Introduction to the Theatre

THE 101 / University of Idaho

Chapter 20 / Modern Theatre

Historical Background:

     Modern theatre is punctuated by a dizzying array of historical events, which has seen the world held captive by nuclear weapons and exalted by such human accomplishments, as landing a man on the moon and the development of the personal computer.   It is marked by the tragic assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy and horrific acts of terrorism such as the bombings of Pan Am flight #104 and the Federal Building at Oklahoma City.   It has seen tremendous political changes, including fall of the Shah in Iran and the rise of Muslim Fundamentalists, the fall of the Berlin Wall and disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the return of Hong Kong to the Peoples Republic of China.   This is the period in which the Russians shot down Korean Air flight #007, of AIDS, and of the senseless suicides of the Jim Jones, David Koresh’s and Heaven’s Gate religious cults.   Stopping here, I think the point has been made.   As an artist in this culture, what is there not to respond to?   Is it a world gone mad or just a world going too fast?   As human beings, how do we make sense of all this activity?

     Realizing that artists do not live in a bubble, theater recognizes that the record of these key events begins with the advent of film, television, and most recently the computer.   This is an age of information and as a result, a time of information overload.   In addition, New York City is no longer considered the creative heart of the theater world and new theater is increasingly coming out of the regional theaters.   This combined with all these other factors have caused further fracturing of the theatrical form and it has become an open playing field.   Society and technology have changed the production landscape and social geography for the performing artist.   Television and film have added not only their own stylistic footprint onto theatre but have changed the visual approach to theatre design.   With the cosmic musings of Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking’s, and Carl Sagan theatre artists are left to wonder the fate of the human race.   So, how will the artist respond to the dichotomy of social isolationism and personal individualism in American society?

The Theater:

     With the groundwork laid by realism and anti-realism, the multiple influences of the preceding playwrights, directors, and theatre movements make modern theatre production a conundrum of possibilities.   In many ways, modern theatre is like putting your head between two mirrors, creating an endless view of repeated images that recedes into infinity.   Theatre practitioners now have the limitless choices they have always pursued.   However, like ripples on a pond these choices influence all of the artistic decision yet to be made.   The key for the modern theatre practitioner becomes one of content solidification.   It is important to take the groundwork of both realism and anti-realism and to see which parts are interchangeable and which parts are not.   It becomes the theatre practitioner’s job to finish the style experiments that have been started.

     New York has long been the ‘capitol’ of American theatre, but as theatre became a more popular entertainment in the 1960’s, visionaries begin to establish theater companies in the other metropolitan areas and regions of the country.   Although not a decline, this ‘decentralization’ of the theatre in New York has been driven by economics and unionization.   It costs a lot of money to do a production in New York, everything is rented or bought.   When a producer rents a theater in New York, they get a building with chairs and utilities.   All the lights, cables, dimmers, battens, ropes, props, costumes, sound equipment, and scenery must be acquired.   It is an expensive undertaking.   In many cases, this financial burden influences the types of productions that get chosen to be produced.   Obviously, as a producer you would want to pick a production that will make money and garner a profit.

     To this end, Broadway produces mostly ‘proven’ plays and highly flamboyant musicals.   These might include revivals such as Rogers and Hammerstien’s Camelot, or Lerner and Lowe’s Sound of Music, and imports from the British West End like Les Miserable and it seems like anything written by Andrew Lloyd Weber (Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, etc.).   Modern American musicals are also presented on Broadway like Steven Sondheim’s Sweeny Todd and Into the Woods, but today’s big ticket are the Disney driven pieces like Beauty and the Beast and the multiple Tony award winning play, The Lion King.

     In contrast, Off-Broadway tends to do less musicals and proven hits than Broadway.   Off Broadway takes more chances and produces more challenging works which are less commercial.   However, the plays on Off-Broadway reflect the canon of traditional theatrical drama like the works of Tennessee Williams, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller and Eugene O’Neill.   Off-Broadway also produces new works by American playwrights through theater groups like the LaMama Organization.   These groups premiere the works of contemporary playwrights like Sam Shepard, August Wilson, and Marsha Norman.   It remains the task of Off-Off-Broadway to produce the even more challenging and cutting edge drama of the more modern and ethnic theater.   It is this author’s opinion that it is here - two layers below the commercial world, that modern theatrical style is developed and truly defined.

     The regional theater system offers the same classical and modern plays that Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway have to offer.   They may use less recognizable star material, but the trade off is that the ticket prices are more affordable and the theaters are more conveniently located.   In addition, their quality is certainly not less than that of New York.   There is a long list of regional theaters including the Guthurie Theater in Minneapolis, the Oregon, Utah, and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, The Seattle Repertory, A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) and the Intiman in Seattle, The Actor’s Theater of Louisville in Kentucky, and the Steppenwolf Theater and Wisdom Bridge in Chicago.   In addition, there are countless small regional summer theaters.

     In addition to the commercial and the classic theatre, alternative and ethnic theater challenges the perception of the audience towards society and culture.   It is the theatre that represents our multicultural society and its aspirations.  Alternative and ethnic debates issues concerning gender, sexual preference, tolerance, and racial identity.   It is the theatre that explores what it means to be alive today.   While there are many fine theaters doing this kind of work, a few include:  The Living Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Company, El Teatro Compesino, The Open Theatre, Negro Ensemble Theatre, the New Lafeyette Theatre, and Spirit House.

     However, theatre is also a universal experience and does occur in other countries and regions.   Great Britain has its own ‘Broadway’ called the West End and it has its own ‘Off-Broadway’ called the English Revival Theater.   England’s Broadway also includes the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre - establish by Sir Lawrence Olivier.  

    The English Revival theaters concentrate on the works of contemporary English and Irish writers and are housed mainly in the English Stage Company, established by Ralph Devine, and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop.   Elsewhere, German and French Theatre continue to refine their traditions but also advance the theatrical literary form.

     Regardless, the point remains that theatre is global.   Theatre is intricately tied into society and culture.   Theatre serves as a perceptual mirror of human daily business.   Theatre is the living literary record of what it means to be a human being.   The questions you should be asking are:  How will the Internet affect human dialogue?  Will this affect theatrical dialogue?  How will the new millennia change our social and cultural views?   How will this influence the world of art and theatre?

Playwrights and Theatrical Conventions:

     The playwrights of this period are as numerous as the styles and movements that make up the modern period.   Contemporary theatre boasts writers like Sam Shepard (A Lie of the Mind, True West, and Fool for Love), David Mamet who penned American Buffalo, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Mark Medhoff (Children of a Lesser God), and Tony Kushner (Angels in America).   Contemporary theatre also boasts feminist writers like Marsha Norman (Getting Out) and Caryl Churchill who wrote Top Girls and Cloud Nine.   In addition, African American writer such as Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun), Ntzoka Shange (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Not Enough and Spell #7), and August Wilson who wrote Fences, also have their plays produced frequently.   While more recently, Asian and Native Americans writers like Ping Chong, David Henry Hwang, and Thomson Highway have made their marks on the contemporary stage.

   In England, English revival stage boasts playwrights like John Osborne (Look Back in Anger), Arnold Wesker (Chicken Soup and Barley), Tom Stoppard (Travesties and Jumpers), Peter Schaeffer (Amadeus), Harold Pinter (The Dumbwaiter and The Birthday Party), and Brendan Behan (The Hostage).   On the edge of theatre, there are also the experimental writers and directors like Robert Wilson and Megan Terry and Peter Brooks.    These writers and directors are all part of the theatrical literary explosion that began some thirty years ago and continues through today.

     The conventions of this period are driven by the style of the production and the choices of the director, performers, and the production team.   Additionally, they are based on everything that has gone on before and are also composed of the new arrangement of those parts and pieces.   We have reached the point where, as artists, we have as many choices as we need to create fully and completely and our challenge is making sure we makes sense to the audience.

Staging and Spectacle:

     The staging of the modern period includes the arena, proscenium, and thrust stages.   Modern architects have also designed hybrids, such as the Bowmer Theater at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.   The Bowmer is a standard proscenium stage with the added feature of a shallow thrust added onto the downstage area.  This type of proscenium has become quite popular, but even so, architects continue to shape the theater that theatre artists work in.   New staging has been developed for environmental theater, and in spaces that remain ultimately flexible called black boxes.   Currently, several reproductions of historical theaters are being built for the Shakespearean and Greek Theaters in England and Greece respectively.   In short, theater is being performed just about everywhere you look and in every kind of venue you can imagine.

     The spectacle, in principle, remains the same as it always has.   We still use costumes, scenery, sound, and lights designed with skill and applied with craft.   However, we use more technology to accomplish our tasks.   We are in the digital age using computers to help draft our designs and control the applications on stage.   As artists, our material choices are numerous and the Internet has expanded our research capabilities.   Like all work forces we struggle with the nostalgia of the old way and the inevitability of the new way.   Ultimately, we discover that there is room for both.   Theatre, like life itself, is always in transition.   Like the human mind and spirit, growth is an indicator of survival and theatre is surviving, indeed.