Theatre History Overview - Part 65 - Sturm Und Drang

The Sturm Und Drang (or Storm and Stress) movement is traditionally dated as happening in the years 1767-1787. The movement happened in Germany. It reached its peak in the 1770s.

The peak of the movent started with 1773's Goetz von Berlichigen by Goethe and 1776's Storm and Stress by Friedrich Maximilian Klinger.

In a storm and stress play, a protagonist is often driven to action by revenge and greed. The format of these plays was often that they would have five acts. The writers had no agreed upon philosophy other than rebellion.

Writers and dramatists saw the stage as a place for discussion of societal issues. The French writer Louis-Sebastien Mercier even suggested using drama in order to promote political ideas. Becuase of the lack of a philosophy, audiences found d strurm und drang plays bewildering and confusing.

Very few sturm und drang plays were produced. Out of the plays that were produced, very few were well received. However, the plays also focused intensely on language. Because of this, they helped Germany gain acceptance for performance of Shakespeare's plays. They also paved the way for a more mature drama to happen in Germany.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 64 - Beijing (Peking) Opera

While Chinese theatre has a rich and varied history, one of the its treasure is the Beijing (or Peking) Opera. While the official beginnings are considered to be in 1790 to celebrate the 80th birthday of emperor Qian Long, the beginnings are considered to have been in the 15th century. This is because the performance that took place in 1790 was a combination of the best performers from all around China. The styles of art performed had orginiated at least back in the 15th century.

The original name of the Beijing Opera was Jingxi. However, when Westerners encountered it, they started calling it Beijing Opera. Beijing Opera is considered more of a theatrical than a literary art. This is because more emphasis is placed on acting rather than on text. The actors have strict movements they must follow. There are certain gestures to accompany every word. These gestures are combined to give certain meanings to movements on stage. Actors enter a special school between the ages of 7 and 12. Classes may start at 5 in the morning and go until evening. The school takes care of everything (including singing, dancing, acting, and martial arts) for the actors in order to live. The teachers are repaid once the actors make it in the Beijing Opera.

The stage of the Beijing Opera is meant to represent an alternative reality. An actor walking in circles on the stage represents walking for miles. An actor using a whip to hit an imaginary horse represent riding a galloping horse across the land. Then there are four main types of characters in the Beijing Opera. These are the Sheng, the Dan, the Jing, and the Chou.

Sheng are male roles. They are divided into old men (lao sheng), young men (xiao sheng), and warrior types (wu sheng). Dan are female roles. They are divided into quiet and humble (qing yi), the vivacious or dissolute (hua dan), warrior maidens (wu dan), and old women (lao dan). Jing means "clean." However, the character is not typically "clean." Jing characters are forceful and often treacherous. Thus, the name is used in an ironic way. Chou means "ugly" and is the comic actor or clown. He has a white dot on his nose to symbolize that the character is ugly. He also speaks in every day dialect, tells many jokes, and is free to improvise.

The colors of the clothing and facepaints are used to symbolize many different characteristics. Even the shape of how the face paint is applied can give different meanings. Musicians stay on stage the entire time and are dressed the same way as stage assistants.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 63 - Melodrama

While it is now known that melodrama has exaggerated plot with clearly good and cleary bvad characters, the first technique for melodrama was to alternate spoken drama with short pieces of music.

While Kotzebue is the person who is mainly responsible for starting melodrama, there are examples from earlier that fall into the category. Sigmundus was a 1753 play by J.E. Eberlin that contained some melodramatic scenes. Then 1762's Piygmalion by Jean-Jacques Roussaeu was considered a full melodrama.

The popularity of opera in the 19th century helped lead to musical overtures. This kept the idea of melodrama going. It allowed for a dramatic structure of melodrama to form. This structure did not use music and the idea of melodrama with cheap overacting became prevalent.

By the victorian era, melodrama feature six stock characters. These were the hero, the heroine, the villain, the sidekick of the hero, an aged parent, and a servant of the aged parent. These roles were not always kept. Stock characters became known as the hero, the faithful servant of the hero, the heroine, the villain, the villain's accomplice, and the maidservant.

Typical melodrama paved the way for what is considered Broadway's first musical, The Black Crook. Cartoons often use the premise of melodrama in at least one episode. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a cartoon full of melodrama. If it is difficult to remember what melodrama is like, think of the Dudley Doright of the Mounties cartoons from The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. These are not perfect examples of the stock characters at all times because sometimes one character serves as more than one of the stock characters. However, the general guide is that Dudley Doright is the hero, the inspector is the faithful servant, the heroine is some random defenseless woman (or women, or just a person or people), the villain is Snidely Whiplash, the villain's accomplice is Homer, and Nell Fenwick is the maidservant.

If you don't know Dudley Doright of the Mounties, watch the following video.



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Theatre History Overview - Part 62 - The Beginnings of Melodrama

The beginnings of melodrama started with August Friedrich von Kotzebue . He was born in the Weimar, Germany, but in 1783, he entered the Russian diplomatic service in St. Petersburg. He eventually worked as the director of the German theatre in St. Petersburg after doing stints as a resident dramatist in Vienna and Weimar.

Melodrama has very clear good characters and bad characters. Good always eventually triumphs over evil. Kotzebue wrote over 200 plays in different forms. He is known as the first person to develop melodrama. These plays came from developing sentimental comedies.

Kotzebue had play and novels that were read widely. Melodrama was easy to spread because of this. Thirty-six of his plays were translated into English. Even though Kotzebue died in 1819, his plays stayed as strong vehicles for theatre throughout the 19th century.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 61 - Theatre of the Oppressed

Theatre of the Oppressed, sometimes referred to as TO, is a form of theatre that was developed in the 1970s by Augusto Boal. Boal was a Brazilian theatre practioner. Boal's goal was to use his techniques in order to promote social and political change. His ideas were that this would happen by having a dialogue between the audience and the performer(s).

There are six techniques in Theatre of the Oppressed. Forum Theatre is a problem-solving technique. An unresolved scene of oppression is presented and then it is replayed. While it is replayed, the audience is invited to stop the action when they feel any character is oppressed or struggling. The audience can replace the character or improvise alternate solutions with the actor(s). This technique can be used to explore current situations, history, or even to prepare for situations that might happen.

Image theatre is a series of games and physical exercises. They are designed to uncover essential truths and opinions about society, self, culture, and more. Actors use their own bodies to "scuplt" frozen images representing oppressions, feelings, dreams for the future, and experiences. If this is difficult to imagine, just imagine the warm up game or the improve game where bodies are used to create still images, but put the significant details along with it.

Rainbow of desire is a technique used to deconstruct a person's story of tension nia relationship. This does not have to be a romantic relationship, even though i tcan be one. It can be any type of relationsship such as parent/child, boss/employee, friends, siblings, teacher/student, or more. Image theatre is used to identify driving forces and feelings in the relationship. While the process may start with a single character (or a single relationship), it will soon evolve into a group experience.

Cop-in-the-Head is a technique that explores societal messages, fears,and obstacles that have been interalized as thoughts and beliefs that prevent one from living a liberated life. It does not focus on external oppressors (cops). Instead, it focuses on using the previous techniques in order to find and focus on the internal oppressors.

Invisible theatre uses the above techniques to have Theatre of the Oppressed staged in public places. However, people are not supposed to know that the theatre was staged. The idea is to get people talking about the issue or issues presented.

Legislative theatre uses the above techniques in order to propose laws. This allows opinions to be collected directly from the people rather than having to rely on other people to give what they say is opinion of the people.

In Louisiana, Theatre of the Oppressed (specifically invisible theatre), can often be seen in parades. A group of people may dress in some way that indicates being oppressed by something. Then they will at least walk in a parade. Sometimes there will be more of a performance. Theatre of the Oppressed is used on stages accross the world in order to deal with political and social subjects.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 60 - Readers Theatre

Readers Theatre became popular during World War II. It is also known as Chamber Theatre or Interpretive Theatre. The reason that Reader's Theatre became popular during World War II is that there was not enough money in many theatres to produce plays with sets and costumes.

There are four types of Readers Theatre. These are Readers Theatre, Free Readers Theatre, Chamber Theatre, and Contempory Readers Theatre. Each style has its own elements.

Readers Theatre uses only scripts and stools or chairs, although sometimes limited costuming is used. However, often actors (readers) wear all black to strip away character in order for more focus to be placed on vocal interpretation (although costuming can be used to convey a character as well). The scripts do not have to be memorized, but they usually are. The actors are also allowed to have the scripts and follow along with the lines to eliminate any type of performance anxiety. The types of things performed are narrative fiction, non-dramatic literature, plays, and poems.

Free Readers Theatre moves more towards traditional theatre. However, scripts are still allowed to be had on stage. Blocking and costuming also appear. Costuming is probably not much, but may entail more colorful elements such as hats and scarves. Characters are also allowed to interact more with each other such as looking at each other when speaking or moving closer and further apart. The same types of literature as Readers Theatre, except for plays, are performed.

Chamber Theatre performs only narrative fiction. Most of the time, actors have the script memorized, but the narrator might carry a script in order to show authority. It shows the characters' roles and relationships by using blocking and costuming. The costumes may be suggestive with just a few costume pieces or they may be full costumes.

Contempory Readers Theatre is what is mostly practiced today. It mixes elements from the above three type of Readers Theatre. Contemporary Readers Theatre is influenced by performance art techniques, so more theatrical elements are seen in it. However, while Contemporary Readers Theatre has performance in it, the emphasis is still on the text.

All types of Readers Theatre are performed today. While some playwrights write plays to be performed as Readers Theatre, as long as copyright rules are not being broken, any play can be performed in the style of Readers Theatre. Teachers who are teaching children to read use Readers Theater in a variety of ways to help their students learn. More about using Readers Theatre in the classroom can be found at Reading Rockets.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 59 - Theatre of Cruelty

Theatre of cruelty took place in France in the 1930s and 1940s. The idea was developed by Anton Artaud and it grew out of Surrealist Theatre.

Artaud was inspired by the performance of a Balinese dance. He had not seen any performance like it previously and was struck by the dancers' intense physicality. Just like in dance, Artaud's theatre of cruelty focuses on conveying feelings and emotions not through dialogue, but through physical movements.

The goal of theatre of cruelty was to shock audiences. Because of this, sometimes movements and images used might feel like they were confronting or may have even been considered violent. Artaud claimed that the theatre of cruelty was an enhanced double of real life as can be found in his work The Theatre and Its Double. It also claims that if this is the case, life also has to be the double of theatre.

Artaud's theories were never realized in an extremely accessible form. This makes it difficult to interpret what he meant. Nonetheless, performances still take place in which people try to put on shows in the style of theatre of cruelty.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 58 - Surrealist Theatre

Surrealist theatre mainly took place in Paris, France in the 1920s. It depicted the subconcious experience. Sometimes one idea was presented by using moody tons and disjointed structures.

Surrealist theatre moved out of the Dada theatre movement. Guillaume Apollinaire used the word surrealism to describe his 1917 play Les Mamelles de Tirésias. André Breton and Antonin Artaud were both key figures in the surrealist theatre movement.

Breton's ideas of surrealism were inspired by the works of Sigmund Freud. Breton's theories came from Freud's ideas about dreams and the subconcious mind. Artaud rejected mainstream Western theatre. He felt that theatre should be a metaphsyical and mystical experience.

Examples of surrealist plays are Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, Arlington by Edna Walsh, and Tinderbox by Lucy Kirkwood. More surrealist plays can be found at the surrealist drama pages at Drama Online.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 57 - Epic Theatre

Epic theatre took place in the early to mid 20th century. The idea in Epic theatre is to make audiences think about what is being presented on stage. The members of the audience are not supposed to get lost in the idea that they are watching a play. They are supposed to keep in mind that they are seeing real people on the stage and what they are watching can be related to the real world.

In Epic theatre, actors may play many roles. They are never supposed to fully take on a character. Rather, they are to embody social commentary while staying themselves. This is known as gestus.

Bertolt Brecht called this theatre dialectical theatre. However, Erwin Piscator called it epic theatre. He coined the term during his first years as director of Volksbühne. He urged playwrights to address issues that were related to contemporary existence.

Plays that are traditionally directed as ones where people are supposed to suspend disbelief may be directred in the style of epic theatre if they address social issues. There are also types of theatre that deal with social commentary that are more suited to the style of epic theatre. This type of theatre can still be seen today.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 56 - Poor Theatre

Poor theatre took place between 1959 and 1970. This was non-commercial theatre and most of the works did not reach performance. The main person behind this movement was the Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski (said "Yair zhay Graw toff skee").

Poor theatre did away with all lavish elements, sometimes leaving only a bare stage and actors. Costumes were generic and did not indicate the character. An actor may have worn the same clothes as himself and as the character. Props were few to none as well.

The concentration of poor theatre was on the communication between actors and the audience. The audience was often placed on all sides of the stage. Sometimes people of the audience were even interspersed throughout the actors.

Acting in poor theatre was to be authentic. Many of Stanislavsky's ideas from his method were used. However, poor theatre was more physical than Stanislavsky's methods. There are not any specific scripts for poor theatre. Rather, any script can be directed in the style of poor theatre.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 55 - Romanticism

Romanticism in the theatre happened in the early 1800s to the mid 1800s. However, sometimes a start date of the late 1700s is given and an end date of the early to mid 1900s is given. However, the peak of romanticism happened during the first dates mentioned.

Romanticism was a revolt against the enforcement of established rules for what was considered the best practice of the best writers. However, the moviement didn't depret much from traditional standards of drama. Seeing did become more important than hearing, though. Sets became elaborate and the seats closer to the stage became the more expensive ones and the ones in the upper galleries became the cheapest ones.

The plays had natural settings. They were lit by candles or oil lamps. However, by 1830, theatres used gaslight with the first being Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia by 1816. There were also many special effects. Many of them were used to create the illusion of travel.

Some playwrights of the romantic era were Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Victor Hugo. while he was not a playwright of the romantic era, artists of that time found that the plays of Shakespeare aligned with their ideas, especially of indiviualism, the sentimental love of nature, and feeling emotion being more important than logic. There are still plays produced with these values in mind, even if they were not specifically written with those ideas.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 54 - American Avant-Garde Theatre

American Avant-Garde theatre started in the 1940s. The exact time frame of the movement probably lasted until around the mid 1980s. While the Avant-Garde movement didn't hit American until the 1940s, it had been in Europe since the 1880s. It overlapped with many theatre movements.

In Avant-Garde theatre, the pieces of theatre were not looking to replicate real life. Instead, they were trying to create new worlds. People involved in Avant-Garde theatre wanted to challenge what audiences considered "standard theatre." At that time, this was theatre that happened by having a play written down on paper that tried to replicate real life and the real world in some way. It was theatre that was rehearsed and had a script that was known by the actors.

While there were definitely plays written in traditional ways, Avant-Garde theatre may start with a play idea that is rehearsed in general. However, the play may change every night because of ideas or audience interaction. The play may eventually have a script that makes it more traditional or the script may allow changes that lets the play continue to change.

Examples of American Avant-Garde plays are Classical Therapy, or a Week Under The Influence, Symphony of Rats, and Egyptology by Richard Foreman. While the official movement of American Avant-Garde theatre is over, it is still often used. Today, these ideas are even used in film and television

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Theatre History Overview - Part 53 - Absurdist Theatre

Theatre of the absurd (or absurdist theatre) is a movement that happened in the 1950s and 1960s. The movement started in Paris, France in the section of the city known as the Quartier Latin. Many absurdist playwrights were born in France, but others were born elsewhere and were living in France and often writing in French.

However, even though the official movement of absurdism started in the 1950s, absurdist elements started appearing in theatre shortly after the rise of Greek drama. Aristophanes'ss wild humor is considered absurd. Absurdist elements are also found in works by Petronius, Lucian, and and Apuleius who were all writers during the classical period. Absurdist elements showed up in many plays and are even more obvious in some of the plays by Ibsen, Alfred Jarry, and Strindberg.

Absurdists of the 1950s and 1960s agreed with the assement that that the human situation is absurd and devoid of purpose, as found in Albert Camus's essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. The event that springboarded this movement was Word War II. This was because absurdity became normal for the population as a whole when they had to deal with the threat of nuclear war and the possibility that they could lose their lives at any second without any serious health complications or personal risks.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is probably the most famous absurdist play. However, there are other plays and they are all performed in theatre around the world today. Some of them are The Bald Soprano by eugene Ionesco, Who's Afriad of Virginia Woofle and Zoo Story by Edward Albee, and The Maids by Jean Genet.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 52 - Naturalistic Theatre

Naturalism developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. In naturalism, the theatre tries to create the illusion of reality on stage. Naturalistic writers were influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The writers believed that social environment and heredity were the determining factors of a person's character. Naturalismm not only sought to describe characters as they would realistically be, but also to describe the "scientific" underlying forces of why they were that way and the reasons for their actions.

Naturalistic plays followed the three unities (as were mentioned in the post about neoclassical theatre. The first person to truly advocate for naturalism was Émile Zola. He did this in his 1880 work, Naturalism on the Stage. He even considered himself the leader of French naturalism.

Some well-known naturalistic works are Uncle Vanya, Woyzeck, A Doll's House, and The Cherry Orchard. These plays are still performed to this day.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 51 - Neoclassical Theatre

Neoclassical theatre probably began sometime in the mid-17th century. It focuses on realism and dignified behavior based on the classical unities, also called the Aristotelian unities. They come from Aristotle's Poetics. These are the unity of action, the unity of time, and the unity of place.

Aristotle's thoughts were that a play should have one action that it follows, should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours, and should exist ina single physical space and not represent more than one place.

Neoclassical started in France, but it quickly spread through Europe. Usually only comedies and tragedies were recognized as plays during the neoclassical period. However, the two types of plays never mixed together. Comedies tended to focus on the lower ranks of society and tragedies on the higher ranks.

Actors of this time were expected to be realistic and portray their characters how the characters would be expected to act in real life. The sets were rich and elaborate. They were supposed to help the audience lose themselves in the drama. The neoclassicism movement ended in the 18th century while the age of enlightenment was beginning.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 50 - Dada Theatre

Dada theatre started in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916. A poet named Hugo Ball founded a cafe in the city that he called Cabaret Voltaire. Its name referenced the 18th century author who satirized customs of society.

The artists that would meet at Cabaret Voltaire were most likely in Zurich because of Switzerland's neutrality. They were seeking refuge from the invasion happening in their home countries. They started to perform short plays in order to condemn Word War I.

It is not certain where they got the name from their movement, but it was called Dada. The most famous story is that one of the artists opened a French-German dictionary to a random page and picked the first word seen. The word was dada and means hobbyhorse.

The artists dedicated themselves to the absurd. The dada movement was a rejection of Western conventions of fine art and of social normality and rationality. It was purposefully nonsensical and obscure.

By 1917, a Romanian Jewish writer naemd Tristan Tzara was writing performances. His most famous play, The Gas Heart was written and first performed around 1921. The entire play mocks traditional theatre. While it is broken down into the traditional three acts (remember, in playwriting, there is a traditional three act structure), each act is extremely short. None of the acts contain a logical plot structure.

During the first performance of The Gas Heart, the audience loudly mocked it. Even though Dada didn't seem to exist as a cohesive movement by 1922, The Gas Heart was performed a second time in 1923. During its second performance, it sparked a theatre riot.

Tzara's play is rarely performed. However, at times performances of the play still happen because The Gas Heart is admired as one of the vehicles of the Dada movement.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 49 - Jewish/Yiddish Theatre

Edit: I've been told that this is bad information. Sorry about not having good sources. I thought I had found some decent sources, but apparently I didn't.

I did not mean to ever use the word Jew to be offensive, I have always only equated the word Jew with somebody who is of the Jewish faith. So, I am sorry to those who are offended by the word. I had not learned any differently that there was a distinction between the two.

Thanks to, Orli Nativ here is some information. This comes straight from her words:

There was Hebrew language theatre performed in Italy as far back as the 1530s, and 'Purim-spiel' type religious plays prior. The 16th century stuff is really interesting! There's an important, wide distinction to be made between Hebrew language theatre, and Jewish theatre, which has a much wider history due to geographic and linguistic variation. There's a lot more Israeli theatre history beyond Habima too!

Here are some informative links that she provided:

• Theatre at the Virtual Jewish Library
• The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
• Israelis Theatre at My Jewish Learning

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While Jews have ancient literature, they don't have ancient theatre. In 1913, a man named Nahum Tsemach tried to establish a theatre company called Habima (meaning "the stage") in Lithuania. His theatre dealt with Jewish themes, but it had financial troubles and closed. However, it re-opened in Russia in 1917 with the help of Menaham Gansin and Hanna Rubina. The first show was performed in 1918.

In 1922, Tsemach's theatre first performed its most famous play, Dybbuk. Tsemach took his play on tour and when he tried to come back to his company in Israel, the company did not accept him as they were running the theatre company their own way. They had actors direct the plays and in 1937, the first original Jewis play was performed.

Despite this history, Jewish only started to have a good beginning during World War II. This is because of the concentration camps. Sometimes it was because of being in a concentration camp as mentioned in the overview of German theatre history. Other times, it was because of the small spaces where they were hiding.

Jews would meet in small rooms or areas and they would play games, study, and sing for each other. They might also act out stories. Sometimes t hese stories were simply accounts of what they had to endure every day. However, doing these activities help them to keep their spirit.

In 1948, Habima came back to Europe after a disappointing tour in the United States. They started to realize that the way they were managing the company wasn't working. Despite these problems, the theatre lasted through the 1950s and 1960s while they produced plays such as Anne Frank and Hanna Sanesh as well as others that dealth with the subject of the Holocaust. In 1969, the company became a theatre of the stage and a new building was opened for the company in 1970. On Israel's 40th birthday, Habima became the official national theatre.

In general, Jews, Hebrews, and Israelis seem to love theatre. There are many theatre festivals held in Israel and they deal with Hebrew and Jewish culture. Some of the festivals are The Internationsl Festival of Puppet Theatre, The Teatronetto Festival, and The Festival of Alternative Theatre. Dybbuk is still performed around the world today.

(I appologize, but due to many unforseen circumstances - including an internet connectivity issue, this counts for my blog post for Sunday, June 17, 2018.)

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Theatre History Overview - Part 48 - German Theatre

The exact date of when theatre start in Germany is difficult to determine. It is known that Renaissance theatre happened from the 10th century to the 17th century. German baroque theatre crossed with this period as it started in 1550. During this time, the passion play at Oberammergau was first performed in 1634. The play is acting out the last days of Jesus from his ride into Jerusalem to his crucifixion on the cross. Some people say that the play is anti-semetic, but the play gives insight into the early days of passion plays and Christianity. The play was first performed because the inhabitants of Oberammergau, Germany made a promise to God that if he saved them from the bubonic plague, that they would perform a play depicting the last days of Jesus every ten years. Then German classical theatre crossed over into this period as it started in 1720.

In 1730, Gottsched tried to improve German drama by translating plays from French and English. In 1750, the movement known as realistic theatre started. By 1770, the movement sturm und drang was in Germany. The movement's name literally means "storm and stress," but means that the literature tends to be filled with emotional unrest and rejects neoclassical literary norms. in contrast to sturm on drang, by 1790, a romantic spirit had entered German theatre.

In the 1890s, the ideas of naturalism and expressionism came to the German theatre. Bertolt Brecht's first play, Baal was written in 1918. In 1924, Brecht started the idea of epic theatre. Then in 1928, he had a huge success with The Three Penny Opera Hitler took over Germany in 1933. Though it would not seem like it from many stories, theatre existed in the concentration camps. However, even if it happened to be a distraction for the prisoners, it was still used as a way to control and perhaps punish them. Some of the prisoners were forced to put on plays. Some of the prisoners were forced to construct a stage. A drunken guard may have suddenly decided that he wanted to watch a show would force the prisoners to perform.

Different styles of theatre continued throughout Germany. In the early 1960s, the theatre of fact movement, also known as documentary theatre, started in Germany. It dealt with examining recent historical events by looking at official documents. Theatre in Germany continues to be strong with both local and international shows.

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Review: Waitress - Broadway Show Now Touring

Waitress is a musical with a book by Jessie Nelson and music by Sara Bareilles. It is based off of the 2007 movie Waitress by Adrienne Shelly. The Broadway tour for the show is currently happening. It will be in New Orleans, LA at the Saenger Theatre for two more days. Then it will move on to Fort Worth, TX and afterwards to Chicago, IL. More cities are after that and can be found at the official Waitress tour website.

The musical is about Jenna Hunterson who works as a waitress at a diner. She is in an abusive relationship with her husband, Earl, and doesn't love him. One day, she finds out that she is pregnant. She plans to enter a pie making contest, but it is not where she lives and there is an entry fee. However, she hides money all over her house in order to try to have enough to enter the contest.

Earl finds the money and Jenna lies saying that she was saving it in order to buy a crib for the baby. She can no longer enter the pie contest, but everything changes once she opens a letter that the owner of the diner, Joe, leaves with her right before she gives birth.

Desi Oakly is great as Jenna. Her castmates Charity Angel Dawson and Lenne Klingman make the friendship between the three waitresses realistic. The character of Ogie seems extremely nerdy and uncoordinated, but in reality the dance moves by Jeremy Morse are superb.

The use of the ensemble was creative. Most of the time having extras from the ensemble made sense. However, there were a few times that were questionable about having any ensemble characters on stage. It was also confusing why the band would be pushed on stage during what seems to be an intimate moment between two characters. It was one that was represented with music, but there was definitely no need for the band to be there.

This musical is definitely not for children as there are many adult references and adult language in it. However, judgment on what is appropriate for age should still be left to parents. If you are an adult and you want to learn about professional theatre, Waitress can help you understand what professionals can do with the tools that they have and how a theme can be tied together. (A small example is that the curtain was made to look like some type of fruit pie and stimulated conversation in the audience about what type - strawberry, cherry, or a mix - before the play began). If you'd like to see the tour of Waitress, you can look at the Waitress tour website to see if it is coming to a town near you.

Theatre History Overview - Part 47B - Central and South America

During the 18th and 19th centuries, groups in Latin America were working on creating their own theatre. They would use Western European theatre traditions and blend them with local interests. There were many different types of Latin American theatre genres. Two of the significant ones are the zarzuela and the sainete

Zarzuela was especially popular in Cuba in the 1850s. This genre of theatre would often focus on the plight of multiracial and mulatta women. It combined songs, dialogue, and dancing.Sainete used colorful costumes and scenery. The language was local and it seemed realistic to the locals. However, the plays in sainete were farces accompanied by music, so the plays were not realistic.

Between the 1940s and the 1960s, theatrical companies were establish throughout Central and South America. Theatre in Latin America often dealt with political happenings. One of the playwrights that wrote plays to expose the truths about the totalitarian governments was Virgilio Piñera. He would use dark humor in his plays to get his point across. Today, theatre in Central and South America is still thriving.

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