Theatre Styles Notes2

ADA4MI Mr.
Furmaniuk
Theatre Styles
COMMEDIA DELL ARTE
Provided much of the new interest in theatre from the 16th through the 18th centuries
Performed by professional troupes specializing in comic improvisations
Troupes mastered the art of playing out their comic scenarios
No fully composed play scripts just plots based on comic intrigue
Lazzi were special humorous bits of stage business, usually set apart from the main action
Actors memorized set speeches, such as declarations of love, hate and madness they
also learned stock jokes, songs, exit speeches and comments
All characters were stock characters representing two social classes: the upper class and
the servant class.
Characters were identified by their costumes and by their masks; the innamorati and
innamoratae did not wear masks.
KABUKI
From 17th Century Japan ->
Spectacular costuming and makeup
Initially borrows plots and scripts heavily from existing puppet theatre (joruri)
Popular with the common people
Focus on historical events, moral conflicts, love relationships
Unique staging including a footbridge through the audience and after 18th C. rotating
stage and trapdoors
RESTORATION DRAMA
After the Elizabethan Era that ended with the formation of a republican government 1600s and 1700s
Women appeared as players for the first time
Theatre buildings had roofs
Audiences were seated on level floors
Stage floor was raked (sloped upward away from the viewers)
Elaborate scenery and mechanical equipment came into use in England
ROMANTICISM
Cultural movement during the 1800s
Rejected neoclassical rules and suggested that genius creates its own rules
Focused on emotions, sentiment and imagination
Elaborately staged and used supernatural elements
Heroes were independent and defended individuality
Common theme was the gulf between human beings spiritual aspirations and their physical
limitations
SYMBOLISM
Anti-realist movement between 1880-1910
Writers believed that drama should present the mystery of being and the cosmosthe
infinite qualities of the human spirit and inner meaning of life
Symbolic images rather than concrete actions would be the basic means of communication
and represented emotions, ideals, and values
Characters were figures representative of the human condition
Stage pictures had only the bare essentials necessary to evoke the dramatic universe
Themes were chosen from myth or fairy tales and used poetic language and a deliberately
artificial style of staging
NATURALISM
Mid-19th Century
Based views on contemporary scientific theory
Aimed to present ordinary life as accurately as possible no theatrical sense in the
extreme slice of life and real flies on real meat
Showed how human beings act in response to forces of nature and society that are
beyond their control
Subject matter emphasized the boredom, depression, and frustration of contemporary
life
REALISM
Late-19th Century movement
Replaced the artificial romantic style with accurate depictions of people in plausible
situations
Writers refused to make simple moral judgments or to resolve dramatic action neatly
Presents life as it actually is; characters talk, dress, and act as people in ordinary life do
Actors attempt to become their characters; living their lives in real room with the
audience spying on them through the invisible fourth wall
Ushered in modern theatre and revolutionized contemporary theatre in every aspect,
from scenery, to styles of acting, from dialogue to makeup
EPIC THEATRE
Began by Bertolt Brecht
Reactions in the 1920s and 30s to an over-emphasis on artistic illusion and aesthetic
emotion in theatre
Believes that theatre should serve a social purpose of educating audiences
Narrators are often used to comment on the dramatic action
Political drama intended to appeal to reason rather than emotions that uses a journalistic,
non-emotional style that incorporates signs, projections, films, etc.
Attempts to distance the audience from the action and charactersalienation effect
in order to allow them to concentrate on a plays message
Epic theatre usually deals with history or foreign lands, covers a long time, shifts locale
frequently, has intricate plots, and includes many characters
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

Genre of the 1950s and 60s
Stage conventions were abandoned in order to present a view of the world as meaningless
and incomprehensible
Believe that much of what happens in life cannot be logically explained; it is ridiculous and
absurd and presents human existence as futile
Plots do not have traditional structure
Characters are not realistic and they usually fail to communicate
Setting is frequently a strange, unrecognizable locale
Dialogue seems to make little sense and the language is unreliable
Writers are highly individualistic
THEATRE OF CRUELTY
Based on the theories of Antonin Artaud, a French actor and critic
Artaud wanted to revolutionize theatre to free it from the tyranny of text and
focus on sound, gesture, movement
Connected to the primal, ritualistic elements of theatre
Artaud believed that the reality of everyday life just covered up the animalistic
nature of humans
Cruelty refers to the actors forcing the audience to face a reality they do not want to
understand
Performances often featured shocking images and sounds without a clear story
Artaud was unsuccessful in starting a theatre movement, but his ideas influenced artists
such as Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, Heiner Muller
SOURCES
Theatre: Art in Action secondary school theatre textbook

Stage & Screen secondary school theatre textbook

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ADA4MI Mr.

THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

Based on the theories of Antonin Artaud, a French actor and critic

Connected to the primal, ritualistic elements of theatre

Theatre: Art in Action secondary school theatre textbook

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