Exploring Theatre History: 1800 to the Present

1. Exploring Theatre History:1800 to the Present

2. Romance Among Theatre • Romanticism- an emotional escape into adventure, beauty, and sentimental idealism. • Romanticism was established in the 19th century. It was started by Goethe and Schiller of Germany and eventually the style began to move into France. • It is suppose to be a very dramatic style of theatre. Also includes something that is loved deeply in the story.

3. Realism • Depicts a selected view of real life, emerged. It is also reliant on characterization. • Henrik Ibsen was the father of realism and he had many well constructed plays. The themes of his plays had a very strong impact on the audiences of his day. • They brought a lot of criticism and questions from the viewers. But realism has now become a popular style of theatre.

4. American Drama • Back in the day, theatre had been a sinful idea. There was even an act that forbid playwriting and prizefighting in 1709. And close to eighty years later a play was finally worthy of consideration. It was called The Contrast, which was written by Royal Tyler. • By the 19th century, the opposition to theatre had almost completely disappeared. And three types theatre started to come in the American culture. They were minstrel shows, Vaudeville’s, and melodrama.

5. American Theatres • Minstrel shows are performed in black face makeup and featuring African-American songs. • Vaudeville is a variety show that incorporated many unrelated acts like: trained seals, singers, acrobats, jugglers, dancers, comedians, and animal acts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZo4imTt4Og • Melodrama is a form of theatre that involved the plight of poverty-stricken heroines in the clutches of evil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTff7Yr7ZtA

6. To theatre and beyond • Impressionistic- relying on colors and lines to create the mood and setting rather than on realistic representations. It was a new step to a new century for play writers. • A another new contribution to the “show-biz” was epic theatre which brought to us by Bertolt Brecht. Epic theatre is when the audience is forced to think and promote social reform through political action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXyNIQoh6ig

7. Off to War • Absurdism- post-WW2 theatre. The absurdists would argue that all life is meaningless. • In the time before war, many plays were concerning young, angry men and were very successful compared to most years

8. American Dramatists • Eugene O’Neill- leading dramatists in the 20th century. His plays were realistic and showed a lot of expression. They also held many psychological truths within the content. • Tennessee Williams- he had a unique form of poetic realism. The words often got inside the hearts and minds of the characters in the play revealing universal truths. • Neil Simon- one of the world’s most popular writers of comedy. He combines jokes and wisecracks with family realism and deep, serious themes.

9. Outside of Broadway • Regional Theatres- established in big cities throughout the US in the 1960’s. One of the most popular and original regional theatre is the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was began by Tyrone Guthrie in 1963. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRgjTVI8e34 • Nonprofessional community theatres are very popular, along with community theatres as well. • Theatre requires many minds and hands in order for it to work. Future dramatists that are within the community help shape the outlook of theatre every day.