th
20
Century Theatre
An Overview – The Rise of the Director
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Doug Hughes – Tony Award winning
Director:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslA
UPmTkbI
Where are we now?
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Master of the play/Supervisor
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Co-ordinate the scenario, choose jokes
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Overall, lacked overall conceptual elements
to create mis-en-scene
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Role of director fulfilled by profession’s
knowledge of and respect for theatrical
tradition
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To be “right” the play must be as close to the
original production as possible
Pre-late 19th Century:
Who needs a director?
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Actors copied performances of their
predecessors
Set rules dependent on character’s moral and
social wealth
Conventional scenery/set pieces
Costumes weren’t deemed important and
were selected by the actor
No rehearsals, everyone knew the rules
-Director was unnecessary
Pre-late 19th Century:
Who needs a director?
Technical and scenic innovation
 Developments in dramatic writing
 Changes in acting style
 Social, political and scientific issues affect
theatrical representation
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Change is in the air –
Mid 18th Century-19th Century
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An actor
Coached his actors
“Directed” a play in which he didn’t perform
Employed a French designer – directional
lighting, 3D sets
Actors no longer limited to the apron
Changed acting conventions
Inside a construction as opposed to in front
of a static picture
Acting style based on observation of others
Heralded the rise of the actor-manager
David Garrick (1717-1779)
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Gas light, limelight and electric light –
directional lighting, atmospheric lighting
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19th century craze for the pictorial, people
would pay to see dioramas
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An outside eye is needed to view stage
from audiences’ perspective and “direct”
actors into most appropriate/meaningful
positions
Technical Developments
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Valuable in the rise of the director
Actor responsible for every aspect of
production:
-theatre building
-leading roles
-backstage
-FOH
-actors
-finance
 Interpretation of the text based entirely on
their own interpretation of the leading role
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Actor-Manager
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Created his own works on social issues
Topics relevant to middle class (theatregoing) audience
Reflect as opposed to reform
Innovative in that realism of play placed
new demands on actors & set
Actors behave “naturally”
Set must be practical and useable
Extensive stage directions, rehearsal
New mode of mis-en-scene
TW Robertson
 “Directed”
own plays
 Published works on directing
 Emphasised the importance of
casting
 Thorough preparation prior to
rehearsals
George Bernard Shaw
 Paralleled
Stanislavski
 Believed the script was sacrosanct
 Wished to represent the inner truth
of character
 Build up character bio - like Stan
 Focus on Tempo/Rhythm
 Director’s role “to suggest, to
criticise, to co-ordinate”
Henry Granville-Barker
 Looked
at how the role of
director came to being
 Can recognise the modern day
director
 Look at how the role has
changed over 20th century
Theatre Movements 20th C
 Actors
stood centre stage near prompt, good light
 Less important characters on
either side
 Address audience directly
 Gesturing occasionally
 Aesthetics most important
Romanticism
 French
novelist credited with
bringing naturalism to the
theatre
 The true subject of art is
mankind in everyday life
 Not the grand, beautiful but in
the ordinary
 The job of the dramatist is to
record, not moralise.
Emile Zola
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Naturalism is the more extreme form of
realism
Seeks to replicate an everyday reality
It almost obliterated the distinction
between life and art
In theatre – a perfect illusion of reality detailed sets, un-poetic literary styles and
an acting style that tries to recreate
reality.
See the real suffering of mankind on
stage
Naturalism
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Realism was the theory of naturalism put
into practice.
‘Slice of life’ reproduced on stage –
truthful but heightened.
Emphasis on subtext (what is under the
text
Realism: the selection and distillation of
the detailed observation of everyday life,
not the life itself.
Majority of theatre today works on the
principle of realism.
Realism
 Represent
life as accurately as
possible
 Detailed plans for the whole stage
 Costumes to fit, not glamorise
 Ensemble acting - company to
represent mankind in the social
context of the time
Andre Antoine - Theatre Libre
 Emphasis
on internal life of
dreams and fantasies
 Reaction against realism and
naturalism
 Maeterlinck - Belgian playwright
symbolist who influenced Stan
Symbolism
 Modernist
movement developed
principally in Germany
 Often dramatise the spiritual
awakening and sufferings of
protagonists
 Explore the struggle against
bourgeois values and established
authority
 Speech is heightened
Expressionism
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“resolve the previously contradictory
conditions of dream and reality”
Developed out of Dada (WWI) -anti-war
movement believed “reason” and “logic” of
Capitalist society led to war
Methods to liberate imagination
Theatre of Cruelty - emotions, feelings and
the metaphysical expressed not through
language but physically creating a vision
closely related to world of dreams
Primal sense of reality
“Impossible theatre” - vague and not
practical
Surrealism -Theatre of Cruelty
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“Theatre should be political and force people
to think” - opposed theatre as escapism
Incorporates mode of acting called “gestus”
Audience should be aware they are watching
a play
Fourth wall often broken by actors both in
and out of character
Alienation - audience feel estranged,
seperate so as to remain objective and learn
Episodic - short episodes broken up by
narrator, song, dance, visual images/signs
Epic Theatre
 Theatre
to promote social and
political change
 Dialogue and interaction between
audience and performer
 Audience becomes active: spectactors
 Explore, show, analyse and
transform the reality they are living
 Framework for the development and
evolution of stronger ideas
Experimental Theatre –
Theatre of the Oppressed
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Experimental theatre
Co-create the event of theatre with
spectators
Actor is at the core of the theatre art
Explore and utilise basic dramatic
elements
Shortage of money not an excuse for poor
performance
Multi-skilled actor
Style imitated by variety troupes
Experimental Theatre
-Poor Theatre
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Outline the effect each 20th Century
practitioner has had on the
development of theatre
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Identify which movement(s) they
belong to
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Highlight any influences between
practitioners
Task