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The figures here are from an elocution exercise in an 1851 schoolbook. The 19th-century world was one of performance and presentation, a large portion of which was oratory. Preachers, politicans, actors, and lecturers spoke in tones and gestures discrete from everyday conversation. As you can see, even young children were trained to decipher and employ the gestural codes. Notice that one did not only extend the arms, but shift weight, turn the body and head, and change position of the feet. Each numbered figure corresponds to a word in red in the below lines:

KNOW YE THIS, MY FRIENDS, THAT HE WHO REIGNETH IN HEAVEN,

WHOSE FOOTSTOOL IS THE SOLID GLOBE,

WHO AT A GLANCE TAKETH IN ALL THINGS,

WHOSE ESSENCE FILLETH ALL SPACE,

THE IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE,

REGARDETH US, THE CREATURES OF HIS CREATION, HIS BOUNTY,

NOT AS OBJECTS TO BE CAST AWAY

OR REPELLED FROM HIS PRESENCE,

BUT AS BEINGS TO WHOM HIS HEART IS EVER OPEN,

HIS HAND EVER EXTENDED.

HE WILL TAKE US TO HIS ARMS, AS A MOTHER TAKETH HER CHILD.

To get a sample of past oratorical style, click the link "historical speeches" on the left.
This is a streaming of early historical speeches and recordings by Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, Ernest Shackleton, Sarah Bernhardt, William Howard Taft and others, created from early cylinder recordings at the University of California, Santa Barbara. (The rest of the site is worth browsing, with early home recordings, music, and one set of early vaudeville recordings.)

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The figures here are from an elocution exercise in an 1851 schoolbook. The 19th-century world was one of performance and presentation, a large portion of which was oratory. Preachers, politicans, actors, and lecturers spoke in tones and gestures discrete from everyday conversation. As you can see, even young children were trained to decipher and employ the gestural codes.

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Drama Teacher Resource

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Etymology

History

elements of melodrama are believed to have originated in the 5th century B.C, later appearing in Medieval and Elizabethan dramas

emerged in the 19th century from 18th century sentimental dramas in Germany and France that involved both music and action

during the 19th century, melodramas graced the great stages of Europe, America and Australia

related to other theatrical forms such as sentimental comedy and domestic tragedy

Types

DISASTER MELODRAMAS: natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires

NAUTICAL MELODRAMAS: English form popular in the 1820s and 30s, sailors, navy, pirates, lawlessness

ANIMAL MELODRAMAS: animals on stage such as dogs and horses

DOMESTIC MELODRAMAS: more serious subject matter such as adultery and illegitimacy, romantic themes

SENSATION MELODRAMAS: emerging from sensation novels of the 1860s and 70s, love and murder themes

Form

deliberate departure from and reaction against strict neoclassical rules (stemming from Aristotle) of the Three Unities: 1) time <single day>, 2) place <single location> and 3) action.

originally, the stage action was accompanied by musical numbers, later a musical score

music enhanced the stage action, tension, emotional tone, and suspense of the plot

comprised a series of incidents or episodes

Since the basic pattern of melodrama is always much the same (good persecuted by evil, with the eventual triumph of good), variety was gained through such novelties as exotic locales, ever-more spectacular effects, increased realism, incorporation into the action of the latest inventions, and dramatizations of popular novels or notorious crimes (Brockett, O., The Essential Theatre)

Plot

Melodrama emphasized clear and suspenseful plots in which a virtuous protagonist was hounded by a villain and rescued from seemingly insurmountable difficulties only after undergoing a series of threats to life, reputation or happiness (Brockett, O., The Essential Theatre)

Elements

PROVOCATION: "...the initial cause for setting the action in motion; very often it is the jealousy or greed of a wicked character"

PANGS: "...the sufferings of the good and innocent characters who are in conflict with the evil"

PENALTY: "...that suffered by the wicked character for his evil ways in a last-minute reversal of fortune" (Clausen, Centre Stage, p.117)

...in its strongly moralistic character, melodrama celebrated virtue above all else and insisted that vice would ultimately be punished (Theatre: Art in Action, p.7)

Devices / Conventions

Characters

The melodrama acting style requires the use of strong facial expressions, large movements and gestures, and a clear and well-projected delivery of lines ... Actors concentrated on 'showing' emotions more than feeling them. They were skilled in the use of facial expression and heightened body language to show particular emotions (Clausen, M., Centre Stage, p.119)

Acting

most scholars argue a presentational style of acting

exaggerated movement

large, over-the top, sweeping gestures

highly emotional vocal and facial expression

yet other scholars argue a more inward acting style

... acting should employ the tenets of realism ... lifelike character creation, predominately representational mode (except for asides) ... natural speech and movement (Styan, J.L., Acting in Person and in Style, p.242)

Staging

Realistic spectacle, thrilling effects, novelty, suspense, and the vindication of virtue were the major appeals of melodrama (Brocket, O., The Essential Theatre, p.171)

Works

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe (adapted for the stage)

200+ plays by August von Kotzebue

100+ plays by René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt

Plays by Dion Boucicault

Sources

Brockett, Oscar, G., The Theatre: An Introduction
Brockett, Oscar, G., History of the Theatre
Brockett, Oscar, G., Essential Theatre
Abel, L. (ed.), Theatre: Art in Action
Clausen, M., Centre Stage
Crawford, Jerry, L., Acting in Person and in Style
Chambers C. (ed.), The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre
Northern Virginia Community College, 19th Century Melodrama
crossref-it.info, A Guide to Nineteenth Century Melodrama

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19th Century Melodrama | The Drama Teacher

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Etymology c.1800-1810, melodrama = mélo (music, melody) + drame (drama) History elements of melodrama are believed to have originated in the 5th century B.C, later appearing in Medieval and Elizabethan dramas emerged in the 19th century from 18th century sentimental dramas in Germany and France that involved both music and action during the 19th century,...

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Melodrama had become immensely popular in the Australian colonies by the 1870's and many of the productions we saw here were adaptations of novels from overseas.

Some examples of these include:

As time progressed in the colonies however, many other themes such as bushrangers, the Gold Rushes and life in the outbank provided colourful melodramatic content for the Australian stage.

Some notable characters associated with the development of melodrama in the theatre include:

Edward Geoghegan who was a medical student accused of securing goods under false pretences was transported to Sydney where he then worked as a medical dispenser in the 'Sydney Infirmary'. He loved the theatre and became friendly with actor Frances Nesbitt who was a performer at the Royal Victoria Theatre. Records suggest that Geoghegan wrote the play The Hibernian Father (1844) specifically for Nesbitt. He based the play on a book called Travels of a German Prince. He was later accused of plagiarising from the Irish play The Warden of Galway but denied ever having read it. Geoghegan went on to write at least eight more plays including The Currency Lass and The Royal Masquer.

Franis Belfield who was based in Melbourne and was both an actor and a playwright was best known for Retribution or The Drunkard's Curse (1849) and The Rebel Chief.

Walter Cooper, a Sidneysider, was a lawyer, playwright, journalist and politician. He is best known for the comedy Colonial Experience (1868), Sun and Shadow (1870), Foiled (1871) and Hazard (1871). He also wrote Fuss and A Tale of the Exhibition (1880).

Archibald Murray's play Forged was considered to be an historical melodrama as it includes mention of The Gap in Sydney's Watson Bay - an infamous place for suicides. Of heightened language and context, the hero in this play fights with the villain on the precipice of the cliff until finally the villain falls to his death! Murray also wrote a play about bushrangers called Fleeced (1872).

Marcus Clarke wrote the now famous melodrama For the Term of His Natural Life as well as Foul Play (1868) and Plot (1872). He was also known for his translations of European plays and adaptations of novels and musical plays.

Francis R.C. Hopkins adapted plays from historical novels and also wrote Australian plays called All the Gold and L.S.D (1884). An interesting note is that L.S.D. stood for pounds, shillings and pence at the time of Hopkins writing of the play.

Of particular interest to us here is the rather eccentric journalist, opera singer, actor and stage manager of the Victoria Theatre, George Darrell. Davell emigrated from England in 1860 and wrote about 20 plays in all. Many were popular with the public especially The Sunny South. So moved were the audience by the pathetic and heightened melodramatic scenes that it was said that the tears of those in the dress circle area poured down onto the stalls wetting those below! This play was performed in England several times.

Another colourful actor, writer and manager of the time was Alfred Dampier - he and Garnet Walch adapted the novel Robbery Under Arms for the stage. It has an impressive cast of 40 and was first performed in 1890. Dampier played the bushranger Captain Starlight and his actress wife Katherine Russell played the brave heroine Kate Morrison. On opening night, the audience was treated to comic policemen discharging pistols and blank bullets, quintessential Australian scenery, and a real stagecoach!

It was said of Dampier (he was) not only a great actor but a man who was universally loved and respected (and who) did much for Australian national sentiment. (Sydney 'Truth' in Crawford, Hurst, Lugering and Wimmer, 2003. p. 270) Other plays of merit include:

The Scout (based on 'wild American' tent shows). This show used a 10x3 metre pool with ducks, cowboys on horse ( riding with reckless disregard for their own safety, discharging revolvers!) and an epic battle between the cowboys and the Native Americans on stage. This show was a huge success in 1891 playing to over 31000 people over a twelve night season.

There was also an abundance of plays about Ned Kelly, the famous Australian bushranger. Some of these were:

The Early 1900's

In the early part of the 20th century, it was the 'imported' plays that were viewed as the most 'serious' dramas performed in the colonies. However, there were a number of plays written and performed in Australia that are noteworthy here.

There was more humor to the square itnch of 'On our Selection' than to the square fathom ofmanyh allegedly humourous plays which are hauled hitherward, at more or less expense, from London or Noo Yark. On Saturday night, an audience which packed every corner of the house, rocked with laughter throughout. A large man, with a red face, leaned his head over THE BULLETIN'S seat and gasped, "I wouldn't miss this for quids." That was the first occasion on which this paper has agreed with a large man with a red face. (Source: 'The Bulletin' in Gadaloff, 1991. p.19)

I'm crook: me name is mud: I've done me dash

Me flamin' spirit's got the flamin' 'ump

I'm longin' to let loose on somethin' rash

Aw, I'm a chump!

If this 'ere dilly feelin' doesn't stop

I'll lose me block an' stoush some flamin' cop! (in Gadaloff, p.19)

Chu Chim Chow was a musical comedy by Oscar Asche, an actor, playwright and musician. He had trained with Henrik Ibsen in Swenden as an actor and then again in London. He was an acclaimed Shakespearean actor as well and Chu Chim Chow opened in London in 1919 and had a five year successful run. It was performed in Australia in 1922.

Ministrel Show, Vaudeville and Revue Shows

These forms of theatre became popular first in the 1890's and enjoyed popularity until after World War 1.

What are some of the more notable highlights of this era of Australian theatre?

You will undoubtedly have heard of the Tivoli Theatre in Brisbane. Its name origins can be found in the early established Tivoli Theatre in Sydney founded by Harry Richards in 1892. The idea of the Tivoli Theatre expanded to Sydney, Adelaide and to Brisbane. Its claim to fame was to showcase imported 'minstrel' stars which were supported by Australian acts.

From 1916 to 1927 the most popular vaudiville comedy team in this country were Nat Phillips and Roy Rene known professionally as Stiffy and Mo. In the 1920's it was George Wallace.

James Brennan opened a new vaudevillean house next door to the Tivoli in Castlereagh Street in 1906 and then he moved on to present vaudeville at the Gaiety Theatre in Melbourne and then on to Hobart and Brisbane. His company was known as the Brennan-Fuller Vaudeville Circuit and when it was taken over by Ben Fuller, it became known after World War 1 as the Fuller's National Theatre.

Linked with vaudeville was the 'travelling tent theatre' where companies toured from the outback to the coast keeping this form of theatre alive.

J.C.Williamson in 1913 presented a well known revue Come Over Here as the Christmas offering at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney.

War to Depression

The first world war affected the flow and availability of imported artists to Australian theatre circuits and for the first time young Australians were given the opportunity to take on leading roles in theatre performances. One of our biggest stars to emerge from this time was Gladys Moncrieff ('Our Glad').

Moncrieff starred in many musicals including The Maid of the Mountains and H.M.S Pinafore.

Read the following excerpt of Moncrieff's excitement after her opening night of The Maid of the Mountains

The night was completely wonderful. The audience rose at the end and we had to take curtain call after curtain call until the tally reached eighteen. Soon, the stage was massed with floweres and I particularly remember one floral star about five feet across and a huge boomerang of flowers. Floral emblems were lavish in those days. Perhaps flowers were more plentiful than they are today. People believed in saying it with flowers then, and it was wonderful for artists to receive such tributes. In those days the usherettes would walk through the aisles carrying the flowers. It was a magnificent sight. (Source: 'My Life of Song' in Gadaloff, p.21)

The only real serious theatre in the decade preceding the Great Depression was that of Scottish actor, Allan Wilkie and Australian Gregan McMahon. In 1920 Wilkie formed his own company and toured all Australia for ten years playing Shakespeare to eager audiences.

Gregan McMahon established the Sydney Repertory Society and produced many classic but also showcased Australian plays such as Dead Timber The Time is Not Ripe by Louis Esson.

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Victorian Melodrama - IB World Theatre Research

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Melodrama had become immensely popular in the Australian colonies by the 1870's and many of the productions we saw here were adaptations of novels from overseas. Some examples of these include: As time progressed in the colonies however, many other themes such as bushrangers, the Gold Rushes and life in the outbank provided colourful melodramatic content for the Australian stage.

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LibGuides: IB Theater Research: Victorian Melodrama

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LibGuides: IB Theater Research: Victorian Melodrama

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The V&A's Theatre and Performance collections chart the fascinating history of theatre in Britain from the middle ages to today. From early dramatic forms, such as mystery plays and court masques, to the alternative and 'in yer face' drama of the late 20th century, via the patriotic wartime entertainment of the 1940s, and the foundation of institutions such as the Arts Council and the National Theatre.

Most early theatre in England evolved out of church services of the 10th and 11th centuries. It became a truly popular form around 1350 when religious leaders encouraged the staging of mystery cycles (stories from the Bible) and miracle plays (stories of the lives of saints). These were written and performed in the language of ordinary people rather than latin in order to teach the mainly illiterate masses about Christianity and the bible.

Each play was staged on pageant wagons that processed through the streets and stopped to perform at pre-arranged sites. By the end of medieval times, many towns had specific spaces dedicated to public theatre.
The rise of secular drama
Following the Reformation in the 16th century - a movement that opposed the authority of the Roman Catholic Church - all religious drama in England was suppressed. Licences were issued to theatre companies allowing them to rehearse and perform in public, providing they had the approval and patronage of a nobleman.

Britain's first playhouse 'The Theatre' was built in Finsbury Fields, London in 1576. It was constructed by Leicester's Men - an acting company formed in 1559 from members of the Earl of Leicester's household. Over the next 16 years, 17 new open-air, public theatres were constructed. Most of these theatres were circular, surrounding an open courtyard where members of the audience would stand around the three sides of the stage. New companies flourished and writers were expected to produce a number of new plays every year to satisfy demand. Companies became known by the title of the patron's household. The two most famous companies and fierce rivals were the Admiral's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
William Shakespeare, born 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, is England's most famous playwright. He wrote 38 plays and numerous sonnets. It is not just the breadth of his work that makes Shakespeare the greatest British dramatist but the beauty and inventiveness of his language and the universal nature of his writing.

In 1594 Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain's Men as an actor and their principal playwright. He wrote on average two new plays a year for the company. His earliest plays included The Comedy of Errors (first performed in 1594) and his first published work was the poem Venus and Adonis (1593). Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous plays for the Globe Theatre, which was erected in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. When the lease on the land at their playhouse, The Theatre, in Shoreditch ran out, the company decided to dismantle the timber frame building and rebuild it on the south bank of the River Thames, renaming it The Globe.

The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe. The English architect and designer, Inigo Jones (1573 - 1652), collaborated with the playwright and poet Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637) to produce a series of elaborate masques for both James I (reigned 1603 - 25) and Charles I (reigned 1625 - 49). One production, The Masque of Oberon (1611) cost over £2,000 to stage, with costumes alone costing over £1,000.

Inigo Jones is credited with introducing into British theatre the proscenium arch - the space which framed the actors on stage - and moveable scenery arranged in perspective. Inspired by stage machinery he had seen whilst travelling in France and Italy, Jones' scenery used a series of shutters that slid in and out using grooves in the floor. He even flew in scenery from above and introduced coloured lighting by placing candles behind tinted glass.
The closure of the theatres
In 1642 civil war broke out in England between supporters of King Charles I and the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. Theatres were closed to prevent public disorder and remained closed for 18 years, causing considerable hardship to professional theatre performers, managers and writers. Illegal performances were only sporadic and many public theatres were demolished.

In 1656, the poet and playwright William Davenant succeeded in producing an all-sung version of the play The Siege of Rhodes in his home. This is widely considered to be the first English opera. After Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, Davenant and the dramatist Thomas Killigrew were granted royal patents, which gave them virtual monopoly over presenting drama in London. These monopolies were not revoked until the 19th century.

The introduction of scenery and elaborate stage machinery to the English public stage in the 1660s gave rise to blockbuster semi-operas. Many of these were adaptations of other plays, often by Shakespeare. These had episodes of music, singing, dancing and special effects. The grandest theatre at this time, which included one of the first proscenium arches, was The Duke's Theatre in Dorset Gardens. Planned by William Davenant and designed by Christopher Wren (architect of St Paul's Cathedral), it cost £9,000 (about £600,000 today). It stood by the River Thames and steps led up from the river for those patrons arriving by boat.

For the first time women were recognised as professional actresses and playwrights. The most famous playwright was Aphra Behn (1640 - 89), who had previously been employed as a spy for Charles II and spent a brief stay in a debtors' prison. A group of women writers known as 'The Female Wits' produced many works for the stage. They included Mary Pix (1666 - 1709), Catherine Trotter (1679 - 1749) and the prolific Susannah Centlivre (about 1670 - 1723), who wrote 19 plays, including the satirical A Bold Stroke for a Wife, first performed in 1718.

The first woman to appear on the professional stage in England is generally considered to be Margaret Hughes (1645 - 1719), who performed in a production of Othello at the Vere Street Theatre, London in 1660. Other notable actresses at this time included Elizabeth Barry (1658 - 1713) , also known as the "queen of tragedy", and Nell Gwyn (1650 - 87), who was reputed to have been painted nude for Charles II and bore him two children.

The 18th century saw the flourishing of theatre as a popular pastime and many theatres were enlarged and new playhouses built in London and throughout the country. One of the most successful shows on the London stage in the early part of the 18th century was John Gay's ballad opera The Beggar's Opera. Gay recycled popular songs of the day and wrote new lyrics that were humorous and satirical.

Shakespeare's plays became increasingly popular during the 18th century but were reworked to suit the tastes of the day. His style was still felt to be too erratic and poets such as Alexander Pope carefully tidied up any uneven verse lines. Shakespeare's ending to King Lear was felt to be too distressing and Nahum Tate's revised version (where Cordelia and the King survive) was preferred to the original. David Garrick rewrote the end of Romeo and Juliet so that the lovers speak to each other before dying in the tomb and turned the Taming of the Shrew into a farce.

Garrick was one of Britain's greatest actors and the first to be called a star. From 1741 until his retirement in 1776, he was a highly successful actor, producer and theatre manager. He wrote more than 20 plays and adapted many more, including plays by Shakespeare. In 1742, the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane hired him and he began a triumphant career that would last for over 30 years. Within five years, he was also managing the theatre.

Garrick changed the whole style of acting. He rejected the fashion for declamation, where actors would strike a pose and speak their lines formally, and instead preferred a more easy, natural manner of speech and movement. The effect was a more subtle, less mannered style of acting and a move towards realism.

The Licensing Act of 1737 had a huge impact on the development of theatre in Britain. It restricted the production of plays to the two patent theatres at Drury Lane and Covent Garden in London and tightened up the censorship of drama, stating that the Lord Chamberlain with his Examiners of Plays must vet any script before a performance was allowed.

The act was put in place by the then Prime Minister Robert Walpole (1676 - 1745), who was concerned that political satire on the stage was undermining him and the authority of the government. A production of The Golden Rump, afarcical play of unknown authorship, was the chief trigger for Walpole pushing the case for banning obscene drama from the public arena. The play scandalously suggested that the Queen administered enemas to the King. Henry Fielding, author of a number of successful satires, and others were suspicious that this play had in fact been engineered by Walpole himself.

To get around the restrictions of the 1737 Licensing Act, non-patent theatres interspersed dramatic scenes with musical interludes. Melodrama and burlesque, with their short scenes and musical accompaniment, became extremely popular at this time. Eventually, the huge growth in demand for theatrical entertainment in the early 19th century made the patent theatres' system unworkable. Theatres had sprung up across London and the boundaries between what was allowed in the patent theatres (legitimate drama) and what was presented in other theatres (illegitimate theatre) had become blurred. In 1843 the Licensing Act was dropped, enabling other theatres to present drama, although Lord Chamberlain's censorship of plays remained in place until 1968.

After the Covent Garden theatre burnt down in 1808, the management decided to raise prices to cover the cost of rebuilding. To increase revenue, the management reconfigured the upper gallery to squeeze in more of the one shilling seats, creating what angry patrons described as 'pigeon holes'. The price for a seat in the pit was raised from three shilling and six pence to four shillings, and the admission to the public boxes went up from six to seven shillings. A whole tier of boxes became 'private' and could only be hired for an entire season. Audiences were furious and turned their anger on the theatre's manager, the actor John Philip Kemble.

On 18 September 1809 Kemble stepped on stage in the costume of Macbeth to welcome the audience to the first production in the new theatre, and was met with a barrage of shouting, hissing and hooting which continued throughout the performance. Although magistrates were summoned, and some protesters arrested, the disturbance did not end until two in the morning. This was the start of what were known as the Old Price (or O.P.) Riots. For the next ten weeks every performance at Covent Garden was disrupted. The principal objective of the protesters was to force the management to restore the old system of pricing. By December 1809 the cost of legal fees, wages for bouncers, and free passes for allies who were paid to chant "N.P." ( 'New prices') meant that the theatre was losing £300 per night. Kemble accepted the demands of the rioters and made a public apology from the stage.

At the turn of the 19th century the Kemble family dominated the London stage. Actor John Philip Kemble (1757 - 1823) was said to be the finest actor in England and his sister, Sarah Siddons (1755 - 1831), was regarded as one of the greatest ever tragedians. In her first season, she performed 80 times in seven different roles, inducing faintings and hysterics amongst her audiences. John Philip Kemble made his debut on the London stage in 1783 as Hamlet. His acting style was static and declamatory, with long sweeping lines and a detached grandeur.

The popular actor Edmund Kean (1787 - 1833) replaced Kemble as the darling of the London stage after making his Drury Lane debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 1814. Kean was one of the few actors who could fill the vast Drury Lane theatre to its capacity of 3,000. His natural passion and fiery spirit suited a melodramatic style of acting. He was said to be at his best in death scenes and those that required intensity of feeling or violent transitions from one mood to another.

Melodrama became popular from the 1780s and lasted until the early 20th century. The first drama in Britain to be labelled a melodrama was Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery (1802). Melodrama consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment and was characterised by simple moral stories with stereotypical characters - there was always a villain, a wronged maiden and a hero acting in an overblown style.

From the middle of the 19th century theatre began to take on a new respectability and draw in more middle-class audiences. They were enthralled by the historical accuracy and attention to detail that was becoming increasingly influential in stage design. Pictorial drama placed great emphasis on costume and reflected a fashionable interest in archaeology and history. The inevitable long and complex scene changes meant that plays, especially those by Shakespeare had to be cut. One of the main exponents of pictorial drama was Charles Kean (1811 - 68), son of Edmund Kean. Charles Kean was known for his painstaking research into historic dress and settings for his productions at the Princess's Theatre in London's Oxford Street during the 1850s.

19th century theatre was dominated by actor-managers who ran the theatres and played the lead roles in productions. Henry Irving (1838 - 1905), Charles Kean and Beerbohm Tree (1852 - 1917) all created productions in which they were the star. Henry Irving dominated the London stage for over 25 years and was hero-worshipped by his audiences. When he died King Edward VII and the President of the United States sent their condolences.

Shakespeare was the most popular writer for these actor-managers. It became fashionable to give Shakespeare's plays detailed and historically realistic sets and costumes. The stage spectacle was often more important than the play itself and texts were cut to allow time to change the massive sets and give maximum exposure to the leading role.

The first woman actor-manager in London was Eliza Vestris (1797 - 1856), a singer and dancer who also managed the Olympic Theatre from 1830. There she presented a programme of Burlesques, many starring herself. Other women managers in the 19th century included Madge Kendal (1848 - 1935) and Sarah Lane (about 1822 - 99) at the Brittania Theatre, Hoxton.

The greatest English actress of the late 19th and early 20th century was Ellen Terry (1847 - 1928). She joined the legendary actor-manager Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre from 1878 to 190 as his leading lady, and for more than the next two decades she was considered the leading Shakespearean and comic actress in Britain. Two of her most famous roles were Portia in The Merchant of Venice (1875) and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1882). In 1903 Terry took over management of London's Imperial Theatre where she focused on the plays of Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen. However financial failure meant she returned to acting there years later.

The V&A holds The Ellen Terry Collection, which contains a vast quantity of correspondence, including letters written by Terry to her daughter, costume designer Edith Craig, and letters written from her stage co-star Henry Irving. The archive also contains a notebook of Terry's thoughts on Irving.

The sophisticated technology and machinery of the late 19th century stage produced a succession of 'sensation' dramas in which special effects became the principal attraction. Scene painters, working with expert technicians, produced realistic reproductions of the natural world. Using ropes, flats, bridges, treadmills and revolves, they could produce anything from a chariot race in Ben Hur to a rail crash in The Whip.

One of the greatest designers of 'sensation' scenes was Bruce 'Sensation' Smith. He worked at Drury Lane Theatre, which became the acknowledged home of such drama following the introduction of hydraulic stage machinery at the theatre in 1894.

The playwright Tom William Robertson (1829 - 71) introduced a new kind of play onto the 19th century theatre scene. His pioneering 'problem plays' dealt with serious and sensitive issues of the day. Robertson's work was considered so revolutionary in style and subject that no established management would produce his plays. "Danger", said Effie Bancroft, "is better than dullness" and she went on to produce a string of successful and profitable hits by Robertson, such as Ours (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868) and School (1869). Caste was about marriage across the class barrier and explored prejudices towards social mobility. People talked in normal language and dealt with 'ordinary' situations and the performers didn't 'act' but 'behaved' like their audience - they spoke, they didn't declaim.

New drama in the early 20th century
The turn of the 20th century saw the emergence of two dominate trends in theatre: the dramatisation of contemporary, moral and social issues, and an interest in a simpler and more abstract staging of plays. Innovative work from abroad, particularly playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov, was also influential in the shaping of this new drama.

Harley Granville-Barker's management of the Royal Court between 1903 and 1907 saw the popularisation of the work of George Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw was one of the most successful writers of the early 20th century and an outspoken member of the Fabian Society, an organisation committed to social reform and considered by many at the time to be subversive. He challenged the morality of his bourgeois audiences with his satirical and often humorous writing that included uncomfortable topics such as religion and prostitution. Many of his plays were censored by the Lord Chamberlain, including Mrs Warren's Profession (1893, first public performance in England 1925), which centred on a former prostitute and her attempt to come to terms with her disapproving daughter.

At a more grass roots level, theatre groups aimed at promoting the socialist cause and the Labour Party sprang up across the country.

Between 1926 and 1935 the Workers' Theatre Movement (WTM), which was allied with the Communists, used theatre to agitate for social change. WTM developed an 'agit-prop' style that took songs and sketches onto the streets in an attempt to incite change.

Unity Theatre grew out of the WTM. It's aim was 'to foster and further the art of drama in accordance with the principle that true art, by effectively presenting and truthfully interpreting life as experienced by the majority of people, can move the people to work for the betterment of society'. Unity pioneered new forms of theatre, presenting factual information on current events to audiences, as well as satirical pantomimes that challenged the Lord Chamberlain's censorship.

Other influential political companies included the Salford-based Red Megaphones and the Hackney People's Players. Committed to removing the bourgeois trappings of theatre, they wanted to create a more physical theatre that reflected the machine age. Popular plays were Ernst Toller's Masses and Men (1923)and The Machine Wreckers (1922) and Karel Capek's futuristic nightmare RUR (1920) where machines and robots are used to replace the working class.

Founded in 1908, the Actresses' Franchise League supported the suffrage movement by staging events and readings. By 1914, membership numbered 900 and there were groups in all major UK cities. Plays included Cecily Hamilton and Christopher St John's How the Vote Was Won (1909), and Hamilton's most famous work Diana of Dobson's (1908).

The Pioneer Players was founded by Edith Craig, daughter of Ellen Terry, the renowned English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company aimed to present plays of 'interest and ideas' and particularly those which dealt with current social, political and moral issues, including suffrage. The Pioneer Players performed at the Little Theatre which operated as a club theatre to avoid the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain. Productions included Margaret Wynn Nevinson's In the Workhouse (1911) and Christopher St John's The First Actress (1911).

The repertory theatre movement was forged out of the passion and conviction of Barry Jackson and Annie Horniman, who believed that a wide variety of theatrical experience should be made available to people at a price they could afford. Horniman believed that by subsidising theatres you could both raise the standards of performance and broaden the programme a theatre could offer to its community.

Horniman was the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant with no family connections to the theatre but she recognised the cultural value of the state-subsidised repertory companies in Germany. In 1903, Horniman put up the money to open the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester in 1907. In just ten years they produced over 200 plays at the Gaiety but were forced to close in 1917 because of financial difficulties.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre opened on 15 February 1913 with a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Its founder Barry Jackson, like Horniman, was passionate about the need to offer the people of Birmingham a wide variety of theatrical experience, and personally subsidised the building of the Rep Theatre as a base for his company.
Club Theatres in the early 20th century
In 1899 the Stage Society was founded with the aim of supporting a theatre of ideas. Frustrated with the conservative nature of more commercial theatres, it presented private Sunday performances of experimental plays that had not been granted licences by the Lord Chamberlain. After a police raid on their first production (Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell) it was argued that because these were private performances, the Lord Chamberlain's restrictions on Sunday performances and licensed plays were not applicable. The Stage Society won the case and other 'club' theatres opened with members paying a small subscription rather than an entrance fee. These theatres became the home of unlicensed, experimental and controversial plays - a situation that lasted until 1968 when censorship was finally overturned.

The Arts Theatre opened as a club theatre in 1927 and quickly developed a reputation for innovative and exciting work. Plays by French and German writers such as Racine and Goethe were staged there, as well as new writing from British playwrights. Actors such as John Gielgud and Sybil Thorndike worked at the Arts Theatre even when they were well known in the West End - such was their commitment to presenting more experimental work.
West End theatre between the wars
West End theatre between the wars was a strange mixture. For the most part theatres were impoverished by the Depression and remained conservative both in the content of their work and the staging.

The plays of George Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham, Terence Rattigan, Noël Coward and J B Priestley dominated the scene. Whilst Priestley and Shaw had a strong left-wing agenda, the plays were essentially conservative in form. Shakespeare's plays virtually vanished from the West End. His home now was the Old Vic Theatre and the regional repertory theatres which experimented with contemporary dress productions. It was John Gielgud who brought Shakespeare back to the West End in 1935 with his productions of Romeo and Juliet, Richard III and The Merchant of Venice.

Commercial theatre thrived and at Drury Lane large budget musicals by Ivor Novello and Noël Coward used huge sets, extravagant costumes and large casts to create spectacular productions. Coward's Cavalcade (first production in 1931) was an epic play which traced the history of the early years of the 20th century through the lives of one family. Coward remained one of the popular writers of this period with comedies such as The Vortex (1924), Fallen Angels (1925) and Present Laughter (1942).

The Second World War saw a surge of interest in the arts with many civilian and military audiences experiencing drama, opera and ballet for the first time. This interest led to the establishment of the Arts Council by the government in 1946 with an annual grant to distribute among the arts. This grant ensured the survival of companies like the Sadler's Wells Ballet and Opera and the eventual establishment of the Royal Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, as well as supporting theatre in the regions and the work of individual artists and companies. By 1956 the Arts Council was subsidising 40 companies across the country and between 1958 and 1970 15 new theatres had been constructed with public money.
Post-war West End theatre
After the end of the Second World War, the West End was dominated by the commercial sector. Farces and 'who-dunnits' became popular, the most famous being The Mousetrap, an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel that opened in 1952 and is still going today. The glamorous productions of the 1950s, produced by Binkie Beaumont and H M Tennent, soon became economically unviable. Actors moved into TV to make more money and West End productions shrank in size.

This period also saw an explosion of new writing with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) seen as the landmark for a new generation of young writers who included Arnold Wesker, Tom Stoppard, Edward Bond and Harold Pinter. Small venues continued to promote and support new writing as more experimental productions moved into the mainstream theatres, including George Devine's Royal Court. The phrase 'In yer face theatre' has been applied to many of the young writers who were produced by the Royal Court in the 1990s. This aggressive and confrontational style was designed to assault the audience's sensibilities. It explored the gut-wrenching extremes of the human condition and rammed the excesses of contemporary society down its throat. One of the most successful 'In yer face' productions was Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking, which opened at the Royal Court in 1996. "A shocker in every sense of the word", declared The Daily Mail.

The National Theatre Company was formed in 1963 at the Old Vic under Laurence Olivier and moved to its new home on London's South Bank in 1976, directed by Peter Hall. Peter Hall had also directed the first years of the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Political theatre also flourished at this time - notably the work of Joan Littlewood and the Portable Theatre Company, who produced young political writers such as John McGrath, David Edgar, Trevor Griffiths, David Hare and Howard Brenton. The company Joint Stock pioneered a process of collaborative working, with writers workshopping their ideas with the company to develop a script. Joint Stock was responsible for developing many of Caryl Churchill's early plays.

The end of theatre censorship in 1968 saw a surge in the alternative theatre movement in Britain. No longer restricted by the Lord Chamberlain's censorious eye, companies were free to express any agenda they chose. Feminist theatre companies like Red Ladder and the Women's Theatre Group (now the Sphinx) began to put on plays that expressed the political agenda of the feminist movement and questioned the male dominance of writers and directors in British theatre. Women writers like Caryl Churchill and Pam Gems wrote for companies like Joint Stock before moving onto success in mainstream theatre.

Companies also explored new ways of creating theatre, devising work which aimed to be more democratic by involving the whole company in all aspects of the creative process from initial concept to final performances.

In the funding crisis of the 1980s many 'alternative' companies had their (meagre) subsidy cut and could no longer afford to continue. However, others successfully developed into the mainstream like Hull Truck and Mike Leigh who later moved successfully into film and television.
Physical and visual theatre
Throughout the 1980s and 90s companies began to experiment with a more physical type of theatre. They wanted to get away from the restraints of realistic and naturalistic drama and create an energetic visual theatre that combined strong design with choreography and physical imagery. Influenced by the work of Philippe Gaulier and Jacques Lecoq, companies such as Theatre de Complicite applied their style to the reworking of classic texts and created new work in collaboration with writers.

This departure was not completely new - in the 1960s Peter Brook had become interested in a more physical and visual theatre. He had been inspired by Japanese Noh theatre and influenced by the work of Adrienne Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil in Paris. Earlier innovators in this area included Bauhaus, Dadaist and surrealist performers, choreographer Rudolf Laban and directors Meyerhold and Jerzy Grotowski and Richard Schechozer.

Today, theatre companies and groups are producing ever-more experimental works that explore social and political questions and challenge conventions of what a performance is and how it should be presented.

Blast Theory describe their work as collaborative and interdisciplinary. Works such as Can You See Me Now? (2001) - a chase game played online and on the streets mixed video games and performance, whilst I'd Hide You (2012), My Neck Of The Woods (2013) and Too Much Information (2015) engaged diverse audiences through different media. Similarily, Punchdrunk, a British theatre company, produces work that eliminates the boundaries between stage and audience by creating immersive presentations in which the audience is free to choose what to watch and where to go.

The National Video Archive of Performance
The V&A holds the National Video Archive of Performance (NVAP), archive of over 300 high quality live theatre performance recordings made since 1992. This unique collection is available for free to all whether you are a researcher, an actor preparing for an audition, a stage designer reviewing past interpretations, or someone who missed the opportunity to attend a production during its run.

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The V&A's Theatre and Performance collections chart the fascinating history of theatre in Britain from the middle ages to today. From early dramatic forms, such as mystery plays and court masques, to the alternative and 'in yer face' drama of the late 20th century, via the patriotic wartime entertainment of the 1940s, and the foundation of institutions such as the Arts Council and the National Theatre.

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The Use of Gesture in Victorian Melodrama

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LibGuides: IB Theatre - Research Presentation: Get started!

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This guide provides resources for the Research Presentation (Task 3) external assessment for IB Theatre.

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60+ Best Commedia dell'Arte images in 2020 | commedia dell'arte, stock character, teaching drama

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Mar 27, 2020 - Explore MsKimiP's board "Commedia dell'Arte" on Pinterest. See more ideas about Commedia dell'arte, Stock character, Teaching drama.

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from "The Shaftesbury Method" - in this book https://books.google.co.jp/books/about/Lessons_in_the_Art_of_Acting.html?id=JUQ9AAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y

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Edmond Shaftesbury was the ne plus ultra of grandiose 19th century self-help kooks. I first heard of him because he invented a language called Adam-Man Tongue, but he produced dozens of works on everything from personal charisma, to brain training, to immortality. He is perhaps best known under his pseudonym, Dr. Ralston, for a health food cult he started called Ralstonism. (The Purina Company asked him to endorse their wheat cereal, and consequently became Ralston-Purina). Actually, Edmond Shaftesbury was a pseudonym too. His real name was Webster Edgerly. He had tons of crazy ideas, and no shortage of self-regard.

He had a particular passion for the theater, and once wrote, produced, and starred in his own play about which a New York Times reviewer said, the "originator, concoctor, and financial backer of this forlorn enterprise is a misguided person, who evidently labors under the triple hallucination that he is a poet, a dramatist, and an actor."

No doubt Shaftesbury/Edgerly was undeterred by such unknowing opinions. After all, he had developed a system for "the management of the body and its members" that if carefully studied and committed to memory would turn anyone into "the PERFECT ACTOR." Here are explicit instructions from "the Shaftesbury Method" on how to perform 11 tragic emotions.

1. Silent Sorrow

2. Mental Pain

3. Hopelessness

4. Disconsolation

5. Anguish

6. Agony

7. Unpleasant Sounds

8. Sulkiness

9. Hatred

10. Horror

11. Hatred in Horror

Bonus

Whew! That was exhausting and sad wasn't it? Here's a palate cleanser to dispel all that gloom. Be sure to practice it every day.

Neutrality

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11 Tragic Emotions and How to Properly Act Them on Stage

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Webster Edgerly had developed a system for "the management of the body and its members" that if carefully studied and committed to memory would turn anyone into "the PERFECT ACTOR." Here are explicit instructions from "the Shaftesbury Method" on how to perform 11 tragic emotions.

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Historical background

The Victorian age

Queen Victoria's reign, from 1837 until her death in 1901, was a period of peace, prosperity and growth for Britain. The end of the era saw Britain established as a major industrial power with a global Empire, ruling over a quarter of the world's population.

The Victorian Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere - from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth and location. It was a complex and often contradictory time that saw great expansion of wealth, power, and culture.

During Victoria's reign the theatre continued to attract large audiences, but there was a significant increase in mass popular entertainment, in keeping with the changing mood of the times. Although Victorian social classes were very clearly defined, reflecting the sharp divisions that existed between rich and poor, a good deal of popular Victorian entertainment appealed to everyone regardless of their social position.

Some forms of nineteenth century popular entertainment

Magicians, illusionists, hypnotists and spiritualists were popular attractions in theatres and exhibition halls

'Freak shows' featured human beings with disabilities or physical abnormalities

Waxworks, especially Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors, featured lifelike replicas of current murderers after their executions. From 1888 Jack the Ripper was a very popular exhibit

Penny gaffs were the back rooms of public houses where singers entertained the audience and admission cost one penny. They were rarely frequented by the upper classes but were hugely popular with the working poor

Music Halls were more comfortable small scale theatres with a bar and a variety of entertainments such as acrobats, trapeze artists, black-face minstrels or can-can dancers

Circuses toured throughout the country with collections of performing animals along with acrobats, clowns and other novelty acts. The first famous circus proprietor, George Sanger, produced shows in Astley's Amphitheatre in London

London Zoo in Regent's Park was opened in 1828 and was famous for its rattlesnakes and giraffes. In 1849 there were nearly 170,000 visitors

Comic opera, especially works by Gilbert and Sullivan, produced by Richard D'Oyley Carte, was very popular at the Savoy Theatre

Street artists were found in cites and at fairs. They included: Punch and Judy routines; puppet shows; street acrobats; conjurors; fire-eaters and sword-swallowers; stilt walkers; contortionists; ballad singers and musicians

Pleasure gardens had been popular in the eighteenth century and the most famous of these, at Vauxhall, remained open until 1859. Cremorne Gardens opened in Chelsea in the 1840s and proved very popular because of its use of gas lighting and spectacular firework displays.

The conventions of melodrama

A new style of theatre

Melodrama is a genre of drama that exaggerates plot and characters with the intention of appealing to the emotions. The form developed in France and Germany and consisted of short scenes interspersed with musical accompaniment. The intense emotions of the actors were underpinned by the music and performed in an extravagant theatrical style.

Melodrama became popular in England in the early part of the nineteenth century, developing its unique style from the sentimental dramas of the eighteenth century. The first English melodrama was A Tale of Mystery (1802) written by Thomas Holcroft and based on a French work Coelina, ou l'Enfant de Mystère (1800) by French playwright Guilbert de Pixérécourt.

Characters were always stereotypical and usually included an aristocratic villain, a wronged maiden and a noble hero. They enacted a plot that featured sensational incidents, before an ending in which virtue triumphed over vice.

Acting styles

Acting styles for melodrama were taken from classical and contemporary drama. Codified gesture s were used to convey certain emotions and the acting style was very presentational, with the actors facing out to the audience. Facial expressions and voice were exaggerated and a well-received speech might be replayed several times before the action of the play moved on.

Another convention of the genre was to have the actors 'freeze' on stage to create a dramatic tableau at certain moments of heightened emotion. The actors would group in a series of striking poses which were held for a time to intensify the emotional impact on the audience and emphasise relationships between the characters on stage.

The formula

All melodramas were simplistic and written to a strict formula:

Good was always threatened by evil

Usually but not always, good triumphed over evil in the end

No matter how desperate the situation, there was usually a happy ending

Horror and mystery were central elements in every story

Heroes and heroines were always placed in situations of extreme danger

Heroines were always pure and virtuous

Heroes were always brave

Villains were always evil, wicked, vicious and immoral

Success was always snatched at the last moment from the jaws of defeat

The audience was expected to experience extreme emotion.

The categories

Although 'melodrama' is now used as a common term for the genre, Victorian playwrights and theatre managers used a simpler form of description. Plays were described and advertised as 'dramas', 'nautical dramas', 'dramatic romances', 'domestic dramas', 'temperance dramas' or simply just 'plays'.

Whatever the description, these works tended to fall into several different categories, each with its own particular style, content and theme:

Gothic and supernatural stories featured ghosts, vampires and grotesque themes

Military and nautical stories featured not only patriotic heroism and bravery, but also the horror of conflict and war

Domestic dramas were popular with audiences of the time and often dealt with serious moral issues such as adultery, illegitimacy, the evils of gambling / drink and the battle between the sexes

Sensational plays were often based on notorious criminals and their crimes.

There were also many works which did not fall into any recognisable category or combined one or more of the above styles.

Whatever the category or description, Victorian melodrama was consistent in its reflection of everyday life. The genre worked because it was rooted in reality and what audiences saw on the stage reflected situations, social issues, emotions and experiences that were totally recognisable. In that sense, they were forerunners of modern television soap opera s.

Nineteenth century playwrights and works

Edward Fitzball (1792 -1873)

Fitzball was a prolific and popular Victorian melodramatist who enjoyed a successful London career lasting for twenty five years.

Staging

Fitzball's plays earned a reputation for being elaborately staged. He is reputed to have invented back projection, using a light set on a backstage track to project a shadow onto cotton gauze downstage, so that the shadow of the object increased as the light moved further back from the object. The stage set for his most famous play, The Murder at the Roadside Inn (1827), was a cross-section of a building, exposing four rooms with simultaneous and overlapping action sequences in each.

More on Edward Fitzball:

Career

Fitzball specialised in military and nautical melodrama but also wrote domestic, supernatural and sensational works, as well as opera libretti, burlettas, tragedies, comedies, farce s and popular songs.

Fitzball wrote for at least twenty five theatres and produced about 170 melodramas:

From 1828 he wrote for Covent Garden

From 1830 - 1838 for outdoor performances in Vauxhall Gardens

From 1835 to 1838 he was resident dramatist and reader at Covent Garden

He then became reader at Drury Lane in 1838.

Fitzball also adapted novels by Sir Walter Scott and James Fennimore Cooper for the stage and throughout his life wrote verse and popular songs, his most famous being My Pretty Jane; or The Bloom is on the Rye

Plays

Fitzball's first West End play was The Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber (1820), a domestic crime melodrama. The play was a resounding success, featuring murder, robbery, torture, mistaken identity, villainy and remorse

The Floating Beacon; or Norwegian Wreckers (1824) was a nautical melodrama that reunited a mother, Mariette, the Woman of the Beacon, with her young sailor son Frederic, a supposed orphan. The moment of revelation at the end of the play, is typical of the genre:

Mariette: My child, my child! I am thy wretched mother!
Frederic: Thou - thou - heaven's blessings on thee, dearest, - dearest mother!
Mariette: Providence, this one moment of delight, amply repays me sixteen years of suffering!
Frederic: They approach! We will die in each other's arms!

Flying Dutchman; or the Phantom Ship: a Nautical Drama, in three acts (1826) was a very popular supernatural melodrama about a haunted ship whose sailors are doomed to sail the seas forever as a penance for crimes they have committed

Jonathan Bradford, or Murder at the Roadside Inn (1833) was one of Fitzball's biggest successes and combined elements of domestic and sensational melodrama. In the following extract, Bradford, the innkeeper of the title, has been condemned to death for a murder he did not commit. Now he is being visited in prison for the final time by his loyal wife Ann and their two children:

Ann: How shall I tell it them - how will they understand? Home! Where is their home? No mother's voice. No father's admonition! Outcasts - abject - branded with the name of infamy. Shunned - degraded! Oh, my children, my children! What will become of them? ( wringing her hands)

The overblown style of Victorian melodrama is evident in the dialogue and the stage direction.

Douglas Jerrold

Jerrold began to write plays in 1827 and, as resident playwright at the Coburg Theatre, quickly established himself as a notable melodramatist with two plays in particular: Fifteen Years of a Drunkard's Life (1828) and Black-eyed Susan (1829).

More on Douglas Jerrold:

Career

After a very short career in the Navy, Jerrold trained as a printer and later became a journalist and theatre critic. In June 1841 Douglas Jerrold joined with fellow journalists Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, and John Leech to form Punch Magazine, for which he wrote political and humorous articles. The magazine remained in print until its final edition was published in 2002. Jerrold also contributed to other journals and worked as a sub-editor on the Daily News for his friend Charles Dickens, the novelist.

The plays

Fifteen Years of a Drunkard's Life (1828) is considered to be the prototype of temperance dramas. Many people in Victorian society were concerned about alcohol abuse and temperance societies tried to encourage abstinence among those who drank to excess. Jerrold's play was the first stage production to identify the characteristics of the stage drunkard and was a harsh condemnation of the evils of drink in both the lower and middle classes. The play's two main characters - Vernon, a middle class man of means and Copsewood, a struggling farmer - are drunkards and both meet an unhappy fate. In a drunken stupor, Vernon gambles away his money before murdering his wife and dying himself. Copsewood commits many crimes under the influence of alcohol, loses the family farm and condemns his family to ruin. At the end of the play he is publicly disgraced and led off to prison.

Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs (1829) is a nautical melodrama which used a serious plot with comic sub-plots to examine the forces of good and evil; innocence and corruption; poverty and wealth. The story involved a sailor, returning to England from the Napoleonic Wars to find his wife tormented by her crooked uncle and the drunken captain of the hero's ship. Attempting to save his wife results in a court-martial for attacking a senior officer. The play praised the patriotic British sailor and criticised the harsh rules of the Navy. Gilbert and Sullivan used elements of the story in their comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore (1878).

Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn

One of the most significant domestic melodramas of the early part of the nineteenth century did not have a specific author, but was a devised piece based on a real crime. This had been committed in 1827 by William Corder, who murdered his lover, a young woman called Maria Marten and buried her body in the Red Barn in Polestead, Suffolk.

Corder fled the scene and although he sent Maria's family letters claiming she was in good health, her body was later discovered buried in the barn after her stepmother claimed she had dreamt about the murder. Corder was tracked down in London, where he had married and started a new life. He was brought back to Suffolk, and, after a well-publicised trial, found guilty of murder. He was hanged in Bury St. Edmunds in 1828 where a huge crowd witnessed the execution.

The story provoked numerous articles in the newspapers as well as songs and plays. The case was a national sensation and fit-up companies, often called 'portable theatres', performed versions of the story in the penny gaff s, halls and fairgrounds up and down the country. There was no standard text of the play but actors knew a wide repertoire of speeches from a wide range of plays and could adapt, improvise and invent within their given characters. As actors moved from company to company they took the better bits with them and gradually certain additions became part of the traditional structure. By 1840 the play was being performed in provincial and outer-London theatres and it remained one of the most popular melodramas of Victorian times.

Adaptations of popular works of fiction

Many popular novels were adapted for the stage during the Victorian era and a number of them were very successfully transformed into melodramatic plays. Some of the most noteworthy were:

Nineteenth century theatres

The growth of theatres

The popularity of attending the theatre, plus the increasing population of London and other major cities in Victorian times, led to a change in the law with regard to permission to open theatres. The Regulation of Theatres Act was passed in 1843 and led to the opening of many new theatres, as well as other venues such as concert halls and music halls.

By the end of the century theatres and other performance venues had been built in every major city in the country. In London existing theatres had been modernised and increased in size: Covent Garden and Drury Lane, for example, both had auditoriums that could seat three thousand people. By 1900 there were sixty other theatres, as well as forty music halls, in the capital alone.

Staging

Victorian audiences loved excitement and large scale productions and a fashion developed for staging 'spectaculars' which showcased the very latest developments in Victorian stage technology.

Bruce 'Sensation' Smith of Drury Lane Theatre was one of the greatest set designers of the age and was responsible for some of the most spectacular theatre sets in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. He worked for and with some of the greatest names in live entertainment, including Gilbert and Sullivan, Anna Pavlova, Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry. Smith's designs and special effects for productions of The Whip and Ben Hur included a train crash; a chariot race and the running of the Two Thousand Guineas horse race using real horses on stage.

As the century progressed, realistic and convincing scenic design, together with the development of elaborate stage machinery, meant that not only melodrama, but all types of theatrical productions could include theatrical spectacle. Trapdoors and lifts, flying scenery, pyrotechnics and water effects meant that productions could feature spectacular events such as shipwrecks, battles, fires, earthquakes and horse races. All the stage machinery around, above and below the stage was hidden behind the proscenium arch, which conveniently also hid all the stagehands. The stage itself was hollow and housed removable panels, slots, lifts, 'scruto' (slatted rolling surfaces) and hand-operated and hydraulic trapdoor machinery.

There were huge advances in stage lighting, from oil to gas in 1817, followed by limelight in 1837 and finally electric light, in the form of arc lamps from 1848 then filament lamps from 1881. This meant that actors could perform within the scenery, upstage of the proscenium arch, while the auditorium was completely blacked out. Lighting was developed so that images could be projected from magic lanterns and translucent gauzes could be back-lit. Smoke effects, coloured light and flares added to the scenic spectacle.

Conclusion

Melodrama was the product of a major social change in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution produced a much bigger middle class which was morally and socially conservative and an artisan working class whose lives were often monotonous. Both sections of society craved an excitement that also reinforced their moral beliefs and melodrama, whether in the form of novels or stage plays about good overcoming evil, virtue overcoming vice or right triumphing over wrong, met that need.

In Britain, melodrama became the most popular kind of theatrical entertainment for most of the nineteenth century, a period when more people went to the theatre than at any time in history. Despite the decline in the popularity of melodrama on stage by the end of the century, its influence continued to be immense. It certainly had a significant influence on the development of early silent films and its techniques persist today in cinema, television, fiction, and theatre.

British monarch from 1837 until her death in 1901.

Someone who believes that disembodied spirits of the dead seek to communicate with the living.

Victorian drinking places for the lower classes, where short, theatrical entertainments were staged wherever space permitted, such as the back room of a public house or in a small hall.

The minstrel show was a theatre form which originated in America in the 1830s becoming popular in the 1840s and developing as a music hall act.

The can-can was a lively high kicking dance that came into fashion about 1830 in Paris.

A popular traditional puppet show.

A dramatic piece which uses heightened situations and reactions (and originally, musical accompaniment) to appeal to the emotions.

A form of drama which focussed on sentiment and sensibility, virtue rather than vice, and evoked an emotional response.

A fixed, often conventional and unoriginal pattern of thought or expression or way of doing things. Characters lacking in originality who behave predictably or according to type.

Where an actor uses a very specific set of body movements to communicate a particular meaning to the audience.

A form of silent theatre in which a group of actors 'freeze' in fixed positions to create a still picture or scene.

1. A style of fiction evoking mystery and terror. 2. Connected with or characteristic of the Middle Ages. 3. Style of architecture current in Western Europe from the 12th century to the 16th century, characterised by the pointed arch. 4. Relating to

A television or radio drama serial featuring characters and story lines reflecting everyday life and reality, which can tend towards the melodramatic.

Projecting a scene onto the back drop of a theatre set to give the illusion of a particular location; a method of staging using a light set on a backstage track to project a shadow onto cotton gauze downstage.

From Italian, contains all the words and stage directions for a musical play or an opera.

A musical drama containing rhymed lyrics and resembling comic opera, or a comic play containing songs.

A drama in which the main character falls from power, dignity and prosperity to misery, defeat and (usually) death

a genre of drama that has a happy ending and produces laughter

A comedy based on unlikely situations and exaggerated effects.

A traveling theatrical group that carries its own scenery and properties.

Victorian drinking places for the lower classes, where short, theatrical entertainments were staged wherever space permitted, such as the back room of a public house or in a small hall.

The use of fireworks for a display.

A proscenium arch creates a 'frame' around the scenery and performers.

The very rapid development of industry in Britain through the growing use of machines in the late 18th and early 19th century.

A worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.

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A theatre guide to nineteenth century melodrama from Crossref-it.info

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Queen Victoria's reign, from 1837 until her death in 1901, was a period of peace, prosperity and growth for Britain. The end of the era saw Britain established as a major industrial power with a global Empire, ruling over a quarter of the world's population.

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"In the days when women yet blushed, in the days when they desired to dissimulate this embarrassment and timidity, large fans were the fashion; they were at once both a countenance and a veil. Flirting their fans, women concealed their faces; now they blush little, fear not at all, have no care to hide themselves, and carry in consequence imperceptible fans." ...*Madame de Genlis

Carrying in left hand, open: "Come and talk to me"
Twirling it in the left hand: "We are watched"
Twirling in the right hand: "I love another"
Drawing across the cheek: "I love you"
Presented shut: "Do you love me?"
Drawing across the eyes: "I am sorry"
Letting it rest on right cheek: "Yes"
Letting it rest on left cheek: "No"
Open and shut: "You are cruel"
Dropping it: "We will be friends"
Fanning slowly: "I am married"
Fanning quickly: "I am engaged"
With handle to lips: "Kiss me"
Open wide: "Wait for me"
Carrying in right hand in front of face: "Follow me"
Placing it on left ear: "I wish to get rid of you"
Carrying it in the right hand: "You are too willing"
Drawing through the hand: "I hate you"
Placed behind head: "Don't forget me"
With little finger extended: "Good-bye"
Quickly fanning herself: "I love you so much"
Looking closely at the painting: "I like you"
Drawing it across the forehead: "You have changed"
Resting the fan on her lips: "I don't trust you"
Touching tip with finger: "I wish to speak with you"
Hitting her hand's palm: "Love me"
Hitting any object: "I'm impatient"
Hiding the sunlight: "You're ugly"
The shut fan held to the heart: "You have won my love"
Carrying in left hand in front of face: "Desirous of acquaintance"
Presenting a number of sticks, fan part opened: "At what hour?"
Threaten with the shut fan: "Do not be so imprudent"
Gazing pensively at the shut fan: "Why do you misunderstand me?"
Pressing the half-opened fan to the lips: "You may kiss me"
Clasping the hands under the open fan: "Forgive me I pray you"
Cover the left ear with the open fan: "Do not betray out secret"
Shut the fully opened fan very slowly: "I promise to marry you"
The lady appears at the balcony, slowly fanning her face, then she shuts the balcony: "I can't go out"
If she does it excitedly, leaving the balcony open: "I'll go out soon"
Touching the unfolded fan in the act of waving: "I long always to be near thee"
The shut fan resting on the right eye: "When may I be allowed to see you?"
Fanning herself with her left hand: "Don't flirt with that woman"
Running her fingers through the fan's ribs: "I want to talk to you"
Slowly fanning herself: "Don't waste your time, I don't care about you"
Moving her hair away from her forehead: "Don't forget me"
Passing the fan from hand to hand: "I see that you are looking at another woman"
Carrying the fan closed and hanging from her left hand: "I'm engaged"
Carrying the fan closed and hanging from her right hand: "I want to be engaged"
Quickly and impetuously closing the fan: "I'm jealous"
Resting the fan on her heart: "My love for you is breaking my heart"
Half-opening the fan over her face: "We are being watched over"

Fans were known to the ancients, and kept the flies off Pharaoh. The Japanese, clever as always, devised the folding variety, and they became enormously popular in the Western world. Whether the thing was made of feathers, silk, or paper, the idea at first was simply to cool the person. But there was something exquisitely graceful about a beautiful lady waving her fan and, as women will, they discovered it. It was a new way to say yes, no, or maybe.

The origin of hand fans can be traced as far back as four thousand years ago in Egypt. The fan was seen as a sacred instrument, used in religious ceremonies, and as a symbol of royalty power. With the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, two elaborate fans were found in his tomb, one with a golden handle covered in ostrich feathers and the other was ebony, covered with gold and precious stones. Three thousand year old drawings still exist showing elegant Chinese ladies using fans. The ancient Greeks wrote poems of fans being the "scepters of feminine beauty" and Romans brought Greek fans back to Rome as objects of great value. Images of punk ha wallahs waving enormous branches from palm trees over the Kings and Queens of ancient civilizations also indicate the early pomp and glory of fans.

In the seventeenth century, China was importing huge quantities of exotic fans into Europe. These small utilitarian instruments could regulate ambient air temperature and provide a means of self-cooling or hide one's temper and blushes. In addition, fans could shield the eyes from the glare of the sun, prevent an unfashionable tanning of the skin outdoors and prevent ruddy complexions arising from too vigorous a fire indoors, hence, the development of the hand-held fire screen. The eighteenth century Georgian fans represented the most exquisite objects d'art, the perfect gift for a lady of good taste, and connoisseur of the handcrafted object. Fans also had a particular place in the masquerade balls across Europe in that century, hiding the faces of their owners, as part of an elaborate ritual of flirtation.

Fan languages or "fan flirtation rules" were a way to cope with the restricting social etiquette. The main rules must have been practiced just to remember them, not to mention the young fellows who also had to learn the language of fans!

Holding a fan in the left hand signified "desired acquaintance"
Resting the fan on the right cheek meant "yes" and left cheek "no"
Twirling a fan in the left hand meant "I wish to be rid of you"
and the right hand meant "I love another"
A fan held on the left ear signified "you have changed"
Pulling a fan across the forehead meant "we are watched",
across the eyes meant "I am sorry"
A wide open fan meant "wait for me"
Dropping a fan meant "we could be friends"
Fast fanning meant "I am married"
Swift pulling of a fan through the hand meant "I hate you"
Placing the handle of a fan to the lips meant "kiss me"

By 1865 the fan was an indispensable fashion accessory for the emergent middle classes, reaching the peak of its success in the Victorian era. Fashion dictated that all women have a fan. Like many other utilitarian objects for women, fans became works of art. The kind of fan a woman owned was based on her social status, ranging from street vendors to hand painted, mother of pearl or ivory inlaid with gold and precious jewels. This availability to all, led to an extraordinary snobbery about the fan.

Fans survived into the twentieth century but much of the past elegance, and the unspoken language of oriental mystique had fallen to the side, except in the case of postcards. Fans made one last appearance during the postcard era and then, once again, they became practical as souvenirs, advertisements (including political), decorations and friendship gifts.

A fan can be functional, used in ceremonies, a fashion statement or a means for advertising. A type of fan was used in ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian and Chinese cultures. Some of the earliest examples include two fans discovered in Tutankhamen's tomb when it was excavated in 1922. These early fans were single shapes fixed to a handle. The first European country to produce fans was Italy in about 1500. This was in Venice and was a result of the city being a major trading centre for the Orient to the rest of Europe.

As trade increased during the 16th century fans grew in popularity as a fashionable commodity. In the 17th century The Guild of Fan Makers was established thus acknowledging its professional status. A century later the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers formed in 1709. Until the mid 17th century fans continued to be very much a luxury item, often made from some of the most expensive materials and jewels. By the latter part of the 17th century the range of fans was increasing and France overtook Italy as the main centre for fan production. By the 18th century most countries were making fans of some kind and fan painting had become a recognised craft. Fans were now an essential fashion accessory and styles echoed other trends in fashionable dress. A decline in fan use began in the early 20th century and they became more of an advertising tool rather than a fashion accessory. However, their popularity continues in Spain, where they became part of the Spanish culture, and in hot climates for keeping cool.

Throughout their history fans have been made from a diverse range of materials. Some of the earliest Egyptian and Chinese fans were made of feathers. The peacock feather was popular because of its eye motif which was seen as a protective symbol. Colourful feathers were used for fans in the third quarter of the 19th century. During the latter part of the 19th century the neutral tones of ostrich feathers mounted on mother of pearl, ivory or tortoiseshell echoed the softer tones of their contemporary dress. 1920s fashions demanded a single ostrich plume dyed to match dress colours. Leaves of folding fans have been made of fine animal skins (including that of unborn lambs and often referred to as 'chicken skin'), vellum, paper, lace, silk and other textiles. Vellum and 'chicken skin' were used mainly during the 16th and 17th centuries after which paper increased in popularity. These leaves were painted, the first printed fan dates to the 1720s. Tortoiseshell, ivory, bone, mother of pearl, metal and wood have all been used as guards and sticks. All either highly decorative: jewelled, carved, pierced, gilded, lacquered, painted, printed or simply left plain. Artificial materials have been used too. Celluloid, one of the earliest plastics was being used to imitate tortoiseshell during the late 19th century.

The most common styles of fan are folding, bris�, cockade or a simple rigid shape on a handle. A folding fan is made from a set of sticks with a pleated leaf. The two outer sticks are described as guards and they are frequently decorated. The guards and sticks are held together at the base with a rivet. Bris� fans are made from separate sticks which are linked together at the top with ribbon and the base is fixed in the same way as a folding fan. Cockade fans have a folding leaf which is designed to open into a full circle and it closes into a single guard. Decorative styles vary according to country of origin and changing taste in dress. Painted scenes, landscapes and vignettes inspired by religious and mythological subject matter ran parallel to contemporary developments in the fine and decorative arts, particularly during the 17th and 18th centuries. These earlier styles were revived again in the 19th century. Other influences include historical and cultural events. The excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii in Italy during the 18th century encouraged a fascination with classical motifs. Wealthy young men travelled to see the sites and souvenir fans were available for them to purchase for their female relatives. The French Revolution provided a source for printed fans, sometimes produced to make a political statement.

From the sixteenth century onwards the fan was used in fashionable society as a means of communication. The messages conveyed on the whole were those of love. This form of sign language was published in contemporary etiquette books and magazines. The Original Fanology or Ladies' Conversation Fan which had been created by Charles Francis Badini, was published by William Cock in London in 1797. It contained details on how to hold complete conversations through simple movements of a fan. Both men and women carried fans and understood the different messages. Some of the most common are listed below.
Placing your fan near your heart = I love you
Letting the fan rest on the right cheek = Yes
Letting the fan rest on the left cheek = No
Dropping the fan = We will be friends
Fanning slowly = I am married
Fanning quickly = I am engaged
Drawing the fan across the eyes = I am sorry
To open a fan wide = Wait for me
A half closed fan pressed to the lips = You may kiss me
Twirling the fan in the right hand = I love another
Twirling the fan in the left hand = We are being watched
Shutting a fully open fan slowly = I promise to marry you
A closed fan resting on the right eye = When can I see you
Carrying a open fan in the left hand = come and talk to me
Touching the tip of the fan with a finger = I wish to speak to you
Copyright Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum

*[Madame de Genlis, French writer and educator (1746 - 1830), one of the most popular, prolific authors of her day]

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"In the days when women yet blushed, in the days when they desired to dissimulate this embarrassment and timidity, large fans were the fashion; they were at once both a countenance and a veil. Flirting their fans, women concealed their faces; now they blush little, fear not at all, have no care to hide themselves, and carry in consequence imperceptible fans."

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Fact #1. A Tale of Mystery

The first melodrama was a play called A Tale of Mystery by English writer called Thomas Holcroft. His play was a mixture of fact paced action, sentimentality and a happy ending.

Fact #2. Industrial Revolution

Melodrama grew in the backdrop of the industrial revolution. During this time 77% of the British population moved to live in cities where they worked in factories. The living and working conditions were appalling and going to see a melodrama in the theatre was a welcome relief and escape from the harsh realities of life.

Fact #3. It's all about being sentimental!

A good melodrama is always sentimental. Despite what happens in the plot and the dangerous things that happen to the characters, the hero always marries the heroine and the bad guy always gets caught.

Fact #4. Music enhances the Melodrama

Melodrama involved with music drama. The music was very significant because it enhanced the emotion, mood, and feeling of the characters.

Fact #5: Good Versus Evil

The main theme of Melodrama was good versus evil. There would be good characters and evil characters. A basic story line would be established, the evil characters would begin to look like they were going to win and everything would go to a climax until the good characters finally win over and defeat the evil characters once and for all.

Fact #6: Audience involvement

Quite often the audience were quite literally on the edge of their seats and would suspend their disbelief (get totally involved) and they would shout out, boo and hiss as the action carried on.

Fact #7: Fast Pace

The plot of the play would move very quickly, a scene would be only a few minutes long. This was to keep the audience engaged and cover more plot.

Fact #8: Exotic locations

The settings of the play were often in exotic locations a long way away from the realities of the hard work and dreadful living conditions of the cities that the audiences lived in. Part of the attraction to Melodrama was that it was an escape to far more exotic and exciting locations that the audience had never been to but longed to see.

Fact #9: Stock Characters

There were 6 stock characters in almost every Melodrama:

1. The Hero

2. The Heroine

3. The Villain

4. The Villains Accomplice

5. Faithful Servant to the Hero

6. Maid Servant to the Heroine

Fact #10: Special Effects

As Melodrama grew, it also become famous for it's special effects. Theatre goers grew increasing hungry for disasters to be played out in front of them such as train crashes, horse races or sea battles.

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Fact #1. A Tale of Mystery The first melodrama was a play called A Tale of Mystery by English writer called Thomas Holcroft. His play was a mixture of fact paced action, sentimentality and a happy ending. Fact #2. Industrial Revolution Melodrama grew in the backdrop of the industrial revolution.

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Held by National Bunraku Theatre in June

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The act "Denchu Ninjo" from the classic bunraku play "Kanadehon Chushingura (The Vendetta by 47 Ronin)" (Photo courtesy of the National Bunraku Theatre)

OSAKA -- The National Bunraku Theatre here will be offering an English introduction to the traditional bunraku Japanese puppetry this June for the second year in a row.

The event "Discover Bunraku" will be held at the theater in Osaka's Chuo Ward from 2 p.m. on June 17 in a rare opportunity for a worldwide audience to learn about the ancient art in English.

The theater usually holds "bunraku performance for beginners" workshops in June, running from June 9 to 22 this year. The performances and explanations are geared towards those with little knowledge of the art, and in 2016, the theater decided to hold one special workshop a year for study abroad students and foreign tourists.

The event attracted about 600 participants, and according to questionnaires collected afterwards, the participants came from 37 countries. The majority of the audience reported that the English synopsis and the explanation of the performance deepened their understanding of bunraku and that it was an amazing experience, among other positive feedback.

This year, the English-language "navigator" will be Shigeyama Doji, a young kyogen actor from Kyoto who puts on kyogen performances in both Japanese and English. The first part of the program will be "The ABC of Bunraku" lead by the head of the Kinoshita-Kabuki theater group, Yuichi Kinoshita. Participants can look forward to a special performance of a well-known Japanese song that Kinoshita has prepared in bunraku style.

In the second half of the workshop, the theater will perform selected famous acts from one of the three great bunraku plays "Kanadehon Chushingura (The Vendetta by 47 Ronin)" with English subtitles. An English audio guide is also available free of charge.

Tickets for the workshop are 3,700 yen for adults and 1,300 for students and can be purchased by calling the National Theatre Ticket Center at 0570-07-9900 or visiting their website (http://www.ntj.jac.go.jp/sp/schedule/bunraku/2017/6discover-bunraku.html?lan=e).

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Osaka's National Bunraku Theatre to offer English workshop on traditional puppetry - The Mainichi

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OSAKA -- The National Bunraku Theatre here will be offering an English introduction to the traditional bunraku Japanese puppetry this June for the second year in a row. The event "Discover Bunraku" will be held at the theater in Osaka's Chuo Ward from 2 p.m.

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KABUKI KOOL. Japanese traditional theater explained in English. 01

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Kabuki, traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner. A rich blend of music, dance, mime, and spectacular staging and costuming, it has been a major theatrical form in Japan for four centuries. The term kabuki originally suggested the unorthodox and shocking character of this art form. In modern Japanese, the word is written with three characters: ka, signifying "song"; bu, "dance"; and ki, "skill."

Kabuki's highly lyrical plays are regarded, with notable exceptions, less as literature than as vehicles for actors to demonstrate their enormous range of skills in visual and vocal performance. These actors have carried the traditions of Kabuki from one generation to the next with only slight alterations. Many of them trace their ancestry and performing styles to the earliest Kabuki actors and add a "generation number" after their names to indicate their place in the long line of actors.

History of the form

The Kabuki form dates from the early 17th century, when a female dancer named Okuni (who had been an attendant at the Grand Shrine of Izumo), achieved popularity with parodies of Buddhist prayers. She assembled around her a troupe of wandering female performers who danced and acted. Okuni's Kabuki was the first dramatic entertainment of any importance that was designed for the tastes of the common people in Japan. The sensuous character of the dances (and the prostitution of the actors) proved to be too disruptive for the government, which in 1629 banned women from performing. Young boys dressed as women then performed the programs, but this type of Kabuki was suppressed in 1652, again because of concern for morals. Finally, older men took over the roles, and it is this form of all-male entertainment that has endured to the present day. Kabuki plays grew in sophistication, and the acting became more subtle.

Eventually, by the early 18th century, Kabuki had become an established art form that was capable of the serious, dramatic presentation of genuinely moving situations. As merchants and other commoners in Japan began to rise on the social and economic scale, Kabuki, as the people's theatre, provided a vivid commentary on contemporary society. Actual historical events were transferred to the stage; Chūshingura (1748), for example, was an essentially faithful dramatization of the famous incident of 1701-03 in which a band of 47 rōnin (masterless samurai), after having waited patiently for almost two years, wreaked their revenge upon the man who had forced the suicide of their lord. Similarly, nearly all the "lovers' double suicide" ( shinjū) plays of the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon were based on actual suicide pacts made between ill-fated lovers.

Bugaku, the dance ceremony of the imperial court, and the Noh theatre, both of great antiquity, were long the exclusive domain of the nobility and the warrior class known as samurai; Kabuki became the theatre of the townspeople and the farmers. Bugaku and Noh have a fragile elegance and an extreme subtlety of movement. Kabuki is somewhat coarse and unrestrained, and its beauty is gaudy and extravagant.

The strongest ties of Kabuki are to the Noh and to jōruri, the puppet theatre that developed during the 17th century. Kabuki derived much of its material from the Noh, and, when Kabuki was banned in 1652, it reestablished itself by adapting and parodying kyōgen (sketches that provide comic interludes during Noh performances). During this period a special group of actors, called onnagata, emerged to play the female roles; these actors often became the most popular of their day.

Traditionally, a constant interplay between the actors and the spectators took place in the Kabuki theatre. The actors frequently interrupted the play to address the crowd, and the latter responded with appropriate praise or clapped their hands according to a prescribed formula. They also could call out the names of their favourite actors in the course of the performance.

Because Kabuki programs ran from morning to evening and many spectators often attended for only a single play or scene, there was a constant coming and going in the theatre. At mealtimes food was served to the viewers. The programs incorporated themes and customs that reflected the four seasons or inserted material derived from contemporary events. Unlike most Western theatres, in which since the late 17th century a proscenium arch has separated actors and audience, the Kabuki performers constantly intruded on the audience. When two hanamichi, elevated passageways from the main stage to the back of the auditorium, were used, the audience was fenced in by three stages.

Subject, purpose, and conventions

Kabuki subject matter creates distinctions between the historical play ( jidaimono) and the domestic play ( sewamono). A Kabuki program generally presents them in that order, separated by one or two dance plays featuring ghosts, courtesans, and other exotic creatures. It ends with a lively dance finale ( ōgiri shosagoto) with a large cast.

Although the basic purposes of Kabuki are to entertain and to allow the actors to demonstrate their skills, there is a didactic element, an ideal represented by the notion of kanzen-chōaku ("reward the virtuous and punish the wicked"). Thus, the plays often present conflicts involving such religious ideas as the transitory nature of the world (from Buddhism), and the importance of duty (from Confucianism), as well as more general moral sentiments. Tragedy occurs when morality conflicts with human passions. Structurally, the plays are typically composed of two or more themes in a complex suji ( plot), but they lack the strong unifying element for which Western drama strives. Kabuki plays include a variety of intermingled episodes which develop toward a final dramatic climax.

Despite the ease with which it can assimilate new forms, Kabuki is a very formalized theatre. It retains numerous conventions adapted from earlier forms of theatre that were performed in shrines and temples. Kabuki dance is probably the best-known feature of Kabuki. Rarely is an opportunity missed to insert dancing, whether the restrained, flowing movement of the onnagata or the exaggerated posturings of the male characters. The acting in Kabuki can be so stylized that it becomes virtually indistinguishable from dancing.

At present, regular performances are held at the National Theatre in Tokyo. The city was also home to the Kabuki Theatre (Kabuki-za), which closed in 2010. An office tower-which includes the theatre-was opened on the site in 2013. Other theatres have occasional performances. Troupes of Kabuki actors also perform outside Tokyo. There are several such companies, but their memberships often overlap. At the National Theatre the length of an average program is about four hours. The theatre stresses the importance of the play itself, trying to maintain the historical tradition and to preserve Kabuki as a classical form.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Meg Matthias.

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Kabuki | History, Meaning, Costumes, & Facts

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Kabuki, traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed in a highly stylized manner. A rich blend of music, dance, mime, and spectacular staging and costuming, it has been a major theatrical form in Japan for four centuries. Learn more about Kabuki in this article.

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A tourist's guide to Kabuki, Japanese theater.

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Kabuki is classical and traditional form of Japanese dance and drama theater that has its origins in the Edo Period. It is known for the elaborate costumes and makeup worn by its actors. Kabuki is more popular among the lower class and common folks than the Noh theater, which is popular among the upper classes of society.

The word "Kabuki" is composed of three Japanese characters: "ka" representing "songs," "bu" representing "dance" and "ki" representing "skill." This type of theater is reminiscent of a performance of a Shakespearean play in a Japanese opera house. Kabuki is performed on a rotating stage with small trapdoors through which the actors can slide away, disappearing and reappearing as warranted. The stage extends into the audience like a footbridge, so the audience is close up to the actors.

Kabuki theater was started in the early 17th century by Okuni, a shrine dancer in Kyoto. It featured a blend of religious dance and folk dances performed by an all women's dance group. Eventually women were banned from performing in Kabuki theater because the men were constantly staring at the women, who were being lured into prostitution. As a result, only men were permitted to act, even taking on the female roles.

Kabuki performances are made up of differing elements and many colors that give it its unique glamor. These elements include dramatic content, musical elements, stories, costume, makeup and theater design. The themes of Kabuki plays can revolve around moral conflicts, history and romantic relationships.

The music in a Kabuki play contains special audio effects. Chanting is accompanied by flutes, drums and a shamisen, which is a type of stringed instrument. The most outstanding and interesting sound is the banging of two wooden clappers, which signals the start and the end of every play.

Costumes help the performers portray the hidden and complex deep meanings of the roles they play. Makeup and colorful face paintings are also a very important component of Kabuki theater. Another aspect of Kabuki theater is what the Japanese refer to as actor-audience relationship, whereby the players come out on stage and speak directly to the audience. The art of performing in Kabuki theater is passed down from generation to generation, although the national Theater of Tokyo trains young children to become Kabuki performers.

The actual physical setup of a Kabuki theater has not changed since its inception. There is a long walkway from the rear of the theater until the stage, where many of the actors actually perform. This walkway is called the hanamichi, which means the flower way.

Dance is the foundation of all Kabuki plays and the actors are required to undergo years of training before they can begin performing in Kabuki plays. The dances are based on circling movements, where the heels must be kept very close to the floor, along with many turns and the use of mimes and props.

Kabuki acting is comprised of two different styles: aragoto is rough acting and wagoto is soft acting. Aragoto actors are usually portrayed as being superhuman or super-heroic people. They can always be recognized by the special design of their makeup, which is painted in red, black and blue stripes on their face, arms and legs.

Everything about aragato actors is exaggerated. They possess very loud and powerful voices and they find themselves always braying, screaming and bellowing their lines. Their costumes and wigs are also on a very large scale.

Kabuki theater is still performed today in Japan as it was performed nearly 400 years ago, and has undergone very little change. It is a genuine and authentic unbroken tradition of theatrical performance.

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Kabuki is classical and traditional form of Japanese dance and drama theater that has its origins in the Edo Period. It is known for the elaborate costumes and makeup worn by its actors. Kabuki is more popular among the lower class and common folks than the Noh theater, which is popular among the upper classes of society.

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... since 1993!
NOTE: The URL for this Guide is now
http://www2.stetson.edu/creative-arts/resources/theatre-arts/mccoy-theatre-guide.html Last updated: December 2011

NOTE: Galina Miclosic has prepared a Russian translation of this page. Since I do not speak Russian myself, I do not vouch for it, but I do thank her for her effort and I post this link for those who might find it useful:
( http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/thr-guide-be)

This Guide is maintained by:
Ken McCoy, Ph.D.
Professor
Creative Arts Department - Theatre Arts Program
Stetson University
DeLand, Florida 32723

http://www2.stetson.edu/~kmccoy

Copyright 1993, 2011 by Ken McCoy. All Rights Reserved.
Copying is permitted for noncommercial use by academic computer centers, computer conferences, individual scholars, and libraries. This message must appear on all copied material. All commercial use requires permission.

In 1993, when I first began to research theatre sites on the internet, it was a difficult and laborious project. Sites were hard to find, search engines were underdeveloped, there were very few theatre people who had taken an interest in, or even knew about the internet. Obviously, things have changed. Now the Web is easily accessible through a variety of web browsers, making specific knowledge of such utilities as telnet, ftp, and gopher (remember that one?) more or less obsolete or invisible.

There are now so many theatre-related sites that keeping a truly comprehensive guide to resources theatre on the internet, compiled and maintained through human intervention, is incredibly time-consuming. The area of performance studies is even more of a problem, with its incursions into popular culture, communication studies, and hundreds of other (legitimate!) tangents.

The proliferation of search engines and databases on the web now makes finding a comprehensive listing of links fairly easy for a single user. Of course, access to such an expanse of information raises the problem of evaluation and selection, which I have attempted to address in this guide over the years.

This edition of my Brief Guide to Internet Resources in Theatre and Performance Studies is based on what I have learned as a seeker of information on the internet, which is mainly how to quickly find information and resources in a medium where their sheer quantity is overwhelming. As a researcher in search of useful information, I find myself turning again and again to the same information sources, engaging in the same techniques, and using the tools at my disposal in similar ways.

In previous versions, I have struggled to keep a balance between brief and comprehensive. I decided some years ago to give the advantage to brief. This has resulted in dropping (among other things) the "Listserv" section (except for new resources), especially since most are now accessible through HTTP addresses and can be found with a typical internet search. In any event, I am attempting to live up to the title of this document as a guide to resources rather than a listing of them.

What's not in this guide

In order to achieve this objective, some omissions have been necessary. I consider this a good thing. Usually, when browsing through sites, I tend to encounter the same links repeatedly and therefore run myself around in circles. Although this sort of "empirical" research is sometimes desirable, it is inefficient (not to mention frustrating) as a first recourse. Therefore, I have privileged those sites that do offer comprehensive listings, that offer something unique or interesting, that are somewhat off the beaten path, or that serve as significant examples of well-managed and productive sites.

I have opted not to list commercial organizations (such as most actor databases) or sites that simply repeat services or resources. (Just a note: for actors who want to find these resources, simply submit a form to a search engine with the arguments "actor," "casting," and/or "headshot" and you will be swamped with information). I have also chosen to omit most regional theatres and organizations, unless they offer significant resources (internet or other). For example, I do not include the ANYWHERE, USA THEATRE COMPANY, but I do include the National Endowment for the Arts at the Kennedy Center, AisleSay production reviews, and many playwriting pages (since these latter often include new, unpublished, and/or original works).

Assumptions

This guide is not meant to be an introduction to the internet itself. I am assuming that the reader will have a working knowledge of a web browser; be able to formulate, understand, or at least use Uniform Resource Locator (URL) addresses; send and receive email; and perform other basic tasks associated with the medium.

Submitting a site

For some time, I have begun to receive both automated and human-generated missives from webmasters asking that their site be included in my guide. In order for us all to better utilize our time, I have composed the following criteria for a site to be considered for inclusion in subsequent versions of my guide. The site should:

1. not be commercial, unless it overwhelming fits one of the following criteria;

2. offer something unique or interesting (not offered by any other site);

3. provide valuable research tools (such as book, article, or play indexes);

4. provide a comprehensive listing of theatre or performance studies resources; and/or

5. be off the beaten path, that is, unlikely to be found in a quick search engine query.

The reader will no doubt find exceptions to these guidelines within the body of this guide. Since I am a human editor, I reserve the right to bend the rules and use my own judgment in making these determinations.

- Ken McCoy

This section contains the resources that I consult most often and that yield the best results. Be sure to look carefully at this section before continuing, since the resources in it are not repeated later (that would be redundant).

Theatre Central

Now at Playbill. One of the best-maintained and most comprehensive single site on the subject of theatre, providing hundreds of links to theatre-related resources of all stripes. It includes a directory of Theatre Professionals on the Internet (email addresses, bios, etc.), casting news, production listings, and even a journal.

The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Theatre and Drama

A collection of theatre links, whose scope aims for the multi-cultural and multi-lingual. Its most remarkable features are its index to plays available on the internet (in several languages) and a (very modest) syllabus bank.

AisleSay

The Internet Magazine of Stage Reviews and Opinions, covering New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Melbourne, and more, with frequent updates and additions.
It's been around for almost as long as this guide.
OOBR

The Off-Off Broadway Review is an electronic edition of the print journal, which provides listings and reviews of current and archived shows of its members in the venue--defined as "an Equity showcase or non-union production of equivalent resources, being done in any of the New York boroughs." Free listings are welcomed in the electronic version.

Musicals 101

This "Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV, and Film" by John Kenrick is a great site to begin an exploration of musical theatre as an art form. With papers on history, reviews, essays on a variety of topics, and even some "how-to" guides, it's far more than a fan site or list of links.

Playscripts, Inc.

Although this site is, technically speaking, commercial, this online publishing house also happens to excel in providing access to a huge collection of playtexts for performance, most notably short, original scripts suitable for young performers and audiences (i.e., Thespian competition and high school festivals). Playtexts are at least 80% viewable online, which greatly facilitates a search for "that perfect play."

Primer for Actors

By Louis E. Catron, this is a great source of "how to" information for student actors and other beginners. The advice on resume construction is particularly well done. Dr. Catron has other useful web publications on the home site.

The Foundation Center

An information resource for grantseekers and grantmakers, including fund-raising libraries, a digest, and publications.

Ropers Knots Page

A meta-page with links to knot-tying sites. It's got links to ALL the knots. For when I can't remember how the rabbit goes around the tree, in the hole, etc.

On-Line Books Page

An index to online books and other documents, with links to other electronic text sites, indexes, and more.

LANIC -- Latin American Network Information Center (University of Texas).

UT-LANIC provides access to library catalogs, networks (redes), databases, FTP and email archives (including the Latin American Information Base), and more in and concerning Latin America. The amount of information is immense. Since my area of research interest is Latin American Theatre, I often find it invaluable (in locating play and production reviews published in newspapers, for example).

The Internet Broadway Database

This one is all about Broadway, and is a great source for statistics on productions appearing there. However, Broadway theatres are no longer the sole controlling venues for theatre production in America, especially non-musical theatre, so it's not really as useful as I would want it to be. Still, a good start - easy to search and fairly comprehensive.

The Internet Movie Database

As the film industry tends to be more centralized, this one is more useful, especially for finding lists of performers, synopses of their movies, awards won, and other good stuff. Actors who already appear in the database can take advantage of the photo-resume service to edit and post their own additional information.

Well, these are the resources that I consult most often. After reading through the many more that follow, be sure to look at the Other Guides section of this document for a more comprehensive tour of the internet theatre world.

If you are looking for something specific, you might also want to try a search engine. Although there are dozens of them, the two I tend to use the most are Google andYahoo.

World Wide Web Resources by Topic

Acting Workshop Online

A nice, easy to understand site for beginning actors.

The Actor's Checklist

A fairly comprehensive site containing information and advice for actors new to the business of the art (mostly SAG and film-focused).
The information is solid and reasonable and there are also suggestions for other sites and print sources.
AEA: Actors Equity Association

This home of the professional Stage Actors' Union in the USA includes FAQ, constitution/bylaws, and other info germain to the working actor. It also includes information on auditioning as well as links to other unions, a few producers, and other sites of general interest.

ACTORSOURCE

A respectably comprehensive site for the actor. Most notably, includes practical advice to the star-struck, such as how to avoid scams, how to relocate to LA, and how to choose monologues and headshots. It also includes valuable lists of agencies, casting directors, comedy clubs, and selected conservatories, colleges and universities (hard to cover them all) with programs in actor training.

The Living Playbook

Rightly calls itself "the most complete, most up-to-date collection of improv games on the planet." I have found them very useful in classes and workshops, although it apparently has not been updated since 2001.

Now Casting

A talent database, based in LA, for actors to post resumes, photos, reel clips, etc. and review casting notices. The basic membership is free.

The Online Communicator

Essentially a site devoted to listing resources for the Entertainment Industry, the Talent section of this site lists resources useful to performers, such as information on unions, vocal production, tongue twisters, audition resources, and more. Maintained by Rich Wilson; last updated in 2005.

StageAgent.com

This site advertises itself as "free resource for the performers and producers of musicals, operas, and dramas." It is mainly a disucssion forum, but it is indexed with search capabilities, and there are occasional short articles.

Elizabethan Costuming Page

This is an excellent site for both amateur and professional costumers (and students of course), with sections on history, design and even construction techniques. A "Monthly Costume Feature" directs the reader to other excellent sites of interest. This site is very thorough, and definitely worth a visit (even if you're not a costumer).

Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms: Theatrecrafts.com

Hosted by Jon Primrose / University of Exeter Drama Department (UK), this is a very comprehensive glossary of English-language theatre terms. Users can perform a Word Search, get a random word, browse by category or alphabetically. Very informative.

The History of Costume by Braun & Scheider

Braun & Scheider published this illustrated book on costumes c.1861-1880. The web site is the book on line--an excellent resource for costume designers, directors, and those interested in fashion and period costuming.

Lighting & Electronics

Features safety guides, math formulas for lighting designers and electricians, links to news services and magazines, and a problem/solution page, in which solutions to common and not-so-common lighting problems are discussed.

The Stagehand Primer

Specifically intended for the use of the Stagehands and Apprentices of IATSE Local 470 in Northeast Wisconsin, this handbook contains lots of useful information for technicians and other students of theatre in need of plain definitions and procedures for the practical operation of theatre production.

The Theatre Design and Tech Jobs Page

A free online jobs bulletin board, artist listing, and forum.

USITT

The web site for the association of design, production, and technology professionals in the performing arts and entertainment industry in the USA.

10 Minute Plays

An archive of short plays. Very suitable for one-act festivals and directing classes.

APN: The Alberta Playwrights' Network

The Alberta Playwrights' Network is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to fostering playwriting in Alberta, Canada. The site includes an online newsletter, but to take advantage of many of the services, one needs to be in Alberta.

Cervantes Project

An excellent site devoted to the Spanish Golden Age playwright, with academic articles, indices, images, a local search engine, and links to related sites. Available in Spanish and English, it should prove very useful to the online researcher.

E-SCRIPT

An interactive scriptwriting workshop for playwrights and screenwriters at all experience levels. The site also includes virtual Q & A sessions and archives with professionals in TV, theatre, and film.

Ibsen.net

A very nice searchable database concerning stage productions of Ibsen's plays from 1850 and to present day. In English, German, and Norwegian.

The International Centre for Women Playwrights

The web site for this organization includes a discussion list, links to conferences and programs, the newsletter, and a "diary" of members' activities and awards.

Eugne Ionesco

Soren Olsen's page in French and English on the absurdist playwright.

Limelight Scripts

The UK source for scripts for performance, notable for its section on The History of British Pantomime and scripts for this unique form of drama.

Moliere Adaptations In English by Timothy Mooney

An ever-growing collection of Moliere's plays in English translation (and a few adaptations) that are original and creatively rhymed. Tim will also email a free copy of select plays upon request. He also performs on the Fringe Theatre and College Tour circuits.

Playwrights Cafe

The members of this organization in Albany, CA critiques a play each month by one of its fellows; the Network Cafe in the site allows participation, i.e., forum discussions, by non-members as well, although threads are very sparse and limited except for the Playwrights section.

The Playwrights Forum

The Playwrights Forum is "a non-profit organization dedicated to the artistic development of talented playwrights from the Washington D.C. area." Their web site includes short descriptions of over 200 plays written by members.

Playwrights on the Web

Maintained by Paul Thain on the Internet Theatre Bookshop web site, this is a long contact list of playwrights whose material is accessible on the web. His home site includes some nice links for playwrights, especially those in the UK.

Playwriting Seminars

This site is essentially a 230-page manual of the playwright's craft, with an "inevitable excursion into film." It is a very informative and thought-provoking guide to many playwriting issues.

Small-Cast One-Act Play Guide

A companion to the print-published index, this continually updated site aims to access "playwrights, their scripts, and related sundries." It includes indices of small-cast one-act plays sorted by cast size/gender, title, and author, a glossary of terms, reference sources for playwrights, and even script analyses.

August Strindberg

This attractive site has some good biographical material and photos, as well as excerpts from his journals and sketchbooks.

USA Plays for Kids

This program sponsored by the Drury University (Missouri) Dept. of Education (and other partners) provides a listing of authors willing to make direct contact with children who are producing their plays--a worthy project, and well-thought out.

Writing-World.com

Formerly the InkSpot, this is a very solid site for writers of all kinds. It includes a bi-weekly newsletter, interviews, articles, links, and more.

Absolute Shakespeare

This impressive site includes not only the plays, sonnets, and historical background, but also such features as trivia, study guides, quotes, filmography, and bibliography. One of the best.

A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603

(Hosted at Renaissance, The Elizabethan World, this a very attractive and informative on-line book by Maggie Pierce Secara on "Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writers, Actors, and Re-enactors." This fifth edition is a very thorough source for information on everyday life in Elizabethan times, drawn both from formal research and the author's experiences at Renaissance Faires. The web designer, Paula Katherine Marmor, has crafted a very elegant presentation. The book can also be downloaded for printing in Word 6.0 and Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
The main site also has other good resources.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

HTML versions of the plays.

Internet Shakespeare Editions

According to the editors, the purpose of this site is "to make scholarly, fully annotated texts of Shakespeare's plays available" on the internet. This includes Quartos and Folios, old-spelling editions of selected plays, and a refereed introduction to Shakespeare's life and times.

Ren Faire: Elizabethan Accents

A very interesting page that is part of a site devoted to Renaissance Faires. It includes sections on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, forms of address, insults and cursing, all aimed toward the improvisational use of Elizabethan English. A particularly interesting feature is a collection of sound files with Elizabethan pronunciations of some words.

Shakespeare Authorship

"Dedicated to the Proposition that Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare," this site is devoted to a critical examination of Oxfordian claims on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. It also includes numerous links to other sites related both to the controversy and to Shakespeare in general.

Shakespeare's Theatre

Terry Gray's superb annotated guide to Shakespeare web resources. A great place to start to research your production.

AATE Online

The American Alliance for Theatre and Education web site.

American Arts Alliance

The Advocacy Page of the American Arts Alliance provides "advocacy information and tools for arts supporters to communicate the need for continued federal support of the arts to their senators and representatives."

American Association of Community Theatre

A very respectable site that, in addition to a huge listing of regional community theatres and programs to service them, has aTips of the Month section with practical advice on lots of theatre topics.

Americans for the Arts (ArtsUSA)

ArtsUsa is the homepage of the Americans for the Arts, the advocacy arm of the American Council for the Arts and the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies. Includes ACA Catalog of books, the ArtsUSA Cafe discussion group, grant-writing and legal information, and Arts Advocacy resources. An excellent site.

ArtsEdge

The mission of the Kennedy Center ArtsEdge is "to help artists, teachers, and students gain access to and/or share information, resources, and ideas that support the arts as a core subject area in the K12 curriculum". This mission has given rise to several programs of interest, including a news digest and archive, links to sites in the arts and education, and a calendar of Conferences, Contests, Grants, Requests for Papers, and Job Listings, and the Community Center bulletin board.

ASTR: The American Society for Theatre Research

The home site for the professional academic organization that hosts a conference, working groups, a discussion list, and the journal Theatre Survey.

ATHE

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education web site.

IATSE

The national website of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada (the stagehands' union).

Institute for the Management of Creative Enterprises

This site, formerly ArtsNet, provides (among other things) a searchable database of arts resources.

The International Federation for Theatre Research

In French and English, this is the home site for the professional academic organization for conferences, working groups, and the journal Theatre Research International.

NEA Homepage

The National Endowment for the Arts.

Standing Conference of University Drama Departments (SCUDD)

An umbrella agency for University Drama Departments in the UK; includes a discussion list and some publications.

TCG: Theatre Communications Group

The national membership organization for academes, amateurs, and professionals alike. Among other things, the organization features a bookstore, journal (American Theatre) and ArtSearch, the main national listing for jobs in the arts in the USA.

The Theatre Library Association

Housed by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center, this site for the professional academic organzation supports librarians and archivists in the performing arts. It features links to Performing Arts Libraries, Archives and Museums, among other things.

World Wide Arts Resources

An impressive inventory of (mostly visual arts) resources that includes a searchable database, some dance links, links to arts organizations, arts employment, and more.

American Musicals

This site is basically a directory of contact information and publicity for theatre practitioners and their shows in the Los Angeles area.

American Theater Web

This site for "top news" has production listings by state, date, and alphabetical order, as well as a callboard with various news and announcements.

Bhasabharathi

The website of the Sopanam Institute of Kerala, India, engaged in the production and preservation of performance styles and methods of traditional Sanskrit and other Indian folk plays.

Branson Critic

This site provides a forum for volunteer reviewers as "regular people" to share their quite literate opinions on theatre performances in Branson, MO. They also offer a newsletter, a Q&A, and an index to current shows playing.

Chicago Theatre from Studio Z

Dan Zellner's page on Chicago theatre, with articles, play bills, reviews, and links.

Culture Vulture

The theatre section is a good place to find a sampling of what's playing in various cities of the world. More importantly, it includes very intelligent reviews and archives them for future reference--many kudos to the webmaster.

CurtainUp

This site has lots of reviews, some feature articles and interviews, covering the New York, London, and Washington, DC areas.

Institute of Outdoor Drama

This site features an up-to-date list (directory) of shows and contact information on outdoor drama producing organizations.

Drama.ca

Canadian theatre listings, reviews, festivals, theatre rental information, news and auditions.

Irish Theatre Resource

This site has a comprehensive directory of links to "all Irish Theatre Companies, Venues, Dance, Festivals, and Theatre Sites."

London Theatre Guide

Concentrating on theatres that are members of the Society of London Theatre: "the main 46 top theatres" of the West End.

Ohio Educational Theatre Association (Ohio Thespians)

Aside from a center for information on Ohio Thespians, there are excellent sections (reprinted articles) on copyright and censorship concerns for theatre in public school settings.

StageDiary.com

Billing itself as an "Online Stage Magazine--a new source of information and comment on theatre and other performing arts in Queensland, Australia," this site includes arts headlines, reviews, and a "what's playing" section.

Teatrolinks

Links to theatre groups, organizations, festivals, and other web sites, mainly in Portugal, but also internationally.

Theatre Australia

Serving mostly Western Australia, this is a very respectable and well-organized site. It includes the usual links to regional theatres and their seasons, as well as a script library for locals, message boards, and reviews of productions submitted by regular theatre-going citizens. The gossip section is particularly juicy.

Theatre (Dance and Performance) in Wales

A nicely organized site concerning the performing arts in Wales. In addition to a comprehensive listing of companies, universities and community organizations, the site includes a rich compendium of reviews, articles, essays, and profiles on a variety of related topics.

Larry Stark's THEATER MIRROR, Boston's Live Theater Guide

This eclectic and witty guide starts with and focuses on Boston, Massachusetts, but also expands its coverage of quality links to the rest of the globe. Lots of information, few "bells and whistles."

Theatremonkey.com

An "independent guide to London Theatre and Concert Venues," this site reviews London theatre auditoria, and gives advice on seat selection, getting tickets while avoiding scalpers, etc. It also ranks a seat's "value," which includes handicapped accessibility and general comfort. They even send undercover agents in and publish a report of their experiences at the hands of management.

World Theatres - New York, London, Toronto and International

As the title suggests, this page gives the addresses and seasons of various theatre companies sorted by venue.

Zurich's Cynical Theatre Guide

A nice guide to the theatre scene in Zurich. It's in German, but provides English descriptions of the entries.

UK Theatre Web

A fairly comprehensive listing of performing arts events and resources in the UK, including amateur and professional theatre, opera and dance.

Potpourri: The Best of the Rest

AFS Home Page

American Fencers Supply, although a commercial site, also offers much in the way of information and education on fencing and weapons for the stage. Particularly informative is the illustration of the many types of sword blades.

Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide

Information on and links to psychodrama, drama therapy, sociodrama, playback theater, Boal centers and practitioners, community issues groups, and training and development specialists.

Artmedia (Australia)

Run by Alan Clay, this site
on Physical Theatre reads like a newsletter and focuses on Australia and New Zealand. In fact, they have an e-newsletter available. It's an interesting place to find out what's going on in that part of world in that brand of theatre.
Asian American Theatre Revue

An up-to-date resource on Asian American theatre, this site includes a directory of organizations and annotated bibliography of plays, as well as news and a calendar of events.

The Association of Theatre Movement Educators

Formerly the Society of Theatre Movement Specialists, ATME is an umbrella service organization primarily for movement educators in actor training. Currently of national (USA) scope, plans are underway to expand internationally.

Audio Theatre

Audio theatre is what happened to Radio Drama when "the delivery vehicle abandoned the art form." This site includes news on over 125 practicing organizations, as well as contests on writing and producing audio theatre.

Bob Hope and American Variety

More than a biographical Hope site, this online library of Congress exhibit explores the American Variety performance from vaudeville through the present using Hope's work as a springboard. Photos, programs, partial scripts, and other memorabilia provide the core of the collection.

Border Crossings

This site sponsored by a theatre company has a series of very good essays on and interviews focusing on
intercultural theory and performances from its repertory. Its chief patron is opera director Peter Sellars.
Centre for Performance Research

Located in Aberystwyth, Wales, this is a membership organization whose site includes a modest collection of links and descriptions of past and on-going projects in performance. Members get more, such as a peer-reviewed journal and access to an archive of books and videos on the subject of contemporary (postmodern, etc.) performance.

Comedy-O-Rama

A comedy site from Joe Bevilacqua and Lorie Kellogg, Comedy-O-Rama includes their own material (scripts, radio dramas, funnies, etc.), as well as a very nice set of links to resources on the "Great Ones" of comedy: Fred Allen, Fanny Brice, Phil Silvers, and Jack Benny.

Creative Drama and Theatre Education Resource Site

Geared for K-12 teachers, this site includes theatre games and classroom ideas, a short listing of plays for performance, and an annotated bibliography of books for the classroom drama teacher.

Creative Drama & Theatre for Youth Webring

This site links those with an interest in drama education and drama for youth. There are now enough partners to make it a good resource.

Dance Links

Links to dance-related resources based on the list compiled by Amy Reusch and friends and hosted by Gaynor Minden pointe shoes. The new web design may cause some erroneous file not found messages - but don't worry - they are there.

DIOTIMA: Women and Gender in the Ancient World

Contains a bibliography, links to course materials, on-line articles, reviews, and images.

Eserver Drama Collection: Drama

Links to plays, screenplays and discussions of drama and dramatic productions not typically found elsewhere.

Federal Theatre Project Collection

Lots of information and images from the Federal Theatre Project archives at the Library of Congress. This is an excellent tour through the only national theatre directly funded by the US government in its history -- and rumor has it it actuallymade money.

Gruppo Storico e Sbandieratori Citt di Castiglion Fiorentino

An Italian site on folklore and historicla re-enactment from the Tuscan Middle Ages. A good source for music and flags/heraldry.

History of Performance Studies

This site is a result of Dr. Kelly Taylor's Seminar on the History of Performance Studies course at the University of North Texas. There are student essays, as well as her own model site on Chambers of Rhetoric.

Diane Howard's Professional Support Network

An eclectic potpourri of professional resources in performance studies and communication, such as course syllabi, performance texts, audition announcements, and links to outside resources in a variety of areas.

Interactive Drama

A "Scenario-Based Theatre-Style Interactive Drama Freeform Live Action Roleplaying Game Scenario Archive." Includes many links, information, and above all, a collection of interactive scenarios available online.

International Phonetic Association

Get the latest information about the International Phonetic Alphabet, used in voice study. The site includes charts, a handbook, and information on joining the association. For those who need to write things in the internet phonetic alphabet, this page contains links to several font packages for a variety of platforms.

Kabuki for Everyone

A really nice, surprisingly comprehensive page on Kabuki and related forms.

Landing Place

This site "for and about the fine arts" has a searchable database of venues, lists of agents, bulletin boards, and more, with contact information (phone and address more often than email or web site).

Literary Resources on the Net

Jack Lynch's site is a very comprehensive annotated collection of links to literary resources, including many playwrights and general theatre resources. It also includes a local search engine for those seeking specific information.

The Live Art Archives

A source for information about Live Art/Performance Art materials in the UK. The current database covers 1994-2000, and work is underway to update to the present. The site includes links to the LiveArt discussion group and the Digital Performance Archives.

Magic for Socialism

This site is too interesting to pass by. Ian Saville explains his magic routines: "whereas David Copperfield is content with little tricks like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, I aim at the much more ambitious goal of making International Capitalism and exploitation disappear."

Medieval English Drama

From the University of Rochester's Robbins Library, a comprehensive bibliography of print resources on the subject, including their Library of Congress designations.

Musicals.Net

Song lists, lyrics, synopses and more of your favorite musicals.

Old Sword-Play

A PDF version of the rare book by "Victorian scholar of the sword," Captain Alfred Hutton. Caveat emptor.

On the Theatrical Origin of the Expression "Green Room"

This scholarly article by George B. Bryan, published in DE PROVERBIO: An Electronic Journal of International Proverb Studies (Volume 3 - Number 1 - 1997), provides a great many options, but no firm conclusions regarding the origin of the term.

Phonetics Resources for Studying Spoken English

This site provides a nice annotated index to resources for voice study on the internet; not only phonetics, but also speech recognition and processing software and other technological fixes.

The Puppetry Home Page

A very comprehensive page of links to puppetry resources, including technique, construction, puppeteers, tour schedules, and related issues.

The Ring of Steel Theatrical, Stage and Film Combat Homepage

From Ann Arbor, Michigan, this is an excellent site for stage combat and fencing. The Reference Shelf section is particularly informative.

Semiotics for Beginners

A comprehensive introduction to the subject of semiotics. It is appropriately heady, and not for the academically thin-skinned. Still, its otherwise useful bibliography does not contain Keir Elam's Semiotics of Theatre.

Stephen Sondheim Society

Besides the latest news on Sondheim productions and events in the UK, there is an archive of performance records: programs, dates, numbers of show runs, etc. as well as a message board.

Theatre Ephemera

A collection of image files of mostly people, productions, and theatres for teachers and students of theatre history. They seem to cover mostly the 19th and early 20th century.

TheatreHistory.com

This is a quite comprehensive academically-oriented site (almost an e-course) which provides a nice insight into issues of theatre history. In addition to an index of topics (divided mainly by region, but also by Age), there is a "Today in Theatre history" section, as well as a featured topic and very modest script archive.

Theatre on a Shoestring

This is a remarkably comprehensive site for the theatre aficionado and practitioner, offering a number of articles for theatre people of all stripes, a glossary of theatre terms, theatre graphics, theatre games, stagecraft tips, play synopses, and more. A very impressive site.

Theatron: Theatre History in Europe

An innovative presentation of architectural and textual resources, offering interactive walkthroughs of 3-d models of select theatre buildings. It does require certain minimum computing resources and the installation of two browser plugins, but it's worth it to teachers and students of theatre history.

Tongue Twister Database

There are plenty of tongue twisters here, indispensable for the actor/speaker.

Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century

This Library of Congress online exhibit and searchable database
presents an overview of this touring arts & lectures forum and collection of circulars and talent brochures for performing artists. Based on the records of one of the principal booking agents, Redpath Lyceum Bureau, currently held by the University of Iowa Libraries.
Vaudeville in Ohio

A very interesting, freely accessible database cataloging shows and performers at the Chicago Opera House in Chicago Junction (now Willard), Ohio from August 1903 to December 1911. This small-town American vaudeville information is just the kind of thing the internet should make possible (in my opinion).

Urban Dictionary

This is an irresistible Wiki-style dictionary database of current slang, focusing overmuch on the scatological. Still, when I want to translate my students' rehearsal ad-libs into coherent terms, I often consult it.

Virtual Vaudeville

This experimental site hosted by the University of Georgia (USA) presents a Shockwave 3-D performance simulation by vaudevillian Frank Bush, complete with reactions by the historical audience. It is replete with historical information, presented both in the performance context and as "notes." More importantly, it actually works -- a one-of-a-kind application of scholarship and an amazing site!

Women's Theatre and Creativity Centre

A page that seeks to create a community for women through performance.

The World of Mime Theatre

Dedicated to "promotion of Mime as a serious theatrical art," this site offers a clickable index to all kinds of sites and subjects related to Mime, which include "a Library, Resources, Performer Contacts, and an Events Calendar."

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theatre guide theater resources drama stage performance academic play musical tech actor acting directing research playwright dramatist writing index links

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McCoy's Guide to Theatre and Performance Studies

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since 1993! NOTE: The URL for this Guide is now http://www2.stetson.edu/creative-arts/resources/theatre-arts/mccoy-theatre-guide.html Last updated: December 2011 NOTE: Galina Miclosic has prepared a Russian translation of this page. Since I do not speak Russian myself, I do not vouch for it, but I do thank her for her effort and I post this link for those who might find it useful: ( http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/thr-guide-be) This Guide is maintained by: Ken McCoy, Ph.D.

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Excellent resource - can borrow/checkout free for 15 days by creating free account.

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No/Kyogen masks and performance : essays and interviews : Teele, Rebecca : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Diane Maybank introduces the characters, conventions and historical context of Restoration comedy, and explores what the genre has to say about gender, courtship and class.

A comic vision that ridiculed what it most admired

Restoration comedy was written and performed from about 1660 to 1700, flourishing in the period after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Some 500 plays survive, though only a handful of them are performed today, and few playwrights have achieved lasting fame. Leading names include William Wycherley ( The Country Wife, 1675), George Etherege ( The Man of Mode, 1676), Aphra Behn (, 1677), John Vanbrugh ( The Relapse, 1696) and William Congreve ( The Way of the World, 1700). Although scholars have identified these particular plays as worthy of study, they were not necessarily the most popular choices among audiences at the turn of the 18th century.

Within this select group there is much variety. The obscure and impoverished Aphra Behn was the only woman and the first to 'write for bread'. Wycherley, Etherege and Vanbrugh were aristocrats with close links to the Stuart court, and where men who saw writing plays as a gentleman's pastime. Congreve was an intellectual and a Whig supporter, whose writing celebrates the values of the powerful new elite that had forced the Stuarts into exile in 1688.

Usage terms Public Domain
Held by© Yale Center for British Art

Restoration comedy tends to be overshadowed by the achievements of the Elizabethan era, but it merits our attention just the same. Although it may follow a prescribed set of conventions, within these rules it explores a range of challenging ideas that were highly topical in late 17th-century society. In terms of their gender politics, in particular, the plays remain fresh and relevant today.

The historical context

Despite its name this comedy was not a restorative to a nation wounded and divided by civil war, religious upheaval and anxiety about the future of the monarchy. The plays may celebrate court life in all its gorgeous material pomp, but they were written against a backdrop of far-reaching change in governance, the law, the Church and the family. A deep unease lies beneath the wit and sexual escapades.

In 1660 Charles Stuart was invited to take up the English Crown by a nation that had beheaded his father and fought a deeply painful civil war (1642-51). He returned from exile in France and began to rebuild a royal court in which theatre was to play a big part.

Faced with the rampant hypocrisy and cynicism on display in the comedies, critics have looked into England's history to find explanations. Some have pointed to the loss of a sense of social and natural order caused by years of fighting neighbours, friends and kin. Such prolonged trauma can rob people of their faith in personal relationships. Some see the influence of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. His major work (1651) was widely debated at the time. Hobbes believed that appetite is the strongest driving force in human behaviour, and that left to ourselves we will destroy what we most value because of our overwhelming competitive greed.

New theatres, new plays and women playing women's parts

Considered ungodly by Oliver Cromwell's Puritans, London's theatres had been closed since 1642. Within three months of his return, Charles had granted 'letters patent' (legal documents) to his veteran Cavaliers, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, giving them exclusive rights to each establish a theatre. The patents stipulated that women (rather than adolescent boys) should play women's parts.

The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane (1663) and the Dorset Garden Theatre in Whitefriars (1671) became the focus for a resurgent interest in writing and staging a new kind of comedy. Playwrights were inspired by exciting advances in theatre design and technology, such as moveable scenery, candlelit chandeliers and footlights.

Audiences came to see themselves reflected in the plays, but such was the disreputable nature of the profession, especially for women, that actors were mainly recruited from the poorest social groups. Intensive training was required to mimic upper-class speech and adopt the correct etiquette with swords, hats, fans and greetings. Everyone knew that they were watching an illusion of high society, and this gave the plays' themes of masking, gulling and deceit an additional edge. The Restoration also saw the rise of the celebrity actor, such as Elizabeth Barry.

Who were the audience?

The aristocratic upper classes may have laid claim to Restoration comedy, but by the end of the century the audience had diversified considerably. Graded seat prices and seating zones resulted in a sense of class ownership of parts of the playhouse auditorium. Actors enjoyed exploiting the divisions by 'playing' to different parts of the house. City merchants, their wives and servants, a growing middle class and a vocal group of fops and critics made up the regulars. In his diary, Samuel Pepys refers to frequent scenes of disorder, which he blamed on the large numbers of 'cits' (lower-class citizens), apprentices and 'mean types' seated in the gallery. Only Puritans, now on the losing side, stayed away. On stage they were ridiculed, portrayed as mercenary hypocrites bent upon spoiling innocent fleshly pleasures.

There was no concept of a 'fourth wall', which made the relationship between players and audience electrifying at times. Audiences adored the simple technique of the 'aside', where characters addressed them directly, taking them into their confidence. They preferred predictable plots and exaggerated stereotypes. When disgruntled with a particular play, audiences sometimes became so rowdy that they could close a production down.

Engraved plate from The Devils Cabinet-Councell with Oliver Cromwell

As well as being satirised on the Restoration stage, Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans were targeted in illustrations and other literature of the period, such as this example from 1660.

The comedy of manners

The comedy of manners was Restoration comedy's most popular subgenre. Although they ultimately uphold the status quo, these plays scrutinise and ridicule upper-class society's manners and rules of behaviour, providing an up-to-the-minute commentary on class, desire and the marriage market.

The tone is cynical and satirical, while the language and actions are sexually explicit. Characters are driven by lust, greed and revenge, and their goals are limited: fraud, courtship, gulling, cuckoldry. The intricate plots add much to the atmosphere of deceit and moral confusion.

A particularly appealing feature is the contrast between two pairs of lovers. The 'gay couple' are witty and independent, with time to banter and tease their way to choosing a marriage partner. Through them, the complexities of commitment could be explored. Nell Gwyn, mistress to Charles II, was the first actor to play one half of a 'gay couple', helping to establish the type as an enduring favourite. The second couple are constant and unexciting. Their path to true love is thwarted by outside forces, usually in the shape of a blocking character - Don Pedro in The Rover or Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World.

Congreve's The Way of the World

The Way of the World 's complex plot revolves around the relationship between two lovers, the protagonist Mirabell and the 'fine lady' Millamant, and Mirabell's attempts to secure Millamant's full dowry from her aunt, Lady Wishfort.

Wit versus humour

Restoration comedy kept all sections of its audience happy by blending wit with 'low' humour such as farce and burlesque.

In the 17th century, wit meant more than the ability to make people laugh. Wit was governed by a serious playfulness with words and ideas, where language was used in an intellectually stimulating and surprising way. Such language was elegant, structured and subtle. The style in which an original thought was expressed was as worthy of attention as the idea itself. Playwrights would sacrifice pace to allow time for displays of wit between rivals aiming to cut each other down to size, or, more popular still, for the sparring, flirtatious wit between would-be lovers.

The language of wit incorporated a full armoury of linguistic devices: double entendre, pun, antithesis, paradox, aphorism, similitude, raillery, repartee, quibble, irony, epigram and conceit. 'True wits' were deeply respected for their skilful ability with these techniques.

Frontispiece to The Wits, showing chandelier above the stage of a 17th-century indoor playhouse

This is an illustration of a droll or comic scene from Francis Kirkman's collection entitled The Wits, or Sport upon Sport (first published in 1662), which included the grave-diggers' scene from Hamlet.

The rake and his rivals

The rake was an invention of Restoration comedy. Seductive, witty and arrogant, he represented a flattering type of male prowess and drive, much admired in court circles. Through the rake, the plays explore the possibility of a sexual freedom which was simply not possible in London society at large, but was more than tolerated at court.

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The rake has many enemies to defeat on his journey to possess and control the female body. Intelligent, manipulative women out for revenge pose a particular threat. Since they have already lost their honour to the rake, they are dangerous free agents.

Newly enriched middle-class pretenders and foolish fops such as Sir Fopling Flutter ( The Man of Mode) present the rake with serious competition for rich heiresses. The pretenders are always exposed as out of their depth in the courtship game. The fops are more of a concern; they understand women and can get close to them with their shared interests in fashion, gossip and faro (a gambling card game).

The rake reminds us that there were real anxieties concerning male authority in an uncertain age. Women had run estates and businesses very capably while men fought in the Civil Wars. Old assumptions about the family, based on a belief in religious and national hierarchies, were being challenged. The king's sexual prowess was legendary, yet his wife was childless and he had no Protestant heir to continue the Stuart line. Audiences thronged the theatres to laugh at impotence jokes, applaud serial seducers such as Horner ( The Country Wife) and laugh at the energetic intrigues of Lady Fidget ( The Country Wife) and other sexually frustrated wives.

What women say and do

Allowing women to act was a mixed blessing. At best, it meant playwrights such as Aphra Behn could write great parts for them, giving them more agency and longer speeches. (Behn was the first to pay serious attention to the life and mind of a courtesan in her portrayal of Angellica Bianca in The Rover.) At worst, allowing women to act meant that new plays were more likely to feature scenes containing sexual harassment and rape threats, which were largely intended to titillate audiences.

Somewhere in this complex territory lies the breeches part. Plots which involved women cross-dressing were in high demand throughout the period. Although we can point to many plots that feature a young woman for whom putting on a pair of breeches means the freedom to leave the parental home and test the loyalty and calibre of the man she seeks to marry, some critics have argued that these roles were simply another way to sexualise actresses and entertain male spectators.

Photographs of the RSC's The Rover, 2016

Faye Castelow as Hellena, disguised as a young man in the 'breeches role', and Millson's Willmore in Act 4, Scene 2.

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The business of courtship and marriage

In Restoration comedy the finest couples make the best financial deal for themselves in the marriage market. Mutual attraction, if it exists, is a bonus. In the real world things were not so certain. Some returning Cavaliers had failed to recoup their lands and fortunes and were having to widen their search for a wife to include the daughters of the middle class. This sharpened competition for wives and placed an extra premium on women's honour and reputation.

Towards the end of the century, new ideas emerged about the position of women in marriage. Their subservience to their husbands, though fully endorsed in law, was no longer seen as a natural rather than a social circumstance. As the number of women in the audience grew, Congreve ( The Way of the World) and other playwrights explored concerns of particular interest to them. Proviso scenes became increasingly common. These are scenes in which couples debate how best to enjoy or endure the married state. Usually, each gives up some power over the other and forfeits individual rights in order to put unity in marriage first. This writing put forward fresh thinking; perhaps marriage could be an alliance of like-minded, consenting men and women?

Mary Astell's Reflections Upon Marriage

Mary Astell's pithy proto-feminist Reflections Upon Marriage (1700) was a radical treatise exposing the inequalities of early modern marriage practices.

Marriage is always the proper end of Restoration comedy. Women may roam freely, engage in repartee and intrigue, but in the end they consent to marry and confirm the value of patriarchy. Although the plays may ask probing questions about the 'natural' hierarchies underpinning the family and society, their endings are ultimately reassuring to audiences who have, after all, come to the theatre to be entertained.

1688 and after

Towards the end of Charles II's reign the atmosphere in London was rife with conspiracies, and theatres emptied, killing off the demand for new plays. When Charles died without a Protestant heir in 1685, three years of intense unrest followed as his Catholic brother James II tussled with Parliament for control of the country. James was deposed in a bloodless coup in 1688 (the so-called Glorious Revolution), and the nation welcomed William and Mary to reign as constitutional monarchs with greatly reduced powers.

The royal couple had no interest in the theatre, and there followed a succession of legislative acts that severely curtailed playwrights' freedoms. In 1692 the Society for the Reformation of Manners was founded, and it quickly started to bring lawsuits against playwrights deemed to have offended public decency. From 1696 the Lord Chamberlain reserved the right to censor plays before granting them a licence. In 1698 theologian Jeremy Collier published A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, a highly misleading but influential text.

Collier damned all Restoration comedy outright, with Vanbrugh and Congreve singled out as being particularly offensive. The prevailing mood by 1700 was for plays with a clear moral and emotional purpose. The public indifference, even hostility, that greeted the premiere of Congreve's masterpiece The Way of the World, showed that Restoration comedy was out of step with a new age which was at last asserting its identity 12 years after the Glorious Revolution.

By 1700 England's mercantile class was creating most of the nation's wealth and driving radical ideas. Among these was the call for a stronger parliamentary voice to reflect the importance of trade and banking to the economy and England's standing in the world as a trading nation. Comedy's unruly voices of libertine disorder were replaced by sound Whig values: restraint, common sense and judgement informed by law. Good order in political and family life could banish Hobbesian appetite after all, by the power of plain speaking, safeguarding women's freedoms and a respect for property rights. Comedy required a profound rethink.

Critical debates from the 18th century to the present day

Restoration comedies have faced many obstacles in their 350-year journey to the modern stage. Throughout the 18th century scripts were subject to heavy revisions and bowdlerisation. By the 19th century the plays were considered highly immoral, artificial or just plain old-fashioned.

First edition of Aphra Behn's The Rover, with 18th-century prompt-book notes

In this 18th-century adaptation of The Rover, Hellena is made less confrontational by cutting her speeches in Act 1, Scene 1.

Usage terms Courtesy of Senate House Library, University of London. [D.-L.L.] (XVII) Bc [Behn]
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The early 20th century saw a revival of interest, and a determination amongst some directors to restore the play scripts to their original form. The productions mounted by the Mermaid Society and the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, were welcome, but they led to an unfortunate trend that dogged productions throughout most of the century. They presented Restoration comedy as a bizarre world, with fantastical, over-fussy sets, extravagantly detailed costumes and ridiculous wigs. This concentration on the visual effect of the plays detracted from their real strengths, which lay in characterisation, wit and dialogue.

Later 20th-century critics shed new light on the plays through the lens of literary theories such as feminism and New Historicism. They have been notably successful in their reappraisal of Aphra Behn, introducing a new generation of students and audiences to her work.

Any modern production has to find a way of delivering the dialogue to appeal to a contemporary ear, while remaining faithful to the original. Equally challenging is the search for the right gestures and mannerisms. Little can be gained from removing the plays from their historical settings, yet approaching them as heritage theatre will fail to enliven them for today's audiences. The best approach is to relish the sparkling wit and brilliant dialogue, while engaging with the sexual politics that are at play in every scene.

Banner image: © Senate House Library

Diane Maybank BA. MA. taught English Language and Literature for over 35 years in schools and colleges in France, New Zealand and the UK. She now works as a freelance editor specialising in seventeenth and eighteenth century drama. Her editions for the Oxford Student Texts series include Aphra Behn's The Rover, William Congreve's The Way of the World, George Farquhar's The Beaux Stratagem, Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals.

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Diane Maybank introduces the characters, conventions and historical context of Restoration comedy, and explores what the genre has to say about gender, courtship and class. Restoration comedy was written and performed from about 1660 to 1700, flourishing in the period after the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy.

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RESTORATION DRAMA

This article was originally published in A Short History of the Theatre. Martha Fletcher Bellinger. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 249-59.

" T HEN came the gallant protest of the Restoration, when Wycherley and his successors in drama commenced to write of contemporary life in much the spirit of modern musical comedy. . . . A new style of comedy was improvised, which, for lack of a better term, we may agree to call the comedy of Gallantry, and which Etherege, Shadwell, and Davenant, and Crowne, and Wycherley, and divers others, labored painstakingly to perfect. They probably exercised to the full reach of their powers when they hammered into grossness their too fine witticisms just smuggled out of France, mixed them with additional breaches of decorum, and divided the results into five acts. For Gallantry, it must be repeated, was yet in its crude youth. . . . For Wycherley and his confreres were the first Englishmen to depict mankind as leading an existence with no moral outcome. It was their sorry distinction to be the first of English authors to present a world of unscrupulous persons who entertained no special prejudices, one way or the other, as touched ethical matters."

-- JAMES BRANCH CABELL, Beyond Life.

FROM 1642 onward for eighteen years, the theaters of England remained nominally closed. There was of course evasion of the law; but whatever performances were offered had to be given in secrecy, before small companies in private houses, or in taverns located three or four miles out of town. No actor or spectator was safe, especially during the early days of the Puritan rule. Least of all was there any inspiration for dramatists. In 1660 the Stuart dynasty was restored to the throne of England. Charles II, the king, had been in France during the greater part of the Protectorate, together with many of the royalist party, all of whom were familiar with Paris and its fashions. Thus it was natural, upon the return of the court, that French influence should be felt, particularly in the theater. In August, 1660, Charles issued patents for two companies of players, and performances immediately began. Certain writers, in the field before the civil war, survived the period of theatrical eclipse, and now had their chance. Among these were Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, who were quickly provided with fine playhouses.

It will be remembered that great indignation was aroused among the English by the appearance of French actresses in 1629. London must have learned to accept this innovation, however, for in one of the semi-private entertainments given during the Protectorate at Rutland House, the actress Mrs. Coleman took the principal part. The Siege of Rhodes, a huge spectacle designed by Davenant in 1656 (arranged in part with a view of evading the restrictions against theatrical plays) is generally noted as marking the entrance of women upon the English stage. It is also remembered for its use of movable machinery, which was something of an innovation. The panorama of The Siege offered five changes of scene, presenting "the fleet of Solyman the Magnificent, his army, the Island of Rhodes, and the varieties attending the siege of the city."

By the time the theaters were reopened in England, Corneille and Racine in France had established the neo-classic standard for tragedy, and Molière was in the full tide of his success. These playwrights, with Quinault and others, for a time supplied the English with plots. The first French opera, Cadmus and Hermione, by Lully and Quinault, performed in Paris in 1673, crossed the channel almost immediately, influencing Dryden in his attempts at opera. The romantic, semi-historical romances of Madame Scudéry and the Countess de la Fayette afforded a second supply of story material, while Spanish plays and tales opened up still another. Sometimes the plots of Calderón or Lope de Vega came to the English at second-hand through French versions. Whatever the case, it was now evident that the national type of play had ceased to be written. From this time on every European nation was influence by, and exerted an influence upon, the drama of every other nation. Characters, situations, plots, themes--these things traveled from country to country, always modifying and sometimes supplanting the home product.

With this influx of foreign drama, there was still a steady production of the masterpieces of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The diarist Samuel Pepys, an ardent lover of the theater, relates that during the first three years after the opening of the playhouses he saw Othello, Henry IV, A Midsummer Night's Dream, two plays by Ben Jonson, and others by Beaumont, Fletcher, Middleton, Shirley, and Massinger. It must have been about this time that the practice of "improving" Shakespeare was begun, and his plays were often altered so as to be almost beyond recognition. From the time of the Restoration actors and managers, also dramatists, were good royalists; and new pieces, or refurbished old ones, were likely to acquire a political slant. The Puritans were satirized, the monarch and his wishes were flattered, and the royal order thoroughly supported by the people of the stage.

Richard Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), seems to have the doubtful glory of re-introducing the use of rhymed verse. Boyle was a statesman, as well as a soldier and a dramatist. During the ten years or so following the Restoration, he wrote at least four tragedies on historical or legendary subjects, using the ten-syllabled rhymed couplet which (at the moment) he borrowed from France. It runs like this:

"Reason's a staff for age, when nature's gone;
But youth is strong enough to walk alone."

No more stilted sort of verse could well be contrived for dialogue. Monotonous as well as prosy, it was well suited to Orrery's plots. He took a semi-historical story, filled it with bombastic sentiments and strutting figures, producing what was known as "heroic drama." Dryden, who identified himself with this type of play, described it as concerned not with probabilities but with love and valor. A good heroic play is exciting, with perpetual bustle and commotion. The characters are extricated out of their amazing situations only by violence. Deaths are numerous. The more remote and unfamiliar the setting the better; and the speech should be suited to the action: hence the "heroic couplet." Pepys saw Guzman, by Orrery, and with his engaging frankness said it was as mean a thing as had been seen on the stage for a great while.

Other writers, Davenant, Etherege, and Sir Robert Howard, had also produced specimens of heroic plays, and by the time The Conquest of Granada reached the stage these clever gentlemen had grown tired of the species. Compared to Dryden they were nobodies in the literary world; but among them they contrived a hilarious burlesque called The Rehearsal, in which these showy but shallow productions were smartly ridiculed. Dryden is represented as Bayes (in reference to his position as poet laureate), and his peculiarities of speech and plot are amusingly derided. Though The Rehearsal was condemned as "scurrilous and ill-bred," yet it served a useful turn in puncturing an empty and overblown style.

In almost every important respect, Restoration drama was far inferior to the Elizabethan. Where the earlier playwrights created powerful and original characters, the Restoration writers were content to portray repeatedly a few artificial types; where the former were imaginative, the latter were clever and ingenious. The Elizabethan dramatists were steeped in poetry, the later ones in the sophistication of the fashionable world. The drama of Wycherley and Congreve was the reflection of a small section of life, and it was like life in the same sense that the mirage is like the oasis. It had polish, an edge, a perfection in its own field; but both its perfection and its naughtiness now seem unreal.

The heroes of the Restoration comedies were lively gentlemen of the city, profligates and loose livers, with a strong tendency to make love to their neighbors' wives. Husbands and fathers were dull, stupid creatures. The heroines, for the most part, were lovely and pert, too frail for any purpose beyond the glittering tinsel in which they were clothed. Their companions were busybodies and gossips, amorous widows or jealous wives. The intrigues which occupy them are not, on the whole, of so low a nature as those depicted in the Italian court comedies; but still they are sufficiently coarse. Over all the action is the gloss of superficial good breeding and social ease. Only rarely do these creatures betray the traits of sympathy, faithfulness, kindness, honesty, or loyalty. They follow a life of pleasure, bored, but yawning behind a delicate fan or a kerchief of lace. Millamant and Mirabell, in Congreve's Way of the World, are among the most charming of these Watteau figures.

Everywhere in the Restoration plays are traces of European influence. The Plain Dealer of Wycherley was an English version of The Misanthrope of Molière; and there are many admirable qualities in the French play which are lacking in the English. The Double Dealer recalls scenes from The Learned Ladies (Les femmes savantes); and Mr. Bluffe, in The Old Bachelor, is none other than our old friend Miles Gloriosus, who has traveled through Latin, Italian and French comedy. The national taste was coming into harmony, to a considerable extent, with the standards of Europe. Eccentricities were curbed; ideas, characters, and story material were interchanged. The plays, however, were not often mere imitations; in the majority of them there is original observation and independence of thought. It was this drama that kept the doors of the theater open and the love of the theater alive in the face of great public opposition.

Soon after the Restoration women began to appear as writers of drama. Mrs. Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was one of the first and most industrious of English women playwrights. Her family name was Amis (some writers say Johnson). As the wife of a wealthy Dutch merchant she lived for some time in Surinam (British Guiana). Her novel, Oroonooko, furnished Southerne with the plot for a play of the same name. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Behn was for a time employed by the British government in a political capacity. She was the author of eighteen plays, most of them highly successful and fully as indecent as any by Wycherley or Vanbrugh. Mrs. Manly and Mrs. Susannah Centlivre, both of whom lived until well into the eighteenth century, also achieved success as playwrights. The adaptations from the French, made by Mrs. Centlivre, were very popular and kep the stage for nearly a century.

Although the Puritans had lost their dominance as a political power, yet they had not lost courage in abusing the stage. The most violent attack was made by the clergyman Jeremy Collier in 1698, in a pamphlet called A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, in which he denounced not only Congreve and Vanbrugh, but Shakespeare and most of the Elizabethans. Three points especially drew forth his denunciations: the so-called lewdness of the plays, the frequent references to the Bible and biblical characters, and the criticism, slander and abuse flung from the stage upon the clergy. He would not have any Desdemona, however chaste, show her love before the footlights; he would allow no reference in a comedy to anything connected with the Church or religion; and especially would he prohibit any portrayal of the clergy. Next to the men in holy orders, Collier had a tender heart for the nobility. He said in effect that if any ridicule or satire were to be indulged in, it should be against persons of low quality. To call a duke a rascal on the stage was far worse than to apply such an epithet to plain Hodge, almost as libellous as to represent a clergyman as a hypocrite. Collier made the curiously stupid error of accusing the playwrights of glorifying all the sins, passions, or peculiarities which they portrayed in their characters. He had no understanding of the point of view of the literary artist, nor any desire to understand it.

Collier's attack, unjust as it was, and foolish as certain phases of it appear today, yet it made an impression. The king, James II, was so wrought up over it that he issued a solemn proclamation "against vice and profaneness." Congreve and Vanbrugh, together with other writers, were persecuted, and fines were imposed on some of the most popular actors and actresses. Dryden, Congreve and Vanbrugh made an attempt at a justification of the stage, but it did little good. D'Urfey, Dennis, and others entered the controversy, which raged for many years. The public buzzed with the scandal set forth in The Short View, but did not stay away altogether from the playhouses. The poets answered the attack not by reformation, but by new plays in which the laughter, the satire, and the ridicule were turned upon their enemies.
Purchase Books about Restoration Theatre

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RESTORATION DRAMA This article was originally published in A Short History of the Theatre. Martha Fletcher Bellinger. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1927. pp. 249-59. " T HEN came the gallant protest of the Restoration, when Wycherley and his successors in drama commenced to write of contemporary life in much the spirit of modern musical comedy.

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Arthur H. Scouten and Robert D. Hume

The Yearbook of English Studies

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3506933

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'Restoration Comedy' and Its Audiences, 1660-1776

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Arthur H. Scouten and Robert D. Hume The Yearbook of English Studies https://www.jstor.org/stable/3506933 The Yearbook is partly intended to provide an additional outlet for articles dealing with the literature and language of English-speaking countries submitted to The Modern Language Review, including some of the more ambitious or more specialized papers.

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PERFORMING KECAK: A BALINESE DANCE TRADITION BETWEEN DAILY ROUTINE AND CREATIVE ART

Yearbook for Traditional Music

Published By: Cambridge University Press

https://doi.org/10.5921/yeartradmusi.44.0049

https://www. jstor .org/stable/10.5921/yeartradmusi.44.0049

Kecak is one of the most popular dramatic dance forms performed for tourists on Bali. It has been developed cooperatively by Balinese artists and Western expatriates, most prominently I Wayan Limbak and Walter Spies, living on Bali in the 1930s, with the explicit purpose of meeting the tastes and expectations of a Western audience. Driven by economic considerations, in the late 1960s kecak was standardized into the kecak ramayana known today. Kecak ramayana does not appeal to a Balinese audience in an artistic sense, instead it is perceived as a traditional way of generating income for the community. In contrast, the kecak kreasi or kecak kontemporer has been developed by local choreographers out of the traditional kecak since the 1970s. With its use of both pre-1960 traditional elements and Western contemporary dance, it is rooted in the contemporary Balinese performing arts scene. Kecak kreasi appeals primarily to a Balinese audience, which shows that kecak as a genre can be more than income from tourism; in its contemporary form it is valued by all audiences based on its artistic value.

The Yearbook for Traditional Music is a refereed scholarly journal which carries essays, reviews, and reports in the area of traditional music and dance research. ISSN (Print): 0740-1558. ISSN (Online): 2304-3857. General Editor: Lee Tong Soon. The Yearbook was established in 1949 as the Journal of the International Folk Music Council, and it is published in English every December by the ICTM Secretariat. All ICTM members and institutional subscribers in good standing receive a copy of the Yearbook via priority air mail.

Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org) is the publishing division of the University of Cambridge, one of the world's leading research institutions and winner of 81 Nobel Prizes. Cambridge University Press is committed by its charter to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible across the globe. It publishes over 2,500 books a year for distribution in more than 200 countries. Cambridge Journals publishes over 250 peer-reviewed academic journals across a wide range of subject areas, in print and online. Many of these journals are the leading academic publications in their fields and together they form one of the most valuable and comprehensive bodies of research available today. For more information, visit http://journals.cambridge.org.

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PERFORMING KECAK: A BALINESE DANCE TRADITION BETWEEN DAILY ROUTINE AND CREATIVE ART on JSTOR

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PERFORMING KECAK: A BALINESE DANCE TRADITION BETWEEN DAILY ROUTINE AND CREATIVE ART Yearbook for Traditional Music Published By: Cambridge University Press https://doi.org/10.5921/yeartradmusi.44.0049 https://www. jstor .org/stable/10.5921/yeartradmusi.44.0049 Kecak is one of the most popular dramatic dance forms performed for tourists on Bali.

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Performing Kecak: A Balinese Dance Tradition between Daily Routine and Creative Art

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Performing Kecak: A Balinese Dance Tradition between Daily Routine and Creative Art

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