EARLY AMERICAN
THEATRE
1700’s – Civil War
Starting in the 1700’s, entertainers from
England performed in U.S. large cities.
During the Revolutionary War, many colonies
banned theatrical performances to focus on the
war.
In the early 1800’s, well known stars
toured the country.
Popular theatrical forms of the 1800’s included:
Specialty acts: jugglers, tumblers, etc.
Minstrel shows (in the U.S.)
Burlesque (parodies / satire of a serious
form of literature)
Pantomimes – elaborate tricks with scenery
and costume.
Short musical revues ("vaudevilles" in
France)
Comic operas – sentimental stories, original
music.
Revivals of Shakespeare – usually
bowdlerized (censored for questionable
material)
Circus acts
The most popular
theatrical form of
the 1800’s.
What is Melodrama?
The word "melodrama"
comes from "melos", the
Greek word for song,
combined with "drama".
Music is used to increase
the emotional response or
to suggest characters.
A melodrama in a more
neutral and technical sense
of the term is a play, film,
or other work in which plot
and action are emphasized
in comparison to the more
character-driven emphasis
within a drama.
Melodramas can be
distinguished from tragedy by
the fact that they are open to
having a happy ending.
There is a tidy structure or formula to melodrama: a villain
poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the
heroine) and there is a happy ending. In melodrama there is
constructed a world of heightened emotion, stock characters
and a hero who rights the disturbance to the balance of good
and evil in a moral universe.
"... A bad gunslinger called Salty Sam was chasin' poor
Sweet Sue
"He trapped her in the old sawmill and said with an evil
laugh,
"If you don't give me the deed to your ranch
"I'll saw you all in half!
"And then he grabbed her (and then)
"He tied her up (and then)
"He turned on the bandsaw (and then, and then...!) …”
Summary of the characteristics of Melodrama:
•Comes from "music drama" – music was used to increase
emotions or to signify characters (signature music).
•A simplified moral universe; good and evil are embodied in
stock characters.
•Episodic form: the villain poses a threat, the hero or heroine
escapes, etc.—with a happy ending.
•Almost never five acts – usually 2-5 (five acts reserved for
"serious" drama).
•Many special effects: fires, explosions, drownings,
earthquakes.
So what does this have to
do with today’s theatre?
Melodrama is ubiquitous on television: it is evident, for example,
in a long series of TV movies about diseases or domestic violence,
or the large number of hour-long television programs about
lawyers, police officers, or physicians.
Issues melodrama is a type of melodrama in which current
events or politics are given a dramatic treatment, hoping to
use some recent crime or controversy as a vehicle to draw an
emotional response from the viewer. The usual method is to
involve lawyers, police officers, or physicians, who can then
make speeches about the crime or controversy being
dramatized. By this artifice, the dramatist seeks to engage the
audience's recently refreshed sense of fear or moral
disapproval, while simultaneously maintaining the posture
that the drama so produced is timely and socially engaged.
Action melodrama is another type of melodrama that is
particularly prevalent in the action Hollywood film
blockbuster. An athletic action hero is pitted against an evil
villain, and through a bevy of fights, car chases, love scenes
and splatter, the hero overcomes the villain and restores the
balance of good in the universe. This subgenre often
includes a heroine who fights then falls in love with the
hero. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are
examples of the stars of these action melodramatic flicks.
Informal use / Slang Casual use of the word as an adjective
translates to exaggerated emotional affect or ways in
expressing oneself. For example: "Don't be so
melodramatic!" This has fallen into common everyday
language.
THE
END!!