Modern Drama

1
Modern Drama

• Madison Southern High School
• Humanities 2007-2008
• Kathie J.R. Bettler

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Expressionism

• Expressionism in the theatre came out of the
  movement of the same name in the visual arts. The
  characters and sets of Expressionism tend to be
  distorted, oversimplified, and symbolic rather
  than realistic. The movement began in Germany,
  and most of the notable playwrights of this style
  are German. The American playwright of
  Expressionism is Eugene ONeill, in such plays as
  The Hairy Ape and Emperor Jones.

3
Epic Theatre

• Epic Theatre was first developed by Bertolt
  Brecht. It is a journalistic, non-emotional
  style that uses signs, projections, films, and
  loudspeakers to present events in an episodic
  form. Epic Theatre was representational rather
  than presentational.

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Presentational or Representational?

• What is the difference? Presentational theatre
  recognizes the audience and even includes them.
  In representational theatre, the audience watches
  the action as through a fourth wall.

5
Bertolt Brecht

• Brecht believed that the audience should not
  confuse theatre with reality and that the
  audience should be alienated from the plays
  events, even though they might be emotionally
  involved in them. One of his best-known plays is
  Mother Courage.

6
Theatre of the Absurd

• Theatre of the Absurd was coined as a term by
  drama critic Martin Esslin to describe the
  playwrights of the 1950s and 1960s whose drama
  presented a belief in the absurdity of human
  life. French writer Albert Camus influenced the
  development of the theatre of the absurd with his
  philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus.
  Playwrights of this genre, while searching for
  meaning in the universe, find only chaos,
  complexity, grotesque laughter, and perhaps
  insanity.

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Pirandello, Ionesco, and Beckett

• In Luigi Pirandellos Six Characters in Search
  of an Author (1921), the playwright seeks to
  fragment reality by destroying conventional
  dramatic structures and adopting new ones.
• Another author (and one of Mrs. Bettlers
  favorites), Eugène Ionesco, conveys absurdity in
  La Cantatrice Chauve, which shows the breakdown
  of human communication, or his Rhinocéros, in
  which the characters change into rhinos.
• Becketts Waiting for Godot, his most popular
  work, has been interpreted in countless ways (but
  Godot still doesnt show up).

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Realism

• Realism flourished throughout the postwar era.
  The two most notable playwrights of this period
  are Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams (both
  American). Realism included now more than its
  nineteenth century definition allowed. It now
  included more theatrical staging devices such as
  fragmented settings.

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Tennessee Williams

• Williams wrote psychological dramas that deal
  with the problems of common people. His plays,
  like The Glass Menagerie and A streetcar Named
  Desire, have strong character development. His
  characters are tortured creatures with many
  illusions about reality.

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Arthur Miller

• Millers plays are also about the common man and
  the forces, both social and psychological, that
  can destroy him. Death of a Salesman, the
  classic American tragedy, won Miller the Pulitzer
  Prize. The Crucible is another of his moral and
  political tragedies.

11
Theatre and Society

• The social problems of the twentieth century have
  been explained and dramatized in the plays of
  many American playwrights. Whatever the type of
  play, or the style in which it was written, most
  have one factor in common they explore and
  explain issues and problems that have long
  affected the lives of American citizens. Topics
  once too controversial for public discussion
  could now be safely examined in the anonymity of
  a darkened theatre.

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Musical TheatreThe American Art Form

• The first American Musical was Showboat,
  according to some historians, or Oklahoma,
  according to others. In any case the Musical has
  been the mainstay of Broadway, regional theatres,
  and high schools since the early 20th century.

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Where did it all begin?

• Originating as an attempt to re-create ancient
  Greek theatre, opera is one of the oldest forms
  of musical theatre. Since in opera the voice and
  the orchestra are the only media of performance,
  opera is total music. Even conversations are
  sung, unlike in a modern musical.

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Operettas

• Operettas are lighter musical productions that do
  contain spoken dialogue. They have light plots
  that only serve to connect songs. Comic operas
  are off-shoots of operettas and have even lighter
  plots. These comic operas such as The Pirates
  of Penzance and The H.M.S. Pinafore (19th
  century pieces by Gilbert and Sullivan) are very
  popular for High School performers.

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Musical Revues

• The musical revue, another form of musical
  theatre, usually consists of a loosely connected
  series of sometimes lavish production numbers
  with virtually no plot. The most famous example
  of the musical revue is The Ziegfield Follies
  from the early 20th century.

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Musical Theatre

• All of these forms combined to create what we now
  call Musical Theatre. A well-designed musical
  contains a good story, interesting characters,
  exciting choreography, bouncy tunes, and
  meaningful ballads woven into an entertaining
  package of color and spectacle. Some examples
  are The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, CATS, Legally
  Blond, the Musical, Sweeney Todd, Beauty and the
  Beast, and The Little Mermaid.

17
Stop!

• Dont go any farther! If you do, you will
  damage your brain even further Just try to to
  resign yourself to the fact that this iswellTHE
  END. Restrain your enthusiasm!