Chapter 7: The Modernist Temperament 1885-1940

1. Chapter 7:The Modernist Temperament 1885-1940 • Characterized by a rejection of the belief that art should seek to objectively represent human behavior and the physical world • Artists sought to create with imaginative perception and innovation rather than accurate depiction

2. Symbolism • First artistic movement to rejectrepresentationalism • Launched in 1885 • Truth is: • beyond objective examination • cannot be discovered through the 5 senses • can only be intuited • can only be hinted at through a network of symbols

3. Symbolism Theatrical Conventions: • Subjects taken from: • the past • the realm of fancy • the mysterious present • Symbolist drama tended to be vague and mysterious • Most important aspect of production = mood or atmosphere • Minimal scenery that lacked detail • Gauze curtain hung between audience and stage = scrim; represented the mist or a timeless void

4. Symbolism Theatrical Conventions: • Color chosen for mood • Text often chanted • Actors incorporated unnatural gestures • Productions often baffled audiences • Symbolist Theatre Movement ceased by 1900

5. Significance of Symbolism • Disrupted practice of using the same conventions to stage all plays during a particular period • Prior to the 20th century, artistic movements occurred linearly • During the 20th century, several artistic movements occurred simultaneously • Each movement had its own premises about nature and truth • Each movement had its own set of conventions • Shift from absolute values to relative values

6. Art for Art’s Sake • English Aestheticism: the only functions of art are to intensify experienceand to provide sensuous pleasure • Arthas an independent life and its imaginative power must remain free from the concerns of its time • “Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things is the proper aim of art.” (Oscar Wilde) Realism/Naturalism versus Art for Art’s Sake Art imitates Life Life imitates Art

7. The Importance of Being Earnest • Written by Wilde in 1895 • Uses standard devices of a 3-act well-made play • Carefully constructed exposition • Cause-to-effect arrangement of events • Skillful manipulation of withheld information • Startling reversals accomplished by last minute revelations

8. Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries • AdolpheAppia (1862-1928) • Viewed artistic unity in theatre as fundamental, but difficult to achieve because of conflicting elements: • The moving actor, the horizontal floor, vertical scenery

9. Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries • AdolpheAppia (1862-1928) • Replaced flat, painted scenery with 3-dimensional scenic structures • Used steps, platforms, and ramps to bridge the horizontal and vertical planes • Used lighting from various directions and angles • Viewed lighting as most flexible of the theatrical elements • Could change moment to moment • Could reflect shifts in mood and emotion • Unified all other elements through intensity, color, direction, movement

10. Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries • Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) • Denied that theatre was a fusion of the other arts • Theatre as a wholly autonomous art • Elements of theatre (action, language, line, color, rhythm) fused by master artist • Once suggested that actors should be replaced by large puppets • Simplicity in scenery, costumes, lighting • Director as supreme, unifying theatre artist

11. Modernist Influence on Theatrical Visionaries • Max Reinhardt (1872-1943) • Treated each production as a new challenge demanding its own unique stylistic solution • Enabled director to make the choice of what stylistic approach to use • Believed that the production should serve the script • Established eclecticism and relativism as the dominant directorial approach

12. New Artistic Movements • Futurism • Glorified the speed and energy of the machine age • Sought to replace old art forms with many new forms • Collage • Kinetic sculpture • Bruitisme = “noise music” • Variety theatre as dynamic: involved audience, possessed dynamic energy • Synthetic drama: compresses essence of full-length play into 1 or 2 moments • Simultaneity and multiple focus • Lost appeal during WWI since it praised war as the supreme expression of the aggressive life it championed

13. New Artistic Movements • Dada • Grounded in rejection of values that had provoked WWI • Sought to replace logic, reason, and unity in art with chance and illogic • Used simultaneity and multiple focus • “chance poems” = created by placing words in a hat and drawing them out at random • “sound poems” = composed of nonverbal sounds • Short plays, dances, music • Essentially anarchistic • Dada continued after WWI, but lost most of its energy

14. New Artistic Movements • Expressionism • Contended that materialism and industrialism perverted the human spirit by turning humans into machines • Sought to achieve “the regeneration of man” • Emphasis on text • Protagonist on a quest for identity, fulfillment, or means to change the world • Scenery presented a distorted world: leaning walls, green sky • A nightmarish vision of the human situation • Popularity of form faded after the 1920s

15. The Hairy Ape • Written by Eugene O’Neill • Demonstrates the outlook and the techniques of Expressionism • Structure is episodic • Visual elements are distorted • Characters: • Only a few characters are given names • Most are identical types, such as the stokers • Humans in the modern world as distorted • Protagonist as symbolic of modern humanity in an industrialized society • Cut off from past and trapped in an existence where humans are cogs in the industrial machine

16. American Theatre and Drama Between the Wars (1917-1940) • By the 1920s, modernism was predominant in all arts • Several theatrical styles existed simultaneously • Between 1929-1939, approximately 2/3 of all live entertainment theatres in the USA closed • Advent of sound films (1929) • Movie tickets cheaper than theatre tickets • Major economic depression • Majority of audiences still preferred Realism • Broadway audiences not very tolerant of innovation

17. The Federal Theatre • The Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939) • The American government’s first financial support of theatre • Due to deepening depression, Congress created the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs in various fields • Task was to provide “ free, adult, uncensored theatre” • Created Living Newspaper = plays that advocated social reform

18. The Group Theatre • The Group Theatre (1931-1941) • Modeled on the Moscow Art Theatre • Promoted the Stanislavsky system of acting in the USA • Highly respected company that presented many of the best productions on Broadway during its existence

19. Development of the American Musical • The musical was the most popular theatrical formin the USA during the 20th century • Musical drama has a long and varied history • Musical comedy did not emerge as a distinct typeuntil late 19th century • Early musical comedies: • Emphasized romantic appeal of exotic places or situations • Used stories primarily as excuses for songs and ensemble numbers • Emphasized spectacular settings, songs, dances, chorus girls • Late 1920s: story and psychological motivationgained in importance • Show Boat (1927) Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II

20. Epic Theatre • Developed in Germany during the 1920s • Chief practitioner = Bertolt Brecht • Sought to make audiences evaluate the socioeconomic implications of what they saw in the theatre • Wanted the audience to watch theatre actively and critically • Concept of alienation = distancing spectators from stage events so that they may view them critically Theatre as a place to recognize problems that are then to be solved outside of the theatre.

21. Epic Theatre • Achieving Alienation • Reminded audience that it was in the theatre by calling attention to the theatre’s means: • Placed lighting instruments in full view • Used fragmented scenery • Made support for suspended objects visible • Actors encouraged to present rather than to become their characters • Spoke of their characters in the third person • Often commented on the action of the play • Story distanced through time or place

22. Epic Theatre • Achieving Alienation • Rejected notion of effective theatrical production as a synthesis of all the arts • Each element should make its own comment • Disparity among elements arouses alienation • Called attention to the “knots” that tie the scene together • Used captions, songs, etc to emphasize breaks in the action • Alienationdoes not preclude engagement: • Engage the audience empathetically • Then use a device (such as a song) to create distance • This allows the audience to evaluate what has been experienced during moments of empathy

23. The Good Person of Setzuan • Brecht’s play suggests: • Economic need is the root of all evil • Solutions to human problems are not to be found in divine injunctions • Alternates short and long scenes • Telescopes events and eliminates transitions • The social content of each scene, “gestus” can be expressed in one sentence • No attempt to create the everyday illusion of reality • Oversimplifies characters to express social relationships

24. Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty • Surrealism: • Emphasized importance of unconscious • Significant truths as buried deep within the psyche • The conscious mind must be subverted in order to reach truths • Promoted: dreams, automatic writing, and stream of consciousness • AntoninArtaud • Believed that theatre could free people from destructive impulses • “The theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively.”

25. Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty • Referred to as Theatre of Crueltybecause it forced the audience, against its wishes, to confront itself • Ultimate purpose was a type of psychic shock therapy • Proposed “a new language of theatre” • Avoided proscenium arch theatres in favor of large, undifferentiated spaces such as factories and airplane hangers • Placed audience in the middle of the action • Wanted to eliminate scenery entirely • Used human voice for text and for non-textual emotional and atmospheric effects

26. Post-World War II American Drama & Theatre • Modified realismcontinued as major approach to theatrical production • Psychological realism, derived from Stanislavsky’s system of acting, became even more predominate • Psychological Realism dominated playwriting • 2 Major Dramatists: • Arthur Miller • Tennessee Williams • Dominant Production Styleestablished by director Elia Kazan and designer Jo Mielziner • Used in both acting and directing styles • Simplified, skeletal settings permitted fluid shifts in time & place

27. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof • Written by Tennessee Williams (1955) • Structured in 3 acts, but with continuous action; time elapsed in play = time required to perform • Late point of attack; requires considerable exposition, which is worked into the action • Focuses primarily on 3 characters • An alternative third act was written at the insistence of Elia Kazan • From contemporary perspective, this play may be faulted on 2 scores: gender and race; however, both were treated in ways typical of their time

28. The American Musical (1941-1960) • By 1940 the musical had become distinctly American • Oklahoma! (1943): Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II • Often considered the first work to integrate music, story, dance, and visual elements in order to forward the dramatic action • Set the standard for the “book musical” • Musical Theatre considered America’s most significant contribution to world theatre

29. What do YOU Think? • What makes Musical Theatre so popular? • How do the various elements of Musical Theatre (settings, costumes, lighting, music, dance, story) contribute to its appeal? • If you had a choice between seeing a production of spoken drama or a Musical, which would you choose? Why?

30. Post-World War II European Drama & Theatre • Many in Europe questioned the very foundation of truth and values • Existentialism • Pursued questions of truth, values, and moral responsibility • Jean-Paul Sartre: • Denied existence of God • Denied the validity of fixed standards of conduct • Denied the possibility of verifiable moral codes • Human beings as “condemned to be free” = individuals must choose the values by which they will live

31. Post-World War II European Drama & Theatre • Albert Camus: • Human condition as absurd • From this came the label absurdist • Humans long for clarity and certainty, but the universe is irrational • Only option: individuals must choose the standards by which they will live • Both Sartre and Camus were convinced that we can examine our situation and make decisions that permit us to act meaningfully in accordance with those decisions.

32. Absurdist Drama • Emerged in France (1950) • Absurdists accepted views of Sartre and Camus about the human condition • But, saw no way out of condition because rational and meaningful choices seemed impossible in such a universe • Truth = chaos; lack of order, logic, certainty • Play structures abandon cause-and-effect relationships • Play structures reveal associational patterns reflecting illogic and chance • Most influential playwright = Samuel Beckett

33. Waiting for Godot • One of the best known plays of the 20th century • Suggests the impossibility of certainty about anything except the need to accept and endure • Loneliness and alienation is embodied visually in a stark setting • Gesture, business, and language are all important • A stateof being is explored, rather than an action • The play embodies the absurdist vision and methods