Theatre History Overview - Part 72 - Morality Plays

Morality plays were popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. At first, they were closely related to the religious cycle plays. The first morality plays were Pater Noster prayers. These were divided into seven petitions that each related to the seven virtues and the seven deadly sins.

The action of a morality play centers on a central character. This character may represent humanity as a whole or a smaller social structure. This character's weeknesses are assaulted by the personified evil forces.

At first, the tones of morality plays were grave. The plots were extremely simple, too. Because of this, it became popular to include comedic elements, scenes, or characters.

The oldest part of a morality play that still exists is from The Pride of Life which was writen about 1350. The morality play that probably has the most interesting staging is The Castle of Perseverance which was written around the years 1400-1425. It has a diagram of how the staging should be. It is also long at 3600 lines, although that is not as long as Hamlet.

The most well-known morality play is probably Everyman. In it, God has become concerned that man is too concerned with wealth and worldly goods. God lets Everyman know that death will come to visit him. Everyman starts turning to different aspects of his life. Most of them abandon him, but Good Deeds eventually does not abandon him. Everyman learns that he will be judged by his Good Deeds alone.

Morality plays are still performed today. Sometimes plays, sitcoms, and movies that have qualities of a morality play will be considered a morality play by some. Exaples are Star Wars, The Cosby Show, and Family Ties.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 71 - Italian Opera

Italian opera resulted from the late 16th century try of the Florence Camerata trying to recreate Greek tragedies. The Camerata was a group of various artists and humanists that gathered to try to guide the trends of art, especially music and drama, in Italy in the 16th century.

The first full-length opera was Dafne by Jacopo Peri. The dialogue was cahnted to a musical accompaniment. The music enhanced the dramatic effectiveness of the dialogue. The operatice form grew out of monody, a solo singing of a dramatically conceived melody meant to portray the emotions of the text.

The music for Dafne has been lost. However, the libretto for the opera Eurdice by Rinuccini still exists. It tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

At first, opera was only an entertainment for the nobility. However, in 1637, an opera house available to the general public opened in Venice. The opera house was successful. In the following decades, opera spread to Rome and throughout Italy.

Today, opera seems to be considered an art form for those who are rich or consider themselves more cultured. However, opera is for anybody who enjoys the art form.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 70 - Italian Intermezzi

Italian Intermezzi (singlular: Intermezzo) came from the tradition of the maschereata. The maschereata was a dance performed at carnival time. It was performed by costumed dancers and often pantomimed Greek and Roman themes.

The intermezzi got their name because they were performed between the acts of a play. Inter means between and mezzo means half or middle. The performance took place between the two acts or in the middle of the play. The lights, scenery, costumes, and special effects were the appeals of intermezzi. In general, they did not use dialogue. However, there were rare times when alligorical plots had to be explained.

Intermezzi were often used to pay elaborate compliments to people. They would often be performed at functions such as weddings, births, and betrothals. They would draw comparisons between the persons being complimented and mythological figures.

Sometimes intermezzi took place between every act of a play. Eventually, the intermezzi grew to be more popular than the plays themselves. The requirements of quick setting changes from play to intermezzi or within intermezzi encouraged the development of new devices for scene changes. In the 17th century, intermezzi were eventually absorbed into Italian opera.

While intermezzi are not common today, the first relatable idea to them are entr'actes (French for "between the acts") that had a musical act play to keep the audience from becoming restless during a scene change between acts. This has developed into the modern intermission.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 69 - Realism

Realism started in Europe in the late 19th century. It rejected the sentimentality of romanticism. Naturalism is also part of realist theatre.

Realism refers to depicting life in an accurate and faithful manner. In writing, the events in human life are depicted as matter-of-fact. There were three basic rules for realist art forms.

1. Truth resides in material objects that we can perceive with all five senses. (Ex. truth can be found in a rock, but it isn't found in the wind).
2. Observation could solve everything.
3. The highest home of science was human problems.

Realism also resulted in whte is know as the well-made play. This form was mainly created and popularized by Eugine Scribe and Henrik Ibsen. There are seven basic rules to a well-made play. Most of these rules can be found in Ibsen's A Doll's House, but he had started to play with the rules at the time he wrote that play, so there are times it veers away from the rules.

1. The plot contains plot points that are secrets to the characters in the play, but they are known to the audience. (e.g. In A Doll's House, only Nora, Krogstad, and the audience know that Nora signed the note for money and owes Krogstad. The audience waits to find out what the other characters will think about this situation if they ever find out about it).
2. Careful attention is paid to exposition. This may take up the entire first act. Then props such as letters and contrived entrances such as a friend visiting at an inopportune time, are used to increase suspense. (e.g. The whole first act of A Doll's House tends to deal with the fact that Nora is a spendthrift and talks about her history with money).
3. Expected logical reverses happen. The protagonist of the play will have successes and failures with the antagonist. (e.g. Nora feels like they are not in financial trouble and will spend money. Then Torvald will remind Nora that she can't frivolously spend money.)
4. The antagonist will have scenes were things are discovered about the protagonist that can be used to hurt the protagonist. (e.g.
5. The audience knows of a misunderstanding that happens in the play, but the characters in the play do not know that it occurred. (e.g. The audience knows that Nora got the money through forgery to get a loan, but the others don't know this until Nora tells Kristine.)
6. The denouement (the end where things are resolved) is logical and believable. (This one is one that breaks the rules. At the time A Doll's House was written, as condesending that Torvald treats Nora, a wife leaving her husband and children was not believable.)
7. The general action of the play is repeated in each individual act. (e.g. Nora has not paid all that much attention to her children and leaves them with the nanny at the end of the first act. She is getting ready for a party to which she is concerned, not about Torvald or her children, at the end of the second act. Then, at the end of the third act, she leaves, abandoning Torvald and her children).

Other authors of realism include George Bernard Shaw, Anton Chekhov, Emile Augier, and Alexandre Dumas fils (the "fils" indicates that he was the illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas [the author of The Three Musketeers.]) Realist plays are still performed to this day.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 68 - Agitprop Theatre

Agitprop theatre started in 1920s Europe and spread to the United states. It was a left-wing theatre considered to be highly politicized. The agitprop movement itself started in Russia.

The term agitprop is a portmanteau of agitation and propaganda. it is political propaganda. When it started in Russia, it was particularly for trying to give communism a good name. Popular media such as pamphletes, films, and plays were used to spread politicized messages.

Actors and actresses would borrow clothes from the working class people for their costumes. This way audiences would feel like the performers related to them. The performers came to the public rather than making the public come to the theatre. They would simplify messages and make the characters be more charicatures of good and evil just like melodrama.

When agitprop theatre first hit the Western World, it had a negative connontation. However, agitprop theatre does not have to have a negative connotation or message.

In 1931, Germany and many European countries banned agitprop theatre. This was because of the negative connotations of the art form. However, the message does not have to be negative. A government could use theatre in order to spread the ideas of not littering and recycling.

While it is not theatre, this video from Sesame Street could easily be considered agitprop.



Bertolt Brecht was a German playwright that was highly influenced by agitprop theatre. While agitprop theatre is not as common as other types of theatre these days, especially since most people don't want to pay to see politicized messages in their entertainment, it is still used around the world today.

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Theatre History Overview - Part 67 - Jesuit Theatre

Both Catholic and protestant schools in Germany used theatre in order to teach doctrine and train students. Some plays were in Latin and some plays were in the vernacular. The pkea osf this school drama happened in Catholic schools run by the Jesuits.

The first year a Jesuit performance was recorded was 1551. This was at the Collegio Mamertino at Mesina in Sicily. Soon after that, every Jesuit school was performing at least one play per year. The plays were often written by professors and the students made up the casts.

The original plays were pious in nature. Music was also an important element of the plays. Jesuit theatre could be found anywhere there was a Jesuit school. However, Jesuit theatre was best developed in Germany and Austria.

During the seventeenth century, Jesuit theatre had reached its height. In the eighteen century, especially by 1773, it declined because of the Jesuits having political interests and trying to hold a monopoly on education that caused others to become strong enemies of the religious group.

A popular Jesuit play was Pietas Victrix by Nikolaus of Avancini. The Jesuits also produced important works about theatrical practices. These include Pictorial and Architectural Perspective by Pozzo and Dissertation on Stage Acting by Lang.

(This is the blog entry for July 5, 2018. I was having troubles with submitting my assignment for school, so that took priority.)

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Theatre History Overview - Part 66 - Early English Tudor Drama

English Tudor drama started when the Renaissance started in Engliand. This happened during the late 15th century when Henry VII was king of England.

Early English Tudor drama included ideas about humanism. Part of the reason for this was that humanists such as Erasmus came to England. They taught at Cambridge and Oxford which gave students and writers and interest in humanism and classic literature.

During this time, the first English play with a complex plot was written. The play was Damon and Pythias by Richard Edwards. A play that has a complex plot has a more than just one story line with a character overcoming one or a few obstacles. If Hamlet had only a simple plot, the story would only be that Hamlet's father is killed, Hamlet is angry about this and ends up killing people, then Hamlet ends up being killed because with a poisoned sword. However, a complex plot includes truth being found out through internal logic and sometimes more than one character having a plot line. In Hamlet, Hamlet grapples with the thought of the afterlife and if he is depressed or putting on a show of depression about the murder of his father. A play with a complex plot can be thought of as at least one character dealing with botha physical journey and a psychological journey.

Humanist performances were so popular that by 1546, Queen's College at Cambridge mandated the yearly perofmrance of plays. The plays were mostly in Latin, but some were in English.

Religious and political controversies involving England helped to shape drama. One of these was probably Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex written by Thommas Sackville and Thomas Norton. The play is in five acts. In the play Gorboduc decides to divide his kingdom between hismself and his two sons, Ferrex and Porrex. Eventually all the main characters are killed. The play was a warning about not having an order of succession to the throne. It was performed for Queen Elizabeth in 1562 because at that time, the English throne did not have clear rules for succession to the throne.

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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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