Izzy's+Group-+post+melodrama

=** POST MELODRAMA THEATER 1880-1940 - 'Izzy's Group' **= = =

Actor/Acresses, How they act (Changes) and Director! (Sofia)

__Ethel Barrymore: __ (1879-1959) Ethel Barrymore, an actress from America as she began her career in a family barn along with her two brothers. She became a public star in 1901 as Mme Trentoni in '//Captain finks of the horse marines //'. Her trade marks were her incredible beauty, graceful bearing and her amazing voice, she played in comedies by Shakespeare and Ibsen with her famous role being the school //mistres ////s //Emlyn Williams in// 'The corn is green' ////which ran on Broadway for four years. Because of her success and fame they built a theatre for her called the ‘Ethel Barrymore Theatre’. // //__Alla Nazimova: __// (18779-1945) Alla Nazimova was female Russian actor who was a principal performer of the St Petersburg Theatre, she then went on to tour Europe and America with her husband who was also an actor and ended up settling in New York City. She was in Henrik Ibsens play ‘//Hedda Gabler’,// she was also in a couple of Hollywood films and was a translator for Anton Chekhov, O’neil and Turgenev. Alla Nazimova was best remembered for her movie ‘Portrayal in Salome’.
 * What are some famous/well known actors of the realism period? **

__**What are some famous/well known Directors: **__ Meyerhold was born on February 10th, 1874 (January 28th, 1874 according to the old calendar) in the Russian town of Penza Meyerhold's career as a stage director began in 1902 and would last for 37 years. In total, he would direct more than 290 productions. His earliest work was characterized by an interest in realism, similar to that of Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre. From 1902 to 1906, he ran the New Drama Touring Company, a troupe of young actors that traveled throughout the Russian provinces giving performances. Within three seasons he himself performed close to one hundred different roles, and directed plays by Maeterlinck, Chekhov, Gorky, Ibsen, Hauptmann and others. At first, his performances were staged along the lines of typical Moscow Art Theatre productions, but soon Meyerhold began to discover new methods, composing his own theatrical language.
 * Meyerhold **

- Actors way of rehearsing and preparing themselves for the performance changed as ‘rehearsals’ with how casting crew were done together instead of each individual actor/actress memorizing their lines and then improvising on stage. The actors now had to put the performance together as a unit, together with each other. <span style="font-family: Constantia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- The actor in realism had to be more realistic and believable as the audience wanted to see realistic acting (real emotions and real life situations), do to this they used the 7 unit processes/steps of Stanislavski was used by the actors/actresses to maintain the standard that was needed to perform a realistic play. <span style="font-family: Constantia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- The use of stock characters and set actors/actresses to set characters was not used anymore, the performers could play more than one character and stereotype as they could channel into the mind and behaviour of the character through the 7 unit Stanislavski steps. <span style="font-family: Constantia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- The story lines of the play that the actors/actresses had to perform where not ‘fairytales’ where the good always defeated evil, where the ending was always happy and the love interests always could live happily ever after. The plays were written about real problems and real situations that everyday people went through in their everyday lives. <span style="font-family: Constantia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">- Directors first started ‘being directors’ as the position of director didn’t exist, the actor would all just do their own thing but when they all came together to rehearse someone needed to take a leadership role and direct the performance.
 * __<span style="font-family: Constantia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">How ‘acting’ changed in the realism period: __**

Costume - (Jess)

**How were costumes paid for and budgeted?** Costume is an essential part of theater and in some form is used in all drama performances

The Eighteenth Century stage afforded the best opportunities for lavish costumes. The budget for costumes changed in accordance with the management. The theatrical tastes of the eighteenth century audience tended towards spectacle, and costumes were designed to please the masses. Because theatre during this time was a visual experience before anything else, it was important for successful theatre, both of the court and public theatre, to parade the actors in the most elaborate costumes possible. Because of limited budget, most performances were costumed out of stock. Whenever possible, however, repertory companies received loans on particularly unique and lavish costumes ** Were costumes similar to ones people wore during the day? ** In Greek tragedy the actors wore masks and long robes with sleeves quite unlike the dress of the day.

<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Blackadder ITC'; font-size: 27px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">Theatre Technologies – (Russel)

<span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">//__**What were the differences in technologies between Melodrama and Realism**?__// <span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">Basically the same techniques were shown in the two types of acting, but melodrama usually used bigger, and more bold things such as set and costume to wow the audience. And realism used what costumes and set would have been there in real life.

<span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">**//__How were the different techniques shown in melodrama and realism?__//** <span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">Melodrama was very exaggerated in the fact that the costume, lighting, masks and makeup were made to exaggerate what was happening, where is realism used much more conventional techniques to show a more realist style of acting.//__How__//

<span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">//__**Did these changes effect the reaction of the audience?**__// <span style="background: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; vertical-align: top;">During the Melodrama period, audiences were engrossed in the out of proportion acting and the exaggerated costumes and set, but when realism plays started to be acted, a lot of people found that the more normal technologies in the plays helped them connect with the play and its realistic ideas.

Realism - (Izzy)


 * //__What is Realism?__// **

Realism was a general movement that occurred in the late 19th century in Russia. Realism developed a set of dramatic and theoretical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater loyalty to real life texts/performances and to make theatre more useful to society.

**__ How did realism emerge before 1880? __** <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">There was 3 major developments that helped realism emerge.

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">1. August Comte (1798-1857), often considered to be the "father of Sociology," developed a theory known as Positivism (everything will be fine). Among Comte’s ideas there was an encouragement for understanding the cause and effect of nature through precise observation.

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">2. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) published The Origin of Species in 1859, and creators a worldwide stir which exists to this day. Darwin’s essential series suggested that life developed slowly from common descent and that life favoured "survival of the fittest." The implications of Darwin's Theories were: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">- people were controlled by heredity (family background) and environment <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">- behaviours were beyond our control <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">- humanity is a natural object, rather than being above all else

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">3. Karl Marx (1818-1883) in the late 1840’s supported a political attitude arguing against urbanization and in favour of a more equal distribution of wealth.


 * //__Who were some writers of realism in 1880 – 1940?__// **

- Emile Augier (1820-1889) - Alexdre Dumas Fils (1824-1895)

- Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) Ibsen is considered to be the father of modern realistic drama. His plays attacked society’s values and dealt with unconventional subjects within the form of the well-made play (causally related). One of Ibsen’s plays was called ‘Hedda Gabbler’ – 1890. - Anton Checkhov (1860 - 1904) - in Russia, Wrote 'Three Sisters' in 1900

- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) - in Englan, wrote pygmalion. (Source: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%;">[] )

Stanislavaski – (Georgia)

Stanislavski’s real name is Constantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev. He was born in Moscow on 18th January, 1863. His Father was wealthy so he provided Stanislavski with a private education which included frequent trips to the opera and theatre. By the time he was 14 years old, he was acting in plays in theatre. He went on to marry Maris Lilina in 1889.
 * Question one: Who is he/ His background? **

**Question two: What did he** **achieve?** After he finished his education, he formed a group called the Society For Art And Literature. He directed and acted in a number of their plays. Although as time went on, he became increasingly unhappy with the melodramatic style of acting. He then arranged a meeting with the successful playwright and teacher of theatre, Vladimir Nemitovich-Danchenki to talk about ways of reforming Russian theatre. The meeting lasted almost 18 hours and they produced a number of ideas from the meeting.

**Question three: How did he affect theatre?** He wanted to have truth and realism in theatre. You still see some of his methods used in plays and television. The opening production he produced on 26th October, 1898 and was a tremendous success. It followed of his production of The Seagull had been a complete failure when produced three years earlier but under his direction and new take on theatre, it became world famous. Stanislavski has changed theatre forever with his new take of plays, using realism and showing people truth, as opposed to the popular melodramatic plays written in his time. The style of realism he created influences programs, films and plays today

Play Wrights (Livvy) <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Wrote a total of 15 plays and 30 musical comedies many of his plays ‘//Damsel in distress//’ and ‘//The girl on the boat’// have been adopted and made into films. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">He moved to America after being arrested and imprisoned in England for suspicion of treachery, he lived their permanently after that. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">After realising that working in a bank was not what he wanted to do with his life he got a job for the Globe news paper writing for a comic column. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">He wrote more than 60 plays that often were drawn form his own personal experiences and many reflected his life, he had a very long career that lasted for 40 years which also include around 30 fictional books.in his range of plays he was not afraid to explore the different theatre types ranging from naturalistic, tragedy, melodrama, expressionist and surrealist.he like many playwrights stuggled to get off the ground and his first major play was rejected by the royal theatre company, it wasn’t until he was 32 that he got this big break with this play The Father in 1887.his plays are very well known some of them are.//Miss Julie//- 1888 - this play is said to deal with class, love, lust, and a battle of the sexes all merged and competing against each other.//Creditors// 1889, //Damascus//, //The great highway//He was a poor failed actor and was depressed, so he tried to commit suicide but failed when he awoke from the opium induced sleep his mind was full of ideas and memories which he scrawled onto a piece of paper thus his inspiration for being a playwright. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Norwegian playwright that is most commonly known as the Father of modern theatre and has also been referred to greatest playwright since Shakespeare, his work examined what went on behind closed doors and the things you don’t share with others, for example the play //Ghosts// in 1881 talked about the venereal dieses, and the decision the mother has to make about whether to euthanize him.Ibsens education was stopped at the age of 15 because of his family falling into poverty so instead he went to be a pharmacists apprentice, at the age of 18 he felt compelled to help support an ‘illegitimate’ baby that belonged to a servant girl.After a failed attempt at getting into university he moved back to Christis iania where he met and married his wife and got a job at the Norwegian theatre as an artistic director. Some of his well known plays are...//Hedda Gabler// 1890- this is about a neurotic lady, who is pregnant and is bored by her husband, so she plots to run off with another man. “I felt pity and terror, as though the play had been greek.” This was said by Oscar Wilde after seeing the play.//An Enemy Of The People// 1882- this is the play where he attacks the “compact liberal majority”. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">He has been considered to be one of the greatest short story writers in the history of world literature. He was a doctor for most of his life and was fully devoted to it, theatre work and writing was what he was “his mistress” his hobby on the side. His strong medical devotion was obvious in his plays because of the characters lack of interests and emotional distress to tragic events.his writings of short stories started out just to help support his family but it was more popular than expected and he became very well known for his fantastic stories.Anton Checofv didn’t have much success with his plays and it wasn’t until the play //The Seagull// was performed by Stanovlasky in 1898 that his fame as a playwright was achknologed.//Three Sisters -// 1901//Cherry Orchard-// 1904 aristocratic Russian women returns to the family estate right before it is auctioned to pay the morgage.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse **<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">1881-1975
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">August Strindberg 1849-1912 **<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Swedish playwright
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Henrik Ibsen **<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">1828- 1906
 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Anton Checofv **<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">1860-1904