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20 th century theater takes all forms previously accepted drama and experiments with them to create new drama
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Modern Drama genres:
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“Serious” plays
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Musical theater
Opera
Comedies
Others
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Experimentation key word to all Modern Arts

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Two American cities central to Drama:
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2.
New York
Vaudeville
Broadway
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Los Angeles
Hollywood
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Two key 20 th century playwrights:
Tennessee Williams
Arthur Miller

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Series of separate, unrelated acts, often including, but not limited to:
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Poetry recitation
Dramatic scenes/ Monologues
Songs
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Dancers
Comedians
Trained animals
Magicians
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Developed from saloons, bars, concert halls, freak shows, and other public entertainments

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Performers would re-create same act day after day, year after year
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Allowed for security of professional actors, but little real money
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Perfecting the craft
Popularity waned, so acts went with “big money” of Hollywood
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Made good money for a short time, but left with little to nothing
No royalties

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Charlie Chaplin
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English Vaudeville “star”
The Tramp
The Little Dictator
W. C. Fields
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“All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
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“Never work with dogs or children.”
Buster Keaton
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Old Stone Face
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The General the Marx Brothers
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Groucho, Harpo, and Zeppo
Duck Soup
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“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
I shot an elephant in my pajamas. What he was doing in my pajamas I’ll never know.”

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Jack Benny
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Cheapskate stereotype
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Most popular radio/ television show of early media
The Three Stooges
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Moe, Larry, and Curly
Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck
Abbott and Costello
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Who’s on First routine
Bob Hope
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Variety shows
Road movies (with Bing Crosby)
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Thanks for the Memories
Judy Garland
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Wizard of Oz
Meet me n St. Louis, Louis

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After invention of radio and popularity of
Broadway, Vaudeville became a kind of minor league for Broadway/ Hollywood
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Many stars moved either to larger venues/ movies/ radio, retired, or went to the “Borscht
Belt”

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Screwball comedies
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Stuck on You (Greg Kinnear, Matt Damon)
There’s Something About Mary (Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz)
Variety shows
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Saturday Night Live
Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Slapstick
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Liar, Liar (Jim Carrey)
Improvisation comedy
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Who’s Line Is it Anyway?

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Most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows

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Most Broadway shows are commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors ("backers"), and therefore meant to have open-ended runs, meaning that they may be presented for a varying number of weeks depending on critical response, word of mouth, and the effectiveness of the show's advertising, all of which determine ticket sales

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Two genres of plays:
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Musical theater
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“straights”

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Serious Drama
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Tennessee Williams
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Streetcar Named Desire
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The Glass Menagerie
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
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Arthur Miller
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The Crucible
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Death of a Salesman

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Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for
“A Streetcar Named Desire” and for “Cat on a hot tin roof”.

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Leading characters/actors: Blanche DuBois
(JessicaTandy), Stanley Kowalski (Marlon
Brando)
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Marlon Brando is one of the most important and famous actors of Modern Theater.
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Career lasted almost 50 years
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Famous for works like A Streetcar Named Desire, The
Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and On The Waterfront.

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The Plot follows with Blanche DuBois, who has deep family money, arriving at her sister’s house.
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Stella, Blanche’s sister, is married to Stanley
Kowalski and is carrying his child.
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Stanley who is physically and emotionally abusive towards Stella turns toward Blanche.
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In the end Blanche has a nervous breakdown from Stanley rapping her.

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The most important part of the play was the theme of the “American Dream”
Protagonist Willy Loman, who is over the age of 60, puts much of his time into saying how well his natural charm is and his uncanny ability to make friends has made him popular over the years.
Will’s life slowly spins out of control, and you notice this early through his impaired ability to drive. He soon loses his job (which did not make ends meet as it was).
And now is supported on getting loans from his neighbor.