FEB 12, 2020

-Melodrama - “Music drama”

-Major form of theatre in 19th century (form developed in France and Germany
-Commented on political and social concerns of the day
-Types of Melodrama
-Nautical dramas - patriotism and heroism, bravery, reflecting on recent military conflict
-dramatic romances - relationships, moral issues, fidelity, adultery, bastard kids, drinking
-domestic drama - (same as dramatic romances)
-temperance dramas
-sensational dramas - horrific event happens (Lizzie borden for ex) something that had
been in the headlines that is coo coo

-Characters
-Suspenseful plots
-moral (good vs evil w good winning)
-happy ending
-success for hero right before a catastrophic event
-theatrical effects
-stock and stereotype characters

-After this they began doing more realism in their drama. Naturalism
-This really began in the 1930s but also was happening in 1800s (I think lol)
-Theatres had stock companies (actors would be playing the same roles all the time)
-Beginning of the “star” system (actors who were the leads and became popular)
-Touring companies existed (there were better ones and cheaper worse ones, this is where unions
began for them)

-Native American dramas - image was that they were unsophisticated, dumb, but would give up
their life to help the europeans (they were even called savages then)
-was to please the europeans (in 1830-1855)
-lots of stereotype
-The yankee - self righteous, wants to know the truth, pure and good, common man
-the image of the woman was stubborn and shit and this is where the pocahontas story
came from

-1840s - the Minstrel show (really took over 1852-1915)

-Was the most popular form of entertainment
-Groups went around and called themselves Ethiopian ___ (i dont remember)
 -White people saying they imitated what they saw (the slaves of African descent)
-They focused on southern plantation life
-TD Rice
-Invented Jim Crow
-Edwin Christie
-Gave minstrel shows its structure we know today
-helped popularize it (before him, it was just like a variety show)
-MC (interlocutor) - dressed in a tailcoat and top hat, spoke v clear english
-2 endmend (on right and left of stage), tambo (played tambourine, wore tattered
clothes, things to make their feet look bigger, on left side) and bones (played cassonnet)
-Olio - gave stump speech (dressed in some profession like dr or lawyer and
spoke nonsense) (the joke is that they look smart but are stupid)
-Mammy - big black woman who took care of white family
-lazy black character

The African Grove Theatre

-founded by William Alexander Brown
-Where black people could perform
-first play was Shakespeares’ Richard III in 1821

- “Tea gardens”
- Had entertainments
- Had plays that concerned aftican americans, plays of protest, comments on
social/political issues of the day
- James Hewitt
- Ira Aldrige - an actor when they got raided and got jailed for performing (this is in
the 1820s pre civil war), born in NYC and moved to Europe, he was educated, he
got many honors, he wrote the play “The Black Doctor”
- About a black doctor in the 1800s
- He died in Poland
HW - READ BOTH PLAYS the optoroom?? Idk and the black doctor and read essay about
drama in the 1800s, answer question on THURSDAY before class

FEB 19, 2021

Mulatto- the kept woman that is black that is married to the slave master and is taken care of by
him but still lives on the other side of town w black folk
Quadroon - the milado’s kid. (¼) then at this ball they would have children w her and have a kid
Octoroon - the kid of the quadroom (basically if they keep marrying white people then they get
‘whiter’)

-Octoroom was considered the best melodramas of its time, the playwright was considered one
of the best melodrama playwrights of his time

-Ira Aldrige - all about hustling and surviving. When he got to europe he invented this story
about himself, by saying he is from “some island” he is more “exotic” than just being american

-in The Black Doctor, the plot is much more enjoyable and the characters are more well rounded,
the lead character was the most fleshed out an way more than any in the octoroon
-Ira was writing the parts for himself

-in melodrama stereotypes

-yankee (like in optoroom, def above) voice for america and morality
-in Octoroom it is Scudder
-in Black Doctor it is St. Luce
-misrepresentation of native americans in octoroon, the war paint after paul dies like he is
going to attack someone and not giving him any kind of reason. He has no ability to
communicate with english at all (unlike the distorted english they give the black characters)
-writing the black characters w languages that aren't truthful
-Christian in The Black Doctor has language that makes sense vs the octoroon where the
language doesn't make sense
-tragic mulatto - black character that are mixed heritage and writing about their plight
(they always have to die at the end)

Blackface minstrelsy - 1820s-1910s

-first performances were white men doing imitation of enslaved black people
-never any truth about black people or culture
-showed happy slave in support of slavery
-malapropism - mis-using words in a ridiculous way so that the statement is nonsense
especially by confusing words with similar sound but w/ very different meanings. Used for
comedy

-was in 3 acts (or 3 sections)

-where the 3 characters from above are (tambo, bones, interlocutor)
-interlocutor was the lightest skin, dressed v nice and if white then no blackface

-Bert Williams - 1868-1922

-is considered one of america’s greatest entertainers
-teamed up w george walker in 1893 known as William’s and Walker
 -Walker retired (1908) Williams continued on solo career
-He performed in the Ziegfeld Follies
-He did the cakewalk in his earlier shows
-Made films and recorded songs
-Was black but did blackface

HW - Read Frogs and Thirst by Eugene O’Neill and read essay called O’Neill’s beginnings and
modernism, same as this week, discussion posted on THURSDAY and respond to another
-I AM A DISCUSSION LEADER NEXT WEEK WITH LIVIE
-come up with a topic that we want to come up with the discussion (maybe visual aid,
maybe a 2 min vid, what is it about the play that I want to discuss? Email her no later than
THURSDAY morning to send our discussion topic
-answer the 2 questions by MONDAY AT MIDNIGHT

FEB 26

Euegene O’Neill
-1888-1953
-was an actor
-irish catholic background
-parents were acting and travelled
-born in a hotel room
-mother was a drug addict and father was alcoholic (so was eugene)
-Went to Princeton for one year
-He then travelled for 6 years around the world working on a steamer and eventually
settled in the US as a reporter
 -He got tuberculosis and he began to write

in the hospital
MODERNMISM - experimental avant garde theatre expressing dissatisfaction with societal
status , norms, and traditional theatre concept ideas

\HOMEWORK -
Read Mulatto and read article about federal theatre project regarding pres roosevelt getting the
country back to work campaign

What societal conventions was oneill writing against?

-one example for each play

Eugene O’Neill was one of America’s greatest playwrights. His use of modernism in his work
really took it to the next level. He had modernist masters before him and he included aspects
such as “represent(ing) complex, multidimensional experience rather than the frequently
facile, reductive experience that is rendered by many writers today.” He was bringing a sense of
realism to the typical and usual melodrama in the world of theatre. Fighting against that to bring
this sense of realism allows for a deeper story to be told. For example, look at Thirst, the realism
in that with the use of colors allows the audience member to really feel like they are on the raft
with the characters. O’Neill once stated "I hated a life ruled by the conventions and traditions of
society." This is what he wanted to emulate in his plays, he hated the conventions of society so
he wanted to go against that in his works. Like in Thirst, he dealt with cannibalism, something
that was super radical to discuss. For lack of a better term, the “woke” poet in Fog was another
radical example because he appeared to be super ahead of his time. He did not want to be held in
a box, he wanted to write what he desired to, even if it went against societal conventions.
Bringing up the topics, of abortion, cannibalism, and radicalism was something not common in
theatre and even though people advised him against it, O’Neill still went with his gut. A perfect
way to describe him is that he “employs a visible world to reflect latent, invisible, often harsher
realities beneath.”