The Beaux’ StratagemOctober 4 – 5 and 10 – 12 at 8 p.m. October 6 and 13 at 2 p.m.

Critique 1 is due 10/21, 6pm CST

Box Office 713-743-2929/ Tix are now all $10

The question is worth 10 points and will be up for the week.

Online Discussion Question 2 opens 10/1 – 10/7 6pm

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.

When do you check in at the show for your 10 points?

1. Before the show.2. During the

show.3. After the show.4. At the first

lecture you attend after the show.

Before th

e show.

During t

he show.

After the sh

ow.

At the first

lectu

re you a.

..

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MODERN THEATRE

1950-2000The world changed and theatre went with it.An eclectic journey.

MODERNISM / POSTMODERNISM

We live in a Post-Modern world

POST-MODERNISM (end of Modernism)

A little background…

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"traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world.

WORLD WAR I DESTROYED THE ILLUSION THAT ACTING VIRTUOUSLY BROUGHT ABOUT GOOD.

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.

Modernism grew out of what war?1. The War of 18122. The War of the

Roses3. WW14. WW2

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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 upheaval.

Cold War starts in 1950s US vs USSR, Iron Curtain, small nations are pawns etc Korea in 1950s, Viet Nam in 1960s

Stability (coin of the realm in 19th century) becomes a victim of upheavals. (WWII, Tech, Sci, Comm).

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.

POP CULTURE is new iconRepresented 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”

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. 

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?

Where do you get your news from?1. TV 2. Newspaper/

Magazine3. Word of mouth4. Internet5. Radio

TV

Newspap

er/Mag

azine

Word

of mouth

Internet

Radio

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Post-modernism

Grows out of Einstein(relativity)

and Heisenberg(uncertaint

y)

They found that objects –material

world- isn’t as solid as once thought

according to Newton

Brings about social and intellectual

changes in world

Where is truth coming from?

Modernist world Postmodernist world

Industrial Age Information Age

Reason and Science Nihilism and meaninglessness

Causality Randomness

Hierarchy and Authority Participation and dialogue

Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength.

Socially shaped people

Dualities/opposites Differences, not opposites

Theatre from 1950-present is

Eclectic!Made up of or combining elements from a variety

of sources.

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.

ABSURDISM AND THE AVANT GARDE:

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.

 

Encourages ‘invisible’ groups to emerge : African Am, Asian Am, Latino, women, Homosexual

Political and Artistic movements!

ABSURDISM AND THE AVANT GARDE:

Theatre can change society…A. TrueB. False

True

False

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The Artistic branch wants to change not society,

but the nature of theatre as an art.

AA theatre has roots well before civil war in minstrel shows as well as theatre

companies in AA communities.

One group that combines both:

African American Theatre

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

After WWII: (Post-Modern)

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.

Revolutionary Black Theatre starts in 50s-60s: Demands

change.

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)

ART CHANGING ART:

1. Thought/Theme/IdeasWhat the play means as opposed to what happens

(the plot)2. Action/PlotThe events of a play; the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means.

3. CharactersThese 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. MusicMusic 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.   

Aristotle’s Elements