Theatres after 1950: Traditional and

  Experimental
 Presented by Sarah Saleh
World War II •
1939-1945 •
 What happened
?in World War II
Millions of deaths -
Genocide-
 Massive destructive weapons-

This drove the Western society to re- **

evaluate its most cherished beliefs which
lead to the formation of new philosophies
such as existentialism (rejected traditional
beliefs in God and long-held values and
 .social structures)
 Post-World War II
(Political Unrest)
Cold War (United States vs. The -
Soviet Union)
 The fall of communism-
 :Military wars
Korean War 1950-
Wars for African independence-
Vietnam War 1960s- 1970s- 
Persian Gulf War 1990s-
Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq-
The founding of the state of "Israel"
 Cultural Changes

The civil rights movements -

LGBT rights-
Feminist movements-
These forced people to re-evaluate **
their perceptions of minorities and
oppressed groups
 Technological 
:Innovations after WWI

Television joined film as a major competitor o -
f theatre
Medical advances led to the eradication of -
 polio
Nuclear energy became a controversial source -
of power
Jet travel allowed people to cross the globe-
The inventions of microcomputers, laptops,-
.smartphones, internet, etc
 Traditional theatre -
Trends in Innovative and experimental theatre-
Theatre since Postcolonial global theatre -

1950 Multicultural, social, and political-

theatre
 Traditional Drama:
 1950 to the Present
The main thrust of traditional -
theatre has been realism as
exemplified by such late 19th and
early 20th playwrights as Henrik
Ibsen, August Strindberg, and
.Anton Chekhov
Realism continued strongly and -
many plays that won the Pulitzer
Prize in the US after 1950 were
 .realistic
 Selective Realism
The leading post-war American playwrights, Arthur Miller and Tennessee -
Williams, wrote realistic works that are known to represent selective realism: A
type of realism that heightens certain details of action, scenery, and dialogue
while omitting others. It was also a movement in scene design.
Designers emphasized specific elements to portray some of the symbolic and
.thematic issues in the play
e.g. In Death of a Salesman, Miller highlights selected physical elements of the
world of Willy Loman that symbolize his downfall: a refrigerator in need of repair, a
 .tape recorder he is unable to shut off
 Rarely is the setting completely naturalistic-
Few scenes from the past are presented from Willy's point of view. However, the -
 play is set in a realistic world
Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
•Son of a garment manufacturer who lost his
business during the Depression
•He worked as a shipping clerk in a warehouse
and other jobs before he became a dramatist
•His first play The Man Who Had All the Luck was
a failure (1944)
•His play All My Sons (1947) established him as a
promising new dramatist
•His play Death of a Salesman (1949) won him the
Pulitzer Prize and is often characterized as a
modern "tragedy of the common man"
 The Crucible
 (1953)
It is about witch hunting in -
seventeenth century
Massachusetts but is also a
commentary on the
investigations of the McCarthy
era (individuals were
investigated and persecuted for
alleged ties to the Communist
  .party)
 His most successful dramas are
reminiscent of Ibsen's well-made problem
plays. He wrote an adaptation of
Ibsen's An Enemy of the People in the
early 1950s

 :Major themes
Failure - 
Guilt -
Responsibility of one's own actions -
The effects of society on the individual-

He tried to make people examine their **

** own lives
 Tennessee Williams
 )1911-1983( 
•Son of a traveling shoe salesman
•Suffered from financial difficulties that forced
him to leave school
•Received a citation from the Group Theatre for
his collection of one act plays, American Blues 
He had a series of critical and popular successes •
from the 1940s through the 1960s, including A
Street Car Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin
 .Roof (1954) which both won a Pulitzer Prize
 :Major Themes
Plight of society's outcasts -
Outsiders trapped in a hostile environment -

Characters in his plays are usually unable to **

comprehend their world

William evokes compassion for them through **

the use of lyrical and poetic language as well as
symbolism
 Edward Albee
 (1928-2016)
An orphan who was adopted by Reed Albe -
and his wife
Had an affinity with the works of absurdist-
writers of Europe
In 1962, he entered the mainstream of -
American theatre with Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? Which played on Broadway
His plays Tiny Alice (1964), A Delicate -
Balance (1966) and Seascape(1975), mixed
realism with mysticism and symbolism
All his plays are marked by wit, intelligence,-
and a concern for language
 Following the post-WWII-
Variations on generation of playwrights in the
US, a number of others were
Traditional influenced by theatrical departures
from realism and found ways of
 Realism merging realism and realistic
 concerns with theatricality
Sam Shepard (1943-2017)
A prolific writer whose dramas skillfully blend images of -
the American West, pop motifs, science fiction, and other
elements of popular and youth culture
He became involved in rock-and-roll community and the -
avant-garde theatre scene
He became the first dramatist to receive three Obies (the -
off-Broadway award for outstanding drama)
His best works were La Turista (1966) and The Tooth of -
Crime (1972)
His characters are storytellers, and his plays feature long -
monologues
 The death of traditional family structure -
The inability to establish lasting -
 relationships
The violence of American society-
Major Themes A longing for simpler time -

His best works belong to what he calls **

his  "family trilogy": Curse the Starving
 Class, Buried Child, and True West
 David Mamet

Was brought up in the Jewish area of the -

South Side
Wrote more than twenty full-length plays -
Won several awards-
Was the a founding member of the Atlantic -
Theatre Company
His play Glengarry Glen Ross was -
dedicated to Harlod Pinter
  Non-Commercial U.S. Theatres
The creation of alternatives to traditional Broadway commercial theatre -

Off-off  Alternative
Regional theatre   Off-Broadway 
Broadway regional theatres
  Regional Theatre
Nonprofit rather than commercial theaters, but they employ -
professional performers, directors, and designers
There were founded in the 1950s and 1960s and began to flourish in -
large cities
Examples: Alley Theatre in Houston, the Arena Stage in Washington,-
 .D.C., the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, etc
The Arena Stage in Washington
 Off-Broadway

Began in the late 1940s as an alternative to commercial Broadway, -

which was becoming increasingly costly
These theatres were smaller than Broadway theatres, having fewer -
than 200 seats
 They were often arena or thrust stages rather than proscenium-
Examples: Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre (which focused-
 .on the works of Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, etc
 Off- off Broadway

Off- Broadway itself became more expensive and institutionalized. -

Therefore, a small independent  producing groups had to develop
another forum. The result was off-off-Broadway
They are produced wherever inexpensive space is available (factory-
 lofts, churches, warehouses, etc.)
Examples: Brooklyn church, Tobacco Warehouse-
Playwrights who deal with controversial issues were first presented at-
off-off-Broadway
  Alternative Regional Theatre

They perform as alternatives to the larger, established regional theatres -

Presentations by these alternative theatres include classics, new plays,-
and experimental works
They became more established and mainstream-
Examples: Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre-
 British Realism: Angry Young
Playwrights and Their Influence

In England in the 1950s, a group of anti- -

establishment playwrights known as "angry young
men" addressed issues relating to the dissolving
British empire, class conflict, and political
disillusionment
Most of their dramas are in traditional realistic-
form, slightly modified
Examples: Look Back in Anger (1956) by John -
Osborne
Peter Shaffer included some characteristics of -
angry young men
His play Equus (1973) was staged on Broadway-
 with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
 A German movement of 1960s called -
documentary drama was highly influential
Such playwrights as Peter Weiss, Rolf  -
Hochhuth wrote documentary dramas
Documentary  which were based on historical documents
Documentary dramas also appeared in -
Drama: Fact- the US during the 1960s
Many of them reflected social upheavals,-
Based Realism including the civil rights movements and
the war in Vietnam. Among these plays
were The Trail of the Catonsville Nine by
Daniel J. Berrigan and Are You Now or
Have You Ever Been? By Eric Bentley
 about the McCarthy era
 These productions with memorable music as -
well as witty and often poignant lyrics
The songs were related to the plot -
Not only was there a strong story line, but also-
Contemporary  .there was often a subplot
 !Example : Oklahoma-
American Musical theatre continued to be vibrant into  
Musical  :the 1960s. There were two types of musicals
Intended purely for entertainment (Hello, -1
 Theatre Dolly!)
Has a more serious purpose (Fiddler on the -2
Roof)
Stephan Sondheim was the most important-
 figure in American musical theatre
Ste-
 Trend in Musical Theatre since 1980

1970s-early 1980s: The emergence of British composers and lyricists such as Andrew -
Webber
1980s: The ascendancy of the choreographer as the director of musicals such as Jerome
Robbins
 :1990s-present
Major revivals of past musical successes -1
Periodic appearance of fresh, offbeat musicals -2
Musicals based on films like The Lion King -3
The creation of productions based on the former popular music stars and groups, -4
sometimes referred to as jukebox musicals
Thank you!