artists sought refuge in Switzerland where dada was developed
- dada a reaction to the a world that could have a global war
- saw natural state as insanity, sought to replace logic with calculated madness
- in their art substitute discord and chaos for unity and harmony
- presented programs composed of recitations, chance and sound poems, dance, visual art, and short plays.
- Dispersed once the war drew to a close.
- received its greatest support in Paris
- began to decline by 1920 and quickly vanished
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Dada in France
- in France, dada absorbed into surrealism
- drew much inspiration from Jarry and Guillaume Apollinaire, influenced surrealism largele through his play The Breasts of Tiresiasrejected logic and suggested that comedy, tragedy, burlesque, fantasy, acrobatics, and declamation should be mingled with dance, color, and light to create a form of expression free from everyday logic.
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Andre Breton
- Leader of surrealists
- issued movement's first "manifesto" in 1924
- defined surrealism as expressing "Thought's dictation, in the absence of control exercised by the reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupation"
- subconscious mind in dreamlike state the source of artistic truth
- Converted to Communism in 1926, then sought to make the movement more militant
- second manifesto in 1929 denounced many of the movement's former members
- movement in decline after that
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Surrealism and theatre
- Surrealism's impact on theatre indirect
- Concepts most effectively used by Jeab Cocteau
- best works reworks of myths, using surrealism to make the mythic familiar and the familiar mythic.
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Ballet Russes
- Many new movements in the visual arts came to the theatre through the Ballet Russes
- after 1915 replaces Russian designers with such major painters as Picasso, Matisse, Juan Gris, Marie Laurenein, and Braque.
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Antonin Artaud
- Most important avant-garde figure between the wars
- began working in theater in 1921
- founded Theatre Alfred Jarry in 1926
- devoted to nonrealistic theatre, lasted only 2 seasons
- 1931 saw Balinese dance troupe, motivating him to formulate his theory of theatre
- The Theatre and Its Double (1938)
- more visionary than practical
- saw in theatre the salvation of mankind
- not appreciated in his own time, but after WWII his influence increased
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The Theatre and Its Double
- 1938
- western theatre focused on a narrow band of human existance: individual psychological problems or groups' social problems
- more important aspects are those submerged in the unconscious
- if given the proper theatrical experiences, people can be freed from ferocity and express the joy society has forced them to repress
- "The theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively"
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Theatre of Cruelty
- Artaud certain his goals could not be achieved through appeals to the rational mind
- Necessary to operate directly on the senses to break down defenses
- cruelty not physical, but moral or psychological
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Theatre of Cruelty and theatre practice
- suggested many innovations in practice
- new myths rather than old "masterpieces"
- replace traditional theatres with re-purposed barns, factories, or airplane hangers
- place audience in center, playing spaces in corners, catwalks, and along walls
- called for "vibrating, shredded" effect in lighting
- in sound preferred shrill noises, abrupt changes in volume, and use of human voice to create harmonies and dissonances
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Futurism
- launched in Italy in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
- rejected the past and wished to transform humanity
- deplored veneration of the past as a barrier to progress
- glorified energy and speed of machine age, and sought to embody them in art
- demanded that libraries and museums be destroyed in order to create a more dynamic future
- lost many followers during WWI because it glorified war as a supreme example of energy
- revitalized after the war, perhaps because of compatibility with Mussolini's program of aggressive action
- declined after 1930
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Futurism and theatre
- denounced past practices
- declared music halls, nightclubs, and circuses better models
- proposed "synthetic drama" which would compress into a moment or two the essence of a dramatic situation
- never became a major theatrical movement, pioneered innovations that would be revived in the 1960s
- attempt to rescue theatre from museum-like atmosphere
- direct confrontation and intermingling between actors and audience
- exploitation of modern tech for multimedia performances
- use of simultaneity and multiple focus
- antiliterary and alogical bias
- breaking down of barriers between arts
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Theatre of the Grotesque
- appeared during WWI
- named for 1916 The Mask and the Face, "a grotesque in 3 acts"
- greatest playwright Pirandello
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Luigi Pirandello
- won fame with novels and short stories, turned to playwriting in 1910
- headed Art Theatre of Rome 1924-28
- best works Right You Are--If you Think You Are, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV, Naked, Each in his Own Way, Tonight We Improvise, As You Desire Meworks turn upon a question that cannot be resolved because each character has his/her own version of the truth
- truth is necessarily personal and subjective
- also concerned with the relationship between art and life
- nature is ever changing, while art is a fixed artifact
- therefore preferred theatre because each performance is different
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Spanish drama between the wars
- Miguel de Unamuno expressed theory of drama in The Tragic Sense of Life (1913)
- tragedy stems from conflicht between the human desire for immortality and skepticism about its possibility
- Ramon del Valle-Inclan wrote several verse plays, satirical dramas, and farces; only later became popular
- 1936 civil war: theatre used primarily as propaganda by both sides
- Following Franco's victory suffered from severe censorship, Spanish theatre entered an era of isolation.
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Generation of '27
- New spirit in Spanish literature which blossomed after censorship was eased under the second Republic in '31
- most significant dramatists Lorca and Casona
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Garcia Lorca
- First play, The Butterfly's Crime (1920) not a success
- Lorca cultivated his interest in symbolism, surrealism, music, painting, and folklore
- wrote puppet plays
- Interest in theatre renewed after his Mariana Pineda performed in Barcelona in 1927
- major plays written only after he worked with La Barraca, a troupe composed of university students and subsidized by the government
- played golden age dramas to rural audiences
- enthusiastic reception lead Lorca to turn to similar themes of love and honor
- Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba
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Alejandro Casona
- Inspired to write for the masses after directing a company that played short, humorous plays for villagers
- The Siren Washed Ashore, Next Time the Devil
- blend of realism and fantasy
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Latin America
- Early 20th century in Latin America, mostly dominated by French and Spanish traditions, dependent on tours by European companies
- WWI stopped tours from European companies making room for a local theatre to develop
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Argentina
- "Glorious decade" 1904-1914 over 200 shows by local writers
- genero chico dramas: short plays, often with musical scores, sentimental view of the life of the lower classes
- In Argentina sainete orillero, local version, best-known writer Alberto Vacarezza
- Naturalism: Full-length, less sentimental
- Florencio Sanchez most highly regarded naturalist in Latin America during this period
- Around the time of WWI, grotesco criollo forms out of experience of immigrant communities, unions, social welfare organizations
- Grotesco criollo combines short comic form of sainete orillero with lack of sentimentality found in naturalism
- El Teatro del Pueblo, founded in 1925 soon became the leading independent theatre of the time; produced many experiments in expressionism, and introduced Argentina to the works of Cocteau, Pirandello, and O'Neill
- Soon many theatres following El Teatro del Pueblo model created, when depression hit in 1930s, government stepped in to subsidize
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Brazil
- Development of national theatre hampered by continued dedication to French cultural inspiration
- Although in other forms, Brazilian artists were in the forefront of experimentation, little impact on theatre
- not until 1940, with the establishment of Os Comediantes, that non-realistic techniques of staging, design, and dramaturgy began to be successful
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Mexico
- Because of revolution of 1910 and subsequent unstable governments, the development of the Mexican theatre was stalled until the election of Lazaro Cardenas in 1934
- Most influential work in experimental started in 1928 by Teatro de Ulises
- Followed by Teatro de Orientacion 1932
- Produced many plays from the European avant-garde in translation.
- Secured subsidy for training program that would Produce many of the next generation's top artists
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Villaurrutia and Rodolfo Usigli
- 2 most important artists from Teatro de Oriectacion in Mexico
- Both wrote for the company
- Villaurrutia focused on avant-garde's concern with subconscious and complex human relationships
- Most experimental antirealist of his day
- Usigli less experimental, but more aggressively independent
- Concerned with social problems arising from a national lack of confidence he believed arose from Mexico's imperial past
- Subjugation of Women a target of particular interest
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Old Vic
- Built in 1818, emerged after WWI as the principal producer of English classics
- 1912 licensed as a theatre rather than a music hall
- During war years, came under direction of Ben Greet, and in 1914 Shakespeare became the focus of the repertory
- Between 1914 and 1934 all of Shakespeare's works were presented
- 1931 Old Vic acquired Saddler's Wells Theatre and formed a ballet company
- After WWII Saddler's Wells ballet company would become the Royal Ballet, and the opera troupe developed into the English National Opera
- Tyrone Guthrie Administrator from 1937-45. Known for novel interpretations of standard works.
- Set the standard for theatre in the entire country
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Other Important English companies between the wars
- Lyric theatre
- Leased by Nigel Playfair in 1918
- Most famous production, those of restorations and 18th century works
- Noted for style and fashion, eventually became formulaic and company dissolved in 1932
- Gate Theatre
- Opened in 1925 by Peter Godfrey
- Run as a private club
- Most noted for experimental productions of expressionist works
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John Geilgud (1904-2000)
- Debut in 1921
- Won major acclaim with Hamlet in 1934
- Soon became premier director as well:
- 1937-8 leased Queen's Theatre, and assembled a company that included Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave, and Alec Guinness producing a repertory of classics
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English Dramatists between the wars
- Few emerged, but many established writers continued:
- Shaw, Barrie, Galsworthy, and Pinero all continued to write
- Coward and others emerged who excelled at sophisticated comedy
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Ireland between the wars
- WWI provided Ireland with an opportunity to throw off English rule
- 1916 rebellion which is put down
- 1919 Ireland declares itself an independent republic
- 1923 treaty signed giving independence to all but 6 northern counties
- Sean O'Casey
- Early works realistic and dealt with the effects of the rebellion on the lives of ordinary people
- Later adopted expressionist techniques
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US and WWI
- Stayed out until 1917, but then was decisive to the outcome
- Leader if founding League of Nations and establishing independent states for ethnic groups and languages
- After war, US returns to isolationism, which was an economic disaster leading to the Great Depression
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Great Depression
- National energies of the US focused on economic stimulus
- for the first time, government assumes a key role in social planning
- begins programs such as social security and public works
- By 40s, US is an industrial giant and begins to win respect for cultural and artistic endeavors
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Little Theatres
- Established around 1912 in emulation of independent theatres of Europe
- Toy Theatre in Boston, Chicago Little Theatre, Provincetown Players, Neighborhood Playhouse and Washington Square Players in New York, Detroit Arts and Crafts Theatre
- by 1917 at least 50
- used professional directors but amateur actors, designers, and staff
- Both economic and artistic choice: thought amateurs more open to more experimental techniques
- Greatest contribution pre-20s, to prepare audiences to accept new forms
- After 1920 began to be indistinguishable from community theatres, concentrating more on recent Broadway hits
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US University Programs
- 1903 George Pierce Baker begins to teach playwriting at Radcliffe College
- 1925 Baker moved to Yale where he established the school of drama
- 1914 Thomas Wood Stevens establishes first degree-granting program at Carnegie Institute of Technology
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America's Globes
- After founding the Goodman in Chicago in 1930, Thomas Wood Stevens had a reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe built in Chicago in 1934, where he produced 7 daily one-hour adaptations of Shakespeare
- Inspired other globes built in San Diego, Cleveland, and Dallas, generating over 5000 productions of Shakespeare
- Inspired multiple Sheakespeare festivals across North America
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"New Stagecraft"
- European trends in staging as they entered America
- 1915 Harley Granville Barker directs The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife, considered first narrative expression of new stagecraft
- Success owes most to Provincetown Players, Theatre Guild, and Arthur Hopkins
- Primarily visual, could be described as simplified realism
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Provincetown Players
- moved from Cape Cod to NYC in 1916, produced mostly american playwrights
- after 1923 split into two branches
- one continued older practices
- other, lead by Eugene O'Neill performed foreign and period plays as well as less commercial works
- succumbed to financial pressures in 1929, but had served important role promoting new plays and production techniques
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Theatre Guild
- formed in 1918 with the purpose of producing plays of merit not likely to be produced by commercial managers.
- soon became US's most respected theatre
- In 1928 also began subscription series in 6 other cities
- Eclectic approach to staging, though most typically modified realism
- 1930 began to face financial problems, by WWII just another commercial producer
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Arthur Hopkins
- 1918 Began adventerous series of productions
- Presented Tolstoy, Ibsen, Gorky, Shakespeare, O'Neill and others
- helped establish the commercial viability of the "new stagecraft"
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Federal Theatre
- Founded in 1935 to combat unemployment
- Headed by Hallie Flanagan Davis
- Remembered primarily for "living newspaper": integrated factual data with dramatic vignettes
- -- Scripts centered around a problem. The protagonist raises questions and is lead through the background and possible solutions
- -- Many techniques borrowed from Epic theatre
- -- Political nature alienated congress who refused to appropriate funds in 1939
- promoted African American theatre
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Mercury Theatre
- 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman
- decided to present The Cradle Will Rock after withdrawn from production by the Federal Theatre
- presented works by Buchner, Dekker, Shaw, and Shakespeare
- Greatest success came from Julius Ceasar played as comment on facism
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African American Theatre between the wars
- Three Plays for Negro Theatre (1917) first serious plays for Blacks on broadway
- Followed by plays including The Emperor Jones that featured black actors, though still written by white authors
- Also works written by African Americans including Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, though not given much encouragement.
- Federal Theatre established African American theatres in several cities
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Workers' Theatre Movement
- begun in 1926 with Worker's Drama League
- 1932 national organization formed, later called New Theatre League
- mostly amateur, but lead by professional organization in New York, the Theatre Union
- presented socialist propaganda plays designed to arouse protest
- Theatre Union failed in 1937, and League esentially gone by 1942
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Eugene O'Neill
- Only American playwright to achieve international recognition prior to WWII
- First works presented by Provincetown Players 1915
- Beyond the Horizon first full-length and first Broadway 1920
- No new productions between 1934 and 1946 though he continued to write
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O'Neill's Contemporaries
- Maxwell Anderson: What Price Glory?, Mary of ScotlandElmer Rice: The Adding Machine
- Comedy:
- Comedy of manors: Phillip Barry The Philadelphia Story
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Thorton Wilder
- Reputation primarily made by 3 plays:
- Our Town ('38)
- The Skin of Our Teeth ('43)
- The Merchant of Yonkers ('54), rewritten as The Matchmaker ('54), and adapted into the musical Hello, Dolly (1963)
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American Female Playwights
- Many female playwrights for the time, though they were largely forgotten until recently:
- Zona Gale Miss Lulu Bett first play by a woman to win the Pulitzer
- Susan Glaspell Alison's House also won the Pulitzer
- Zoe Adkins Old Maid won pulitzer
- Edna Ferber adapter her own novel into the musical ShowboatSophie Treadwell Machinal
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Musicals
- Major form of popular entertainment
- Ziefeld Follies mounted every year 07-31
- Musical Comedy, long just a excuse to show off showgirls, began to shift after 1928
- Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein shifted emphasis to story with ShowboatNew direction culminated with Oklahoma (1943)
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