03 25 2014 10 23 Transition to Romanticism and Realism ENGLAND 1642 Charles I beheaded by Puritans who establish commonwealth Charles II returns to England from France and brings with him They shut down theatre 1660 The Restoration women on stage Neoclassicism new classics Rigid and rule based Unity of time place and action Rousseau 1712 1778 Nature over civilization Revolutions 1776 in America 1789 in France Purity of genre tragedy about nobility and comedy lower classes Romanticism Values imagination and emotion over rules and order In literature On stage The Hunchback of Notre Dame Frankenstein Robin Hood Zorro Victor Hugo and Hernani 1830 Claques riots because the story is so unexpected and shocking Melodrama Characteristics Middle class or common characters Black and white moral universe where good is rewarded and bad is punished Spectacle Teach moral message Temperance melodrama discourage people from drinking Realism Late 19th century Industrial revolution Realism Urban poor and slums further down it says realism is about middle class Foundational Ideas The artist Asks what happens when someone with a certain heredity exists in a certain environment Based the work on direct observation of contemporary life which the playwright shows impartially and objectively Based on a A Doll s House what are the principles of realism Stories of the middle class Observation of contemporary life and manners Contemporary settings and language Contemporary social issues No longer living in Shakespeare Ibsen During women s suffrage movement Technology and invention Louis Daguerre and daguerreotypes 1839 Photography Pin hole camera Iconoclasts destroyers of cultural beliefs reformers of the 19th century Karl Marx Studied economic patterns Charles Darwin and Origin of the Species Natural selection Survival of the fittest Sigmund Freud How we are as kids turn up when we become adults nature vs nurture Predictable pattern of trait id ego super ego August Comte Father of sociology Pattern of social behavior Empiricism Scientific method the world can be explained Heredity and environment Foundational Beliefs of Realism and Naturalism Audience is like a doctor Art to better humans Naturalism short lived form because life is boring Realism still real to us today Truth is discoverable Solutions can be found with scientific method Naturalism Emile Zola 1840 1902 o Theatre should be a slice of life on stage o The playwright and audience are like a doctor who looks at maladies to find a cure o The audience should go oh that s interesting We can fix this problem if we Emile Zola o The Lower Depths by Gorki o Not very successful depressing Henrik Ibsen Father of realism Alternate ending to A Doll s House which Ibsen called a barbarous outrage Oh this is a sin against myself but I cannot leave them A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day which is an exclusively masculine society with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view Ibsen Controversial ending leaves children and family behind Ways Realism changed Theatre Voluminous stage directions and detailed set design Andre antoine and the fourth wall the front of the stage must be a fourth wall transparent for the public opaque for the player Actor training Constantin Stanislavski The system or the method Direct observation on life Foundation of acting the life of a character should be an unbroken line of events and emotions but a play only gives us a few moments on that line we must create the rest to portray a convincing life Naturalism a germ under the microscope Realism a germ in a petri dish Reactions to Realism The Avant Garde and The Isms Avant garde military advanced guard Futurism Expressionism Dada Absurdism Brecht and the epic theatre including the alienation effect Artaud and the theatre of cruelty Come from World War I European movement Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud Art is not a mirror to reflect reality The theater of cruelty Artaud like the plague the role theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively Taking the boils of life A confined place for human to experience all animal instincts Purge themselves catharsis Shrill sounds waves of light violent physicalizations Fully immersed Sensory Bombardment Artaud believed that theatre should represent reality and therefore affect the audience as much as possible therefore he used a mixture of strange and disturbing forms of lighting sound and other performance elements Spurt of Blood is a good example for this Bertolt Brecht The dramatic theatre vs epic theatre Dramatic yes I have felt like that too just like me its only natural Epic I d never have thought it that s not the way that s extraordinary Marxist Capitalist systems repress people Evils of capitalism Theatre is didactic teaching Not for art for teaching Make audience think about certain social conditions Methodical Alienation effect Interrupt audience s emotional engagement Intellectual response Juxtapose odd elements feel shocked Placards historicized break 4th wall uses narrators tell audience what to think about Placards signs and spoilers so that you knew what was going to happen and you wouldn t be surprised you could think and not feel WHY is it happening 11 04 Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud Empathising with the characters prevents the audience from THINKING about the social Theatre is didactic intended to teach causes of human suffering Alienation Effect juxtapose odd elements placards historized Break fourth wall Asian Theatre Artaud Brecht and Asian Theatre reaction to realism alternatives to naturalistic theatre asian theatre non naturalistic stylized theatre Asia largest continent in the world land population diversity limitations of this lecture diversity culture time generalization ritualistic theatre ex Sanni yakuma Sri Lanka religious theatre ex Ramlila India Folk theatre ex Sokari Sri Lanka Royal court performances ex Peking opera China Theatrical conventions Symbolic representation Gestures Facial expressions Narrator Symbolic representation costumes make up characters gestures and facial expressions ex hand gestures sanskrit theatre different theatre traditions and forms Noh Kabuki Peking opera Koodiyattam Kolam Theatre in Asia Today Spectacles cultural ambassadors Political theatre Censorship Living theatre traditions 11 06 13 History of American Theatre Anti Theatre Sentiment in Colonies 1642 1660 Puritans closed
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