THE2000:Notes:3-28-07

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Modern Theater (1875-1945 or today)

• Birth of Realism: everything is realistic, identifiable in real life

Major Playwrights

Henrik Ibsen

• The Doll's House

Strinberg

• The Father (1887)
• Miss Julie (1888)
  • watched a clip of this in class, Julie is an aristocrat attracted to her father's servant

Chekov

• The Seagul (1896)
  • At first was a failure, people walked out
  • Performed at the Moscow Art Theatre, it was a huge success
  • Stanislavski, a producer of MAT, said it was a comedy, and the actors needed to act more realistically, they did and it was a success.
  • The main character commits suicide at the end, not typical of a comedy.
• Uncle Vanya
• The Three Sisters
• The Cherry Orchard

Producers of Realism

• Realism wasn't seen as marketable or profitable, so independent theater-going "clubs" were formed.

Independent Theatres

• Theatre Libre (Free Theatre) � Paris
• Freie Buhne (Free Stage) � Germany
• Independent Theatre � London
• Moscow Art Theatre � Russia
  • MAT was most successful

Moscow Art Theatre

• Dedicated to realism
• Made Chekov famous
• Founded by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and Konstantin Stanislavski
• Provided first systematic approach to realistic acting � the Stanislavski system

Realistic Theatre (1915-1945)

• Little Theatre Movement
• The Group Theatre � most important producing group
  • noncommercial group in NYC Broadway District
• The Federal Theatre Project � Supported theatrical ventures and assisted African American theatres and artists

Realistic Playwrights between the Wars

• Irish Playwrights:
  • John Millington Synge
  • Sean O' Casey

• United States:
  • Eugene O'Neill
  • Lillian Hellman