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An Outline of Theatre History: from After World War I to Present, with a few Addenda

Theatre in Europe Between World War I & World War II

Social and Historical Background

devastation throughout Europe

artists react to the chaos

Paris as center of experimentation

fewer experiments in England than in Continental Europe

In France:

Futurism

            Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 -- 1944), playwright, pens manifesto

            sintesi (synthetic plays)
                                   
                        Detonation

            political implications of Futurism

spreads through Europe: Victory Over the Sun (1913), example of Russian Futurism
                       
Dadaism - begins in Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, spreads to Paris   

Tristan Tzara (1896 -- 1963), leader, writes several manifestos, plays

                        The Gas Heart (1923)

Surrealism
   
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 -- 1918) –

The Breasts of Tiresias (written 1903, produced 1917)
   
Jean Cocteau (1892 -- 1963), The Marriage on the Eiffel Tower (1921), surreal films
   
Andre Breton (1896 -- 1966), poet, writes surrealist manifesto, 1924

Theatre of Cruelty
   
Antonin Artaud (1896 -- 1948)
       
The Theatre and Its Double (1938)
       
Jet of Blood (1927)

In Germany, site of the greatest devastation
   
Expressionism
       
Georg Kaiser (1878 -- 1945) - From Morn to Midnight (1916)
       
Karel (1890 -- 1938)  [and Josef] Capek, Czech brothers - R.U.R. (1921)
       
Leopold Jessner (1878 – 1945 directs an expressionist Richard III
                                   
                        Jessnertreppen

Epic Theatre
       
Erwin Piscator (1893 -- 1966)
           
creates a political (agit prop) theatre
           
uses filmed sequences behind live actors

The Good Soldier Schweik (Hasek, 1928)

Bertolt Brecht (1891 -- 1956)
           
Threepenny Opera (1928)
           
Mother Courage (1937)
           
The Good Woman of Setzuan (1938 -- 39)
           
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944 -- 45)

alienation (verfremdungseffekt, V-effekt)

historification

In Russia
   
more experiments from Meyerhold
       
biomechanics

constructivism – settings by Lyubova Popova, other “Amazons of avant-garde”

directs the works of Mayakovsky (e.g. The Bedbug, 1929)

directs landmark production of Gogol’s The Inspector General (1926)

other major Russian anti-realist directors
   
Nikolai Evreinov (1879 -- 1953) The Storming of the Winter Palace, 1920

Evgeny Vakhtangov (1883 -- 1922) Princess Turandot
   
Alexander Tairov (1885 -- 1950) works with designer Alexandra Exter


In Italy
   
Luigi Pirandello (1867 -- 1936)

grotesque plays – “theatre within the theatre”
       
Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921)
       
Enrico IV (1922)


In Spain
   
Federico Garcia-Lorca (1899 -- 1936) writes poetic tragedies
       
Blood Wedding (1933)
       
The House of Bernarda Alba (1936)

Less radical movements in France
   
Jacques Copeau (1879 -- 1949) establishes the Théâtre du Vieux Columbier
       
experiments with masks, commedia techniques
       
focuses on the actor and the text

trains many major performer/directors, notably:

            Louis Jouvet (1887 -- 1951)

Charles Dullin (1885 -- 1949)

Jean Giraudoux (1882 -- 1944) writes The Madwoman of Chaillot (1945)

In England, few radical movements
   
the Old Vic (1931) is the leading theatre
       
Tyrone Guthrie (1900 -- 1971) directs experimental Shakespeare there
           
            formation of important regional theatres (Birmingham, Manchester etc)                    

English actors:
       
John Gielgud (1904 -- 2000), also directs frequently
       
Laurence Olivier (1907 -- 1989)
       
Edith Evans (1888 -- 1976)
       
Peggy Ashcroft (1907 -- 1991)

Playwrights:
       
Noel Coward (1899 -- 1973) – new comedies of manners
           
Private Lives (1930)
           
Blithe Spirit (1941)
       
T.S. Eliot (1888 -- 1965) poetic dramas  - Murder in the Cathedral (1935)


In Ireland
   
            Sean O'Casey (1884 -- 1964), playwright
       
Juno and the Paycock (1924), others in realist mode
       
The Silver Tassie (1928), in expressionist mode


Theatre in the United States Between World War I & World War II

Seeds of Change

the "Little Theatre" movement, includes
   
the Toy Theatre, Boston 1912; the Chicago Little Theatre, 1912;
Neighborhood Playhouse, New York 1915; Detroit Arts and Crafts Theatre, 1916

theatre in the universities
   
George Pierce Baker (1866 -- 1935), Harvard, later Yale

the new stagecraft
   
Robert Edmund Jones (1887 -- 1954) leads the movement

                                    The Dramatic Imagination (1941)

Other designers include Norman Bel Geddes, Lee Simonson, Jo Mielziner

The Provincetown Players, founded 1915 by Jig Cook, produces Eugene O’Neill’s plays

The Washington Square Players, founded 1915
   
becomes the Theatre Guild (1919)

the workers’ theatre movement – agit/prop, political plays

the Group Theatre (1931 -- 1941)
   
socially conscious, well-performed drama
   
Harold Clurman (1901 -- 1980)
   
Cheryl Crawford (1902 -- 1986)
                                   
Lee Strasberg (1901 -- 1982) applies Stanislavsky system  to actor training

the Federal Theatre Project (1935 -- 1939) -- “free, adult, uncensored”
   
led by Hallie Flanagan (1890 -- 1969)
   
living newspapers (One-Third of a Nation)

African-American projects

                        Orson Welles (1915 -- 1985) and John Houseman (1902 -- 1988)

                                    The Cradle Will Rock (1937)

Independent producers/directors

Welles and Houseman, The Mercury Theatre

Arthur Hopkins (1878 -- 1950)

Eva Le Gallienne (1899 -- 1991) Civic Rep (1926)

The birth of Unions (IATSE, United Scenic Artists, Actors Equity)

Plays & Playwrights
   
Eugene O'Neill (1888 -- 1953) most important

experiments in many styles; empowers later writers
       
The Emperor Jones (1920)
       
Desire Under the Elms (1924)
       
Long Day's Journey into Night (1941, produced 1956)

wins four Pulitzers, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1936

            Other American Playwrights

Elmer Rice (1892 -- 1967) The Adding Machine (1923)

Sidney Howard (1891 -- 1939) They Knew What They Wanted (1924)
                                   
Maxwell Anderson (1888 -- 1959), Mary of Scotland (1933)

Robert Sherwood (1896 -- 1952) Idiot’s Delight (1936)

William Saroyan (1908 -- 1981) The Time of Your Life (1939)

Clifford Odets (1906 -- 1963)

Waiting for Lefty (1935)

Awake and Sing (1935)

Philip Barry (1896 -- 1949) The Philadelphia Story (1939)

George S. Kaufman ((1889 -- 1961) & Moss Hart (1904 -- 1961)

You Can’t Take it With You (1936), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1940)
           


A Surge of Women Playwrights

Zona Gale (1874 -- 1938), Miss Lulu Bett (performed 1920, Pulitzer 1921)

                        Susan Glaspell (1876 -- 1948) – Alison’s House (1930), Pulitzer 1931

Rachel Crothers (1878 – 1958) Susan & God (1937)

directs and casts her own plays, plays by others

Sophie Treadwell (c.1885 -- 1970) expressionist Machinal (1928)

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950) Aria da Capo

with others creates The Cherry Lane Theatre (1924)

Lillian Hellman (1905 -- 1984)

                                    The Children's Hour (1934)

                                    The Little Foxes (1939)

and one more male: Thornton Wilder (1897 -- 1975)

                                    Our Town (1938)

                                    The Skin of Our Teeth (1942)


African-American theatre – roots in Harlem Renaissance

            Anita Bush (c. 1883 -- 1974)

Noble Sissle (1889 -- 1975) & Eubie Blake (1883 -- 1983) - Shuffle Along (1921)

Angelina Grimke (1880 -- 1958) - Rachel (1916)

Willis Richardson (1889 -- 1977) - The Chipwoman's Fortune (1924)

Langston Hughes (1902 -- 1967) - Mulatto  (1935)

Paul Robeson (1898 -- 1976)

The American musical

            Ziegfeld Follies (1907 -- 1931)

George M Cohan (1878 -- 1942) Little Johnny Jones (1904)

influence of European operetta


Jerome Kern (1885 -- 1945)

Princess musicals (Very Good Eddie, 1915; Leave it to Jane, 1917)

                        Showboat (1927) by Kern & Oscar Hammerstein (1895 -- 1960)

                                    major step forward in musicals

                                    serious plot, racial theme

                                    songs tell the story, in addition to the libretto

Irving Berlin (1888 – 1889)

                        writes songs for Ziegfeld Follies, other revues

                                    As Thousands Cheer (1933)

George Gershwin (1898 -- 1937) and brother Ira (1896 -- 1983)

                        Of Thee I Sing (1931) -- first Pulitzer for musical

                        Porgy and Bess (1935)


                                    Cole Porter (1891 -- 1964) Anything Goes (1934)

                                    Richard Rodgers (1902 -- 1979) and Lorenz Hart (1895 -- 1943)

Pal Joey (1940)

Performers on stage and in film

John Barrymore (1882 -- 1941), sister Ethel (1879 -- 1959), brother Lionel (1878 -- 1954)

Orson Welles, Eva Le Gallienne, Paul Robeson

Group Theatre actors exit to Hollywood 

Katherine Hepburn (1907 -- 2003)

            Alfred Lunt (1892 -- 1977) & Lynne Fontanne (1887 -- 1983)

Laurette Taylor (1884 -- 1946)

            Helen Hayes 1900 -- 1993)

            Katherine Cornell (1898 -- 1974)

Theatre in Europe and Great Britain after World War II

Social and historical background

World War II wreaks destruction and division in Europe
The atomic bomb

The cold war

Artists seek appropriate mirror to hold up to 20th c nature


Theatre in post-World War II France

The Theatre of the Absurd
   
critic Martin Esslin coins the term

roots:  Jarry, Pirandello
       
existential drama by Sartre (1905 -- 1980) & Camus (1913 -- 1960)

Samuel Beckett (1906 -- 1989)
       
Waiting for Godot (1953)

Endgame (1957)
       
Happy Days (1961)
   
Eugene Ionesco (1912 -- 1994)
       
The Bald Soprano (1949)
       
Rhinoceros (1960)

Jean Genet (1910 -- 1986)
           
The Maids (1947)
       
The Balcony (1956)

Other Theatre in Post-War France

Jean Anouilh (1910 -- 1987) – writes literary, cynical drama

                        Antigone (1943)

                        Ring Round the Moon (1947)

                        The Lark (1953)

Influential French Directors
                       
Jean-Louis Barrault (1910 – 1994) - “the text is like an iceberg”
   
Jean Vilar (1912 – 1971) breathes life into Théâtre National Populaire

founds the Avignon Festival 1947
   
Roger Blin (1907 -- 1984) directs absurdist plays of Beckett, Genet
   
                        Roger Planchon (1931 -- 2009) takes a Brechtian approach to classics

two recent French directors

                                    Patrice Chereau (1944 -- )

                                                directs film, opera, as well as theatre

                                    Ariane Mnouchkine (1940 -- )

                                                Théâtre du Soleil

                                                intercultural theatre

a recent French playwright

                                    Yasmina Reza (1959 --  )

                                                Art (1994)

                                                The Unexpected Man (1995)

                                                God of Carnage (2006)

Theatre in German-speaking countries

Brecht's Berliner Ensemble (1949) influences production style throughout Europe

Two postwar writers

            Max Frisch (1911 -- 1991)

                        The Chinese Wall (1946)

                        Biedermann and the Firebugs (1958)

            Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921 -- 1990)

                        The Visit (1956)

                        The Physicists ((1962)

Docudrama

Rolf Hochhuth (1931 -- ) The Deputy (1963)

Peter Weiss (1916 -- 1982) The Investigation (1965)    
                                               
also writes an important non-docudrama - Marat/Sade (1964)

Two recent writers

            Peter Handke (1942 -- ) – anti-theatre: Kaspar (1968)

Heiner Müller (1929 -- 1995) deconstructionist

                                                Hamletmachine (1977)

Postwar German Directors

            Peter Stein (1937 --  ).

                        Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz

                        reinterpretations of classics

Claus Peymann (1937 --  ) revivifies Burgtheater, Vienna

Frank Castorf (1951 --  )

                        Volksbühne in Berlin

                        irreverent treatments of classics and modern classics

            Thomas Ostermeier (1968 --  )                       

                        from the Baracke to the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz

                        introduces radical young British writers


German Dance Theatre - Pina Bausch (1940 -- 2009) Tanztheater in Wuppertal
                       

Italian Theatre from 1945 to Present

            Giorgio Strehler (1921 -- 1997) – most important post-war director

                        Teatro Piccolo di Milano (1947)

                        Shakespeare, Goldoni, Brecht

Franco Zeffirelli (1923 -- ) directs and designs operas as well as plays

Dario Fo (1926 --  ) biting political humor

                        Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1968)

                        Nobel Prize for Literature 1997


Theatre in the Czech Republic after the war: Havel and Svoboda

            Vaclav Havel (1936 --  )

                        The Garden Party (1963)

                        becomes President of the Czech Republic in 1989

            Josef Svoboda (1920 -- 2002)

                        design experiments with light and film

                        Laterna Magika


Theatrical Experimentation in Poland
                       
            Slawomir Mrozek (1932 -- 1913) Tango (1964)

            Janusz Glowacki (1938 --  ) - Hunting Cockroaches (1985), The Fourth Sister (2003)
           
            Jerzi Grotowski (1933 -- 1999), influential director

                        Towards a Poor Theatre (1968)

                        a “holy” theatre, actors priests and audience communicants
                                   
Tadeusz Kantor (1915 -- 1990) director based in Krakow, created Theatre of Death


Postwar Theatre in the Former Soviet Union

            after Stalin, a period of “thaw”

            five important Russian directors

                        Oleg Efremov (1927 -- 2000) The Sovremennik (Contemporary) Theatre

                                    introduces British and American plays in the period of the thaw

                        Yuri Lyubimov (1917 --   ) The Taganka Theatre (1964-1984)

                                    experiments with puppets, masks

                                    non-realistic versions of classics

                                    stripped of citizenship

                        Anatoly Efros (1925 -- 1987)

                                    stages Bulgakov’s Moliere, 1967

                                    heads Taganka after Lyubimov

Georgi Tovstonogov (1915 -- 1989) 

                                    Gorky Theatre, Saint Petersburg

                                    stages Tolstoi’s Kholstomer, or The Story of a Horse, 1975

                        Lev Dodin (1944 --   )

                                    Maly Theatre, Saint Petersburg

                                    extensive tours of U.S and Europe


Postwar Theatre in the United Kingdom

            The Old Vic, elegant, old fashioned with an emphasis on fine acting

            The English Stage Company (1956) creates a revolution in 1956

                        George Devine (1910 -- 1965) artistic director

                        John Osborne (1929 -- 1994)

                                    Look Back in Anger (1956)

The Entertainer (1957)

The Theatre Workshop (1945) – some company created pieces

                                    Joan Littlewood (1914 -- 2002) artistic director

                                    Brendan Behan (1923 -- 1965) - The Hostage (1958)

Shelagh Delaney (1939 --  ) - A Taste of Honey (1958)

Oh, What a Lovely War! (1963) company-produced success


Plays and Playwrights

                        Harold Pinter (1930 -- 2008)

                                    The Homecoming (1965)

                                    Old Times (1970)

                                    Betrayal (1978)

                                    the Pinter pause

                                    wins Nobel Prize for Literature, 2005
                                   
                        Joe Orton (1933 -- 1967)

                                    Entertaining Mr Sloane (1964)

                                    What the Butler Saw (1969 – posthumously)

Peter Shaffer (1926 --  ) Equus (1973), Amadeus (1979)

Tom Stoppard (1937 --  )

                                    Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967)

                                    Travesties (1974)

                                    The Real Thing (1982)

                                    Arcadia (1993)

                        Caryl Churchill (1938 --  )

                                    Cloud 9 (1979)

                                    Top Girls (1982)

                                    Far Away (2000)


The Royal Shakespeare Company (1962), founded by:

                        Peter Hall (1930 --  )

                        Michel Saint Denis (1897 -- 1971)

                        Peter Brook (1925 --  )

Brook directs famous productions of  (among many others):

Marat/Sade (1964)

                                    A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970)

                                    The Mahabharata (1985)

                        Trevor Nunn (1940 --  ) takes control of RSC in 1968


The Royal National Theatre (1963)

                        Laurence Olivier (1907 -- 1989) first artistic director

                        Kenneth Tynan (1927 – 1980) literary adviser

                        Nicholas Hytner (1956 --  ) takes over National in 2003

new directions, inexpensive seats

New Theatres for New Writers

The Edinburgh Festival and its Fringe, also the Traverse, year round

In 1968 “fringe” theatres (e.g. The Tricycle) spring up in London

                        1990s London theatres: Donmar Warehouse, Almeida, The Gate, others

                        Glasgow – The Citizens’ Theatre

            Recent British Writers

                        “in-yer-face: theatre

                                    Patrick Marber (1964 --  ) Closer (1997)

                                    Mark Ravenhill (1966 --  ) Shopping and Fucking (1996)

                                    Sarah Kane (1971 -- 1999) Blasted (1995)


            The Stratford and Shaw Festivals in Canada


Irish Drama after WWII

            Brian Friel (1929 --  )

                        Philadelphia, Here I Come (1964)

                        The Faith Healer (1979)

                        Dancing at Lughnasa (1990)

            Frank McGuinness, Tom Murphy, Conor McPherson

            Martin McDonagh (1970 --  )

                        The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996)

                        The Cripple of Inishmaan (1997)

                        The Pillowman (2003)           


Theatre in the United States after World War II

Social and Historical Background

            post-World War II

                        U.S. leads Western world

                        Cold War anxieties

                        HUAC hearings

                        family unit shaken

            Vietnam, the 1960s and 1970s

                        John F Kennedy assassinated

                        war escalates

                        1968 - Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy assassinated

                        anti-establishment protests in U.S. and throughout the world

                        Watergate scandals (1972 – 1974)

                        a weak U.S. economy

            from the 1980s to the new millennium

                        new era of conservatism

                        new enemies in the post-cold war

                                    unrest in Baltic States

                                    The Middle East crisis

                                    9-11

                                    wars in Iraq & Afghanistan


The Postwar Theatrical Style

            Elia Kazan (1909 -- 2003) – directs Williams, Miller

            Jo Mielziner (1901 -- 1976) – designs for Kazan
   
            Harold Clurman (1901 -- 1980)                     

Alan Scheider (1917 -- 1984) directs absurdists, Albee, regional theatre

Actors Studio (1947)

                        Robert Lewis, Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, founders

                        Lee Strasberg (1901 -- 1982) – modified Stanislavsky acting style

Plays and Playwrights  

            O’Neill’s late plays produced posthumously

Tennessee Williams (1911 -- 1983) – poetic realism

                        The Glass Menagerie (1945)

                        A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

                        Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1954)


Arthur Miller (1916 -- 2005) – social realism

                        Death of a Salesman (1949)

                        The Crucible (1953)

                        The Ride Down Mount Morgan (1991)

William Inge (1913 -- 1973)

                        Picnic (1953)

                        Bus Stop (1955)

Edward Albee (1928 --  )

                        Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962)

                        A Delicate Balance (1966)

                        Three Tall Women (1994)

Neil Simon (1927 --  )

                        Barefoot in the Park (1963)

                        The Odd Couple (1965)

Broadway and the American Musical

            1940s -- 1960s -- the "Golden Age" of the musical:

            Rodgers & Hammerstein

                        Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949)

                                    Agnes DeMille (1909 – 1993) - dream ballets for Oklahoma, Carousel

            Alan Lerner (1918 – 1986) & Frederick Loewe (1901 – 1988) - My Fair Lady (1956)

            Frank Loesser (1910 – 1969) - Guys and Dolls (1950)

            Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990) - West Side Story (1957)

            Other Golden Age musicals: The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Hello Dolly

            "Concept" musicals:

            McDermott, Rado, & Ragni, Hair (1968)

            Stephen Sondheim (1930 --  )

                        Company (1970)

                        Sweeney Todd (1979)

                        Into the Woods (1987)

                        Assassins (1991)

            Michael Bennett (1943 -- 1987) (Hamlisch, Kleban, Kirkwood, Dante)

                        A Chorus Line (1975)

            John Kander (1927 --  ) and Fred Ebb (1932 -- 2004) - Cabaret (1966), Chicago (1975)

            Major musical producers and directors 

David Merrick (1911 – 2000)

Bob Fosse (1927 – 1987)

Hal Prince (1928 -- )

Jerome Robbins (1938 -- 1998)

James Lapine (1949 -- )

The British invasion

            Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948 --  )

                                    Jesus Christ Superstar (1971)

                                    Cats (1982)

                                    Phantom of the Opera (1986)

                        Cameron Macintosh (1946 --  )

produces Lloyd Webber’s and other work, e.g. Les Miserables (1987)

The Musical in the 21st Century

revivals, musicals from movies, and “dancicals” that stage pop music

complicated, intimate musicals (Lippa, La Chiusa, Guettel, others)

How does the new musical function in the commercial theatre?

Off-Broadway, a non-commercial alternative

full seasons of classics, modern European plays, new American work

American Repertory Company (1947 -- 48)

Eva LeGallienne, Margaret Webster, Cheryl Crawford, founders

            Circle in the Square (founded 1951)

                        Jose Quintero (1924 -- 1999) & Theodore Mann (1924 --  )

            the Phoenix Theatre (1953)

                        Stuart Vaughn directs

                        merges with Association of Producing Artists (APA) early 60s

            Lincoln Center (1965)

The Regional Theatre Movement

non-profit alternative to commercial tours

            thrust and arena stages

pioneers

                        Margo Jones (1913 -- 1955) Theatre 47 -- Dallas (1947)

                        Nina Vance (1914 -- 1980) Houston Alley Theatre (1947)

                        Zelda Fichandler (1924 -- ) Arena Stage -- Washington D.C. (1949)

            expansion in the 1960s

                        Ford and Rockefeller Foundation grants (1959)

                        National Endowment of the Arts (1965)

                        Theatre Communications Group (1961)

well-known regional theatres

                        Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis MN (1963)

Long Wharf, New Haven CT (1965)

A.C.T., San Francisco (1965)

and many, many more

   Off-Off Broadway

            Caffe Cino – Joe Cino (d. 1967)

            Judson Poets’ Theatre – Al Carmines (1938 --  )

            Cafe La Mama -- Ellen Stewart (1921 --  )


            the Living Theatre (1946)

                        Judith Malina (1926 --  ) & Julian Beck (1925 -- 1985)

                        Paradise Now (1968)

            the Open Theatre (1963)

                        Joe Chaikin (1935 -- 2003)

A Sampler of Non-Profit Theatres in New York

            Roundabout Theatre (1965), Gene Feist, later Todd Haimes

            Manhattan Theatre Club (1970), Lynne Meadow

            Playwrights Horizons (1971), Robert Moss

            Circle Rep (1969-1997) Marshall Mason directs Lanford Wilson’s plays

The New York Shakespeare Festival (1954)

                        Joseph Papp (1921 -- 1991)

                                    free Shakespeare in Central Park, beginning 1957

                                    The Delacorte Theatre (1962)

                                    the Public Theatre (1967)


“Is the theatre really dead?” 
the future of theatre
an age of tv and computers
attempts to update
a “fabulous invalid”
            the continuing need for live performance
and remember: de nobis, fabula narrator

NOTE: The following information was not covered in my course, at IC, but is in my blog:

An Increasingly Diverse Theatrical Culture in the United States

African American theatre
            Lorraine Hansberry (1930 -- 1965) - A Raisin in the Sun (1959)

            African American Theatre in the 1960s and 70s

                        Amiri Baraka (1934 --  ) Dutchman (1964), Slave Ship (1969)

                        Ed Bullins (1935 --  ) The Taking of Miss Janie (1975)

                        Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) (1967) Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks

                        Alice Childress (1920-1994) Wine in the Wilderness (1969)

Ntozake Shange (1948 --  )
for colored girls who have considered suicide when
the rainbow is enuf (1975)
   
August Wilson (1945 -- 2005)

                                    Fences (1985) wins Pulitzer Prize

                                    The Piano Lesson (1990) wins Pulitzer Prize

                                    Lloyd Richards (1923-2006) directs Wilson’s work

                        some recent African American playwrights
                                    George C. Wolfe (1955 --  )
                                                The Colored Museum (1986)
                                                artistic director, Public Theatre (1993-2004)
Anna Deavere Smith (1951 --  )
                                                Fires in the Mirror (1991)
                                                Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1993)
                                    Susan Lori Parks (1964 --  ) Topdog/Underdog (2002)

                                    Dael Orlandersmith (1959 -- ) Yellowman (2002)        

                                    Lynne Nottage (1964 -- ) Ruined (2008) Pulitzer Prize 2009

Hispanic American theatre
            El Teatro Campesino
                       
Luis Valdez (1940 --  ) Zoot Suit (1978)

INTAR, Repertorio Espanol, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Nuyorican Poets’ Café

Miguel Pinero (1947 -- 1988) Short Eyes

Maria Irene Fornes (1930 --  ) Fefu and her Friends (1977), The Conduct of Life 1985

Milcha Sanchez Scott, Roosters (1987)
                                   
Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jesus Hopped the A-Train

Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics, Pulitzer Prize 2003

Asian American theatre

The East-West Players (1965)
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (1977) Tisa Chang (1945 -- ) artistic director

David Henry Hwang (1957 --  ) M. Butterfly (1988)

            Ping Chong (1946 -- ) – performance artist

Native American Theatre

            Hanay Geiogamah (1945 --  )
                                               
Native American Theatre Ensemble
                                   
Spiderwoman (1975) Native American women’s ensemble

Gay and Lesbian Theatre
                                   
Split Britches (1981)

                        Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Deborah Margoli Belle Reprieve (1991)

                        The Five Lesbian Brothers (1989), Lisa Kron and others
                                   
Mart Crowley (1935 --  ) The Boys in the Band (1968)
                       
Martin Sherman, Bent (1978)
                                   
Plays about AIDS
                                               
Larry Kramer (1935 --  ) The Normal Heart (1981)
                                   
William Hoffman (1939 -- ) As Is (1981)
                                               
Harvey Fierstein (1954 --  ) Torch Song Trilogy (1983)
                       
Charles Ludlam (1943 -- 1987) The Ridiculous Theatrical Company

                                    The Mystery of Irma Vep (1984)
                       
Terrence McNally (1939 --  )

                                    Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994)
                                               
Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune (1982)
                                   
Master Class (1995)

Tony Kushner (1956 --  )

                                    Angels in America (1991-1993)

                                    Homebody/Kabul

                                    Caroline or Change  (2004)

Some Important Recent American Playwrights

Lanford Wilson (1937 -- ) Hot L Baltimore (1973) 
           
John Guare (1938 -- )  Six Degrees of Separation (1990)
                       
David Rabe (1940 -- ) Hurlyburly (1984)

Sam Shepard (1943 --  )

Curse of the Starving Class (1977)

Buried Child (1978)

True West (1980)
           
David Mamet (1947 --  )

American Buffalo (1975)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1983)

Speed-the-Plow (1988)

Marsha Norman (1947 -- ) ‘night, Mother (1983)

Christopher Durang (1949 --) Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You (1979)
                       
Wendy Wasserstein (1950 -- 2006) The Heidi Chronicles (1988)
                       
John Patrick Shanley (1950 -- ) Doubt (2004)
                       
Paula Vogel (1951 --  )

The Baltimore Waltz (1982)

How I Learned to Drive (1997)

            Craig Lucas (1951 -- ) Prelude to a Kiss (1990)                    

Beth Henley (1952 -- ) Crimes of the Heart (1977)

            Donald Margulies (1954 -- ) Sight Unseen (1992)
           
Richard Greenberg (1958 -- )  Take Me Out (2002)
           
            Teresa Rebeck (?) Spike Heels (1990)
           
Neil LaBute (1963 -- ) reasons to be pretty (2008)
           
            Tracey Letts (1965 -- ) August: Osage County (2007)
           
Sarah Ruhl (1972 -- ) Eurydice (2003)
                       

Postmodern Performance in America
                       
The Performance Group (1967-80)

Richard Schechner (1934-  ) writes Environmental Theatre (1968)

Dionysus in 69 (1968)

Wooster Group (1980-  ) founded by Elizabeth LeCompte (1944-  )
                                               
Routes 1 & 9 (1981)
                                               
Brace Up! (1990)
                       
To You, The Birdie (2002)

“deconstructions” of classics
                       
Ontological-Hysteric Theatre (1968) founded by Richard Foreman (1937-  )

                        Total Recall (1970)
                                               
The Gods are Pounding my Head (Lumberjack Messiahs) (2005)
                       
Mabou Mines (1970)
                                   
Lee Breuer (1937-  )

                        JoAnne Akalaitis  (1937-  )

Martha Clarke - dance theatre

                        Garden of Earthly Delights (1984, revived 2009)

                        Vienna Lusthaus (1986, revived 2002-03)

Peter Sellars (1957-   )

directs ART’s The Inspector General 1980-81

heads American National Theatre 1984-86

updates Mozart trilogy Don Giovanni, Figaro, and Cosi fan Tutte 1989

heads Los Angeles Festival and Boston Opera Theater 1990
           
stages The Persians, Los Angeles Festival 1993

Robert Wilson (1942-  )

                        CIVIL warS (1983-84)
                       
The Black Rider (1989)
                        Time Rocker (1996)

                        Woyzeck (2000)

Robert LePage (1957- ) French Canadian

                        founds Ex Machina, Quebec City, 1993

                        Seven Streams of the River Ota (1994)

                        The Far Side of the Moon (2000)


Some major recent directors not already noted (listed alphabetically).
This and the lists below do not pretend to be complete.
U.S.:
Anne Bogart b. 1951               Mike Nichols b. 1931
Robert Falls b. 1954                Jack O’Brien b. 1939
Frank Galati b. 1943               Andrei Serban b. 1943
Michael Greif b. 1959             Daniel Sullivan b. 1920
Joe Mantello b. 1962               Julie Taymor b. 1952
Des McAnuff b. 1952             Jerry Zachs b. 1946    
Gregory Mosher b. 1949         

England & Ireland
Howard Davies b. 1945           Sam Mendes b. 1965
Declan Donnellan b. 1953       Katie Mitchell  b.1964                        
Richard Eyre b. 1943              Adrian Noble b. 1950
Michael Grandage b. 1962-     Thea Sharrock b. 1976           
Garry Hynes b. 1953              Max Stafford-Clark b. 1941
Jonathan Kent b. 1950            Deborah Warner b. 1959-
Simon McBurney b. 1957

Europe
Eugenio Barba b. 1936            Jerome Savary b. 1942-
Ingmar Bergman 1918-2007   Antoine Vitez 1930 – 1990
Calixto Bieito b.1963              Andrzej Wajda b. 1926
Tadeusz Kantor 1915-1990     Peter Zadek 1926-2009
Luca Ronconi b. 1933

Some major recent designers not already mentioned (listed chronologically)
U.S.
Scenic                                     Costume                                              Lighting
Ming Cho Lee b. 1930            Patricia Zipprodt 1925-1999               Tharon Musser 1925-2009
Robin Wagner b. 1933            Theoni Aldredge b. 1932                     Jennifer Tipton b. 1937
Tony Walton b. 1934              Jane Greenwood b. 1934                     Jules Fisher b. 1937
John Conklin b. 1937              William Ivey Long b. 1947                 Paul Gallo b. 1953
Marjorie Kellogg b. 1946        Susan Hilferty                                     Peggy Eisenhauer b. 1962
Eugene Lee b. 1949                 Ann Hould-Ward b. 1954                   Brian MacDevitt 1956-
Santo Loquasto b. 1944                                                                      Ken Billington 1946-
John Lee Beatty b. 1948

Sound
Harold Burris-Meyer 1902 – 1985
Abe Jacob b. 1944
Tony Meola
Mark Bennett
Dan Moses Schreier

England
Set & (frequently) Costume   Lighting                                              Sound
Ralph Koltai b. 1924               Andrew Bridge b. 1952                       David Collison
John Bury 1925 – 2000          Paule Constable                                   Adrienne Quartly
Sally Jacobs b. 1932               Mark Henderson                                 Paul Arditty
John Napier b. 1944                Hugh Vanstone                                   Bobby Aitken
Nick Ormerod b. 1951                                                                        Christopher Shutt
Deirdre Clancy                                                                                    Carolyn Downing
Bob Crowley b. 1953?
Tim Hatley b. 1967

European Designers
E. F. Burian 1904 – 1959        Karl-Ernst Herrmann b. 1936
Miroslav Kouril 1911-1984    Roberto Moscoso b. 1943
Josef Svoboda 1920 – 2002    Richard Peduzzi b. 1943
Andre Acquart b. 1922            Hans Peter Kuhn b. 1952
Franco Zeffirelli b. 1923         Dionysis Fotopoulos
Ezio Frigerio b. 1930              Jean Kalman


The following is an outline I created to add to the woefully little “world” theater in my courses. It is not anywhere near complete, but it may be of interest to some of you.

A Few Examples of Theatre in the Middle East
Islamic Influences on the Theatre
            storytelling
            puppet drama

            Iran
Arts Festival at Shiraz 1967-77
Before the Iranian fundamentalist revolution major performing artists such as Peter Brook, John Cage, Merce Cunningham took part

Ta’ziyeh, a religious drama that reenacts the murder of the grandson of Mohammed, the founder of Islam

Palestine
                        Palestinian National Theatre (1984)
                                    Jidariyya (2008) based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish

                        Al-Kasaba Theatre (1970)


            Israel
                        Habimah Theatre -- established in Russia, moved to Palestine 1928
                        Tel Aviv Municipal Theatre (The Cameri) founded 1944

                        Joshua Sobel (1939- )
                                    writes Ghetto (1984)
                                    heads Municipal Theatre, Haifa
                                                combines Israeli and Palestinians in controversial productions


A Sampling of Theatre in Africa
            traditional dance drama and storytelling
            influence of colonial powers
                        contemporary African theatre reflects both of those influences
            Nigeria
                        Roots in Yoruba Empire, dating back to 14th century
                                    1950s Herbert Ogunde produces Yoruba operas
                                    Wole Soyinka (1934-  ) in Nigeria
                                                Death and the King’s Horseman (1976)
                                                Nobel Prize 1986
Biyi Bendele, recent Nigerian playwright, was commissioned by RSC to adapt Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

            Portuguese-speaking Africa (Angola, Mozambique etc)
                        After independence (mid-1970s) a surge of political plays, vaudevilles etc
French-speaking Africa
            North Africa – Algeria
                        Muslim tradition and French censorship impede growth of theatre
                        Kateb Yacine, playwright well-known in France
            South of the Sahara
                        pre-colonization: pieces featuring story-tellers
                        Recent historical plays react against French colonialism
                        Jean-Marie Serreau (1915 – 1973)
                                    trained with Charles Dullin
                                    in 1960s became associated with plays by Yacine, others
South Africa   
Market Theatre, Johannesburg, est 1976 as an independent non-racial theatre
Space Theatre, Cape Town, defiantly no-racial, active in 70s re-opened 2008

Athol Fugard (1932-  )
            Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972)
                        with John Kani, Winston Ntshona
                                    Master Harold and the Boys (1982)

William Kentridge, artist, designer, director
                                    Woyzeck on the Highveld, 1992
                                    Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria
                                    Magic Flute Metropolitan Opera
                                    The Nose, Metropolitan Opera


                        Handspring Puppet Company
                                    Founders: Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler
                                                Frequently work with Kentridge
                                                Woyzeck on the Highveld, 1992
                                                Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria
                                                War Horse

A Few Dramatists/Directors in South America & the Caribbean
Martinique
                        Aime Cesaire (1913-2008)
                                    A Tempest (1969)
Trinidad
            Derek Walcott (1930- )
                        The Odyssey: A Stage Version (1993)
                        Nobel Prize 1992
            Mustapha Matura (1939- )
                        The Playboy of the West Indies (1984)
Brazil
                        Augusto Boal (1931 -- 2009), theoretician and practitioner
                                    The Theatre of the Oppressed (1975)
                                    theatre for social change

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