The Modernist Temperament 1885-1940

Characterized by a rejection of the belief that art should seek to objectively represent human behavior and the physical world

Artists sought to create with imaginative perception and innovation rather than accurate depiction

Symbolism

First artistic movement to reject representationalism

Launched in 1885

Truth is: beyond objective examination cannot be discovered through the 5 senses can only be intuited can only be hinted at through a network of symbols

Symbolism

Theatrical Conventions: Subjects taken from:

• the past• the realm of fancy• the mysterious present

Symbolist drama tended to be vague and mysterious

Most important aspect of production = mood or atmosphere

Minimal scenery that lacked detail

Gauze curtain hung between audience and stage = scrim; represented the mist or a timeless void

Symbolism

Theatrical Conventions:

Color chosen for mood

Text often chanted

Actors incorporated unnatural gestures

Productions often baffled audiences

Symbolist Theatre Movement ceased by 1900

Significance of Symbolism

• Disrupted practice of using the same conventions to stage all plays during a particular period

• Prior to the 20th century, artistic movements occurred linearly

• During the 20th century, several artistic movements occurred simultaneously

• Each movement had its own premises about nature and truth

• Each movement had its own set of conventions

• Shift from absolute values to relative values

Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928)

• Viewed artistic unity in theatre as fundamental, but difficult to achieve because of conflicting elements:

• The moving actor, the horizontal floor, vertical scenery

Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries

Adolphe Appia (1862-1928)• Replaced flat, painted scenery with 3-dimensional scenic

structures• Used steps, platforms, and ramps to bridge the

horizontal and vertical planes• Used lighting from various directions and angles

• Viewed lighting as most flexible of the theatrical elements • Could change moment to moment• Could reflect shifts in mood and emotion• Unified all other elements through intensity, color,

direction, movement

Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966)• Denied that theatre was a fusion of the other arts

• Theatre as a wholly autonomous art

• Elements of theatre (action, language, line, color, rhythm) fused by master artist

• Once suggested that actors should be replaced by large puppets

• Simplicity in scenery, costumes, lighting

• Director as supreme, unifying theatre artist

Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries

Max Reinhardt (1872-1943)• Treated each production as a new challenge demanding

its own unique stylistic solution

• Enabled director to make the choice of what stylistic approach to use

• Believed that the production should serve the script

• Established eclecticism and relativism as the dominant directorial approach

New Artistic Movements

Futurism • Glorified the speed and energy of the machine age• Sought to replace old art forms with many new forms

• Collage• Kinetic sculpture• Bruitisme = “noise music”

• Variety theatre as dynamic: involved audience, possessed dynamic energy

• Synthetic drama: compresses essence of full-length play into 1 or 2 moments

• Simultaneity and multiple focus• Lost appeal during WWI since it praised war as the supreme

expression of the aggressive life it championed

New Artistic Movements

Dada• Grounded in rejection of values that had provoked WWI• Sought to replace logic, reason, and unity in art with chance

and illogic• Used simultaneity and multiple focus• “chance poems” = created by placing words in a hat and

drawing them out at random• “sound poems” = composed of nonverbal sounds• Short plays, dances, music• Essentially anarchistic• Dada continued after WWI, but lost most of its energy

New Artistic Movements

Expressionism• Contended that materialism and industrialism perverted the

human spirit by turning humans into machines• Sought to achieve “the regeneration of man”• Emphasis on text• Protagonist on a quest for identity, fulfillment, or means to

change the world• Scenery presented a distorted world: leaning walls, green sky• A nightmarish vision of the human situation• Popularity of form faded after the 1920s

The Hairy Ape

• Written by Eugene O’Neill• Demonstrates the outlook and the techniques of

Expressionism• Structure is episodic• Visual elements are distorted• Characters:

• Only a few characters are given names• Most are identical types, such as the stokers• Humans in the modern world as distorted• Protagonist as symbolic of modern humanity in an

industrialized society• Cut off from past and trapped in an existence where

humans are cogs in the industrial machine

American Theatre and Drama Between the Wars (1917-1940)

• By the 1920s, modernism was predominant in all arts

• Several theatrical styles existed simultaneously

• Between 1929-1939, approximately 2/3 of all live entertainment theatres in the USA closed

• Advent of sound films (1929)• Movie tickets cheaper than theatre tickets• Major economic depression

• Majority of audiences still preferred Realism• Broadway audiences not very tolerant of innovation

The Federal Theatre

The Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939)• The American government’s first financial

support of theatre• Due to deepening depression, Congress created

the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs in various fields

• Task was to provide “ free, adult, uncensored theatre”

• Created Living Newspaper = plays that advocated social reform

The Group Theatre

The Group Theatre (1931-1941)

• Modeled on the Moscow Art Theatre

• Promoted the Stanislavsky system of acting in the USA

• Highly respected company that presented many of the best productions on Broadway during its existence

Development of the American Musical The musical was the most popular theatrical form in the

USA during the 20th century Musical drama has a long and varied history Musical comedy did not emerge as a distinct type until

late 19th century Early musical comedies:

• Emphasized romantic appeal of exotic places or situations• Used stories primarily as excuses for songs and ensemble

numbers• Emphasized spectacular settings, songs, dances, chorus girls

Late 1920s: story and psychological motivation gained in importance• Show Boat (1927) Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II

Epic Theatre

• Developed in Germany during the 1920s• Chief practitioner = Bertolt Brecht

• Sought to make audiences evaluate the socioeconomic implications of what they saw in the theatre

• Wanted the audience to watch theatre actively and critically

• Concept of alienation = distancing spectators from stage events so that they may view them criticallyTheatre as a place to recognize problems that are then

to be solved outside of the theatre.

Epic Theatre Achieving Alienation• Reminded audience that it was in the theatre by calling

attention to the theatre’s means:• Placed lighting instruments in full view• Used fragmented scenery• Made support for suspended objects visible

• Actors encouraged to present rather than to become their characters

• Spoke of their characters in the third person• Often commented on the action of the play• Story distanced through time or place

Epic Theatre Achieving Alienation• Rejected notion of effective theatrical production as a

synthesis of all the arts• Each element should make its own comment• Disparity among elements arouses alienation

• Called attention to the “knots” that tie the scene together• Used captions, songs, etc to emphasize breaks in the action

• Alienation does not preclude engagement:• Engage the audience empathetically• Then use a device (such as a song) to create distance • This allows the audience to evaluate what has been

experienced during moments of empathy

The Good Person of Setzuan

• Brecht’s play suggests:

• Economic need is the root of all evil

• Solutions to human problems are not to be found in divine injunctions

• Alternates short and long scenes

• Telescopes events and eliminates transitions

• The social content of each scene, “gestus” can be expressed in one sentence

• No attempt to create the everyday illusion of reality

• Oversimplifies characters to express social relationships

Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty

Surrealism:• Emphasized importance of unconscious• Significant truths as buried deep within the psyche• The conscious mind must be subverted in order to reach

truths• Promoted: dreams, automatic writing, and stream of

consciousness

Antonin Artaud

• Believed that theatre could free people from destructive impulses

• “The theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively.”

Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty

• Referred to as Theatre of Cruelty because it forced the audience, against its wishes, to confront itself

• Ultimate purpose was a type of psychic shock therapy

• Proposed “a new language of theatre”• Avoided proscenium arch theatres in favor of large,

undifferentiated spaces such as factories and airplane hangers

• Placed audience in the middle of the action

• Wanted to eliminate scenery entirely

• Used human voice for text and for non-textual emotional and atmospheric effects

Post-World War II American Drama & Theatre

Modified realism continued as major approach to theatrical production

Psychological realism, derived from Stanislavsky’s system of acting, became even more predominate

Psychological Realism dominated playwriting 2 Major Dramatists:

Arthur Miller Tennessee Williams

Dominant Production Style established by director Elia Kazan and designer Jo Mielziner

Used in both acting and directing styles Simplified, skeletal settings permitted fluid shifts in time &

place

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Written by Tennessee Williams (1955) Structured in 3 acts, but with continuous action;

time elapsed in play = time required to perform Late point of attack; requires considerable

exposition, which is worked into the action Focuses primarily on 3 characters An alternative third act was written at the

insistence of Elia Kazan From contemporary perspective, this play may be

faulted on 2 scores: gender and race; however, both were treated in ways typical of their time

The American Musical (1941-1960)

By 1940 the musical had become distinctly American

Oklahoma! (1943): Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II Often considered the first work to integrate

music, story, dance, and visual elements in order to forward the dramatic action

Set the standard for the “book musical”

Musical Theatre considered America’s most significant contribution to world theatre

Post-World War II European Drama & Theatre

Many in Europe questioned the very foundation of truth and values

Existentialism• Pursued questions of truth, values, and moral

responsibility

Jean-Paul Sartre: • Denied existence of God• Denied the validity of fixed standards of conduct• Denied the possibility of verifiable moral codes• Human beings as “condemned to be free” = individuals

must choose the values by which they will live

Post-World War II European Drama & Theatre

Albert Camus: • Human condition as absurd

• From this came the label absurdist• Humans long for clarity and certainty, but the universe is

irrational• Only option: individuals must choose the standards by

which they will live• Both Sartre and Camus were convinced that we can

examine our situation and make decisions that permit us to act meaningfully in accordance with those decisions.

Absurdist Drama

• Emerged in France (1950)

• Absurdists accepted views of Sartre and Camus about the human condition

• But, saw no way out of condition because rational and meaningful choices seemed impossible in such a universe

• Truth = chaos; lack of order, logic, certainty

• Play structures abandon cause-and-effect relationships

• Play structures reveal associational patterns reflecting illogic and chance

• Most influential playwright = Samuel Beckett

Waiting for Godot

One of the best known plays of the 20th century

Suggests the impossibility of certainty about anything except the need to accept and endure

Loneliness and alienation is embodied visually in a stark setting

Gesture, business, and language are all important

A state of being is explored, rather than an action

The play embodies the absurdist vision and methods