Theatre History - Contemporary 1900s to present

The contemporary theatre began in the early part of the 20th century with notable practitioners such as Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, all of whom I have covered extensively in blogs.

Blogs of note for Stanislavski are: 

https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2018/05/anatomy-of-suicide-stanislavski-method.html
Although this one is based around AOAS it does give extensive research on Stanislavski and how his style can be used in performance.

https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2017/09/stanislavski-part-1.html
This is a comprehensive version of the above with little mention of AOAS; the above is much more detailed but this provides a small look into Stanislavski.

Blogs of note for Brecht are: 

https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2018/08/contemporary-theatre-brecht.html
This is my most recent blog on Brecht and shows what we did in lesson surrounding Our Country's Good. It gives the best explanation of Brechtian technique from my blog.

https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2017/09/brecht-part-1.html
This gives some description of Brechtian methods.

Blogs of note for Artaud are: 

https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2017/10/five-truths-national-theatre.html
This gives some description of Artaud but the link below is a much better descriptor:
https://hkgparts.blogspot.com/2017/10/artaud-part-1.html

Indeed, contemporary theatre is experimental as shown by the National Theatre created in the 1980s where new styles can be created alongside multi-media. In the 1990s physical theatre was formed. Contemporary theatre is not bound by any genre and plays can be done in any style.

Other notable playwrights such as Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane whose styles will be analysed in future blogs.

Theatre History - Victorian

Theatre in the Victorian era is regarded as the history of theatre during the era ruled by Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. It was a time during which literature and theatre flourished. During her reign, a lot of new theatres were built along with theatre schools. It was also during her reign when political reforms came into practice which led to the openness of theatre and literature. Theatre openly displayed and played dramas relating to social problems. Generally, it was a period which brought prosperity to the middle class of England and started to challenge the old hierarchical order of the country.

Staging

Illustration of Covent Garden Theatre

This staging is the closest to modern theatre especially regarding attempting to make scenes look real. Lighting tech effects and sets tried to do this as well as rather big attempts of realism such as bringing real horses on stage. The two winter theatres, Covent Garden and Drury Lane, had a dramatic duopoly granted in the 17th century, meaning theirs were the only managements officially allowed to put on plays in London during the winter season. They had developed over the years into large, often rowdy meeting places for all kinds of purposes. They did put on serious drama, but also anything that would please a large crowd, including lion taming in a cage and battles on horseback. There were two royal boxes, a huge gallery, and on the ground floor the pit, where people came and went, leaping over the backless benches, calling to their friends up in the boxes.

Acting Style 

The main acting style was that of Melodrama where stories were emotionally massive so the performance was vastly over the top. Melodrama consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment and was characterized by simple morality, good and evil characters and overblown acting style. Characters in melodrama were stereotypical - there was always a villain, a wronged maiden and a hero. The emotions of the actors were played out in the music and accompanied by dramatic tableaux.

Popular Plays

The first drama in Britain to be labelled a melodrama was Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery in 1802. There were a variety of other playwrights who wrote melodrama such as the writer of Peter Pan J.M.Barrie

Why did people go? 

This was the time of the Actor/Manager where actors would hire a theatre, get the main part in the play they wanted to put on and direct it themselves. The audience would come to see the actors rather than watch the piece.

Basis/Past

Initially, performance at the start of the 19th century was only allowed in two theatres with a predominantly Shakespearean programme. However, musicals and burlesque were allowed as they had musical interludes and thus were not regarded as proper plays. An extensive history can be found at the links below.

Costume

Shakespeare was the most popular writer of these actor-managers. It became fashionable to give Shakespeare's plays detailed and historically realistic sets and costumes. The stage spectacle was often more important than the play, and texts were cut to allow time to change the massive sets and to give maximum exposure to the leading role.

Sources: 
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/0-9/19th-century-theatre/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_in_the_Victorian_era
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/19th-century-theatre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodrama#Victorian

Theatre History - Restoration

Restoration theatre was truly a unique era of plays and playwriting. When Charles Stuart was restored to the throne in 1660, theatres were reopened after an eighteen-year ban. Restoration theatre became a way to celebrate the end of the Puritan rule, with its strict moral codes. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy.

Staging

As it was more fashionable to go to the theatre, more people would go which meant that there was a need for the aristocracy to be seen. Indeed, some would pay to have a seat on the stage not to watch the play but for themselves to be watched by lower members of society. As seen by the image opposite, staging was typically the same as the grand theatres today. All theatres were now indoor proscenium arch
buildings.

Acting Style

The acting style can be said to be a unique fusion between Elizabethan stage

conventions and Italian and French styles. There were a variety of acting styles such as Serious Drama (containing Heroic and Restoration tragedies), Comedies of Intrigue and the Comedy of Manners which was by far the most used acting style containing plays such as The Country Wife detailed below.

Popular Plays

There were a variety of plays written by men and women alike but one of the most famous is that of The Country Wife. 

The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun with regard to the first syllable of "country". It is based on several plays by Molière, with added features that 1670s London audiences demanded: colloquial prose dialogue in place of Molière's verse, a complicated, fast-paced plot tangle, and many sex jokes. It turns on two indelicate plot devices: a rake's trick of pretending impotence to safely have clandestine affairs with married women, and the arrival in London of an inexperienced young "country wife", with her discovery of the joys of town life, especially the fascinating London men.


The scandalous trick and the frank language have for much of the play's history kept it off the stage and out of print. Between 1753 and 1924, The Country Wife was considered too outrageous to be performed at all and was replaced on the stage by David Garrick's cleaned-up and bland version The Country Girl, now a forgotten curiosity. The original play is again a stage favourite today, and is also acclaimed by academic critics, who praise its linguistic energy, sharp social satire, and openness to different interpretations.

Why did people go?

The socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle-class segment. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. High society had lots of affairs and immorality which this style of theatre reflects and was why many people attended.

Basis/Past

After the removal of Charles I, the Puritans banned theatre which only returned when the monarchy was restored with Charles' son aptly named Charles II. When Charles II came to the throne the theatre became more liberal as women were allowed to perform and the plays although funny, were sexual in nature which the Puritans were desperately against.

Costume

The Eighteenth Century stage afforded the best opportunities for lavish costumes. The budget for costumes changed in accordance with the management. The theatrical tastes of the eighteenth-century audience tended towards spectacle, and costumes were designed to please the masses. Because theatre during this time was a visual experience before anything else, it was important for successful theatre, both of the court and public theatre, to parade the actors in the most elaborate costumes possible. Because of a limited budget, most performances were costumed out of stock. Whenever possible, however, repertory companies received loans on particularly unique and lavish costumes.

Sources

http://www.london.umb.edu/index.php/entry_detail/restoration_theatre/theatre_intro/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_comedy
https://www.ekschools.org/cms/lib/OH01001236/Centricity/Domain/339/history%20of%20Restoration%20Theatre.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Country_Wife
http://umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/early_theater/costume.html

Theatre History - Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is one of the best-known playwrights of his time, but I think that we should take more interest in other playwrights instead of focusing on Shakespeare. He is absolutely brilliant and he should be commended for blessing the classrooms of English Literature with his Iambic Pentameter, but I do think that others should be celebrated too. He wrote 37 plays between 1590 and 1613, but who else was there? Writers and playwrights working in the same era as Shakespeare include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Ben Jonson and Thomas Dekker. (All of which are said in the song Welcome to the Renaissance from the musical Something Rotten which is a musical where characters are attempting to compete with a very flamboyant, very rock star type of Shakespeare played initially by Christian Borle.)

Staging

The stage that Shakespeare is most associated with using is The Globe Theatre in London which still has performances of Shakespeare plays to this day. A production of Julius Caesar, performed on 21 September 1599 may have been the first production shown at the Globe (which had been constructed earlier that year). Constructed out of timber from their previous playhouse 'The Theatre', it could house up to 3,000 spectators and was the most magnificent venue London had ever seen.

The stage was covered in straw and measured approximately 43ft in width by 27ft in depth, with the audience standing on all three sides. The wall at the back of the stage had a door on both sides for entrances and exits, and a central opening that was normally covered with hangings. Above the stage there was a trapdoor and a windlass for lowering performers down to the stage and, on the stage itself, there was a trapdoor for surprise appearances! 

Source: https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeares-life-and-times/performing-shakespeare-in-the-17th-century

Acting Style 

It is debated whether Shakespeare's plays were acted naturally or formally and has been argued that there was a mixture of the two.

"Natural acting strives to create an illusion of reality by consistency on the part of the actor who remains in character and tends to imitate the behaviour of an actual human being placed in his imagined circumstances. He portrays where the formal actor symbolizes. He impersonates where the formal actor represents. He engages in real conversation where the formal actor recites. His acting is subjective and "imaginative" where that of the formal actor is objective and traditional. Whether he sinks his personality in his part or shapes the part to his personality, in either case, he remains the natural actor."

Source: http://www5.csudh.edu/bdeluca/Playwrights/shakespeare/acting%20shakespeare.htm

Popular Plays

A complete list of Shakespeare's plays can be found here.


I think Shakespeare has been pretty well documented and is known to everyone either through education or by going to see a piece of Shakespeare hence why this blog is so short.

Theatre History - Commedia Dell'arte

The most accurate translation of Commedia Dell'arte is that of The Art of Comedy which certainly sums up this style of theatre. Commedia first appeared in the 16th Century in Italy but would soon sweep across Europe, influencing the characters that we still see on stage and screen today.

Staging

Commedia actors used any type of theatre where one could be found, or they would create them or would perform without them.

Indoor Theater: 

The Baldracca now turned art gallery.

These were built in the homes of the lesser gentry or public spaces such as inns or stanzas which were multi-purpose meeting rooms. Stanzas were in use for much longer and were more available for public performance. The scenery and design were enhanced by scenery changing equipment. An indoor example is the Baldracca which was created as a public theatre by Medici in 1547.

Outdoor Theater: 

An outdoor Commedia performance.
If you look closer you'll see they are
wearing masks!

These were temporary stages elevated by 6ft scaffolding with the audience on three sides, much like a modern-day Thrust Stage. However, the most successful troupes preferred indoor theatres, only going outside to raise funds for an indoor performance or to give a preview to one of their shows.




Acting Style

Commedia actors used stock characters such as Zanni (servants), Vecchi (old men), Innamorati (lovers) and army generals such as El Capitan which were easily recognised by the audience. Alongside the rehearsed improvised comedy with clear techniques, simple staging, and funny plotlines, the actors used well-rehearsed stock physical gags. They didn't use language, instead using gibberish only so often saying their names because Commedia companies often travelled so language wouldn't have the same nuances across Italy, nevermind across the whole of Europe. The gibberish also gives rhythm and pace to the performance. The style can be defined as masked theatre that mocked powerful characters that were around at the time which was enhanced by physical movement as the audience wouldn't be able to the actor's facial expressions.

Popular Plays

Commedia was and still in an improvised form of theatre so there were no written plays but the themes of sex, jealousy, love, and old age were often 'discussed' in performance. Productions were often improvised during the performance to reflect on current local scandals to make them satirical which appealed to an audience. There are some accounts of situations being made so that Commedia could be an easily learnt style. For example,
the Scala Collection written in 1611 by Flaminio Scala contains fifty stock scenarios which detailed action to be done and contained no dialogue.



Why did people go? 

Most audiences came to see the performance rather than the plot lines which were often secondary to an audience's experience. The audience would have been rather joyous to see satirical current local events which would have definitely appealed.

Basis/Past

Commedia is linked to Roman and Medieval theatre and first appeared in Rome in 1551 and the first companies appeared by the mid 16th century such as Gelds in 1568. Most importantly, female roles were now beginning to be played by women which had previously not been allowed which shows a great step forward for women in theatre, especially before the rising of our beloved Shakespeare.

Costume

Each character has a distinct costume, some of which can be detailed below. The masks that were used were put on facing away from the audience and had distinct physicalities. For example, a pronounced nose directly linked to a character's sex drive!

Theatre History - Medieval

Staging

Pageant Wagon: 

Due to a lack of income, actors had to learn to become mobile to accommodate only performing on Holy Days which were different in each region. The wagon would fold out so staging would be limited as well as the costumes so the actors had to stick to religious stock characters. The only advantage that the actors had over the audience was that they were standing above the audience. The wagons stopped at key locations in the towns and moved the wagon after each scene allowing more people to see the piece creating chain theatre. Fixed stages were more common though, in Europe such as in mansions are as in Rome in amphitheatres.

Acting

The actors used simple language so the audience would easily understand the characters and relate to them. Religious stock characters were used such as Jesus, Satan, and God whom the audience would recognise. The actor would physically face the audience when speaking and declare who they are such as "I am a Good Man" which would help the audience to define the character's relationship to other characters. They would move heroically and their movements would be exaggerated by exclusively male actors.

Popular Plays

The majority of plays were religious in nature due to the Catholic Church's control over the majority of things in medieval Europe. There were three types of plays, all of which suggested a commitment to the Church:

Mystery Plays: Bible stories such as the Birth of Jesus, The Wise Men, Flight Into Egypt.

Miracle Plays: About the lives of saints and miracles they performed.

Morality Plays: Began with the rise of towns and were about virtues and vices such as fellowship, good deeds, and death.

Why did people go? 

Religion was the most powerful force and Christianity dominated lives despite the majority of people being able to understand the sermons due to them being taught in Latin which for the majority of the population was not their first language nor one they could thoroughly understand. The church needed to get the messages from the Bible across to the general laity hence short plays were introduced during sermons which eventually moved onto church steps and then ultimately the aforementioned pageant wagons. They were performed on Holy Days which meant that everyone could watch them as no-one was working.

Basis/Past

Theatre was banned by the church in the 5th century and then was brought back in the 9th century as short scenes during Mass starting in France and then expanding around Europe. These were brief plays to show important points such as Easter and Christmas. These performances soon got bigger so were moved out of the church and instead onto their steps.

Costume

The church provided the costume when the plays were performed in church, however, as touring companies became more popular the costumes had to be provided by the actors themselves. They were simple as they had to be transported and actors were, for the most part, poor.

Theatre History - Ancient Greeks

Ancient Greek theatre was practised around 3000 years ago and is said to be the first 'proper' theatre in the Western World.

Staging

The main staging that was used was the Amphitheatres which were open-air venues which used the existing landscape around them. The closest members of the audience were really far away so facial expressions and voice were hard to understand. An intelligent design solved this as the sound refracted back from the seats which allowed all the audience to hear what was being said at all times.

For example, the great amphitheatre Epidaurus had acoustics so good that actors could be heard by all 1500 spectators. Epidaurus was built by Polykleitos on the side of a mountain overlooking an Asclepian sanctuary. It was only uncovered once again in 1881 and plays began performing again in 1938. It even hosts part of the 'Athens and Epidaurus festival' staged in summer bringing ancient and modern plays/musicals together in one place.


Acting/Plays

There were multiple genres of plays which included:

Comedy: Mainly satirical and mocked those in power. Plays written by Aristophanes Menander were bout ordinary people and can be regarded as ancient sit-coms.

Tragedy: Big themes such as love, loss, power, relations with gods, or a protagonist commits an act he doesn't realise is devastating. Aristotle argued tragedy cleared the heart through catharsis.

Satyr: Short and between tragedy acts and made fun of the main characters in the tragedy.

Popular plays included the plays written by Sophocles such as the Theban plays which include Oedipus Rex (the plot of which has been described in my Berkoff blogs). The other two plays in the trilogy include Oedipus at Colonus (where Oedipus' daughter Antigone arrive at Colonus and encounter the King of Athens only for Oedipus to die) and Antigone (which the previous Y13s performed last year).

Why did people go?

The majority of plays were performed during City Dionysia festival honouring the God of Theatre and Wine Dionysis. Men used to perform songs to welcome Dionysis and only men were allowed in.

Basis

The origin for this theatre begins in Athens when ancient hymns were sung to honour Gods which were then adapted into songs for the Chorus to sing. Then the development of what we now regard as acting occurred. In the 6th century BC, a tyrant established public festivals. The priest Thespis introduced the City Dionysia festival which is considered to be the birth of theatre as Thespis was the first Greek actor and originator of Greek tragedy.

Masks

They were highly decorated and the expressions were clear so that the audience could see. Moreover, the mask amplified the actors' voice as they were cupped at the mouth. Unfortunately, they were made from cork and/or linen so none were preserved.

Chorus


The Chorus accentuated the main points and explained the action and they could vary in size. They were very important to the performance as they weren't allowed to show violence on stage so the Chorus would fill in the blanks that didn't happen on stage.