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Chekhov 1800s Handout

Going on in This Time

In the 1800 plays focused on romance and would take place in far off exotic lands. They would use large painted back grounds and smoke and fire tricks they would sometimes have trap doors. This time was the romanticism and realism era.

Actor’s Styles

To perform a show, Chekhov's actors would perform with the lightest touch to symbolize realism.

Actors would NEVER stare directly through the fourth wall

Realistic acting techniques

Stanislavski Method - new realistic acting techniques, rejected use of emphasized declamatory vocal techniques. [standardized gesture and posing)

Playwrights/Authors etc.

Chekhov had a painful childhood

They teetered on the edge of poverty

Family had moved to Moscow for a fresh start

Graduated as a doctor in 1884

Wrote with despair, humor being a key element

Married Olga Knipper, a young actress who had appeared in his plays

Konstantin Stanislavski co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre

Created what we now know as the Stanislavski method

Rejecting the use of overemphasized, declamatory, vocal techniques and standardized gestures

Important Theatre Styles/Costumes/Tech. Dev.

Featured the box set- two or three-walled set representing the interior of a room

Had authentic props that could be handled and was the rise of the fourth wall

Costumes were contemporary

Women wore dresses with long, full skirts worn over corsets with one or more petticoats

Usually high necks and long sleeves except for formal evening wear

Men wore suits cut in a style close to modern style w/ longer coats and differently shaped lapels

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Noh is the type of theater that is serious and abstract with most of the actors wearing characterized masks​​

Bunraku is a puppet theater with huge puppets that take around three people to move​

Kabuki is the popular form of theater that resembles the American Musical​

All these theater styles share elements of costumes and set designs

The creator of Kabuki theater was a female dancer named Okuni.  She invented the theater style in the 1600's which originally combined Buddhist dances with popular contemporary forms. ​

After Okuni died, women were banned from performing in Kabuki theater due to immoral actions that would often accompany the actress's life styles. With no women on set, male actors began the tradition of female impersonation.

Raised wooden platform​

One of the most characteristics features is the hanamichi "flower path" a raised passageway that extends from downstage right through the audience to a curtained doorway in the back of the auditorium​

Usually the actor will pause at point one third of the total distance from the stage to pose, speak, or dance​

Curtains are important to the kabuki theatre​

Curtains are used to signal beginnings​

Many different curtains are used so that the sets can be elaborate, relatively, realistic, and can even change several times during a show

Sits on an angled platform at the right of the stage ​

Orchestra sits on  platform at the rear stage​

Chorus ranges from 12 to 18 people​

Takes over narration and even dialogue at some points​

All the people had to dress alike and used large fans while singing​

2 wooden blocks are struck together or against the stage floor to accentuate entrances, exits, pantomime fights or certain poses struck by the actors

Often worn at times was a kimono, a full-length robe with long flowing sleeves, usually made with vibrant colors and luxurious fabrics. This was worn by both Male and Female characters. ​
A male character may also wear a vest with a hip length robe along with full trousers that were so long that they would fold under the feet and trail behind four to six feet behind them. ​
Characters may also carry a folding fan used for symbolic or conventional gestures.​
Costumes can weigh up to 50 pounds.

Makeup was never realistic, faces were painted white with red or blue lines. The red often was painted onto protagonist characters, representing virtue and strength, blue was painted on the antagonist characters, representing evil. ​

Wigs were often black and customized to a characters portrayed gender, social class and age.

Kabuki is a form of storytelling in which the audience is always aware they are watching a show; all visual elements of Kabuki contribute to this. ​

Kabuki often breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience.​

Both male and female roles are traditionally portrayed by men ​

Monologues and speeches are always delivered in a rhythmic fashion, timed to a musical accompaniment.

A single speech may be shared by multiple actors, speaking in turn. ​

Sometimes the chorus would take up a speech to allow the actor to dance or engage in elaborate pantomime, the movement is stylized, for example, an entrance or exit or entrance may be made up of a series of leaps. ​

Fights and violence are not shown through physical contact but are pantomimed through symbolic movement that could be done in slow motion.

There are no props on stage at the start of the performance, instead they are brought in and placed or handed to the actor as needed. The people who hand out the props are referred to as the stage managers and the stage assistance, they only wear black and go as far to put back netting over their faces. This makes them "invisible"

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Theatre of the Absurd

Main theme: “Life sucks and I hate it”, the human race’s existence is hopeless and meaningless, no purpose

Typical Elements:

“life is meaningless”

disassociated characters w/ mild depression

nonsensical performance devices

Insanity

dark humor

Many playwrights weren’t working to create a movement

Many developed their own style of existentialism

Outcome of productions widely the same:

No matter how hard main character tries to improve their fortunes, humanity will never change

Performance Devices:

effects used by mimes, bullfighters, and circus performers

clowning and fooling

scenes of manic actions

disjointed language (puns, clichés, repetitions, nonsense, non sequiturs)

dream elements

Absurdist: term first used by Martin Esslin to label these performances; called the theatre of the absurd a movement

Playwright: Samuel Beckett-

Waiting for Godot- the play that made Beckett famous; seen as the first example of an absurdist drama

Playwright: Albert Camus-

The Myth of Sisyphus- essay written in 1942; defined the human condition as hopeless, or essentially absurd.