Modern

Theater
Introduction
• This is the period of theater that we are
currently in.
• Dates back to the late 1800s
• The industrial revolution was on its way.
• There were huge advancements.
• City life grew exponentially.
• The intellectual revolution was taking
place.
• Therefore, theater paralleled what was
going on in the world.
• The chaos and confusion of the time was
directly reflected in the modern theater.
Different Movements
• Realism
• Naturalism
• Antirealism
Futurism
Dadaism
Impressionism Era of
Expressionism “ISMS”
Constructivism
Surrealism
Realism
• The most popular and longest standing
movement of modern theater.
• Has a “likeness to life” without any
abstractions
• Problems of real life in a realistic manner
of a play
• A reaction against romanticism
• Actors becoming the character
Realism
• Objective performance
• Exposes the nature of relationships and
society
• Gives a large amount of real life
“evidence”
• “Life is a sewer.”
• Lower and middle classes as heroes
Realism
• The protagonist rises up against the odds.
• Realism theater sets, costumes and props
were made to mirror their real-life
counterparts.
Pioneer
• Popularized
by Henrik
Ibsen, a
Norwegian
dramatist
Pioneer
• George Bernard
Shaw
• Created a comic
realism and
addressed issues
like prositution,
poverty and slum
landlordism
Pioneer
• Anton Chekhov
• Created deeply
complex
relationships
between his
characters
Naturalism
• An extreme form of realism
• Began in France in the 19th century
• Removed the dramatic elements of theater
to present “slice of life”
• The most appropriate subject matter is the
lower class
• Follows the “Three Unities Rule”
Naturalism
• Despised climaxes and characters as
heroes
• All characters as the product of their
environment
• Regularly explores sordid subject matters
• Mostly lower class as characters
Pioneer
• Emile Zola
• Believed that
humans were
merely
biological
phenomena
Antirealism
• Against realism
• Theatrical realism seen as having some
serious limitations
• Exclusions: music, dance, symbolism,
poetry
Symbolism
• Leads the antirealistic movement
• French as major propronents
• Drama should present the mystery of
being.
• Focused on symbolic imagery
• Takes place in a dream world
• Most important goal is to evoke mood
• Focused on inner realities that can’t be
directly perceived
ERA OF “ISMS”
Expressionism
• Flourished in Germany during WWI
• The representation of reality was distorted
in order to communicate inner feelings.
• Highly subjective plays
• Christ-like character of the protagonist
• Exaggerated scenery, bright lights and
piercing sounds
Expressionism
• Tries to express the feelings of the people
• American expressionist writers addressed
the growing concerns that country’s rapid
industrial and financial growth was
crushing human freedom.
Futurism
• Futurism originated in Italy around 1909.
• Idealized war and the machine age.
• Attacked ideas of the past “museum art”
• They believed audiences should be
confronted and antagonized.
Surrealism
• Surrealism began in 1924 in France.
• They argued that the subconscious is the
highest plane of reality.
• Their plays seem to be set in a dream
world.
Theater of Cruelty
• Originated in France in the 1930’s
• A revolt against realistic theater
• The viewers’ senses should be
bombarded.
• Based on magic and ritual which would
evoke deep, violent and erotic impulses.
• Audience was the center of attention.
Pioneer
• Antonin
Artaud
• Spent most
of his later
life in mental
institutions
Epic Theater
• Developed by Bertolt Brecht
• Aimed at intellect rather than emotions in
order to affect social change
• Episodic in nature
• Cover a great deal of time and change
locations frequently
• Complex plots and large casts
• Audience are alienated from the action on
stage.
Pioneer
• Bertolt Brecht
• Influenced many
contemporary
playwrights and
directors
Existentialism
• A reaction to WWII
• Existentialist believed that:
– Existence has little meaning.
– God does not exist.
– Humanity is alone in an irrational universe.
– The only thing a person can do is accept
responsibly for his or her actions.
Pioneers
• Jean-Paul
Sartre
• Albert Camus
 Theater of the Absurd
• A small unorganized movement in the 50s
and 60s
• Absurdist playwrights believe that:
– Our existence is futile and nonsensical.
– Nothing seems to happen in the play.
– The plot moves in circles.
– No climatic action or episodic plot.
– The characters are not realistic.
– Setting are sometimes unrecognizable.
– Characters fail to communicate effectively.
Pioneers
• Samuel Beckett
• Eugene Ionesco
• Edward Albee
• Harold Pinter
 Impressionism
• Shows the effects of things and events on
the mind of artist
• The attempt of the artist to express his
expressions
• Seeks to suggest the impressions on the
artist rather than making an obvious
statement about the characteristics of
things
MODERN THEATER
PRODUCTION
Theater Personnel
• The Producer
the person who puts together the
financing, management staff, and the
artistic team to produce the show.
• The Director
assume responsibility for the
overall interpretation of a script, and
they have the authority to approve,
control, and coordinate all the
elements of a production.
• The Performers
portray their characters’ wants and
needs through believable personal
behavior that mirrors the characters’
psychological and emotional lives
within the world of the play.
• The Designers
collaborate with directors
to create an environment for a
play.
shape and fill the stage
space and to make the play's
world visible and interesting.
In the modern theater various
artists are responsible for
different design effects
• The Lighting Designer

Modern stage lighting affects what

audiences see. Carefully planned
lighting can establish mood and color,
control the audience's focus of
attention, and enhance the meaning of
the play.
•Sound Designer
plots the effects required by the
script and adds a creative element to
enhance atmosphere and psychological
meaning
•Costume Design
Carefully chosen costumes help
convey a sense of a character’s identity,
as well as set the mood and time period
of the work being performed.
TYPES OF THEATERS
 Arena
• A theatre in which the audience completely
surrounds the stage or playing area. Actor
entrances to the playing area are provided
through vomitories or gaps in the seating
arrangement.
 Thrust
• A theatre in which the stage is
extended so that the audience
surrounds it on three sides. The thrust
stage may be backed by an enclosed
proscenium stage, providing a place for
background scenery, but audience
views into the proscenium opening are
usually limited.
 End Stage
• A theatre in which the audience seating
and stage occupy the same
architectural space, with the stage at
one end and the audience seated in
front facing the stage.
 Environmental Theater
• A found space in which the architecture
of the space is intrinsic to the
performance, or a theatre space that is
transformed into a complete
environment for the performance. The
audience space and performance
space are sometimes intermingled, and
the action may be single-focus or
multiple-focus.
 Promenade Theater
• A theatre without fixed seating in the
main part of the auditorium – this allows
the standing audience to intermingle
with the performance and to follow the
focal point of the action to different
parts of the room.
 Black Box Theater
• A flexible theatre usually without
character or embellishment—a “void”
space that may indeed be black, but
isn’t always. Usually, audience seating
is on the main floor, with no audience
galleries, though a technical gallery
may be provided.
 Studio Theater
• A flexible theatre with one or more
audience galleries on three or four
sides of a rectangular room. The main
floor can usually be reconfigured into
arena, thrust, endstage, and flat floor
configurations. The room usually has
some architectural character.
 Courtyard Theater
• The term courtyard theatre embraces a
range of theatre forms, all with the
common characteristic of at least one
raised seating gallery surrounding a
central area. Often this central area is
flexible, and can be configured into
arena, thrust, end stage, and flat floor
configurations.
 Proscenium Theater
• In a proscenium theatre, the stage is
located at one end of the auditorium
and is physically separated from the
audience space. This is sometimes
called a “two-box” arrangement—the
auditorium and stage occupy two
separate “boxes” or rooms. The stage
box permits a wide variety of scenic
and lighting effects. The auditorium box
is the audience chamber.
 Thrust and open stage
• Some larger drama theatres take the
form of a thrust stage, with the
audience surrounding three sides of the
performance platform. The term open
stage can be used interchangeably with
thrust, but implies a more frontal
arrangement.
 Recital Hall
• A space designed for soloists and small
ensembles (up to chamber orchestra
size), with a seat count typically in the
range of 150 to 800. This form is a
descendant of the court music rooms of
the Renaissance. It is often rectangular
in plan, with an open concert platform
at one end of the room and seating
galleries on the other three walls.
 Shoebox Concert Hall
• The classic concert hall form is the
shoebox, named after the rectangular
shape and approximate proportions of a
tennis-shoe box. The shoebox form has
high volume, limited width, and multiple
audience levels, usually with relatively
narrow side seating ledges.
 Vineyard Concert Hall
• Some modern concert halls have
audience seating in terraces
reminiscent of a vineyard. The seating
may completely or partially encircle the
concert platform. A hall with partial
encirclement may be called a modified
vineyard.
 Opera House
• The auditorium is almost always
multilevel with side tiers or boxes to
enhance visual and aural intimacy. The
stage is usually large, with extensive
machinery. It sometimes has separate
auxiliary stages in a cruciform, six-
square, or other arrangement to enable
the opera company to perform in
repertory.
 Dance Theater
• The design of the auditorium
emphasizes frontal sightlines and a
clear view of the stage floor.
Sometimes the seating is on telescopic
risers that can be retracted to allow the
whole space to be used for rehearsal or
instruction.
 Broadway Theater
• This is a proscenium theatre designed
primarily for amplified sound. The room
acoustics are usually “dry” with little
adjustment available, making these rooms
unsuitable for un-amplified acoustic music. A
reasonable degree of intimacy can be
achieved with multiple cantilevered balconies,
bringing a large portion of the audience as
close to the stage as possible. The stage is
usually sized and equipped to receive large
scale touring musicals.
HOW DID THE THEATER
CHANGE?
Audience Location
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The audience surrounded • The audience tends to be
the actors horizontally seated in rows on one
and vertically. side of the playing area.
Everywhere he looked The audience is separate
there was audience. from the playing area.
They are observing.
Actor-Audience Relationship
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• Everywhere the actor • The actors talk and relate
looked, there was to each other exclusively.
audience. He couldn’t talk They do not speak to or
to a fellow actor without acknowledge the
seeing an audience audience. They are in the
member behind him. The world of the play.
theater was designed for
the actor to speak with
and directly to the
audience.
Status of Audience
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The cheap seats were in • The most expensive
the front. And, they were seats are up front near
not seats. The people the stage. The cheap
around the stage stood seats are those furthest
through the performance. away from the stage,
The next more expensive often up in the balconies.
seats were in the tiers The people with money
surrounding the stage. and status get close.
The expensive seats Those with less have an
were the Lord’s Boxes, altered experience due to
above and behind the the distance from their
players. seat to the stage.
Production Design
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The Theater was the • The scenery, costumes,
scenery. It had doors, lighting and sound are
columns and inner below designed by artists and
and a balcony. There was constructed by craftsman
a roof that represented to create the environment
the heavens and a god or of the play. It is designed
angel could ascend to to represent the place
heaven and the trap door and time.
known as hell mouth. The
actors conjured the
setting in the
imaginations of the
audience with minimal
additions.
Production Design (cont.)
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The costumes were of the • The degree of naturalism
current time, even when to expressionism or
playing ancient Romans. abstract is carefully
There were no lights calculated to tell the story
since the plays were of the play.
played during the day
time, except when they
brought on torches or
lanterns to act like it was
dark. There was a lot of
music, played live by
musicians, usually
contemporary tunes.
Rehearsal and Performance
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The core company of • The play is written then
actors played together for rehearsed for several
years. They supplemented weeks by the actors.
their ranks with There is a director who
apprentices to play the guided the actors to play
boys and females and out his vision of the play.
hired men to play the small Each night the actors
roles. They were cast by repeat the same lines,
type though often played movements, motivations
roles outside their type. and responses as
They regularly played developed during the
multiple roles in a play. rehearsal process.
New plays were premiered
every two weeks.
Rehearsal and Performance (cont.)
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• To revive and play an old • They play the same show
play every day would leave eight times a week. The
very little time to rehearse actors are usually cast to
the new play. play these specific roles
and this group of actors is
assembled to only play
this play. Each actor often
plays one role so as not
to confuse the audience
or if they do have to play
more than one role, they
try to disguise the fact
they are doubling.
 Language and Rhetoric
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• The play was designed as • The text is almost fully in
an argument with the prose. The lines are
characters fighting for the made to be like life. The
support of the audience. It idiom, style and prosaic is
debated points of view. Most intended to produce the
of the play was in verse sound of real life even if it
rather than prose. Verse slightly elevated or
carries thought and feeling funnier. The story and
more descriptively on its text is intended to be a
meter. The audience feels slice of life.
the heartbeat of meter and
breaths with the actors. The
language is heightened.
 Art/Entertainment
Elizabethan Theater Modern Theater
• There was no division • There is a division between
between art and high art and popular
entertainment. Theatricals entertainment. One
were required to amuse interesting comparison in
the drunk and engage the between outdoor and indoor
scholar. This created Shakespeare production
more balance between today: If you see a
the two and made for a Shakespeare play indoors, it
more full experience. is usually intended to be art;
if you see a Shakespeare
play outdoors, it is usually
intended to be
entertainment.