NineteenthCentury Theatre

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Nineteenth-CenturyTheatre
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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

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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

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• 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

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French Romantic Drama

• 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 dAncre (1831)
• Quitte pour la Peur (1833
• Chatterton (1835)

• 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 -- Verdis Rigoletto
• 1833 Lucrece Borgia and Maria Tudor
• 1835 Angelo
• 1838 Ruy Blas
• 1843 Les Burgraves

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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 Shelleys The Cenci and Prometheus
  Unbound, 1819
• Robert Brownings Strafford (1837) and Pippa
  Passes (1841)

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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

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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
• Holcrofts Tale of Mystery (1824) Matthew Lewis
  The Castle Spectre (1797), and Isaac Pococks The
  Miller and His Men (1813).
• English Douglas Jerrold
• Nautical melodramas success of British navy
• Black eyd Susan
• American Dion Boucicault (1822-90)
• Combined sentiment, wit and local color with
  sensational and spectacular endings
• Corsican Brothers and The Octoroon

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Uncle Toms Cabindramatizations based on novel
by Harriet Beecher Stowe

• George L. Aikens was the most popular--1853. Six
  acts, done without an afterpiece established
  the single-play format. 325 performances in New
  York.
• In the 1870s, 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.

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Comic or Light Opera

• Predecessors
• Italian Opera Buffa
• French Opera Comique
• English Ballad Opera Gays The Beggars 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

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Richard Doyly Carte and the Savoy Theatre

• 1875 Doyly 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

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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 Doyly Carte to
  form Mr. DOyly Cartes Opera Company.
• Success of company attributed to DOyly Cartes
  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
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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)

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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 Londons 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.

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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.

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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

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Scribes 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

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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.

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Alexandre Dumas fils1824-95

• Dramas of Illicit Love
• 1852 Lady of the Camellias dramatization of
  1848 novel Verdis La Traviata
• 1853 Diana de Lys
• 1855 Le Demi-Monde
• 1857 The Money Question
• 1858 The Natural Son
• 1859 A Prodigal Father

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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

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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.

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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 ONeill, 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). 
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Realism and Naturalism

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

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Realistic stage conventions

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

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Realism vs. Naturalism

• 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

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Henrik IbsenNorwegian, 1828-1906

• 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

• Romantic Dramas
• Brand
• Peer Gynt

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August Strindberg Swedish 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

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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

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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 Widowers
  Houses, The Philanderer, Mrs. Warrens Profession
  ,Arms and the Man ,Candida, You Never Can Tell
• 1890s Three Plays for Puritans The Devils
  Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra and Captain
  Brassbounds Conversion (1900).
• Early 20th C Man and Superman , Major Barbara
  Androcles and the Lion and Pygmalion (My Fair
  Lady)
• Later Plays St. Joan, Heartbreak House, The
  Millionairess

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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

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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

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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

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20th Century Theatrea 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.