Diagrams Intro to Theatre Final Review Musicals Broadway Today The Musical is the only major unique contribution that America had to word theatre Minstrel Shows Big contribution to American Theatre The Black Crook 1866 Took place at Niblo s Garden Theatre The very first musical that happened by accident the Parisian Ballerina dancers were stranded after a fire destroyed NY elegant Academy of Music Dancers Faust Lavish Spectacle First Musical Operas Entirely sung through Ex Mozart s Cosi Fan Tuttle the Marriage of Figaro Operettas Performed by singers who act Gilbert Sullivan The Mikado HMS Pinafore etc Burlesque influential through Ziegfeld s Follies glorification of female body and female form Lydia Thompson and the British Blondes Musicals Performed by actors who sing Rogers and Hammerstein The King and I The Sound of Music etc Integrated Book Musical emphasis on plot and character songs all enhance plot or character development often end happily Example Oklahoma By Rogers Hammerstein or West Side Story Concept Fragmented Musical Themes and ideas are primary characters and plot is developed as much as needed dark musicals dark endings Example Hair David Merrick The Abominable Showman One of the most important historical Broadway Producer hugely successful in the 40 s 80 s one every Tony Award even special Tony Awards produced Hello Dolly Gypsy 42nd Street One of the most hated people on Broadway known for his publicity stunts Subways are for Sleeping he located 7 people in NY that had the same name as the musical critics and tried to publish this ad only one newspaper published it for one day but it let the show run for 6 months When 42nd Street opened Merrick told the audience that the director died after the show even though the girlfriend didn t know Cameron Mackintosh Broadway producer that produced Les Miserable Phantom of the Opera Miss Saigon Cats Mary Poppins Succeeded Merrick Produced big shows originally British he produced many popular shows with staying power and spectacle but also produced many flops Other Famous Broadway Producers Oprah Harpo The Color Purple Disney Lion King New Line Cinema Hairspray Universal Pictures Wicked All taken place in NYC in Manhattan between 5th 9th Avenues and 34th 56th Streets Off Broadway Birthplace of many great plays and musicals 8 9 of the last Pulitzer Prize Winning plays began here It allows Art Intimate Shows and Experimentation Ex UrineTown girls in show complains about the name Avenue Q and Blue Man Group started off there The Fantasticks Rent Actors that started on Off Broadway Alec Baldwin Kevin Bacon Morgan Freeman Meryl Streep Kathy Bates Rip Torn Stockard Channing Felicity Huffman James Earl Jones Broadway 500 seats or more Off Broadway 100 499 Seats Off Off Broadway 99 seats or less Stage Combat Extra Credit The Rules 1 Safety First the most sacred of the rules combat is dangerous actors have been hurt killed Choreograph each move carefully Slap is the most dangerous move to do on stage Get close but must pass the face nose eyes More actors have been wounded getting slapped than anything else 2 Good Partnering evenly matched in skills and strength and can work well together on stage Ex no left with right handed One person may need to compensate 3 Create the ILLUSION of violence anything that happens on stage is not supposed to be real but audience is supposed to be able to believe it The Purpose only answer 1 Tells A Story has to make sense be logical and build in the conflict where violence is the 2 Have a logical physical dialogue escalates gradually not flip guy off then punch to face Has to build up Pushes plot development 3 Support the conflict by finding way to continue develop character and plot and doesn t deviate from world of the play reinforce and escalate the conflict Weapons Certified by American Society of Fight Directors Unarmed broadsword quarterstaff rapier dagger sword shield smallsword knife firearms never point gun at the audience The Process Acting Intentions Maintaing the Illusion Sound knap voice Reaction Vocals and Sound effects Acting Directing Julie Taymor first female director to make her mark on Broadway directed Lion King on Broadway first woman to win a Tony Award for directing Loyd Richards major director for the American stage most famous for all of the productions of the August Wilson plays directed 6 out of the 10 plays from Wilson s Pittsburgh cycle Directing Emerged in the 1800 s Richard Wagner 1823 83 Gesamtkunstwerk meaning complete or total art work came up with the idea of the master artist whose ideas will be shown and that controls every single aspect of the production that will write direct design the piece choreograph the dance and choose the music3 Two different Innovations for the audience to pay attention to his ideas on stage 1 Fan Shaped Auditorium built it to redirect people s attention to what s on stage got rid of the box seats whose purpose was to show higher class and for other people to see them Democratic way of sitting that ideally let everyone have a good seat to see the show 2 Darkened Auditorium refocus everyone s attention to the stage itself people couldn t see other people in the audience so they had to pay attention to the stage Georg II Duke of Saxe Meiningen very first director that had the unified work in mind lot of money and time most famous for his crowd scenes that were enormous and very intricate would work with each individual person so they would stand out from the crowd to mirror or emulate real life Innovations 1 2 Acting styles made actors talk to each other instead of talk to the audience so it would 3 D sets made actors part of the set and walk among the set pieces forward the character Important innovation in directing and acting history Primary Goals of Directing 1 Unification 2 Interpretation Zeffirelli s Romeo Juliet is very worshipful and to the text while Luhrmann s R J doesn t honor the text highlights a very specific idea in the text of a heightened passion reinterprets the text Heretical Blocking where actors are going to move big part of director s job Tech rehearsals with designs costumes technology everything put together 10 of 12 put in place by the Actor s Equity Association every twelve hours of technical rehearsal time the actors can only be working for 108 designed to protect actors and give them dinner breaks cigarette breaks etc What is acting Building a character Interpretation analysis Physical emotional psychological