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Heightened Acting Context
Building Character with Body and Voice
Romanticism was a challenge to the Enlightenment, a response to the Industrial Revolution and the Scientific rationalization of nature.
Rationalism, empiricism, universalism gave way to emotional extremes and subjectivity
It placed emphasis on emotion and individualism
The glorification of past and nature (God created nature; nature is truth)
Romanticism valued individual liberty and religious tolerance over absolute monarchy and fixed dogmas of the RCC
Romanticism valued Primitivism: the preference of medieval over classical. Revitalized interest of Poetics by Aristotle (especially in story structure, which we still follow today).
Rise of Nationalism
Rise of Nationalism
Development of national language and folklore; importance of local custom and tradition, expressed through art.
Germany at the time was a multitude of separate states; German Romanticists developed Sturm und Drang- “Storm and Drive”. Enter stage left, Richard Wagner. Flight of the Valkaries is a perfect example.
Extremes of emotion given free expression, in response to the perceived constraints from the Age of Enlightenment
Protagonist driven to action- violent action- by revenge and greed
Victor Hugo's writing found Romantic beauty in more common, less heightened language and rhythm onstage (even though by today's standards his work is still in verse)
Romanticism in the Theatre
Romanticism in the Theatre
Hang outs in the Salon (Voltaire’s library). Theatre was a venue for critique and discussion of societal issues: how society effects the individual
Content was about Life vs. Death, Good vs. Evil, Human vs. All. Common people as important characters, struggles with a ruler, violence/ death/ humor. Hegel: Tragedy/Comedy now Death/Redemption
Content frequently includes extraordinary and supernatural
"Dulls and contains fervor with comforting moral sentiments". Emotion over Rational
Language form is heightened, sculpted, rhetorical, elevated. WYSIWYG.
Content/Story follows Aristotle's Dramatic Structure (and it's 5-Act, neo-classic derivative). Goal is audience’s release of emotion through watching a drama. Societal value on the hero and its journey for redemption
The 36 Dramatic Situations, Georges Polti
Opera. Golden Age 1850 - 1890s, dominated by Verde (Italy) and Wagner (Germany). No Director. Stage Manager follows the directions in the libretto, no interpretation
Check out Grand Guignol @ Crash Course Theatre
Joseph Angel Maldonado @ IAM Center
The Melodrama (France)
The Melodrama (France)
Rise of middle class: wealth re-distribution provided the desire for luxury and entertainment
Very Popular: Licensing Act of 1737 said 2 theaters can produce serious drama, 3 in summer. Get around it to make more theatre, change the format: opera; or shove some music into the play text... Melodrama! Birth of the Operetta, summer blockbuster!
playwright René Charles Guilbert de Pixérecourt. Fled France during the Revolution, travels to London.
Pixérecourt wrote exciting stories that almost always had a happy ending with good rewarded/bad punished. Fairy tales: heroes, villains, sages, love interests, side kicks, quests
Audiences encouraged to cheer and boo
Music accompaniment
Exaggerated Spectacle: design and performance to appeal to emotion. Sometimes supernatural elements, dark/gothic. First official theatre director!
Equestrian drama (horses running on treadmills),
dog drama, nautical drama, battle drama, gravedigging
Wildly Unrealistic, precursor to Realism
Later content was domestic, true crime melodrama (1820 - 1830) "Highly topical": Racism, sexism, urban poverty, prosperity, happiness, the soul, the world. Characters must explore how we succeed or fail when presented with dire circumstances.
Dionysius Boucicoult: playwright. Exploding riverboat! Witty, sentimental. Franchised his plays. The Octoroon.
Above: Bill for English production of The Dog of Montarges by Pixerecourt. Left: Diamond Circle Melodrama, Durango CO.
Augustin Daly, 1867 Under the Gaslight. One of theatre's first directors. Woman tied to the tracks, although the original was reversed gender. Most locations in Under the Gaslight were real locations in NYC, staged. Social commentary.
Melodrama in America (Revolutionary Era)
Melodrama in America (Revolutionary Era)
New York and Philadelphia quickly became centers of performance; troupes would rehearse their production then tour different regions of the country. Also, showboats on the Mississippi.
Royall Tyler, 1787 The Contrast. Rip off of Sheridan's School for Scandal but villains were staged as the British, the heroes Americans
Stock Yankee: New England dialect, "aw shucks" simple attitude
Red Face: "Beginning with the Boston Tea Party in 1773, groups of political dissenters employed redface--using face paint, wearing feathers, and grunting in crude imitation of Indian languages--to disguise themselves during acts of protest... At the turn of the 20th century, when the frontier was popularly understood to be already explored and conquered, popular culture reveals a renewed emphasis on the image of Native Americans as civilized" (BGSU).
Astor Place Riots, actors William Charles Macready (British) and Edwin Forrest (American) both played Macbeth at same time, disrupted each other's performances.
By the last quarter of the 19th century, the melodrama evolved into vaudeville
Minstrel Show
Minstrel Show
African-American caricature, intended for comedy, racist and hateful (childish, dim, lazy).
T.D. "Daddy" Rice, popular minstrel show actor, NYC. Created a character, Jim Crow (laws named after). Played Uncle Tom in a pro-slavery version of Uncle Tom's Cabin (by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a pro-abolitionist book).
Al Jolson performed on Broadway in blackface well into 20th century
Lost popularity in the late 19th century but continued on in cartoons, Broadway, musicals and early TV
"Tom Shows": not only were there pro-slavery versions made, but sometimes adapted for stage as excuse for white actors to wear blackface. Tom Shows developed when scenes were cut with variety acts.
Above: Early American Theatre, Pioneering Beginnings.
Right: Cover of William Wells Brown's The Escape
Everything in the world is bent to your life: “how important you are, how it’s affecting you. You are the most important thing in the world.”
Joseph Angel Maldonado
Early African-American Theatre
Early African-American Theatre
1816 William Alexander Brown and the African Grove Theater in NYC, performed inside/outside. All African-American ensemble, ballet/Shakespeare/music/theatre. Closed 1823. Reopened as the African Theatre; Stephen Price and his nearby Park Theatre had African Theatre shut down again. While open Whites had to sit in the back.
William Wells-Brown (novelist and playwright), The Escape. Written/published before the Civil War (1858) not produced until the after Civil Rights Movement (1971). Would read excerpts at abolition rallies.
NOTABLE ACTORS WHO SHAPED THE STYLE
NOTABLE ACTORS WHO SHAPED THE STYLE
Emotion over dignity: romantic style perfected by Edmund Kean (1787 – 1833), villianous roles
Power no one could match, intensity, courage
“Reviewing Kean is like having to review strokes of lightning”
Perfected “common coming-up from the gutter”
Very naturalistic, deeply real, psychologically emotional
Broke through stiff character of English theatre of the time, gave it a life
William Charles Macready (1793 – 1873) Detailed characterizations, historically accurate settings & costumes
Edwin Booth (1833 – 1893) was the popular ideal protrayal of Shakespeare's characters in the Melodrama style
Sarah Bernhardt played "breeches roles," or roles gendered male for audience's understanding
John Phillip Kemble (1757 – 1823) & Mrs. Sarah Siddons (1755 – 1831) (brother & sister). Ideal portrayal of grace, dignity, a “classical style"
Here's a great comparison between Kenneth Branaugh's work. Above, Gildroy Lockhart; Below, Hamlet
Heightened Acting: The Vestiges of Romantic Acting
Heightened Acting: The Vestiges of Romantic Acting
Attempted to be as realistic as possible; wildly unrealistic, precursor to Realism
Many modern performance theories categorize an actor's tool set: for the Melo I think Mask, Gesture, Shape, Voice (Viewpoints has 9)
Your performance is inspired from the artist’s imagination, little interference as possible from the artificial rules of Classical Art
Although the Melodrama may be considered cheap theatrics by the subsequent generation, the technique remains to be a useful alternative to Stanislavski's work and its derivatives. The goal of both techniques is TRUTH, just two different paths to get there.
Bad acting is usually non-commitment, a non-equality (either the performance doesn’t match the stakes of the given circumstances, mis-matched levels of performance, vague direction, unclear production motivation).
Highly directed/controlled/planned, ideally efficient. "It's a conservative form that feels like a radical one"
exaggerated, designed to appeal to emotion
“Take yourself over over over serious” (Joseph Angel Maldonado)
Above: The Skywalker Saga is a great example of the Romantic style - its structure, characteristics, acting style - applied to futuristic given circumstance.
Left, bottom: Noises Off, a farce play by Michael Frayn uses farce - a subset of Heightened Acting with specific rules.
Let's test the sponge!
Let's test the sponge!
Go to joinmyquiz.com and enter the code 366 419
Go to joinmyquiz.com and enter the code 366 419
The top THREE get a FREE GET OUT OF JOURNAL PASS.
The top THREE get a FREE GET OUT OF JOURNAL PASS.
If the link doesn't work for you, go through clever (the blackbox page, the Quizzizz link, enter the code in the top right corner)
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
My FAVORITE online resource for everything Shakespeare. Synopses, character breakdowns, text, history... this has a lot of trustworthy content for the Shakespearean Scholar.
University of Virginia offers this copy/paste of the original Heminges' & Condell First Folio. This online etext retains the original folio's spellings, capitalizations and punctuation.
Click link to go to University of Virginia library.
Click see more to find the play of interest; there are three plays per "v."
Further down the page, find the link for which "v." you need
scroll through the facsimile copy to find your play; remember, they're grouped in three plays, so if you're looking for the second play in the "v." listing, scroll through the interface about a 1/3 of the way
Plays You Should Know
Plays You Should Know
Attached is a valuable document I received from Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department under the direction of the late Sheldon Patinkin. Colleagues and I had competed to read all the plays on the list: it was pretty easy in Chicago due to the Harold Washington Library and its ENTIRE 8th floor dedicated to playtexts.
Amazon has gotten better over the years but you can't beat Samuel French and Dramatists' Play Service for cheap copies of ANY play. Happy Reading, Schooled Actors.
suggested_reading.pdfPage updated
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