19th Century Renaissance & 20th Century

Joshua GalvanNajwha JordanBrittney Fields

Rodnesha Collins

Impact on Culture• 19th century

The latter half of the 19th century was a time of great change for the American theater. It was a time of tremendous growth in population of America especially in cities in the east coast. They looked at the theaters to provide entertainment, laughter, and glitter. They enjoy going to the theater because it took their minds off of what was going on in there personal life and gave them something to smile about.

20th century During the 20th century, especially after World War 1 western drama become more

internationally unified uses the product of separate national literacy traditions, realism, naturalism, and symbolism continued to inform important plays. They enjoyed the plays because it helped them come together in a time of need.

Ten Playwrights• Dion Boucicault (19th Century)

• David Mammet (20th Century)

• Hall Caine (19th Century)

• Eugene O’Niel (20th Century)

• Oscar Wilde (19th Century)

• Tennesse Wiliams (20th Century)

• Giovanni Verga (19th Century)

• Arthur Miller (20th Century)

• Joseph Von Eichendorff (19th Century)

• Horton Foote (20th Century)

Biographies• Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. Tennessee Williams  was given a typewriter at a young age

and this allowed him to begin writing at an early age. His family life, much like that of many of the characters in his most famous plays (Streetcar, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and of course, the quasi- autobiographical Glass Menagerie) was quite troubled. Tennessee Williams was especially close to his sister, Rose, who suffered from mental illness and was given a crippling failed frontal lobotomy later in life, which caused Tennessee a great deal of pain and stress. One should look for traces of Rose in the character of Laura in "Menagerie". While away at college (where he only lasted a short time before his father forced him to come back and work at a shoe warehouse) he was given the nickname “Tennessee” because of his accent and it stuck. Tennessee Williams began writing plays but enjoyed little success until after college. Once pays such as Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof were hailed by critics, Tennessee became quite successful, winning awards such as the Pultizer Prize. Despite his success, Williams struggled with fame and suffered from alcoholism, drug use, and depression. Even though he had developed a reputation as the next greatest American playwright, Williams also faced challenges because he was gay and was even the victim of gay hate crime in 1979 in Key West where he was beaten. Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71 after a drug-related choking incident and is buried in Mississippi. Many of the problems he faced during his life are played out in a number of his works and knowing the man before reading the plays is rewarding.

• Known for his wit and audacity on both paper and in literary circles, Oscar Wilde would go down in history as one of the most staunch advocates of the Art for Art’s Sake movement. With his works, which included Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Ernest, he led a life that lived up to his prose. He also published fairy tales, poetry, and his most controversial piece, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Professional artists in Dublin, Ireland brought up young Oscar. His father, although one of the country’s most renowned surgeons was also a literary genius, publishing works about folklore and archeology. His mother was a poet and scholar of folklore of their country. Wilde attended Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford, where he won several literary contests. He believed that art should be the central part of one’s life and that fulfillment could only come through it.

With a flamboyant attitude towards life and always upbeat, Oscar Wilde quickly fit in amongst the brightest and most promising literary circles in London. After publishing his own work, called Poems, Oscar Wilde traveled to the United States and Canada to lecture in the 1880s. Upon his return to London, Wilde edited various publications and lectured about life in America to those who wanted to hear his witty comments about decadent life overseas.

In the last decade of his life, Wilde published many more of his works. His fairy tales, entitled Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, Other Stories, and House of Pomegranates brought him some fame and prestige, as did his controversial essays entitled Intentions. Wilde also had a desire to revamp French drama, which he believed had lost its beauty, whether in comedy or tragedy. However, the release of his play called Salome was boycotted and censored because of its depiction of the lewd passions of biblical persons.

Wilde was able to combine satire, analogy, and hypocrisy into his works, which had now gained a massive public following. In his works, such as An Ideal Husband, Wilde seems to have one common thread that weaves his plays together – the central character or message tends to be hidden. After a trial that sent him to prison for two years for being a sodomite, Wilde returned to the French literary scene, where he released The Ballad of Reading Goal, which discussed the inhumane prison conditions he suffered. Other artists who he had befriended before his trial supported Wilde.

• (20th Century) Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie”• Amanda's husband abandoned the family long ago. Although a survivor and a pragmatist, Amanda yearns for the illusions and

comforts she remembers from her days as a fêted Southern belle. She yearns especially for these things for her daughter Laura, a young adult with a crippled foot and tremulous insecurity about the outside world.

• (19th Century) Oscar Wilde “The Importance of Being Earnest”

• In 1890s England, Algy Moncrieff and his friend Jack Worthing are a spirited pair of London dandies who are keen to win the hands of the women they love. And their chosen brides, the pre-Raphaelite Cecily and the distinguished Gwendolen are their perfect women - except that they appear to have a pathological aversion to any name... other than Earnest.

But of course, adopting this unusual name is the least of their troubles when the imposing Lady Bracknell arrives to guard her beloved daughter's reputation and investigate her suitors. Quizzing Jack over his social pedigree, Lady Bracknell is utterly dismayed to discover that he has only the spurious claim to being parented by a "handbag". She presents him with an ultimatum: unless he can prove his suitable origin within the week, the marriage will be off.

• (20th Century) Arthur Miller “A View From the Bridge”• Eddie Carbone a Brooklyn longshoreman, has an unnaturally strong affection for his niece, Catherine. Furious when she is

attracted to Rodolpho, a handsome young illegal immigrant, Eddie tries to convince her that the boy is a homosexual. When this ploy fails, he informs the immigration authorities, who arrange to deport the boy and his brother. Having broken both a moral and family code, Eddie kills himself.

Oscar Wilde - Memphis Tennessee

Sources

•http://www.google.com/•http://www.wikipedia.org/•http://www.theatredatabase.com/

20th_century/•Glencoe Theatre Art in Action Book

Review•Name a play?•Name three playwrights?•Where was Tennessee Williams born?•What was the play “A View From the

Bridge” about?•What did theatre add to the impact

of culture during the 19th century?