Notes on Chapter 15

NOTES
Chapter 15: Twentieth-Century Theatrical Diversity

1.       The period after World War II was very conflicted, very turbulent, and raised questions few or none were actually prepared to answer. In a way, theater trends of the time mimicked it, doing very experimental practices and asking questions about human rights that made an audience think beyond the simple pleasure of a night to the theatre. One unique correlation I notice was how around the time the world was engaged in the “Space Race”, a time of scientific progress and change, Jerzy Grotowski was working on a laboratory of his own. This one being theatrical and based in Poland, Grotowski worked to “experiment” on his actors, pushing them to limits they had never before visited, much like Sputnik into space.

2.       Selective realism is using a familiar and realistic setting and circumstance, while also accentuating aspects of the show to unreal proportions in order to emphasize an underlying message or theme. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, scenes from the main character’s past are interwoven with scenes from the present, and in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, a narrator is utilized for a theatrical, non-realistic effect in an otherwise very realistic show.

3.       A group of Anti-establishment playwrights who wrote about issues concerning the class conflict in England and the decline of the British Empire in the 1950’s. The most famous of these playwrights was John Osborne, who wrote the play Look Back in Anger.

4.       A movement in Germany during  the 1960’s where historical documents were taken (and possibly altered) and made theatrical. The most famous of these “docudramas” was The Investigation by Peter Weiss, who covered the war crimes trials Post-WWII.

5.       A set of common theories that several playwrights had in common, and have since formed into a template for a type of theatre know as Absurdist Theatre, where everything in life is considered to be ridiculous and should thus be portrayed as so through dramatic action.

6.       Nothing in this life is worth living for, atheists rule, and what you do is your fault, so deal with it.

7.       World War II

8.       The Theatre of the Absurd

 
9.       Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994)

10.   Happenings were theatrical performances, often taking the form of improv, that had little or no structure, and minimal planning, in a space not conventionally a place of performance. The theory behind it was that art shouldn’t be confined to a music hall or museum, or even a black box.

11.   Jerzy Grotowski wanted his theatre to not be poor monetarily, but poor as in lacking glitzy special effects and set pieces, making the actors be the things they must rely upon, not props or set, the ACTORS must make the show.

12.   Peter Brook takes in unrealistic parts of theatre (such as circus arts) and applies them to traditional theatre (like Shakespeare) in modern times.