20th Century TheatreAn Overview – The Rise of the Director

Where are we now?

Doug Hughes – Tony Award winning Director:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslAUPmTkbI

Pre-late 19th Century: Who needs a director?

Master of the play/Supervisor

Co-ordinate the scenario, choose jokes

Overall, lacked overall conceptual elements to create mis-en-scene

Role of director fulfilled by profession’s knowledge of and respect for theatrical tradition

To be “right” the play must be as close to the original production as possible

Pre-late 19th Century: Who needs a director?

Actors copied performances of their predecessors

Set rules dependent on character’s moral and social wealth

Conventional scenery/set piecesCostumes weren’t deemed important and were

selected by the actorNo rehearsals, everyone knew the rules

-Director was unnecessary

Change is in the air –Mid 18th Century-19th Century

Technical and scenic innovationDevelopments in dramatic writingChanges in acting styleSocial, political and scientific issues affect

theatrical representation

David Garrick (1717-1779)

An actorCoached his actors“Directed” a play in which he didn’t performEmployed a French designer – directional

lighting, 3D setsActors no longer limited to the apronChanged acting conventionsInside a construction as opposed to in front

of a static pictureActing style based on observation of othersHeralded the rise of the actor-manager

Technical Developments

Gas light, limelight and electric light –directional lighting, atmospheric lighting

19th century craze for the pictorial, people would pay to see dioramas

An outside eye is needed to view stage from audiences’ perspective and “direct” actors into most appropriate/meaningful positions

Actor-Manager

Valuable in the rise of the director

Actor responsible for every aspect of production: -theatre building

-leading roles -backstage -FOH -actors -finance

Interpretation of the text based entirely on their own interpretation of the leading role

TW Robertson

Created his own works on social issuesTopics relevant to middle class (theatre-

going) audienceReflect as opposed to reformInnovative in that realism of play placed

new demands on actors & setActors behave “naturally”Set must be practical and useableExtensive stage directions, rehearsalNew mode of mis-en-scene

George Bernard Shaw

“Directed” own playsPublished works on directingEmphasised the importance of

castingThorough preparation prior to

rehearsals

Henry Granville-Barker

Paralleled StanislavskiBelieved the script was sacrosanctWished to represent the inner truth

of characterBuild up character bio - like StanFocus on Tempo/RhythmDirector’s role “to suggest, to

criticise, to co-ordinate”

Theatre Movements 20th C

Looked at how the role of director came to being

Can recognise the modern day director

Look at how the role has changed over 20th century

Romanticism

Actors stood centre stage -near prompt, good light

Less important characters on either side

Address audience directlyGesturing occasionally Aesthetics most important

Emile Zola

French novelist credited with bringing naturalism to the theatre

The true subject of art is mankind in everyday life

Not the grand, beautiful but in the ordinary

The job of the dramatist is to record, not moralise.

Naturalism

Naturalism is the more extreme form of realism

Seeks to replicate an everyday realityIt almost obliterated the distinction

between life and artIn theatre – a perfect illusion of reality -

detailed sets, un-poetic literary styles and an acting style that tries to recreate reality.

See the real suffering of mankind on stage

Realism

Realism was the theory of naturalism put into practice.

‘Slice of life’ reproduced on stage – truthful but heightened.

Emphasis on subtext (what is under the text

Realism: the selection and distillation of the detailed observation of everyday life, not the life itself.

Majority of theatre today works on the principle of realism.

Andre Antoine - Theatre Libre

Represent life as accurately as possible

Detailed plans for the whole stageCostumes to fit, not glamoriseEnsemble acting - company to

represent mankind in the social context of the time

Symbolism

Emphasis on internal life of dreams and fantasies

Reaction against realism and naturalism

Maeterlinck - Belgian playwright symbolist who influenced Stan

Expressionism

Modernist movement developed principally in Germany

Often dramatise the spiritual awakening and sufferings of protagonists

Explore the struggle against bourgeois values and established authority

Speech is heightened

Surrealism -Theatre of Cruelty

“resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality”

Developed out of Dada (WWI) -anti-war movement believed “reason” and “logic” of Capitalist society led to war

Methods to liberate imaginationTheatre of Cruelty - emotions, feelings and

the metaphysical expressed not through language but physically creating a vision closely related to world of dreams

Primal sense of reality“Impossible theatre” - vague and not practical

Epic Theatre

“Theatre should be political and force people to think” - opposed theatre as escapism

Incorporates mode of acting called “gestus” Audience should be aware they are watching a playFourth wall often broken by actors both in and out

of characterAlienation - audience feel estranged, seperate so

as to remain objective and learnEpisodic - short episodes broken up by narrator,

song, dance, visual images/signs

Experimental Theatre –Theatre of the Oppressed

Theatre to promote social and political change

Dialogue and interaction between audience and performer

Audience becomes active: spect-actors

Explore, show, analyse and transform the reality they are living

Framework for the development and evolution of stronger ideas

Experimental Theatre -Poor Theatre

Experimental theatreCo-create the event of theatre with

spectatorsActor is at the core of the theatre artExplore and utilise basic dramatic

elementsShortage of money not an excuse for poor

performanceMulti-skilled actorStyle imitated by variety troupes

Task

Outline the effect each 20th Century practitioner has had on the development of theatre

Identify which movement(s) they belong to

Highlight any influences between practitioners