Fa13 lect 5 mod thea (1)
- 1. October 4 – 5 and 10 – 12 at 8 p.m. October 6 and 13 at 2 p.m. Box Office 713-743-2929/ Tix are now all $10 Critique 1 is due 10/21, 6pm CST
- 2. Online Discussion Question 2 opens 10/1 – 10/7 6pm The question is worth 10 points and will be up for the week.
- 3. Collaboration project: You are required to be a member of a group by 10/12. If you are not in a group by this date you will be assigned to a group and lose 10 points of the project grade.
- 4. When do you check in at the show for your 10 points? . ec tu re yo u a. .. sh ow tl gt he sh ow fir s 20 Du rin Be fo re th e sh ow . . 4. th e 3. 25% 25% 25% 25% At 2. Before the show. During the show. After the show. At the first lecture you attend after the show. Af te rt he 1.
- 5. MODERN THEATRE 1950-2000 The world changed and theatre went with it. An eclectic journey.
- 6. A little background… MODERNISM / POSTMODERNISM We live in a Post-Modern world POST-MODERNISM (end of Modernism)
- 7. What was Modernism? In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world.
- 9. The following are characteristics of Modernism: A strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views. Belief that the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is. No connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair. Concerned with the sub-conscious.
- 10. Modernism grew out of what war? of ar eW Th Th 20 eW ar th e of Ro W 2 se s 18 12 4. W 3. 25% 25% 25% 25% W 1 2. The War of 1812 The War of the Roses WW1 WW2 W 1.
- 11. WAR WAR WAR: Now peace! Post WWII in US: brief focus on Conformity “Father Knows best” etc Europe dealing with the opposite (destroyed cities and economies): Social Cold War starts in 1950s US vs USSR, Iron Curtain, small nations are pawns etc upheaval. Korea in 1950s, Viet Nam in 1960s Stability (coin of the realm in 19th century) becomes a victim of upheavals. (WWII, Tech, Sci, Comm).
- 12. Society Changes: WW2 makes world different American soldiers return home after first time overseas and the GI Bill lets most soldiers go to college for first time. AA Soldiers return after spending time in Europe with NO Jim Crow. American Women now have experience in the workplace having filled in well during the war. All this brings new possibilities of political, social, and economic change.
- 13. POP CULTURE is new icon Represented by new music (from mostly hidden black sources) replaces European sources History not as important By 70s Shakespeare and the Bible are replaced by TV and ads and Rock and Roll Art goes from a secular religion to Andy Warhol and “Art is whatever you can get away with”
- 14. One of the most visible changes of this period was the adoption of new technologies into daily life of ordinary people. Electricity, the telephone, the radio, the automobile—and the need to work with them, repair them and live with them—created social change. The kind of disruptive moment that only a few knew in the 1880s became a common occurrence.
- 15. Tech Changes 50s= TVs 70s=PCs enter homes 90s=PCs essential Now = Internets • Makes it possible for groups to be in contact 24/7 = Virtual experience Wipes out distance (we are all close online) Where is truth coming from?
- 16. Where do you get your news from? di o Ra ne t m ou of or d W :20 In te r th e zin ag a M r/ 5. TV 4. sp ap e 3. 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% w 2. TV Newspaper/Magazine Word of mouth Internet Radio Ne 1.
- 17. Post-modernism Grows out of Einstein(relativity) and Heisenberg(uncertainty) They found that objects – material world- isn’t as solid as once thought according to Newton Brings about social and intellectual changes in world Modernist world Postmodernist world Industrial Age Information Age Reason and Science Nihilism and meaninglessness Causality Randomness Where is truth coming from? Hierarchy and Authority Participation and dialogue Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength. Socially shaped people Dualities/opposites Differences, not opposites
- 18. Theatre from 1950-present is Eclectic! Made up of or combining elements from a variety of sources.
- 19. Absurd means without meaning, not ridiculous. Comes out of 50s: emphasizes life’s meaninglessness. Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm.
- 20. In Absurdist plays what happens onstage often transcends and contradicts what is said there. Absurdism, is a school of thought stating that the efforts of humanity to find inherent meaning will ultimately fail (and hence are absurd) because the sheer amount of information, as well as the vast realm of the unknown, make certainty impossible.
- 21. Encourages ‘invisible’ groups to emerge : African Am, Asian Am, Latino, women, Homosexual Political and Artistic movements!
- 22. Theatre can change society… se 50% Fa l 20 50% ue B. True False Tr A.
- 23. The Artistic branch wants to change not society, but the nature of theatre as an art.
- 24. AA theatre has roots well before civil war in minstrel shows as well as theatre companies in AA communities.
- 25. Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, produced on Broadway(59) Study of AA family life shows tensions between M/F in sympathetic and sensitive way. Wins awards Genet’s The Blacks produced Off-Broadway Reversed the minstrel show and has AA actors in whiteface to reveal the abuses of white power. Helps bring about a turning point in the portrayal of AAs
- 26. Leroi Jones 1964 productions of The Toilet and Dutchman Off-Broadway present pictures of racial barriers, human hatred, and suffering from racism. Stereotypical “’negro’ replaced by more honest and (often more disagreeable) black characters. Eventually the eye turns onto itself- Ntozake Shange in for colored girls ho have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf. Critical of own community. Explores double oppression of being black and female. Women brutalized by whites AND black Males.
- 27. Explore the relationship between artist and art and audience. Open theatre: actors trained to work as a group rather than individual. Playwright part of the ensemble (develops text from ideas of the group) Moises Kaufman develops The Laramie Project and Gross Indecency with Tectonic Theatre Project. Unity achieved through central idea or theme Disconnected concept of time and space Use of transformations instead of complete character changes Actors become their own environment (do their own sounds etc)
- 28. 1. Thought/Theme/Ideas What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot) 2. Action/Plot The events of a play; the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means. 3. Characters These are the people presented in the play that are involved in the perusing plot. 4. Language The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the language 5. Music Music can encompass the rhythm of dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean the aspects of the melody and music compositions as with musical theatre. 6. Spectacle The spectacle in the theatre can involve all of the aspects of scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production.