14
(© Michal Daniel)
Theatres from
1915 to 1945
1-2
Background:
A Time of Unrest—The World Wars
• Era of unrest after 1915 ushered in by
World War I, which resulted in nearly 8.5
million deaths
• Between the world wars: fascist totalitarian
dictatorships in Italy and Germany
• Extremes of fascism horribly illustrated in
Nazi Germany, known as the Third Reich
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://sisnet.ssku.k12.ca.us/users/ehshist/public_html/Post%20WW1%20Art.ht
http://sisnet.ssku.k12.ca.us/users/ehshist/public_html/Post
WW1 Art.htm
m
1-6
Theatre of Unrest:
Dramatic Movements
• Expressionism
– Developed in
Germany around 1905
– Movement in which
representation of
reality is distorted to
communicate inner
feelings
– More about the
feelings of the
protagonist
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library
at Lincoln Center; Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations)
1-7
Theatre of Unrest:
Dramatic Movements (continued)
•
•
•
•
Futurism and Dada
Surrealism
The Bauhaus
Theatre of Cruelty
– Antonin Artaud
(© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-8
Theatre of Unrest:
Dramatic Movements (continued)
• Epic Theatre
– Piscator and The
Good Soldier Schweik
– Brecht’s Epic Theatre
– Bertolt Brecht
– Mother Courage and
Her Children
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
(Percy Paukschta/Berliner Ensemble)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-9
European Theatres
during the War Years
• France
– Copeau and TextOriented Theatre
– Jacques Copeau
– French Playwrights:
Giraudoux and Anouilh
Jacques Copeau
(LAPI/Roger-Viollet Collection/
Getty Images)
Federico García Lorca
• Spain
– Frederico García Lorca
(Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-10
European Theatres
during the War Years (continued)
• Italy
– Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
• Great Britain
– Laurence Olivier,
Ralph Richardson,
and John Gielgud
(Photo by Edward Steichen, 1935
© Condé Nast Archive/Corbis)
Laurence Olivier
(Bettmann/Corbis)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-11
European Theatres
during the War Years (continued)
• Theatres under Totalitarianism
– Particularly in the Soviet Union under Stalin,
and in Germany under Hitler, governmentsupported theatres were used as instruments
of propaganda
– Numerous German theatre artists were forced
to flee Germany after Hitler came to power in
1933, including the directors Max Reinhardt
and Erwin Piscator, as well as the playwrights
Bertolt Brecht and Ernst Toller
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-12
American Theatre
– Commercial Theatre in the United States
– Noncommercial Drama and Theatre in the United
States
• Eva Le Gallienne
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(Billy Rose Theatre Collection/The New York Public Library for the Performing
Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)
• Commercial versus Noncommercial Theatre
1-13
American Theatre (continued)
• Playwrights in the United States
– Eugene O’Neill
– Female Playwrights in the United States
• The “Little Theatre” Movement
• The Group Theatre
Stella Adler
– Stella Adler
• The Federal Theatre Project
• College and University Theatres
(Museum of The City of New York/
Getty Images)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-14
American Theatre (continued)
• African American
Theatre
– African American
Theatre in the 1920s
– Ethel Waters
– African American
Theatre in the 1930s
and 1940s
– Paul Robeson
(Library of Congress)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1-15
Global Theatres, 1915–1945
• Asian Theatres
– Mei Lanfang
• Kathakali in India
• Theatre in China
• Theatre in Japan
Mei Lanfang
(Eastfoto/Sovfoto)
© 2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.