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EXAM #4 - THTR 327
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| what continued to decline starting in the thirties | Broadway Theatre |
| productions in 1940 | 72 |
| productions in 1945 | 83 |
| productions in 1949 | 59 - lowest ever, only 28 new |
| productions n 1950s | avg around 70 |
| after 1945, what happened to actor's equity | less than 10% of the members employed |
| why so few productions in the 40s? | reduced number of bway houses |
| the depression and cinema | 1945 - advent of TV - TV even affects cinema |
| 1945 - movie theaters | 20, 355 of them |
| 1955 - movie theaters | 14, 000 of them |
| what led to the idea of mutliplexes | Lare movie houses redesigned to divide one large theatre into several theatres |
| why do we like multiplexes | towns able to show more than one movie per week (trying to get people out of their house) |
| people watch tv in 1959 | 85% public watched TV |
| people go to theater in 1959 | 2% of public (1% of this group under the age of 25) |
| byproduct of nobdoy going to see theater in 1959 | Costs to mount a production skyrockets |
| 1940 cost to mount production | $25,000 straight play $100,000 musical |
| 1960 cost to mount production | $150,000 straight play $600,000 musical |
| how much does a production cost now | $3m-6m straight play $10m-12m musical |
| 1960 cost to break even for productions | straight play had to take in $20,000/wk and a musical had to take in $40,000/wk just to break even! |
| Salary of actors: | 1940 - $40/wk 1957 - $100/wk |
| Rising ticket prices: | 1944 - $3.50 drama $4.85 musical 1960 - $7.15 drama $8.60 musical |
| Brooks Atkinson | The New York Times critic |
| Stark Young | The New Republic critic |
| John Mason Brown | The Saturday Review critic |
| George Jean Nathan | American Mercury, Vanity Fair critic |
| Increasingly important to produce what kind of theater at this time | safe, popular, long-running plays and revivals, proven imports |
| 75% productions failed to regain their | initial investment |
| Most popular type of entertainment, best way to make money = | (need from notes) |
| what are the big hits of Broadway in the forties, fifties, early sixties | musicals |
| 1940 popular musical | Pal Joey (Rodgers and Hart) |
| 1943 popular musical | Oklahoma! (Rodgers and Hammerstein II) |
| popular coreographer of the time | Agnes De Mille, ON YOUR TOES |
| George Ballanchine shows | 1949 - South Pacific 1948 - Kiss Me Kate 1956 - My Fair Lady 1957 - West Side Story |
| Movement to expand theatre outside of Broadway | Continuation of alternate, independent, little theatre movement |
| Off-Broadway theatres: | defines of the official Broadway district; makeshift, improvised spaces; seat less than 200 |
| Advantages off-Broadway theatres: | can produce works not for the masses; take chances, do risky plays and staging - can cut production costs tremendously (overhead, rent, salaries) |
| 1951 - who and what theater opened off-broadway | Jose Quintero opens Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1956 - important off-broadway show | O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh |
| 1956 – Quintero asked to direct O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night on Broadway Circle in the Square Theatre: | - rediscovers O’Neill; - discovers Quintero (leading director of the era); - discovers several important actors - Geraldine Page, Jason Robards Jr. and Colleen Dewhurst |
| one of the most respected theatres of the fifties, consistent artistry and professionalism | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| Long-running hits on off-Broadway: | 1954 –Three Penny Opera (Brecht/Weill) 1959 – Little Mary Sunshine 1960 - The Fantastiks |
| Off-Broadway providing chances for new American playwrights | Albee |
| Off-Broadway providing chances for controversial European playwrights | Beckett, Ionesco, Brecht, Genet |
| arena and thrust are a byproduct of what | Experimenting with new staging and actor/audience relationships |
| More attempts at decentralizing theatre | Establishment of regional theatres |
| Theatre 47 | Margo Jones creates the 1st regional theatre name chaned w/ the year (opened 1947) - arena theatre in Dallas w/ resident troupe – closes 1959 |
| 1947 - Nina Vance starts | the Alley Theatre in Houston – begins in 87- seat dance studio |
| 1950 - Zelda Fichandler starts | the Arena Theatre in D.C. – begins in movie theatre, later a brewery |
| 1959 – Ford Foundation greatly strengthens regional theatre movement | - Hundreds of millions of dollars to theatres to be founded everywhere - Every major theatre center everyone received so much money from the ford foundation - Tax laws made it so they could get a tax break |
| what was the ford foundation focus | establish professional arts groups around country |
| 1951 – Langer founds the what in Stratford, CT | American Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Academy - 1955 - 1,500 seat thrust theater |
| Tyrone Guthrie had opened the | Stratford Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario in 1953 - became a theater festival - lowk did classics in general and still exists |
| Festival in Ashland, Oregon | Oregon Shakespeare Festival - One of leading theaters in the country now (not when first started) |
| jo papp (smear, wait what) creates the what in central park | New York Shakespeare Festival - how the public theater began - strangely obsessive jo papp - crewdited w a lot of major bway shows |
| NY Shakespeare Festival at what theater | Delacorte Theatre |
| jo papp discovered what set designer | Ming Cho Lee why do I have a note that says "freaky papsmear" |
| one of the great set designers of the past century did what kind of shows | a lot of shakespeare - love's labours lost |
| Development of summer theatres | 1940 – 80 summer theatres 1950 – 200 summer theatres |
| Development of College Theatre | 1947 – 287 colleges offering degree/major in theatre 1960 – 308 offering major; 293 offering a minor; 1500 offering theatre classes - creating next gen of theater artists |
| (bonus) the offensive joke jeff made about how to turn abie's irish rose into a musical | by adding songs from fiddler on the roof |
| Development of community theatre | 1929 - 69 community theatres 1939 – 105 community theatre 1960 – 65,000 community theatres |
| Development of Children’s Theatre | 1948 – 160 Children’s theatres in U.S. - something about nashville doing something good... |
| Development of truly unique American acting style | The Actors Studio (NYC) - Created in 1947 by Cheryl Crawford, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis |
| 1948 who resigns from the new unique american acting style studio | Lewis resigns; Strasberg joins Kazan and Crawford |
| teh controversial "method" by strasberg The Actor's Studio | 1. Misinterpreting Stanislavsky? 2. Method actors make everything sordid, dirty and ugly 3. Strasberg’s refusal to teach vocal technique causes inarticulate, inaudible performances |
| more about method as in method acting | unable to play classics, overly introspective = psychological danger, only able to play selves, difficult to work with, only succeed in protective studio enviro |
| Actors Studio eventually expands beyond its original goals | Playwright’s unit, Director’s unit |
| people a part of the Playwright’s unit | Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Paul Zindel, Israel Horowitz |
| people a part of the Director’s unit | Jerome Robbins, Arthur Penn |
| Playwright’s unit merges with Director’s unit and this allows what | present showcase productions at the Studio - Studio becomes a casting center for film or stage productions |
| not a great era in playwriting in terms of quantity, but these playwrights carried over | Eugene O’Neill Maxwell Anderson Lillian Hellman Clifford Odets Thornton Wilder |
| first of two great playwrights to come out of this time | Arthur Miller - “a playwright of moral consciousness” - got involved with the federal theater project which is when he started writing plays |
| first play not very successful, but miller's second on bway was | “All My Sons” - Father manufacture plant, keep money in and then it killed pilots |
| “Death of a Salesman” | Miller - Everyman type of idea - Very critical play of the american dream, buy into it but doesnt become a reality - Coming out of WW2 and then this play like wtb - Landmark statement of this - part of popularity |
| more Miller plays | 1953 – The Crucible 1955 – A View from the Bridge 1964 – After the Fall 1968 – The Price 1972 – The Creation of the World and Other Business 1987 - Danger; Memory! Two Plays 1994 – Broken Glass |
| second of two great playwrights to come out of this time | Tenesse Williams - felt like his life was taken from him - gay - glass menagerie is based on small animals in sisters room |
| Tennessee Williams plays | 1945 – The Glass Menagerie 1947 – A Streetcar Named Desire 1948 – Summer and Smoke 1955 – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |
| 1948 – Summer and Smoke | Sheltered sweet girl who always loved boy neighbor, but he has a life of debauchery. Ruins her reputation but he gets to stay the male and chill. |
| 1955 – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Former HS athlete can’t do things anymore once he breaks his life, self-prohibiting perceptions of macho-ism and gay but trapped in marriage w a woman - self-insert |
| William Inge | Come Back Little Sheba (1950) Inge’s Picnic – (1953) Inge’s Bus Stop (1955) |
| Elia Kazan (controversial director) | The Skin of Our Teeth A Streetcar Named Desire Cat on a Hot Tin Roof After the Fall |
| Jo Mielziner | (great designer) |
| 1960 - present - Continuing trends on Broadway | Skyrocketing costs to produce a show Due to inflation, cost of labor, salaries, materials, union demands, advertising |
| bc of the 1960 rise of cost | rising ticket prices: Consequently, declining # of different productions/season: |
| Although new to Broadway | not “new” plays; already proven success in regional theatre, off- Broadway, off-off Broadway, university theatre or revivals, imports from West End |
| 1990s – less than what percent of shows were successful and at least broke even | 13% (only 25% make a profit today) |
| The (what) continues to be the big money-maker; it appeals to the largest group of potential spectators | musical |
| Popular shows in terms of long runs in original run | Sound of Music - 1443 Hello Dolly - 2844 Fiddler on the Roof - 3242 Grease - 3388 The Wiz - 1672 Annie - 2377 The Fantastiks (off-bway) - 17,162 The Phantom of the Opera - 13,394 (record holder on bway) |
| Off-Broadway theatres: | Manhattan Theatre Club Playwrights’ Horizon Circle Repertory Theatre (closed in 1996) The Public Theatre - 1967 |
| Off-Broadway begins to face some of the same problems as Broadway | Popularity of off-Broadway causes higher rent, higher salaries w/ increasing costs, need larger houses / subject to harsher city regulations, higher union wages |
| By 1960, hard to distinguish off-Broadway from Broadway except for | scale of production, location both failing to provide opportunities for new, innovative, experimental |
| Development of off-off Broadway theatre | 1958 - Joe Cino 1st to develop off-off Broadway theatre at Café Cino 1961 – Ellen Stewart –Café la Mama 1962– La Mama Experimental Theatre Club |
| La Mama launches the careers of | Lanford Wilson, Israel Horowitz, and Sam Shepard |
| During the sixties and seventies, off-off Broadway theatres increase: | 1966 – 42 off-off Broadway theatres; 1970 – 78 off-off Broadway theatres doing 650 productions; 1980 – 150 off-off Broadway theatres averages 50 new plays/week! |
| Off-off Broadway theatres do what kind of shows | limited runs, featuring unsalaried actors, in non-contractual theatres of not more than 100 seats |
| I heart NYC stemmed from | Bway promoting itself for everyone to come see A Chorus Line |
| Landmark musicals | Showboat Oklahoma! Company - Chorus Line came after same vein |
| Pacific Overtures | Set in Japan Kabuki style Flop, but a success |
| Sweeney Todd | Sondheim first person to try and sing about the darkness in society Impressive score |
| David Merrick | engima, very difficult to work with, would do stuff solo, bought people out - last big stereotypical theater producer |
| what did merrick think about critics | HATED them would cancel shows if they were there saying tech problems or bomb threats |
| Attempt to create a permanent repertory theatre in NYC | 1963 – Elia Kazan and Robert Whitehead organize repertory company of young actors for the soon-to-be-built Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts - NYC |
| Continuing development of regional theatre: before 1960 – 4 pioneer regional theatres | 1964 – 26 theatres in 25 cities; 1966 – 35 theatres in 30 cities joined by LORT; 1970 – 60 theatres in 58 cities; |
| today – 200-some theatres that are LORT | LORT A, B, C means like housing ppl, based on size of theater |
| regional theaters that still exist today 1 | Actors Theatre – Louisville; American Conservatory Theatre – San Francisco; Arena Stage – Washington D.C.; Goodman Theatre – Chicago; Guthrie Theatre –Minneapolis; Alley Theatre- Houston; |
| regional theaters that still exist today 2 | Long Wharf Theatre – New Haven; Mark Taper Forum – Los Angeles; Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; Center Stage – Baltimore; Guthrie Theatre –Minneapolis |
| regional theater that apparently is politically changed and bad now | Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Washington D.C. |
| 1965 – National Endowment for the Arts | Helps theaters alot Started with the Ford Foundation, help to theaters! |
| 1969 – University Resident Theatre Association | currently 22 members |
| new late 90s era playwrights | Neil Simon, Edward Albee Lanford Wilson David Henry Hwang David Rabe David Mamet Arthur Kopit Terrence McNally Sam Shepard |
| Neil Simon | - Very prolific - Almost all of his plays successful - Learned his way through television - Comedy comes out of believable characters in believable situations |
| Edward Albee plays | The Zoo Story The American Dream Seascape (Pulitzer Prize) Three Tall Women (Pulitzer Prize) The Goat of Who is Sylvia? (Tony) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony) |
| Lanford Wilson plays | The HOT L Baltimore Fifth of July Talley’s Folly Burn This |
| some info about Lanford Wilson | He did stuff in Cafe Chino Brought up in off-broadway One of the first successful writers for gay community out and proud hello Known for characters that are easily identifiable with |
| who was the america stud muffin of playwrights | Sam Shepherd |
| what was true of the stud muffin plays | Fractured characters, Imprisoned spatially and temporally |
| what was the focus of sherpherd plays | Focuses on Anglo-American family as stand-in for the United States itself - not "kitchen sink" realism - "subverted realism" american ethos of violence, inferiority and impotence (male and female) |
| sam shepherd plays | Curse of the Starving Class (1977) Buried Child (1978) True West (1980) Fool for Love (1983) A Lie of the Mind (1985) |
| August Wilson | Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom The Piano Lesson Fences ----- the Pittsburgh cycle |
| The Pittsburgh Cycle | chronicling the black experience in America, each decade represented by a play |
| David Henry Hwang | M. Butterfly Soft Power Yellow Face Trying to Find Chinatown Bondage -- this is the head to toe leather play where you dk their race but they keep playing into different races |
| David Mamet known for what | Known for Mamet speak, lots of talking over each other, started that |
| Mamet plays | Sexual Perversity in Chicago American Buffalo A Life in the Theatre Glengarry Glen Ross Speed-the-Plow Oleanna |
| Terrence McNally plays | all i have written is he wrote a lot of plays and musicals |
| Revolutionary, Radical Theatre | Broke a lot of traditions, we don’t need conventionality, change society |
| substantial example of radical theater | bread and puppet theater - 1961 |
| Most militant abt altering society thru theater | The Living Theatre - Julian Beck and Judith Malina |
| what was the influence and focus for beck and malina | Influenced by Brecht Focused on nonrealistic productions, poetic drama |
| living theater style | Developed style of theater focusing on community, audience participation - did controversial things - Theater responsibility is to change society, so you need to agree with them ---- someone dressed conservative, they'd harass |
| goal of living theater in terms of actor and audience | Eliminate division between actors and audience |
| living theater and the body | De-emphasis on technical elements, focus on the person, communal experience, very physical - attack the audience - Physical acrobatic use of the body - go with whatever mood in the moment (like just have sex if they wanted to during a show) |
| some living theater plays | Paradise Now Dionysis - There is a structure but no scrpt - Guerilla theater comes from this |
| place to explore theater as a ritual | The Open Theatre by Joseph Chaikin |
| more details about chaikin theater | How to create a theater that has abandoned all conventions Actors wear street clothes and never change No lights, makeup, etc - environmental theater: creating shows in a found space rather than a stage - would do plays, but improvise off of them |
| Happenings | multiple different plays/scenes performed throughout a space, audience wanders throughout the space (almost like a museum) -- The audience gets to control their experience |
Created by:
atallarida