We first started with Toby's presentation and these are the notes I made:
Post War Theatre (After War)
1945-Present; Popular between WWI & WWII
ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association)
- provided entertainment for soldiers
- first show in France in 1945
Problems
- Theatre struggles as actors moved to film/TV
- Subsidised theatre: theatre produced no profit so they ran on funds from patrons (Government)
Plays/Musicals
- West Side Story
- A Chorus Line
Playwrights
- Tennesee Williams
- Arthur Miller
Practitioners
- Jen Littlewood - Founder of theatre workshop
- Brecht - Dramaturgy and theatrical production
- Bianway - Theatre in Education
Post War Actors
Richard Todd, Norman Wisdom, Sir Alec Guiness, Lenny Bruce, Marcel Marceau
Staging - Proscenium Arch, Thrust, Arena
Techniques - Breaking the 4th Wall
Costumes - Suits and dresses
How it changed drama
- Plays became more abstract
- Objects became centre points
- Less popular now and rare to come across
After, I presented my powerpoint on Greek Mythology. Following this, Dan presented his powerpoint on Restoration Theatre. These are the notes I made:
Restoration Theatre
- theatres reopened in 1660 after a 18 year ban
- end of puritan ril
- plays were lavish, immoral and insulted the royalists and roundheads
- lightheartedness reflected a society recovering from division
- comedies were the hallmark
- classics were written and given a happy ending
- restoration comedies involved quick wit and comedic situations
- the recruitment officer was the most popular
- comedies relied on situation humour, disguises, mistaken identity and misunderstanding
- the audience is aware of the trickery but the actors only find out at the end
- they were not a mirror society but exaggerated society
- the typical audience was upper class
- boys played the role of girls
- women played the role of men as a form of situation comedy
- male and female dress began to take on smart elegance
Finally Lorna performed her presentation on Elizabethan Theatre and these are my notes:
Elizabethan
1562-1625
Innyards
- private inns in London
- 1-3 pennies
- indoors/in the yard
- major inns had cobblestone yards
- innyards were then turned into playhouses
Indoor Playhouses
- small, private
- more expensive (2-26 pennies)
- up to 500 capacity
- food and drink intervals introduced
- scenery introduced
- good acoustics
- candles suitable for evenings
Staging and Costumes
- Proscenium arch was used a lot
- blackouts weren't used to move props etc. as the exits were integrated with the performances
- own clothes were used as there was no time for costumes
- only men, women roles were played by young men
- make-up killed the women
Shakespeare
Tragedy - "Hamlet", "Othello", "Romeo and Juliet"
Comedys - "Much Ado", "Midsummer Night Dream", "Twelfth Night"
Levels were used for authority
John Fletcher
"Valentinian", "Wit Without Money", "Wild Goose Chase"
Marlowe
Used Blank Verse and overreached protagonist
"Jew of Malta", "Dr Faustus"
Conventions
- Actors acknowledged audience
- Prologues, epilogues and word puns used for engaging the audience
- extravagant gestures were commonly found too
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