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Decline of the Western Theatre - 692 A.D.

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Decline of the Western Theatre - 692 A.D.

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In the west around the Byzantine Empire area theatre came into a decline because the church passed a resolution that opposed the theatre.
--- The Byzantine Empire was located in the areas that separated Asia and Europe

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Theatre in China                          - 619 - 905 A.D. 

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Theatre in China                          - 619 - 905 A.D. 

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In the Tang dynasty elements of story, dance, song, and pantomime were combined to create a single performance. These performances were not typical because chalk was used to draw the line of the theatre.

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Commedia dell'arte                       - 1500s

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Commedia dell'arte                       - 1500s

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Commedia dell'arte is well known form of theatrical improvisation with stereotypical characters and generic comedy. It became very popular in Italy and has spread all around the world. Its basis is still used today in TV character. An example would be the main character Jessie from the TV show Jessie.

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French Neoclassical Theatre      - mid 1600s

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French Neoclassical Theatre      - mid 1600s

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Aristotle and Horace supported the neoclassical ideal so it spread throughout Europe. Neoclassical principle of playing writing were created to judge plays and create plays. An example of a few of the principles were purity of genre and the division of plays into five acts. Academies used these principles to judge plays.

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Ballad Opera                                          - early 1700s

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Ballad Opera                                          - early 1700s

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The Ballad Opera came to be from the similar ideas of the Italian opera. It was considered an imitation of the Italian Opera. Ballad Opera combined dialogue and songs set to popular tunes. The first ballad opera was The Beggar's Opera. It was very successful and was first performed in 1728

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Melodrama                                           - first half of the 1800s

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Melodrama                                           - first half of the 1800s

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Melodrama became super popular in America because of its cliff-hanging and heart-tugging emotional appeal. It celebrated virtue above everything else and that evil would be punished.

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Sarah Bernhardt was one of the most famous actors of her time. She was known for her beautiful voice that was very flamboyant. She performed in top plays like Shakespeare and even had parts written just for her. Sarah toured the US multiple times.

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Special Effects                                      - 1800s

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Special Effects                                      - 1800s

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New technologies were introduced to create new stage effects. Mainly used to great a ghostly effect. David Belasco was an innovator in theatre technology. Multiple elements of theater were combined to create extraordinary degree of scenic realism in productions.

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David Belasco, (born July 25, 1853, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.-died May 14, 1931, New York, N.Y.), American theatrical producer and playwright whose important innovations in the techniques and standards of staging and design were in contrast to the quality of the plays he produced.

As a child actor, Belasco appeared with Charles Kean in Richard III and later played in stock companies touring the mining camps. During this period he served also as secretary to the playwright Dion Boucicault. From 1873 to 1879 he worked in several San Francisco theatres as actor, manager, and play adapter and in the latter year toured in Hearts of Oak, which he cowrote with James A. Herne.

Belasco moved to New York City in 1880, becoming associated there with the Frohmans as manager of the Madison Square Theatre and later of the Lyceum. In 1890 he leased a theatre and became an independent producer. Feeling the pressure of the monopolistic Theatrical Syndicate, he built his own theatre in 1906.

Belasco was the first American producer whose name, regardless of star actor or play, attracted patrons to the theatre. He chose unknown actors and elevated them to stardom. He also preferred playwrights whose success depended upon his collaboration. He gained a reputation for minute attention to detail, sensational realism, lavish settings, astonishing mechanical effects, and experiments in lighting. He maintained a large permanent staff that worked constantly to perfect surprising effects. This work led to the virtual elimination of footlights and to the first lensed spotlights.

As a result, he brought a new standard of production to the American stage. Many critics, however, deplored his theatricalism, his lack of artistic judgment, and his failure to encourage the better dramatists who were then emerging in the United States and Europe.

Belasco claimed to have been connected with the production of 374 plays, most of them written or adapted by himself. His better-known productions include The Heart of Maryland (1895); Madame Butterfly (1900) and The Girl of the Golden West (1905), both turned into the operas by Giacomo Puccini; Du Barry (1901); The Music Master (1904); and Lulu Belle (1926). He also wrote the autobiographical The Theatre Through Its Stage Door (1919). Because of his austere, clericlike dress and personal manner, he came to be known as the "bishop of Broadway."

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David Belasco | American theatrical producer and playwright

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David Belasco, American theatrical producer and playwright whose important innovations in the techniques and standards of staging and design were in contrast to the quality of the plays he produced. As a child actor, Belasco appeared with Charles Kean in Richard III and later played in stock

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Rabindranath Tagore                            - 1861 - 1914

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Rabindranath Tagore                            - 1861 - 1914

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Tagore was an Indian poet and playwright was influenced by Sanskrit drama, Bengali folk drama, and Western theatre. He works with often symbolic, that included dance, mime, and song. He received a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

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Laurence Olivier                                    - 1907 - 1989

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Laurence Olivier                                    - 1907 - 1989

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Laurence was a brilliant British actor who mastered classical and modern works. He was great at tragic and comic roles, but he was also a director and theatre administrator. He has been in multiple films ans has a long movie career.

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Broadway Musicals                              - 1900s

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Broadway Musicals                              - 1900s

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Broadway Musical were mainly comic before World War II. The American musical theatre achieved maturity when Oklahoma was released. It began the Golden Age of Broadway Musicals. Oklahoma is still performed to this day. It was composed of simple sets, songs, and large casts and choruses, and multiple sets.

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John Osborne wrote a famous book that called out Back in Anger that called out the settled smugness of British class system. The main character provided a symbol of the "angry young men" who thought they had no place in postwar Britian.

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Hispanic American Theatre             - 1965

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Hispanic American Theatre             - 1965

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Hispanic American Theatre began in the Teatro Campesino. It was founded Luis Valdez to further the cause of striking farmers. He has had multiple play on Broadway that have been successful. The first one he had on Broadway was Zoot Suit, it had to due with ethnic prejudice.

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Caryl Churchill                                   - 1938 - present

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Caryl Churchill                                   - 1938 - present

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Caryl creates political theatre in tradition of Brecht. She is known for her feminist and socialist themes. Many of her play feature famous women from the past who defied the normal.