Early Modernism:
Brockett ch. 13 pp. 377-79 (skim 379-96, 405-11 using this outline),
ch. 14 pp. 421-442
Arrival of the Director:
Richard Wagner (1813-1883):
Gesamtkunstwerk
Festival Theatre at Bayreuth, open 1876 (graphics p. 422)
complete illusion of stage world
Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914)Modernism will require Director to provide unity, artistic purpose
With Ludwig Chronegk and Ellen Franz
tour 1976-90; script as center of production
total accuracy in visual details
orchestration of crowds (graphics p. 423, 424)
Realism and Naturalism (appeal to intellectual/artistic elite)
(this material is in ch. 13)
Philosopher August Comte: Positivism: shun metaphysical explanations
for material; all arts and sciences should seek to improve society
Science applied to art; or the human on stage as "rat in maze" as a
style, more broadly applied, realism comes to mean pictorial detail
Eugene Scribe (1791-1861): well-made play
Alexandre Dumas fils:(1824-95) Camille (1852), Demi-monde (1855)
Victorien Sardou (1831-1908): (farce) A Scrap of Paper (1860)
Eugene Labiche (1815-88): (farce) The Italian Straw Hat (1851)
Directors apply Realism's "environment": Adolphe Montigny, Sardou
in England:
Charles Kean (Master of Revels in 1848) and pictorial realismIn USA:
Squire and Marie Wilton Bancroft, with playwright Robertson
David Belasco and Augustin Daly: authors/directors/impresarios/star-makers who spread pictorial realismStarring engagements hit height with Sarah Bernhardt (Fr), Ellen Terry (Eng), Eleanora Dusa (Ital, photo p. 426), Henry Irving (Eng), Edwin Booth (USA).
(back to ch. 14)
Emile ZOLA and NATURALISM (extreme form of Realism, photo p. 428)
1870's follow Darwin: heredity and environment
Therese Raquin, novel and dramatization (1873)
"slice of life", usually gritty, crime, poverty, working class
Henrik Ibsen (Norway, 1828-1906) Modernism arrives
"It was as if the theatre of today were to be revolutionized by an
Eskimo" Michael Meyer
"The door slam at the end of A Doll House ushered in the Age
of Modernism" GB Shaw
1st stage: historical verse dramas, romanticMODERNISM in theatre: (1879-1930)
2nd stage: Modernism arrives with realistic dramas and well made play
A Doll House (1879), Hedda Gabler, Ghosts (1881)
3rd stage: toward Symbolism. Wild Duck (1884), When We Dead Awaken (1899)
last 2 stages writing in self-imposed exile; plays censored all over Europe
LITTLE/INDEPENDENT THEATRE MOVEMENT
new theatre organizations to combat conservatism of large state theatres
and censorship of plays like Ibsen's
private clubs with subscription audience; intentionally attract artistic and intellectual elite
pioneer new production styles, introduce new playwrights
often amateur performers, designers, directors.Andre Antoine's Theatre Libre, 1887 (sketch p. 429)
1897 Theatre Antoine, then takes over at Odeon
Introduced Curel, Brieux, naturalist writersFreie Buhne and Otto Brahm
Berlin 1889; Brahm as president of collective
1894 Brahm goes to Deutsches Theater, 1904 Lessing Th.
Introduced Gerhardt Hauptmann: Weavers, 1892, Schnitzler's Reigen 1900
Independent Theatre of JT Grein, London 1891Stanislavsky's System of Acting
encourages George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Major Barbara (1905), St. Joan (1923). Fabian Society, stronger political convictions than other realists, more clever language, comedyRoyal Court (1904) and Harley Granville Barker (London)
Moscow Art Theatre (1898-)
Konstantin Stanislavsky: director/actor/acting pedagogy
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko: director/dramaturge
Anton Chekhov: The Sea Gull (1896), The Cherry Orchard (1904) (photo p. 436)
teach control of inner lifeSYMBOLISM; France, Manifesto pub. 1885
continually train body and voice
study writers' text forgiven circumstances,
commitment to fictional world of play - like children at play
objective, action, subtext, obstacle - terms for creating life-like behavior for characters
illusion of the 1st time
Baudelaire's poetry; Stephane MallarmeSCENIC DESIGN turns away from "pictorial realism" to simpler, more symbolic and 3D scenery
anti-science; pro spiritual, emotional, metaphor&symbol, subjectivity
Paul Fort's Theatre d'Art
Aurelien-Marie Lugne-Poe's Theatre de l'Oeuvre -1899, reopen Toulouse Lautrec scenery
Maurice MAETERLINCK (1862-1949) Pelleas and Melisande, The BluebirdAlfred JARRY's Ubu series: prefigure absurdism; bizarre and comic (graphic p. 439)
Adolphe APPIA(1862-1928) Swiss. Wagner's operas.
Score light like music
moving actor requires 3D, plastic/moving scenic environment
"The Work of Living Art"
(see p. 440)
Edward Gordon CRAIG (1872-1966) English. Son of actress Ellen Terry.
"artist of the theatre" controls all elements
"On The Art of the Theatre", "Mask"
(see p. 441)