Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway:
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Developed in NYC in 1950s
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Response to belief that financial conditions forced Broadway producers to
cater almost exclusively to mass audiences
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Theatrical groups found alternative performance spaces to produce nonBroadway fare
•
Working in spaces not intended for theatrical performance, groups were
forced to experiment with spatial arrangements and with the relationship
between performers and audience
•
Size of spaces and safety provisions meant that theatres served small
audiences
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway:
•
Popularity of Off-Broadway: 50 groups performed Off-Broadway during
the 1950s
•
Increased popularity resulted in intervention by theatrical unions;
production costs climbed
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway:
•
Since most of the advantages of Off-Broadway disappeared with
the intervention of theatrical unions, Off-Off-Broadway
developed
•
Like Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway used out-of-the-way spaces
and tried to keep production costs down
•
Continues as the most flexible and diverse venue for productions
in NYC
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway:
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Most important early Off-Off-Broadway group = LaMama
organization
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Founded 1961 by Ellen Stewart
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By 1970, LaMama was producing more plays per season than all
Broadway theatres combined
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No restrictions for playwrights
By 1970, the distinctions between Off-Broadway and Off-OffBroadway were so eroded they were often indistinguishable
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway:
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Other influential organizations
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Manhattan Theatre Club
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Playwrights Horizon
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New York Shakespeare Festival
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The Public Theatre
Alternative Theatre Groups
Some Off-Off-Broadway theatres were
formed as a means for provoking social,
political, or artistic change

The Living Theatre (1960s)
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Epitomized rebellion against established
authority
Most extreme piece = Paradise Now
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Included nudity, obscene language, provocation
of audience
Blurred the boundaries between fiction and
reality
Company gained notoriety
Tested limits of permissibility
Alternative Theatre Groups

The Bread and Puppet Theatre (1961)
•
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The San Francisco Mime Theatre (1966)
•

Used both actors and giant puppets to
enact parables denouncing war and
materialism
Performed satirical pieces promoting civil
rights and other causes
Open Theatre (1963)
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•
Founded by Joseph Chaikin
Concerned with the performer’s
“transformation”
Poor and Environmental Theatres

“Poor” Theatres
Jerzy Grotowski, director of the Polish
Lab Theatre
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Eliminated all theatrical elements
considered unessential
Hoped such elimination would lead to
the rediscovery of theatre
Concluded that only 2 elements are
essential: actor and audience
Known for methods of actor training
Experimented with spatial
relationships between actors and
audience
Theatre = Modern Tribal Ceremony
Poor and Environmental Theatres

Environmental Theatre
Richard Schechner
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Defined Environmental Theatre:
Should take place in a transformed or found space
The use of space is flexible
Performance takes precedence over text
Focus is flexible and variable
Blends categories long treated as distinct:
Acting space and non-acting space
Performer and spectator
Text and performance
Sequence and simultaneity of focus and action
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art


Some theatre chose to emphasize
the very things poor theatres were
trying to eliminate - technology
Multimedia
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Joseph Svoboda
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Czech designer
Best-known multimedia
experimenter
Polyekran = “multiple screen”
Laterna Magika = use of motion
pictures in combination with actors
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art
Multimedia

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Joseph Svoboda
Multimedia experimentation popularized:
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Projected still images on multiple screens as scenic
background
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Interjecting filmed sequences into dramatic action
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Manipulating volume, direction, quality of
stereophonic sound
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Use of closed-circuit television
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art
Happenings

Allan Kaprow
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Painter who pioneered happenings
Argued that in addition to the art
objects on display, the space and
those who attend must be
considered essential parts of the
total artistic experience
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art

Characteristics of Happenings:
1.
Multimedia events that broke down the barriers between the arts
and mingled elements
2.
Shifted emphasis away from creating a product and onto
participating in a process
3.
Sought to provide an experience rather than present a message or
a single meaning
4.
Shifted emphasis from artist’s intention to participant’s
awareness
5.
Often made each participant a partial creator of the event
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art
Performance Art


May intermingle borrowings from any or all of the visual arts,
dance, music, video, and theatre

May be scripted or improvised

May or may not use costumes and props

Frequently solo performance

May be highly personal or confrontational

Often explores issues of sexuality, violence, power
Multimedia, Happenings, and
Performance Art

Performance Artists originally came from the visual
arts, dance, and music

Appeal of Performance Art: disregards boundaries
among the arts, thereby expanding means of
expression
The essence of performance art is that there
are no rules about what is allowed.
Broadway and Musicals after
Subsidization
•
Prior to decentralization and subsidization, Broadway
was the primary producer of new plays in America
•
Shift from new works to works that had been
successful in regional, Off-Broadway, Off-OffBroadway, and British venues
•
Musicals remained Broadway’s favorite fare, both
revivals and new musicals
Broadway and Musicals after
Subsidization

In 1968, musicals underwent a significant changes:
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Rock Music
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Hair (1968)
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Godspell (1970)
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Presentational Style
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A Chorus Line (1976)
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Experimentation with various approaches
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Stephen Sondheim
Broadway and Musicals after
Subsidization

Stephen Sondheim:
•
Considered the most influential writer of musicals for
contemporary theatre
Works depart from upbeat optimism of earlier musicals
Works offer ironic and melancholic views of human behavior
Works avoid happy endings
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Key works include:
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Company
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Sweeney Todd
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Into the Woods
Broadway and Musicals after
Subsidization

Stephen Sondheim:
•
Songs and music much more complex in both function and
musical expression
•
Filled with inner tensions
•
Subtext is a significant element

The American musical is said to have lost its vitality after 1970
•
The most popular musicals were imported from England
A New Generation of American Playwrights
•
Key writers:
•
Edward Albee
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Uses biting dialogue and experimental forms
•
Lanford Wilson
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Masterful treatment of character relationships
•
David Mamet
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Themes: materialism, distrust, political corruption
•
Sam Shepard
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Characters caught between dreams and an insubstantial reality
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Christopher Durang
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Writes about serious subjects in a ridiculous manner