Modern Stage Exam 1

to getter society, you have to study society (sociology)
- sociopositism theory -aim of all knowledge is the betterment of society

centered on middle class family on brink of destruction + saved by the last second plot twist.
-cause + effect arraignment of events
-climate- events lead up to climax, battle of wits between hero and villain
-withheld info + secrets
-seems like villian may win, but in end order is restored

-France in 1850s
-realistic character, situation, and dialogue
-tried to get as close to real life while being entertaining
-Grew from ideas of Compte, Freud, Darwin
- characters based on environment and heredity
-Unique sets that aren't oldeused
-confront social ills and social norms and solve recognize ills, address. How to solve?
-not always happy ending leave audience asking moral's

-murder mystery
-clear gender divide and power dynamics
-an example of feminist theater
-realistic and experimental

1st traveling company -tours Europe 1874-1890
-had depth and realistic sets

-open 1897 Paris
-ultra realistic plays others wouldn't put on
-subscription series to get around censorship
-open the door for the emersion of small theaters
-emphasized naturalism, and environmental determinism

-O'neill, Glaspell, Cook
-played on the wharf of the Atlantic before it moved to NYC in 1916
-moved to Provincetown Playhouse

-the movement in the story where the plot begins
-its where we are dropped into the story

-following the point of attack we move forward in time and develop the world or the given circumstances

-it is hurl your ideas into the world in hopes something will stick and make sense

the good triumph and the bad are punished

people hired to come and clap for you

-took place because of Forrest and McCready Beef

external behavior (Forrest) muscular

was the first person to apply a scientific system to acting

-Aurelien Lugen Poe theatre de Ioevre
-Maeterlinck created symbolism as he argued that poetry is superior to reality
-anti-realism
-didn't focus on realistic details but poetic ideals and mystery of human existence
-first movement to challenge and reject representational verisimilitude (which means truth to life)
-argues that truth can't be found in senses but within
-its not an environment/heredity/social problems movement

-universal traits and behaviors(no individualizes: no supernatural/fantasy

-resistance to big theatres, small companies not censoring plays...
-censoring plays the syndicat

-lienor start to end

-wrote about high class people in trouble; how traditional valves don't let people reach full potential
-"Doll House"
- believed men operate on personal success ($, jobs) and women on feelings and personal identity

-said theatre needs to be based on scientific formulas--AKA naturalism
-stage is a lab of human behavior
-capture the real, evil, truth in a play- audience wants lies

"origins of species"
-inspired realism because he said heredity and environment create character cause of all someone does
-cannot full hold individual responsible for actions society to, blame too
progress is evitable

(actor)
black and red face
-working class fans
-class and nativist tensions
-had beef McCready
-1st American star
-muscular heroic acting over precise acting

(actor)
-upper class fans
-beef with Forrest
-class and nativist tensions
-long pauses for emotion
-traditional

-wanted historically accurate production
-used props and sets from start
-every role was carefully plotted- no small roles

actor training method and created a system
- all acting methods started from him

-open theatre Libre
-didn't like big theater wanted to show darker and realistic plays

-Dukes makes her high class to marry her
-supervised casting/ training of actors, plus picked out plays, adopted them for Meiningen Theatre Company

training actors that internal emotions are portrayed as outward gesture - this mad actions look too stiff
scientific method in acting

-married to Gorden Cram Cook
-trifles

-related to expressionism and realism
-created environments that actors can move and interact with each other
-actors wasn't supposed to separate themselves from the stage
-used symbol sets and lighting to create mood and show inter state

-wanted an actor who was a puppet in a play
-he went for a style of scenic design to create mood and mystery

-contributed to American realism
-puts lower class people on stage, writing American dialect, and wrote plays of families and the failure of the US because of our greed

-started Moscow Art Theater with Stanislavski

-from Ireland
-includes for waiting for Godot and endgame
-plays were empty of action
-not realistic
-dialogue runs in circles
-look at trying to live in a world where nothing makes sense
-wrote in French and translated himself into English
-exact with how his play was to produced, do not deviate

-didn't like Ibsen
-Naturalistic Plays
- character vs plots
-don't contain scenery to field of vision

-begins 19th century poet French Revolution
-aimed toward working class... so they could understand reaction against Neoclassical rules.
-Poetic justice
-Clear suspenseful plot
-Hero + villain
-intricate sets (earthquakes, fires)
-domestic plots with middle class people at the center
-truth is simplified and idealized to behave according to rules and be rewarded
-coincidences to punish play forward

Zola- scientific methods in theatre
-based on inner conflicts of character over plot demands
- tried to get as close to real life while being entertaining
-extreme version of realism
- no as successful because it was too constructed

-Martin Esslin, grouped artists into box of theatre of absurd
-rejects realism, similar to dadalism and surrealism, and that life doesn't make sense, so theater should either
-plots are disturbs
-unmotivated actions
-characters aren't consistent
-no world order
-came from existentialism
-meaningless, emphasized fragmentation, alienation, isolation
-human existence futile/absurd in which language isa problem
-plot is circular (Sisyphus)
-strange unrecognizable locales

-1st attempt at theatrical realism in Us + Europe
- Nora discussion of surface and below surface persona (Duality/ performance)
- want to find herself, can't raise kids without knowing true self, freedom
-heredity and environment
-addresses strict gender roles and sticking with status quo
- institution of marriage under microscope transactional vs love

-american expressionism
-O'neill
-emphasizes trying to find meaning in a meaningless world for the working class
-attacking societal systems such as class
-character of Patti represents the life of the worker,
Character of long represents unionizing and also communism
-character of Mildred represents upper society and privileged. symbolically stand for the decay of aristocrats
-character of yank represents worker, power and strength that leads to needing control of identity. Futurism
-depicts the inhumanity of government and the reality of being a modern worker in a capitalist society
-dramaturgically represents expressionism (pushes the audience away so you don't get sucked into the story, but observe with a critical eye)

Samuel Beckett

-devoted to realism and naturalism over melodrama
-founded on psychological realism vs historical accuracy

-also called the inciting moment
-something happens that upsets, disturbs, and promotes action that creates conflict which leads to the climax

the events leading to the climax

-considered the new normal
-gives the audience something to talk or think about

Stanislavski system actors ask themselves how a person would react in a circumstance to make acting seem authentic and real

Stanislavski system component... actors draw on personal experiences to access a characters emotions

Stanislavski system what a character wants more than anything

with box sets, allowed audience to peer into a home

imagination, emotion, and appreciation of human nature (McCready-Traditional) (prelude to Stanislavski)

boxes-rich families and women
pit- benches single white males
Gallery- high up cheap seats
-where you sat spoke to class and status

based on ideas of Freud and Darwin
influenced how wrights felt characters would react in situations

-adjusted focus light to the stage vs elsewhere
-you could see the actor ,Customes, scenery,
-made actors change approach a new form of acting
-downside it smelled

-resist the idea that we want to capture the world as it truly is
-starts because of urbanization
-mast urbanization, industrialization, and consumerism
-attacks tradition beliefs systems as they damaged individuals ability to understand

-war and machines are important, should be celebrated and embraced
-Italian movement that was prowar and super fascists
-embraced speed machinery and violence
-called from a break from the past AKA realism
-Russian futurism was more literal a philosophical because of the influence of communism
-war is example of modern industry
-rejected history
-Wooster group multiple things happening at once
-synthetic dramas reduced hour long plays into 10 minutes

"what use is art in a cruel world"
-abandoned logic and embraced randomness(aleatory)
-many things happened all at once and it was up to the audience for interpretation
-Switzerland post world war 1
-logic and rationality lead to global world
-abandon logic and choose nonsense

-Van Go (starry night)
(painter)
-Autodicks (war wounded)
-revolted against realism to portray humans in a violent and mechanistic
-emerged post world war 1
-hairy ape and machinal
-American expressionism critiques mechanisms and industrialization
-responding to the trauma and instability in German post world war 1 (Germany felt like they lost everything)

-pieces of the story that are put together
-less about the overall ideas or themes O
-focused on the characters arcs

-where everything has lead to this moment and it is at its highest level of suspense