Transcript Restoration through Romanticism

RESTORATION THROUGH
ROMANTICISM
1660-1875
BEGINNINGS OF
RESTORATION 1660 -1700
-Oliver Cromwell (leader of Puritan
movement) along with Parliament beheaded
Charles I in 1649 and Charles II fled to France
-Charles II tried to raise an army but was
defeated in 1651 by Cromwell
-1658, Cromwell died and his son Richard was
an ineffectual leader Charles II was brought
back from exile and reinstated on the
throne thus the RESTORATION
Charles II
BEGINNING OF
RESTORATION
 Charles II brought back ideas from France and integrated them into English Theatre
 Restoration “Comedy of Manners” was characterized by witty dialogue, romantic and sexual
overtones and most had to do with cuckolding a husband without getting caught. New innovations in
scene design (more realistic sets) and lighting (candles) were created at this time.
 Women in plays
 Drew on theories of Aristotle, adhered to “classical unities” (formalizing time, place, and action).
Strict five act division of plays, realistic characters.
 Moliere was influential: Considered greatest French comedy writer. Controversial writer who wrote
against religious hypocrisy through a string of successful comedic satires. Works include The Miser,
The Imposter, and Tartuffe.
 Restoration Comedy was a fusion of French theatre conventions and English Renaissance
conventions
1660-1700
Comedy of Manners:
-Stock Characters with clever names (Pinchwife, Squeamish,
etc)
-Female Playwrights were prolific (Aphra Behn, Mary Pix,
Catherine Trotter, etc)
-Witty dialogue with sexual innuendo
-Made fun of the aristocratic audience, especially with
reputations and cuckholding
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1660-1700
 Audiences:
- Attendees wanted to be seen
- Orange Girls
- Audience active during the play
1660-1700
 Tech:
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Indoor theatres
Afternoon performers also lit with candles
Raked stage and audience (pit)
Proscenium arches with large apron
Contemporary costumes
Reuse of perspective painted backdrops
 Performers and Companies
• Women performers
• Sharing companies disappeared, individual actors received a salary
• Owners of theatres hired actors
https://youtu.be/GNPxkYW36M4?list=PLHPl7ZSokiLlSeKsey2Vs9bB6xFV_vvd
1700-1800
 Age of Enlightenment
 American Revolution: an ordinance was passed discouraging all
theatrical entertainment. Some states passed laws forbidding stage
performances. All states lifted ban by 1793, America was dependent on
British plays and comic operas. Musicals began appearing in 1790s.
 French Revolution
 Beginning of Industrialization
 Baroque Style: ornate, colorful, detail oriented
1700-1800
 New Dramatic Forms:
• Bourgeois Tragedy: drama focusing on the middle class , melodramatic
• Domestic Tragedy: drama focusing on the middle class, more realistic
• Ballad Opera: Satire incorporating popular music; appealed to the middle
class; A burlesque style which combined spoken dialogue and songs set to
popular tunes. First one was The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay
• Laughing Comedy: Compelled audience to laugh at itself and
eccentricities Humorous and realistic fast paced comedies in reaction to
sentimental comedy. “She Stoops to Conquer” by Oliver Goldsmith was
the first of these plays. Richard Brinsley Sheridan also penned “The Rivals
and The School for Scandal” which featured fashionable characters and
witty dialogue.
1700-1800
 Architecture
• Apron shrank, area behind stage became much deeper
• Larger audience capacity
• Angle Point Perspective: Bibienas’ multiple vanishing points in
perspective painting of backdrops using legs
• Ornate/grandiose set backing including ground rows, borders, cut
outs, etc
• Experimentation with gas lighting (minimal control)
1700-1800 Emergence of the Director:
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Regisseur: dictator director)
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Rules for movement, voice, and actors’ personal lives
Created rules for the audience
Composition and stage pictures
Used period costumes
Ensemble work emphasized
• David Garrick: Credited as the first director
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Emphasized individual character development
Naturalistic acting
Research and preparation for roles
Concealed lighting
Supervised rehearsals
 Acting Styles:
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Star performers created a fan base
“Bombastic” style: addressed audience directly, showcase of the voice, not realistic
Non-realistic blocking (movement)
Short rehearsal times and runs
1800-1875
 Industrial Revolution
 Darwin: questioned religious convention
 Marx: questioned capitalism
 Cities grew quickly-public demanded entertainment:
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Circuses (P.T. Barnum)
Vaudeville
Minstrel
Theatre
1800-1875
 Romanticism:
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Epic drama
Hero characters (outcasts, underdogs)
Mood and atmosphere more important than plot development
Emphasis on truth, justice, knowledge
Faust plays
1800-1875
 Well Made Play:
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Climactic structure
Actions revolved around and unrevealed secret
Clear exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution
Obligatory scene (climactic face-off)
Used conventional plot contrivances and romantic plots; French playwright Eugene
Scribe wrote hundreds of these plays which were imitated all over Europe.
 Melodrama:
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Heroes vs.Villans
Suspense
Effects/spectacle
Cliff-hanging plots and emotional appeals, popular in the US in the 1800’s. Highly
moralistic and celebrated virtue above all else, vice would be punished. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a prime example.
1800-1875
 Directing:
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Built on ideas of von Goethe and Garrick
Historical accuracy
Extended rehearsal time
Stage pictures, movement and composition important
Richard Wagner:
• Gesamtkunstwerk (guh-Zahmt-Koonst-verk) “unified Theatre”
• Need director to unify all elements
• Supposedly the first to lower house lights before a performance
1800-1875
 Actors/Acting:
• Edwin Booth (American) & Eleonora Duse (Italian) well respected for
their realistic acting style
• Actors were idolized
• Plays had long run times (100 performances or more)
• Move toward more realistic acting style
1800-1875
 Architecture/Tech:
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No rake
Continental seating (individual chairs)
Fly system of drops
Historical accuracy valued
Box Set: 3 sided realistic interior instead of backdrops and legs
Revolve and Elevator stages
Gas light (became more controllable
1879: incandescent lamp revolutionized theatre lighting