Unit 3
UNIT 3
Comedy: Usually light and amusing and typically has a happy ending.
Drama: A play with serious subject matter.
Tragedy: Serious drama where the main character is in conflict with a superior force (such as destiny); Sorrowful or disastrous ending.
Farce: Exaggerated comedy.
Genre: A style of play, television show, film, or music.
Playwright: The person responsible for writing plays for performance in theatre.
Play: A theatrical work with two or three acts meant to be performed by actors.
One-Act: A play that consists of multiple scenes but only one act.
Musical: A play which singing and dancing have an essential part.
Trochaic Tetrameter: A meter in poetry consisting of four stressed syllables per line. For example, “By the shores of Gitche Gu”.
Iambic Trimeter: A meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units per line. For example, The only shows I see, Tomorrow and Today, Perchance Eternity. Could not unfrown itself.
Iambic Pentameter: A type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. Example, “As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.” Every other word in these two lines of poetry are stressed.
Various Types of Live Theatre
Theatrical Form
Plays and One-Acts
Literary Form: (Drama) The focus and attention is on ‘the spoken word.’
Dance (Ballet and Modern Dance)
Opera: A dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists.
Performed with staging, sets, and costumes.
Originated in Europe.
Usually in a foreign language (Italian, German, French, etc.).
Musical Theatre (Book Musical, revues, Opera) Involves drama, sung lyrics, instrumental music, and dance.
Performed with staging, sets, and costumes.
American art form that originated in New York City.
History of Greek Theatre
(6th century BC) Began in Athens with the performance of tragedy plays at religious festivals.
Tragedy plays inspired the genre of comedy plays. The two types of plays were popular and performances spread around the Mediterranean and influenced Hellenistic and Roman theatre (pantomime in the 1st Century BC).
Playwrights like Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes formed the foundation for modern theatre.
The architecture of the ancient Greek theatre has continued to inspire the design of theatres today.
Plays were performed in an open-air theatre (theatron) with wonderful acoustics and open to all males (the presence of women is contested).
From the mid-5th century BC entrance was free.
Thespis and the Rise of Tragedy Plays
Tragedy plays descended from an earlier art form known as the lyrical performance of epic poetry.
(750 and 650 BC): Hesiod was the father of Greek didactic poetry (poetry that teaches a lesson). Known for Works and Days.
One actor who would perform in costume and wear a mask, allowing him to impersonate characters in Greek mythology.
The actor would speak to the chorus.
Chorus (a group of up to 15 male actors) spoke in trochaic tetrameter and later iambic trimeter, sang, and danced.
Each performer had to take on multiple roles where the use of masks, costumes, voice, and gesture became extremely important.
(520 BC) Thespis (origin of the word thespian) was a famous actor who created speaking to the Chorus, changed costumes during the performance (using a small tent behind the stage called the skene.
Eventually, three actors were permitted on stage but no more - a limitation which allowed for equality between poets in competition.
A Tragedy Play
The plot of a tragedy was almost always inspired by episodes from Greek mythology.
The subject matter often dealt with moral right and wrongs and tragic no-win dilemmas.
Violence was not permitted on the stage, and the death of a character had to be heard from offstage and not seen.
The poet could not make comments or political statements through his play.
Comedy Plays
Addressed events of the day and poked fun at politicians, philosophers, and fellow artist. One lead and two other actors performed all of the speaking parts.
Outlandish costumes (giant bees, knights riding another man imitating a horse, kitchen utensils, etc.).
Famous playwrights were Aristophanes (460 - 380 BC) and Menander (c. 342-291 BC).
Menander created New Comedy: Young romantic lead, more plot twists, suspense, and treatment of common people and their daily problems.
Four parts to the play:
(Parados) Chorus (24 performers) performed a number of song and dance routines.
(Agon) Witty verbal contest or debate between the lead actors with fantastical plots and fast changing scenes (some improve).
(Parabasis) Chorus spoke directly to the audience and the poet.
(Exodos) Chorus performed another song and dance routine.
History of English Theatrence in English Theater
The Romans who introduced their auditoriums and theatre to Britain. Consisted of mummer's plays and things like Morris dances (dances performed by groups with swords.)
Theater in medieval England
(1350) Theatre gained huge popularity The church took quite an interest in using theatrical plays as a way to spread their message. Theatre was seen as a great tool of explaining Christianity to ordinary people with many of them still being illiterate and unable to read. It was a break from everyday life, an act of bringing the community together, and many of the plays were entertaining.
(1509-1547) King Henry VIII had court theatre entertainment, secular drama became dominant, and playhouses emerged.
Elizabethan Theater
(Late 16th century) A vital period for English theatre. It was the time of playwrights like Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, whose scripts became one of the cornerstones of modern writing.
(1599) The Globe Theater was built. Up to three thousand people could see the plays in this theatre.
(1616) Shakespeare died.
Modern Theater in England
(1642-1651) The English Civil War was between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom. During this time, theatres were closed for eighteen years, as it was feared that these venues could be places for civil unrest.
During the restoration, theatres in England allowed female playwrights.
History of American Theatre
Theater in the United States is part of the old European theatrical tradition and is heavily influenced by the British theater.
The central hub of the American theater scene is New York City, with its divisions of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway.
Many movie and television stars got their big break working in New York productions.
Outside New York, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons, with some works being produced regionally with hopes of eventually moving to New York.
U.S. theater also has an active community theater culture, which relies mainly on local volunteers who may not be actively pursuing a theatrical career.
(1607) First English colony established in Jamestown, Virginia. Before this, Spanish dramas and Native American tribes performed theatrical events.
(1714) First play printed in America was Robert Hunter's, Androboros.
(1716) First playhouse was built in Williamsburg, Virginia by William Levingston.
(1736) Dock Street Theatre opened in Charleston, South Carolina.
(1750’s-1770’s) Laws forbidding the performance of plays were passed. The Continental Congress banned plays in most states during the Revolution.
(1754) The Hallam brothers were the first to organize a company of actors in Europe and bring them to the colonies. They brought plays popular in London.
(1767) Lewis Hallam, Jr. founded the American Company, opened a theater in New York, and presented the first American play, The Prince of Parthia, by Thomas Godfrey.
(1777-1778) 'Cato', a play about revolution, was performed for George Washington and his troops at Valley Forge.
(1794) President of Yale College, Timothy Dwight IV, in his "Essay on the Stage", declared that "to indulge a taste for playgoing means nothing more or less than the loss of that most valuable treasure: the immortal soul."
The Revolutionary period was a boost for dramatists for whom the political debates were fertile ground for both satire and for plays about heroism.
The postwar period saw the birth of American social comedy in Royall Tyler's The Contrast.
William Dunlap, whose work as playwright, translator, manager and theater historian earned him the title of "Father of American Drama.“ He managed two of New York City's earliest and most prominent theaters, the John Street Theatre and the Park Theatre.
(1809) Walnut Street Theatre was founded (oldest theater in US). First production, The Rivals, was staged in 1812 and attended by President Thomas Jefferson.
Some theatre companies operated floating theaters on barges or riverboats that would travel from town to town.
Shakespeare’s works were commonly performed while American plays were mostly melodramas (ex. Uncle Tom's Cabin).
(1821-1823) William Henry Brown established the African Grove Theatre in NYC. The company performed Shakespeare and the first play written by an African-American, The Drama of King Shotaway.
Theater culture was associated with hedonism and violence; actors (especially women) were looked upon as little better than prostitutes. Jessie Bond wrote, "The stage was at a low ebb, Elizabethan glories…had alike faded into the past,…tragedy and vulgar farce were all the would-be playgoer had to choose from,…theater had become a place of evil repute".
(April 15, 1865) President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (popular stage actor) while watching a play at Ford's Theater in D.C.
Dramas imitated European melodramas and romantic tragedies. Focused on nationalism, expansion to the West, current events, and heroism. Immigration brought a number of plays about the Irish and Germans.
Theater flourished as a postwar boom allowed longer and more-frequent productions.
Railroads allowed production companies, actors, and large, elaborate sets to travel easily between towns, which made permanent theaters in small towns feasible.
The invention of electric lighting also led to changes and improvements of scenery and design of theater interiors and seating areas.
(1896) Theatrical Syndicate established which systemized booking networks throughout the US and created a management monopoly that controlled every aspect of contracts and bookings until the turn of the 20th century, when the rival agency, The Shubert Organization formed.
For playwrights, the period after the War brought more financial reward and respect than was not available earlier.
In terms of form, spectacles, melodramas and farces remained popular, but poetic drama and romanticism almost died out completely due to the new emphasis upon realism, which was adopted by serious drama, melodrama and comedy alike.
20th Century Theater
Vaudeville was common in the late 19th and early 20th century, and is notable for heavily influencing early film, radio, and television productions in the country.
Earlier practice of having singers and novelty acts perform between acts in a standard play.
George Burns was a very long-lived American comedian who started out in the vaudeville community, but went on to enjoy a career running until the 1990s.
Legitimate Theater had become decidedly more sophisticated in the United States. The stars of this era, such as Ethel Barrymore and John Barrymore, were often seen as even more important than the show itself.
Hollywood also led to many changes in theater.
(1915) Actors were being lured away from theater and to the silver screen, and vaudeville was beginning to face stiff competition.
Show Boat was the first Broadway musical. It featured songs and non-musical scenes which were integrated to develop the show's plot.
The Amateur Comedy Club, Inc. was founded in New York City on April 18, 1884. It was organized by seven gentlemen who broke away from the Madison Square Dramatic Organization, a socially prominent company. The ACC staged its first performance on February 13, 1885. It has performed continuously ever since, making it the oldest, continuously performing theatrical society in the United States.
The massive social change that went on during the Great Depression also had an effect on theater in the United States. Plays took on social roles, identifying with immigrants and the unemployed.
Brock Pemberton (founder of the Tony Awards) was among those who felt that it was more than ever a time for comic entertainment, in order to provide an escape from the prevailing harsh social conditions.
1920: Harlem Renaissance.
1940: Frederick O'Neal and Abram Hill founded ANT, or the American Negro Theater, the most renowned African-American theater group of the 1940s. Their stage was small and located in the basement of a library in Harlem, and most of the shows were attended and written by African-Americans.
1950’s forward: Musicals.
The History of the Broadway Musical
Originated in the early 20th Century in New York City.
Developed into an art form from the old Ziegfeld follies, minstrel shows, vaudeville productions, (and European operas) performed on New York City stages.
First Broadway theater was the New Amsterdam Theater.
Shows reflected the mood, struggles, events, or times in New York City and in America.
Includes drama, singing, dancing, sets, staging, costumes, and orchestra accompaniment.
“Showboat” was the first Broadway Musical in 1927.
(1935) Porgy and Bess
(1943) Oklahoma!
(1946) Annie Get Your Gun!
(1950) Guys and Dolls
(1954) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
(1954) The Pajama Game
(1959) Sound of Music
(1957) West Side Story
(1956) My Fair Lady
(1957) The Music Man
(1964) Fiddler on the Roof
(1964) Funny Girl
(1973) Joseph and the Amazing Techni Color Dreamcoat
(1976) Godspell
(1977) Annie
(1982) Cats
(1982) Little Shop of Horrors
(1987) Les Miserables
(1988) Phantom of the Opera
(1994) Beauty and the Beast
(1997) Lion King
(2017) The Greatest Showman
The Walt Disney Company began a renaissance on Broadway with the purchase of the New Amsterdam Theater and the renovation of 42nd Street in 1995.
42nd Street renewal was to be between Broadway and 8th Avenue.
Theater re-opened in November of 1997
First Disney Broadway production was Beauty and the Beast.
Disney’s first Broadway production in the New Amsterdam was The Lion King.
Disney productions that followed were The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, and, coming soon, Frozen.
The Lion King
As of 2014, The Lion King had made over $6.2 billion since 1997!
This show is averaging about $2 million per week!
Highest grossing show of all time.
Gross on Broadway: $1.46 billion as of April 2018
8,519 performances since 1997.
Phantom of the Opera
Longest running show of all time.
As of 2014, this show has made over $5.6 billion since 1988!
Gross on Broadway: $1.15 billion as of April 2018
12,574 performances and counting…
Les Miserables
Opened on Broadway March 12, 1987 and ran until May 18, 2003. It had 6,691 performances. (5th longest running show in history.)
Stopped running shows in 2008 and began again in 2014.
The show won 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Gross on Broadway: $406 million.