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Modern theater
This document provides an overview of modern theater, including its origins in the late 1800s parallel to industrialization and intellectual movements. It describes several movements in modern theater such as realism, naturalism, and antirealism (symbolism, expressionism, futurism, dadaism, surrealism). Pioneers of these movements like Ibsen, Chekhov, and Artaud are mentioned. The document also briefly outlines personnel involved in modern productions and common theater configurations.
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Modern theater
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- 2. Introduction • This isthe period of theater that we are currently in. • Dates back to the late 1800s • The industrial revolution was on its way. • There were huge advancements. • City life grew exponentially. • The intellectual revolution was taking place.
- 3. • Therefore, theaterparalleled what was going on in the world. • The chaos and confusion of the time was directly reflected in the modern theater.
- 4. Different Movements • Realism •Naturalism • Antirealism Futurism Dadaism Impressionism Expressionism Constructivism Surrealism Era of “ISMS”
- 5. Realism • The mostpopular and longest standing movement of modern theater. • Has a “likeness to life” without any abstractions • Problems of real life in a realistic manner of a play • A reaction against romanticism • Actors becoming the character
- 6. Realism • Objective performance •Exposes the nature of relationships and society • Gives a large amount of real life “evidence” • “Life is a sewer.” • Lower and middle classes as heroes
- 7. Realism • The protagonistrises up against the odds. • Realism theater sets, costumes and props were made to mirror their real-life counterparts.
- 8. Pioneer • Popularized by Henrik Ibsen,a Norwegian dramatist
- 9. Pioneer • George Bernard Shaw •Created a comic realism and addressed issues like prositution, poverty and slum landlordism
- 10. Pioneer • Anton Chekhov •Created deeply complex relationships between his characters
- 11. Naturalism • An extremeform of realism • Began in France in the 19th century • Removed the dramatic elements of theater to present “slice of life” • The most appropriate subject matter is the lower class • Follows the “Three Unities Rule”
- 12. Naturalism • Despised climaxesand characters as heroes • All characters as the product of their environment • Regularly explores sordid subject matters • Mostly lower class as characters
- 13. Pioneer • Emile Zola •Believed that humans were merely biological phenomena
- 14. Antirealism • Against realism •Theatrical realism seen as having some serious limitations • Exclusions: music, dance, symbolism, poetry
- 15. Symbolism • Leads theantirealistic movement • French as major propronents • Drama should present the mystery of being. • Focused on symbolic imagery • Takes place in a dream world • Most important goal is to evoke mood • Focused on inner realities that can’t be directly perceived
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- 17. Expressionism • Flourished inGermany during WWI • The representation of reality was distorted in order to communicate inner feelings. • Highly subjective plays • Christ-like character of the protagonist • Exaggerated scenery, bright lights and piercing sounds
- 18. Expressionism • Tries toexpress the feelings of the people • American expressionist writers addressed the growing concerns that country’s rapid industrial and financial growth was crushing human freedom.
- 19. Futurism • Futurism originatedin Italy around 1909. • Idealized war and the machine age. • Attacked ideas of the past “museum art” • They believed audiences should be confronted and antagonized.
- 20. Surrealism • Surrealism beganin 1924 in France. • They argued that the subconscious is the highest plane of reality. • Their plays seem to be set in a dream world.
- 21. Theater of Cruelty •Originated in France in the 1930’s • A revolt against realistic theater • The viewers’ senses should be bombarded. • Based on magic and ritual which would evoke deep, violent and erotic impulses. • Audience was the center of attention.
- 22. Pioneer • Antonin Artaud • Spentmost of his later life in mental institutions
- 23. Epic Theater • Developedby Bertolt Brecht • Aimed at intellect rather than emotions in order to affect social change • Episodic in nature • Cover a great deal of time and change locations frequently • Complex plots and large casts • Audience are alienated from the action on stage.
- 24. Pioneer • Bertolt Brecht •Influenced many contemporary playwrights and directors
- 25. Existentialism • A reactionto WWII • Existentialist believed that: – Existence has little meaning. – God does not exist. – Humanity is alone in an irrational universe. – The only thing a person can do is accept responsibly for his or her actions.
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- 27. Theater of theAbsurd • A small unorganized movement in the 50s and 60s • Absurdist playwrights believe that: – Our existence is futile and nonsensical. – Nothing seems to happen in the play. – The plot moves in circles. – No climatic action or episodic plot. – The characters are not realistic. – Setting are sometimes unrecognizable. – Characters fail to communicate effectively.
- 28. Pioneers • Samuel Beckett •Eugene Ionesco • Edward Albee • Harold Pinter
- 29. Impressionism • Shows theeffects of things and events on the mind of artist • The attempt of the artist to express his expressions • Seeks to suggest the impressions on the artist rather than making an obvious statement about the characteristics of things
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- 31. Theater Personnel • TheProducer the person who puts together the financing, management staff, and the artistic team to produce the show.
- 32. • The Director assumeresponsibility for the overall interpretation of a script, and they have the authority to approve, control, and coordinate all the elements of a production.
- 33. • The Performers portraytheir characters’ wants and needs through believable personal behavior that mirrors the characters’ psychological and emotional lives within the world of the play.
- 34. • The Designers collaboratewith directors to create an environment for a play. shape and fill the stage space and to make the play's world visible and interesting. In the modern theater various artists are responsible for different design effects
- 35. • The LightingDesigner Modern stage lighting affects what audiences see. Carefully planned lighting can establish mood and color, control the audience's focus of attention, and enhance the meaning of the play.
- 36. •Sound Designer plots theeffects required by the script and adds a creative element to enhance atmosphere and psychological meaning
- 37. •Costume Design Carefully chosencostumes help convey a sense of a character’s identity, as well as set the mood and time period of the work being performed.
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- 40. Arena • A theatrein which the audience completely surrounds the stage or playing area. Actor entrances to the playing area are provided through vomitories or gaps in the seating arrangement.
- 42. Thrust • A theatrein which the stage is extended so that the audience surrounds it on three sides. The thrust stage may be backed by an enclosed proscenium stage, providing a place for background scenery, but audience views into the proscenium opening are usually limited.
- 44. End Stage • Atheatre in which the audience seating and stage occupy the same architectural space, with the stage at one end and the audience seated in front facing the stage.
- 46. Environmental Theater • Afound space in which the architecture of the space is intrinsic to the performance, or a theatre space that is transformed into a complete environment for the performance. The audience space and performance space are sometimes intermingled, and the action may be single-focus or multiple-focus.
- 48. Promenade Theater • Atheatre without fixed seating in the main part of the auditorium – this allows the standing audience to intermingle with the performance and to follow the focal point of the action to different parts of the room.
- 50. Black Box Theater •A flexible theatre usually without character or embellishment—a “void” space that may indeed be black, but isn’t always. Usually, audience seating is on the main floor, with no audience galleries, though a technical gallery may be provided.
- 52. Studio Theater • Aflexible theatre with one or more audience galleries on three or four sides of a rectangular room. The main floor can usually be reconfigured into arena, thrust, endstage, and flat floor configurations. The room usually has some architectural character.
- 54. Courtyard Theater • Theterm courtyard theatre embraces a range of theatre forms, all with the common characteristic of at least one raised seating gallery surrounding a central area. Often this central area is flexible, and can be configured into arena, thrust, end stage, and flat floor configurations.
- 56. Proscenium Theater • Ina proscenium theatre, the stage is located at one end of the auditorium and is physically separated from the audience space. This is sometimes called a “two-box” arrangement—the auditorium and stage occupy two separate “boxes” or rooms. The stage box permits a wide variety of scenic and lighting effects. The auditorium box is the audience chamber.
- 58. Thrust and openstage • Some larger drama theatres take the form of a thrust stage, with the audience surrounding three sides of the performance platform. The term open stage can be used interchangeably with thrust, but implies a more frontal arrangement.
- 60. Recital Hall • Aspace designed for soloists and small ensembles (up to chamber orchestra size), with a seat count typically in the range of 150 to 800. This form is a descendant of the court music rooms of the Renaissance. It is often rectangular in plan, with an open concert platform at one end of the room and seating galleries on the other three walls.
- 62. Shoebox Concert Hall •The classic concert hall form is the shoebox, named after the rectangular shape and approximate proportions of a tennis-shoe box. The shoebox form has high volume, limited width, and multiple audience levels, usually with relatively narrow side seating ledges.
- 64. Vineyard Concert Hall •Some modern concert halls have audience seating in terraces reminiscent of a vineyard. The seating may completely or partially encircle the concert platform. A hall with partial encirclement may be called a modified vineyard.
- 66. Opera House • Theauditorium is almost always multilevel with side tiers or boxes to enhance visual and aural intimacy. The stage is usually large, with extensive machinery. It sometimes has separate auxiliary stages in a cruciform, six- square, or other arrangement to enable the opera company to perform in repertory.
- 68. Dance Theater • Thedesign of the auditorium emphasizes frontal sightlines and a clear view of the stage floor. Sometimes the seating is on telescopic risers that can be retracted to allow the whole space to be used for rehearsal or instruction.
- 70. Broadway Theater • Thisis a proscenium theatre designed primarily for amplified sound. The room acoustics are usually “dry” with little adjustment available, making these rooms unsuitable for un-amplified acoustic music. A reasonable degree of intimacy can be achieved with multiple cantilevered balconies, bringing a large portion of the audience as close to the stage as possible. The stage is usually sized and equipped to receive large scale touring musicals.
- 71. HOW DID THETHEATER CHANGE?
- 72. Audience Location Elizabethan Theater •The audience surrounded the actors horizontally and vertically. Everywhere he looked there was audience. Modern Theater • The audience tends to be seated in rows on one side of the playing area. The audience is separate from the playing area. They are observing.
- 73. Actor-Audience Relationship Elizabethan Theater •Everywhere the actor looked, there was audience. He couldn’t talk to a fellow actor without seeing an audience member behind him. The theater was designed for the actor to speak with and directly to the audience. Modern Theater • The actors talk and relate to each other exclusively. They do not speak to or acknowledge the audience. They are in the world of the play.
- 74. Status of Audience ElizabethanTheater • The cheap seats were in the front. And, they were not seats. The people around the stage stood through the performance. The next more expensive seats were in the tiers surrounding the stage. The expensive seats were the Lord’s Boxes, above and behind the players. Modern Theater • The most expensive seats are up front near the stage. The cheap seats are those furthest away from the stage, often up in the balconies. The people with money and status get close. Those with less have an altered experience due to the distance from their seat to the stage.
- 75. Production Design Elizabethan Theater •The Theater was the scenery. It had doors, columns and inner below and a balcony. There was a roof that represented the heavens and a god or angel could ascend to heaven and the trap door known as hell mouth. The actors conjured the setting in the imaginations of the audience with minimal additions. Modern Theater • The scenery, costumes, lighting and sound are designed by artists and constructed by craftsman to create the environment of the play. It is designed to represent the place and time.
- 76. Production Design (cont.) ElizabethanTheater • The costumes were of the current time, even when playing ancient Romans. There were no lights since the plays were played during the day time, except when they brought on torches or lanterns to act like it was dark. There was a lot of music, played live by musicians, usually contemporary tunes. Modern Theater • The degree of naturalism to expressionism or abstract is carefully calculated to tell the story of the play.
- 77. Rehearsal and Performance ElizabethanTheater • The core company of actors played together for years. They supplemented their ranks with apprentices to play the boys and females and hired men to play the small roles. They were cast by type though often played roles outside their type. They regularly played multiple roles in a play. New plays were premiered every two weeks. Modern Theater • The play is written then rehearsed for several weeks by the actors. There is a director who guided the actors to play out his vision of the play. Each night the actors repeat the same lines, movements, motivations and responses as developed during the rehearsal process.
- 78. Rehearsal and Performance(cont.) Elizabethan Theater • To revive and play an old play every day would leave very little time to rehearse the new play. Modern Theater • They play the same show eight times a week. The actors are usually cast to play these specific roles and this group of actors is assembled to only play this play. Each actor often plays one role so as not to confuse the audience or if they do have to play more than one role, they try to disguise the fact they are doubling.
- 79. Language and Rhetoric ElizabethanTheater • The play was designed as an argument with the characters fighting for the support of the audience. It debated points of view. Most of the play was in verse rather than prose. Verse carries thought and feeling more descriptively on its meter. The audience feels the heartbeat of meter and breaths with the actors. The language is heightened. Modern Theater • The text is almost fully in prose. The lines are made to be like life. The idiom, style and prosaic is intended to produce the sound of real life even if it slightly elevated or funnier. The story and text is intended to be a slice of life.
- 80. Art/Entertainment Elizabethan Theater • Therewas no division between art and entertainment. Theatricals were required to amuse the drunk and engage the scholar. This created more balance between the two and made for a more full experience. Modern Theater • There is a division between high art and popular entertainment. One interesting comparison in between outdoor and indoor Shakespeare production today: If you see a Shakespeare play indoors, it is usually intended to be art; if you see a Shakespeare play outdoors, it is usually intended to be entertainment.