19th Century Theatre

1800-1875

Historical Background

• Industrial Revolution– Replacement of hand tools and human power by

machinery and the development of the factory and factory system

• Middle Class continuing to rise in power– Legislatures passing reforms to benefit the middle

class• Influential people who disturbed traditional

beliefs:– Karl Marx– Charles Darwin– Sigmund Freud

Neoclassic Ideals• All drama must teach a

moral lesson• Unities

– Unity of Time• Dramatic action should

not exceed 24 hours– Unity of Place

• One location only– Unity of Action

• One central story – no subplots

• Decorum– All characters should

behave in ways based on their gender, age, profession, social status

• Verisimilitude– All drama must be “true to

life”• NO ghosts, apparitions, or

supernatural, fantastical events or things

• Genres– Tragedy only about royalty

• Must end badly/tragically– Comedy only about common

people• Must end happily

– NEVER mix comic elements and tragic elements

Neoclassical Ideals dictated how plays were written and produced

Romanticism• Stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic

experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity of nature

• Rejected the neoclassical rules– Actually they rejected all artistic rules, suggesting that genius

creates its own rules • More interested in creating mood and atmosphere than

developing believable plots or depth of character• Did not believe in purity of genre

– Considered all subject matter appropriate for the stage• Patriotism, nationalism, revolution and armed struggle for

independence became popular themes in the arts of this period

• Romantic hero was frequently a social outcast who quested for justice, knowledge, and truth

Romanticism in Art

• Music– Ludwig van

Beethoven– Frederic Chopin

• Literature– Edgar Allan Poe– Nathaniel Hawthorne– Emily Dickinson– Lord Byron

Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya

Melodrama flourishes…

• Melodrama means “song drama” or “music drama”• The first melodrama was performed in France in

1798• Plays were written putting emphasis on surface

effects that would evoke suspense, fear, nostalgia, and other strong emotions

• “If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.”

… and then dies• Melodrama died in 1915, according to

theatre history textbooks – The truth is that the entertainment industry

moved to film to distribute the melodramas for WAY cheaper than doing plays

– A lot of the same people who created the theatre industry moved it to Los Angeles

• Melodrama is the standard Hollywood model– “Melodramatic” suggests a style that is over

the top, extremely emotional, larger than life

Elements of Melodrama

1. Music• Underscore, not like a musical with singing and

dancing2. Morally polarized characters

• Good guys versus bad guys3. Heroine

• Damsel in distress who must be saved by the hero

4. Happy Ending• Cosmic justice has to prevail – good has to win

over bad

Elements of Melodrama5. Sidekicks

• Usually a best friend – comic relief• Sidekicks are comic and the situation is serious• Scooby Doo – Fred is the hero, Daphne is the

heroine, Velma is Daphne’s sidekick, Shaggy is Fred’s sidekick and Scooby Doo is Shaggy’s side kick

6. Mixture of suspense and comedy7. Physical conflict

• Always ends in a final physical conflict – a battle of good and evil; like a showdown in a western

Elements of Melodrama8. Exotic Locations

– New places to escape– Set things in the past, the future or far

away places9. Animal Acts

– Liked including animals on stage10. Technology, stage combat, stunts

and special effects – Trains on stage– The purpose is to keep an audience

interested from start to finish

Melodramas of the 19th Century

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853) by George L. Aiken– adapted from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel

• The String of Pearls (1847) by George Dibdin Pitt– Play on which Stephen Sondheim based his

musical Sweeney Todd (1979)

One of the best examples of a Modern Day Melodrama:

Example of a MelodramaPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black

Pearl1. Stirring musical score by Klaus Badelt2. Good and Evil: Will Turner vs. Capt. Barbosa3. Damsel in need of rescue: Elizabeth4. Happy ending: curse lifted, Jack Sparrow saved from the

noose, Will and Elizabeth together5. Sidekick: What better comic relief than Captain Jack Sparrow?6. Lots of action and witty dialogue… we all know we love to quote

it.7. Physical conflict: Big battle with swords and cannons and the

British Navy fighting an undead army8. Exotic Location: upon the beautiful blue waters of the

Caribbean9. Animal Acts: Jack the Monkey and Mr. Cotton’s Parrot10. Special Effects: Disney worked very hard on turning those men

into the Digital Undead.

More on Melodramas

• Melodramas can be socially or politically progressive, but it is always culturally conservative

– Melodrama follows the mainstream cultural expectations of society

– Women are portrayed, culturally, today as successful in business, succeeding in a man's job, multi-tasking

• They can beat up the guys, but they haven't neglected their feminine side, beautiful, tender and emotionally vulnerable and still get rescued

– Ex: Elizabeth Swann

Other Melodramas

Popular Entertainments• Minstrel Shows

– Was the first truly American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface

– Portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical.

– Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy.

• These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier.

Wild West Shows• In 1884, the outdoor Wild West Show had

authentic cowboys, Indians, buffaloes, horses, sharpshooters and melodramas

• The show itself consisted of a series of "historical" scenes interspersed with feats of showmanship, sharp shooting, racing, or rodeo style events. Native Americans figured prominently in many of the scenes, often shown attacking whites in historical situations with Buffalo Bill or one of his colleagues riding in and saving the day

– Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show typically ended with a melodramatic re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer

• Many authentic western personalities were part of the show:

– Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves– Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler

put on shooting exhibitions– 'Calamity Jane'

For more info, go to YouTube and look under “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show”

Burlesque

• In the 19th Century, the term "burlesque" was applied to a wide range of comic plays, including non-musicals – Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and

middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by making fun of (or "burlesquing") the operas, plays and social habits of the upper classes

• Evolved out of the spontaneous/improvisational tradition of commedia dell’arte– Spoofed Greek tragedies and Shakespeare– Eventually, performers turned to more general satirical

comedy, and burlesque became a platform for mocking the bourgeoisie

– Used comedy and music to challenge the established way of looking at things

• It was not until the 20th century that this form became a combination of comedians and strippers

Circuses• P.T. Barnum (1810-1891)

developed exhibits in the American Museum in New York City– Exhibited human curiosities

and presented variety acts and plays in a theatre built for family audiences

• Joyce Heth, who he said was 140 years old

• The “Fiji Mermaid”, which was the head of a monkey sewn onto the body of a fish

• Tom Thumb, the midget– In 1850s, he became involved

with the circus, a touring version of his museum and advertised it as “the greatest show on earth”

Acting Theory: Delsarte

• Much of the acting between 1800 and 1875 was based on stereotypical physical gestures and vocal patterns taught by Francois Delsarte

• Believed actors could convey emotions and inner thoughts through specific, pre-established gestures and body movements

• Scientific approach to acting, consistent with the scientific spirit of the age– System was rejected by modern realists because it

assumed that all human beings reacted the same way

Scene Design: The Box Set

• Consists of flats hinged together to represent a room

• Had practical elements, such as doors and windows