These notes were compiled by a class full of initially confused and ultimately enlightened grad students (including myself) from A.S.U. Use them as you see fit :)
School/Movement - Symbolism
Dates 1885-1895
Description/Philosophy
Very early reaction to realism
People are too dependent on surface of things
- all life has an essence beneath the surface that is
just as real and deserves respect
Some mysteries are mysteries and should remain
that way - acknowledge that, use art to
explore them not solve them
Takes one on a descent from rational to subconscious.
Religious/mythological themes, highly allegorical
treatment of these themes Visuals on stage for
symbolic reasons - to create moods and
manipulate the audience Acting style- less about
conveying literal meaning of words,
more about tone of voice
Not suggesting character- suggesting archtypes
Founder/Key Influences
Gustave Kahn (manifesto)
Maeterlink
Influences by Beaudeliare - off writing poems
no one understood
(ex. of impoverished, misunderstood
poet living for his art)
Manifesto 1889 - Gustave Kahn
Theatre of the future,
the profession of faith of a modernist
Plays and Playwrights
Strindberg - Dream Play, Ghost Senada
Paul Claudel, Edward Dujardin - France
Josephine Peladon Villiersde ilsle -
Adams
Maurice Maeterlink - Blue Bird, Palleas and
Melisande
Other Important Names
Stephan Mallarme - poet Appia, Craig
- designers
Myerhold - director Lugne Poe - (partial)
symbolist director
For Future Reference
The Avant Guarde Theatre 1892-1992 -
Christopher Innes
Symbolist Theatre: the Formation of an Avant
Guards - Frantisek Deak
School/Movement - Expressionism
Dates - Term coined in 1901
Big in Germany in the teens, extended into
20’s in the U.S.
Description/Philosophy
Inside - Out
Finding a visual vocabulary to make internal
seen to the audience
Takes symbolist motive and manifests its darker
side or sociopolitical side
Dark reality - mechinization of society reflected
on people
Interaction of environment and humans, social
critique
Exploration of experience - show dark side
psychologically
Society has a point of reference to the outside
world, society IS the outside world
Characters- types rather than individuals,
distorted visuals in productions, usually everything on
stage seen from protagonist view/psyche,
pessimistic, society is the problem, individual has little
hope
Founder/Key Influences
Strindberg - who can be seen as the “father
of all isms” by some
Plays & Playwrights
Rice -Adding Machine - - the plot is shown
in scenes (stations) rather than linear plot
development, characters are types
Toller - Man and the Masses - - society is
the problem and people have little hope
Kaiser - From Man to Midnight - - messianic central
figure
Other Important Names
Vincent van Gogh, Willem de Kooning,
Edward Munch, Kokoschka
For Future Reference
Shock of the New - for expressionist art
School/Movement - Surrealism
Dates - Early 1900’s through 1930’s (plays written
up until 1930’s)
Description/Philosophy
Higher truth coming from within - that is
the starting point
Interested in internal values/truths
The psychological logic of a dream expressed
on stage
Interested in audience experiencing - engaged
in pure thought
Founder/Key Influences
Apollinaire - 1917 - coined term ‘Surrealism’
Manifesto 1924 - Andre Breton
Breton tried to define
surrealism - express actual function of thought
1929 - second manifesto
Journal - Surrealist Revolution
Plays and Playwrights
Roger Vitrac, Phillipe Soupault, Charles Baron
Apollinaire - Breasts of Tiresias Jaques
Cocteau - Soluable Fish, If You Please, You Will
Forget Me, Wedding on Eiffel Tower
Other Important Names
Breton - interested in tapping subconscious
- automatic writing - wanted to see if possible to
write without conscious brain interfering
Dali, Magritte Surrealists embraced
Picasso even though he was not a member of their circle
For Future Reference
The Theatre in Dada and Surrealism - J.H.
Matthews
Dada and Surrealist Performance - Annabelle
Melzer
School/Movement - Dadaism
Dates - Zurich 1916-1917, Berlin 1919-1920, Cologne/Hanover
1918-1923, Paris 1920-1924
Description/Philosophy
Farce of nothingness
Dance based, melting pot of all artform
Anti-audience, but relied on audience
Rejected concept of art, were anti-war, many
were refugees
Opposed tradition, subverted values of Boug.
society, offered lies and insults, made use of
masks/dances/music, bare stages
Anti-actor - performer is herself, no
costume or a masquerade outfit
Art was a private affair - done for self
Founder/Key Influences
Hugo Ball, Emmie Hemmings
Manifestos - there were 7 composed between
1916-1920
Tristan Tzara - “First Celestial Experience
of Antiphaline”
Plays and Playwrights
Simultaneous poetry bruitism spontaneity-basis
for act
Plays had vague concern for future or none
at all
Mainly based on improvisation, they loved
to wing it
Plays were brief containing phrases, gibberish,
free standing vowels, emphasis on sound not
meaning
Other Important Names
Duchamp Mertz -collages
Artists framed household objects and called
it art - wanted to knock art off its pedistal
Music - brutist music, sounds - natural rather
than machine, homemade but natural
For Future Reference
Videos - Art in the 20th Century (series)
Dada Almanac - Richard Hulsenbeck
Dada Performance. . ., Dada and Surrealist
Perform . . - see surrealism
**My brain was fried by all the information, consequently, my notes
are jumbled -- The dadaists would be so proud!!
School/Movement - Marxist Theory
Dates - 1840’s to the present
Description/Philosophy
“The liberation of the working class by the
elimination of all classes and therefore the
unaviodable class struggle
of modern capitalism.”
“From each according to their ability to each
according to their need.”
Founder
Karl Marx - Philosopher 1818-1883 *(blamed
for having invented communism) He is the
father of Dialectical Materialism.
Influences
Hegel - phil., contributed greatly to rebirth
of dialectic method. Into dialectical idealism.
Dialectic but materialist
Feuerbach - phil., Hegel diciple. Into
metaphysical materialism
Frederick Engels - co-author of the Communist
Manifesto
Manifesto
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts - Karl
Marx 1844
Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels 1848
Das Capital: Volumes I, II, III - Marx 1867-94
Plays and Playwrights
Revolt of the Beavers - Federal Theatre Project
1940’s
Measures Taken - Brecht
Emile Zola Maurice Myerhold G.B.
Shaw
Had effect on Boal - takes structure of drama
and turns it upside down in order to liberate
the audience, creating spect-actors.
Other Important Names -- (Inspired by Marx)
Chaplin, Orwell, Stravinski, Hemingway, Gandhi,
Darwin, Mao, Einstein, Pavlov, Picasso,
Faulkner, Lenin, Freud, Tolstoi
For Future Reference
see glossary of the masses
important - idea of surplus value
School/Movement - Constructivism
Dates - Started in 1913-14
Description/Philosophy
One views how everything is made/constructed,
the bare bones, nothing decorated on stage
Actor = worker, like a gym- everything serves
the ‘acrobatics’ of the actors
Simplicity, function, no mysteries, art in
space, lots of architechtural influences, used poster art
with slogans
Art for the masses, Art is conscious
Founder/Key Influences
Vladimir Tatlin (architect)
Began in Russia
Architectural influences
Plays and Playwrights
Ostrovsky - The Storm
Other Important Names
Picasso, rival: Kazimir Malevich, who did
the “black canvas”
Myerhold - director, de-constructed the classics
Witkiewictz - Theatre of Pure Form
For Future Reference
Look at Russian Theatre
School/Movement - Futurism
(Italian) Dates
- Approximately 1909-1922
Description/Philosophy
To create a theatre that is fundamentally
nonrepresentational and alogical
Experiences for own sake rather than for references,
implications
Does not tell a story- stays away from character,
abolish conventions
Anti-realism, speed, power, movement, force,
pure abstraction, simultaneous presentation,
originality-surprise, mechinization, improv
Audience involvement- (selling 2 or 3 tix
for same seat in order to create conflict)
Assualt conservative older passeists
Glorification of war, speed, machine age
Founder/Key Influences
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti 1876-1944
Reaction against symbolism, realistic theatre,
or any theatre of convention
Manifesto 13 published - 1st in 1909
Important one - “The Variety Theatre” by Marinetti,
1913
“The Futurist Synthetic Theatre” - 1915
“Theatre of Surprise” - 1921 by Marinetti
and Canguillo
Plays and Playwrights
Poetry readings- evenings of dynamic, synoptic
declamation, pro-war connection
Short plays - 10 seconds to 40 minutes called
Sintesi
Marinetti - Le Roi Bombance, Simultaneita,
Pouppees Electriques
Umberto Boccioni - Bachelor Apartment
Emilio Settimelli Bruno Corra
Other Important Names
Music- Luigi Russlo- created instruments,
metalic rubbing sounds, harsh and unnatural
Prampolini - designer
Piscator - puppets, many innovations in puppetry
due to futurists
For Future Reference
Futurist Performance - Michael Kirby and Victoria
NesKirby
Pink Floyd - The wall (animation)
*Note- Futurists: novelty theatre- to do with movement, power, more
of a nonsensical playfulness compared to dadaists confrontational in your
face tactics
THE MAN - Antonin Artaud
Dates 1896-1948
Movements
Bureau for Surrealist Research - joined 1925,
expelled 1926
Theatre Alfred Jarry in 1926-1929
Theatre of Cruelty - 1932
Description/Philosophy
Elimination of spoken words, use of pure sound,
gesture, and movement
Artaud referred to as ‘father of ritual theatre’-
used masks, incantations, rhythmic movement
Concentrated on theatre’s ability to promote
catharsis and disrupting the audiences rational,
western consciousness
Insisted theatre be used as language- concerned
with developing and utilizing a calculated theatre
semiotics
*Theories/projects remained largely unrealized
during his lifetime
Key Influences
Andre Breton and ‘The Surrealist Revolution’
Jacque Riviere editor of Nouvelle Revue Francaise,
Aurelian-Marie Lugne-Poe director of the
symbolist Theatre de l’Oeuvre, and Charles
Dullin founder of Theatre de l’Atelier
Manifesto/Credo - “to divest the theatre
of all logic and verisimilitude; touch and bruise the
spectator, thereby forcing involvement”
1st manifesto (of sorts)- Theatre of Cruelty-
1932 - “to make space speak”
2nd manifesto(ditto)- Theatre of Cruelty -
1933
Plays
Jet of Blood, Conquest of Mexico, The Cenci
Other Important Names - (influenced by Artaud)
playwrights - Ionesco, Pinter, Genet
directors - Peter Brook, Jertzy Grotowski
The Living Theatre - Judith Malina, Julian
Beck in New York, (1951- late 60’s) were interested
in using physicality, tribal images, and challenging
the audience
For Future Reference
The Theatre and its Double - Artaud
Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty - Albert Bermel
Artaud and After - Ronald Hayman
Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision - Bettina L.
Knapp
Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings - Susan
Sontag
THE NEXT MAN - Bertolt Brecht
Dates - 1898-1956
Key Influences
Karl Marx, Max Reinhardt, Edwin Piscator,
Helene Weigel, Elisabeth Hauptmann,
Ruth Berlau, Margarete Steffin
Description/Philosophy
Plays - eposodic, song, projections (take
audience out of story moment and put into critical
analysis moment), 3rd person narratives, not
about magical illusion - audience sees everything,
audience engagement important - step
back, analyze, think about what seen and feelings
We see the playwright - he shows us things
and wants our take on it, in the hopes of spuring us
on to political action
Exploring every contradiction in a given moment
- use of even discarded effects/outcomes
Deals with power structures, political/social
core - plays commenting on this is essential
Things constructed on stage to look like a
set - real to theatre life, should look like life in the
theatre, do not take anything for granted
because someone created it, value societal collective,
individual not held up to be point of
government
The world was made by people- little people-
it didn’t have to turn out like it is but individuals
made it that way
Manifesto - A Short Organum for the Theatre - 1948
Plays
Baal, Drums in the Night, In the Jungle of
Cities, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera, The
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany, The
Measures Taken, The Mother, The Seven Deadly
Sins, Life of Galileo, Mother Courage
and Her Children, The Resistible Rise of Arturo, The
Caucasian Chalk Circle
For Future Reference
Bertolt Brecht Journals - Ed. John Willet
The Cambridge Companion to Brecht - Ed. Thompson,
Sacks
Bertolt Brecht: Chaos, According to Plan -
John Fuegi
Brecht and Company : Sex, Politics, and the
Making of Modern Drama - John Fuegi
Brecht, a Choice of Evils: A Critical Study
of the Man, His Work, and His Opinions - Martin
Esslin
School/Movement - Theatre of
the Absurd
Dates 1950-1960
Description/Philosophy
Plotless plays, discontinuous dialogue, empty
set filled with mysterious suggestions, denouement
never comes, effects of silence and tension
builds in a pause, sheer theatricality held by actor’s
voice in extended monologue, actor’s
standing perfectly still for effect
Use of cliches, seemingly irrelevant remarks
Repetitious activity instead of logical action,
automatic behavior - often inappropriate, poetic
imagery, mythological/allegorical/dreamlike
thought modes, can have circular structure,
unexplained char. actions
Distorted meaning of familiar words, nonsequential
dialogue
Frequently exemplify existential point of
view toward human behavior
Search for images of non-reason, lost faith
in reason, man is lost
Founder/Key Influences
Martin Esslin - coined the catch phrase and
did the grouping (after the fact) Ionesco, Albee,
Beckett
Influenced by Jarry’s - Ubu Roi, sometimes
called 1st absurdist drama (always called 1st
something)
Sartre - No Exit - existentialist influence
Manifesto (of sorts) - Martin
Esslin’s - Theatre of the Absurd 1961
Plays and Playwrights
Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot, Endgame,
Happy Days, Rough for the Theatre I, Rough
for the Theatre II
Eugene Ionesco - The Bald Soprano, Rhinoceros,
The Chairs, The Leader, The Lesson
Edward Albee - The American Dream, Zoo Story
Harold Pinter - The Dumb Waiter
Slawomir Mrozek - Striptease
Paul Maar - Noodle Doodle Box
For Future Reference
The Collected Works of Samuel Beckett: Waiting
for Godot - Beckett
Around the Absurd: Essays on Modern and Postmodern
Drama - Brater, Enoch, Cohn
The Theatre of the Absurd - Martin Esslin
The Theatre of Essence - Jan Kott
The Two Faces of Ionesco - Lamont, Friedman
Rhinoceros and Other Plays - Eugene Ionesco
THE LAST MAN - AUGUSO BOAL
Dates - Born in Brazil in 1931
Description/Philosophy
"Spectator is a BAD word"
Theatre is a rehearsal for social change, a rehearsal
for revolution, dealing with the concerns of its
audience and the process of change in reality.
Main objective: "to change the people --"spectators,"
passive beings in the theatrical phenomenal--
into subjects, into actors, transformers of the
dramatic action." - Boal
Key Influences
"All intelligent and creative people" - Boal
Cervantes, Brecht, Shakespeare
Those who have studied with Boal
Manifesto
"Poetics of the Oppressed" - from Theatre of
the Oppressed
"The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation:
the spectator no longer delegates
power to the characters either to think or
to act in his (her) place. The spectator frees himself (herself)!
Theatre is action!" - Boal
Plays
Mulher magra, marido chato - 1957
Revolucana America do Sul - 1961
Jose, do parto a speultura - 1962
We Are Thirty One Million People, Now What?
- 1992
Other Important Names
Cecilia Boal - Boal's wife
Annick Echappasse - see The Rainbow of Desire
For Future Reference
Games for Actors and Non-Actors - Augusto Boal
Latin American Techniques of Popular Theatre
The Rainbow of Desire - Augusto Boal
Theatre of the Oppressed - Augusto Boal
Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism - Schutzman,
Mady, and Jan Cohen-Cruz, eds.
