GUIDE STUDY Experimentation Theatre: Mixing media such as film, video, opera, rock with live actor
THEATER OF CRUELTY Antonin Artaud ENVIRONMENTAL THEATER Richard Schechners Dionysus 69 POOR THEATER Jerzy Grotowski THEATRE OF IMAGES Robert Wilson Gay and Lesbian Charles Ludlam and The Ridiculous Theater Company Tony Kushners Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika. Changing Stages Leroi Jones The Dutchman Edward Albee Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sam Sheperd Buried Child August Wilson The African American Experience during the twentieth century A play for each decade Fences The Theatre of the Absurd shows the world as an incomprehensible place BECKETT: He made his breakthrough in dramatic form by presenting, without comment or moral judgement, situations showing lifes irrationality unrecognizable plots mechanical characters
situations resembling dreams and nightmares incoherent dialogue Brechtian theatre is a form of theatre which is unconventional compared to the stage performances we normally see. Bertolt Brecht believed that audiences should not be patronised into thinking what they see on stage is in fact real life but should be reminded that it is a play. This opened up into the characters being able to interact and talk to the audiences; this technique, also known as "breaking the fourth wall", is used in things such as pantomime and is also used in films such as Alfie and programs like Malcolm in the Middle. Verfremdungseffekt = opposite of suspending ones disbelief/ its the alienation effect The Epic Theatre, wherein a play should not cause the spectator to emotionally identify with the action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the actions on the stage. believed He that the experience of a climactic catharsis of emotion left an audience complacent. Instead, he wanted his audiences to use this critical perspective to identify social ills at work in the world and be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change. Poetic Realism: Playboy of the Western World John Millington Synge Desire under the Elms (myth or social realism?) Eugene ONeill Also wrote the saddest play ever written, A Long Days Journey Into Night Phaedra Centering on the stepmothers incestuous love/lust for her husbands love Playwrights that used elements of myth in their plays produced a poetic form of realism that deals with a level of truth common to all humans.
Antirealism: Louigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author He turned the Expectations of drama upside down. Well ?
Absurdist Drama: Martin Esslin The Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Beckett Happy Days Waiting for Godot Eugne Ionesco The Bald Saprano
Well-made play: A careful EXPOSITION telling the audience what the situation is usually including one or more secrets to be revealed later. SURPRISES, such as letters to be opened at a critical moment and identities to be revealed later. Withheld secret. SUSPENSE THAT BUILDS steadily throughout the play, usually sustained by cliffhanging situations and characters who miss each other by way of carefully timed entrances and exits At critical moments, characters lose important papers or misplace identifying jewelry, for instance. A battle of wits. A CLIMAX late in the play when the secrets are revealed and the hero confronts his antagonists and succeeds. A DENOUEMENT, the resolution of the drama when all the loose ends are drawn together and explanations are made that render all the action plausible. The protagonist is saved.