19 Century

th

Theatre
1800-1875
 Historical Background
Industrial Revolution
Replacement of hand tools and human power by
machinery and the development of the factory and
factory system
Middle Class continuing to rise in power
Legislatures passing reforms to benefit the middle
class
Influential people who disturbed traditional
beliefs:
Karl Marx
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
 Neoclassic Ideals
All drama must teach a Verisimilitude
moral lesson All drama must be true to
Unities life
Unity of Time NO ghosts, apparitions, or
supernatural, fantastical
Dramatic action should events or things
not exceed 24 hours
Unity of Place
Genres
One location only Tragedy only about royalty
Must end badly/tragically
Unity of Action
One central story no Comedy only about common
subplots people
Must end happily
Decorum
NEVER mix comic elements
All characters should and tragic elements
behave in ways based on
their gender, age,
profession, social status
NeoclassicalIdeals dictated how
plays were written and produced
 Romanticism
Stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic
experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as
trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting
the sublimity of nature
Rejected the neoclassical rules
Actually they rejected all artistic rules, suggesting that genius
creates its own rules
More interested in creating mood and atmosphere than
developing believable plots or depth of character
Did not believe in purity of genre
Considered all subject matter appropriate for the stage
Patriotism, nationalism, revolution and armed struggle for
independence became popular themes in the arts of this
period
Romantic hero was frequently a social outcast who quested
for justice, knowledge, and truth
 Romanticism in Art
Music
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Frederic Chopin
Literature
Edgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Emily Dickinson Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya

Lord Byron
 Melodrama flourishes
Melodrama means song drama or music drama
The first melodrama was performed in France in
1798
Plays were written putting emphasis on surface
effects that would evoke suspense, fear, nostalgia,
and other strong emotions
If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the
mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is
inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that
man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's
mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.
 and then dies
Melodrama died in 1915, according to
theatre history textbooks
The truth is that the entertainment industry
moved to film to distribute the melodramas
for WAY cheaper than doing plays
A lot of the same people who created the
theatre industry moved it to Los Angeles
Melodrama is the standard Hollywood
model
Melodramatic suggests a style that is over
the top, extremely emotional, larger than life
 Elements of Melodrama
1. Music
Underscore, not like a musical with singing and
dancing
2. Morally polarized characters
Good guys versus bad guys
3. Heroine
Damsel in distress who must be saved by the
hero
4. Happy Ending
Cosmic justice has to prevail good has to win
over bad
 Elements of Melodrama
5. Sidekicks
Usually a best friend comic relief
Sidekicks are comic and the situation is serious
Scooby Doo Fred is the hero, Daphne is the
heroine, Velma is Daphnes sidekick, Shaggy is
Freds sidekick and Scooby Doo is Shaggys side kick
6. Mixture of suspense and comedy
7. Physical conflict
Always ends in a final physical conflict a battle
of good and evil; like a showdown in a western
 Elements of Melodrama
8. Exotic Locations
New places to escape
Set things in the past, the future or far
away places
9. Animal Acts
Liked including animals on stage
10. Technology, stage combat, stunts
and special effects
Trains on stage
The purpose is to keep an audience
interested from start to finish
Melodramas of the 19th Century

Uncle Toms Cabin (1853) by

George L. Aiken
adapted from Harriet Beecher Stowes novel
The String of Pearls (1847) by
George Dibdin Pitt
Play on which Stephen Sondheim based his
musical Sweeney Todd (1979)
One of the best examples of a
Modern Day Melodrama:
 Example of a Melodrama
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl
1. Stirring musical score by Klaus Badelt
2. Good and Evil: Will Turner vs. Capt. Barbosa
3. Damsel in need of rescue: Elizabeth
4. Happy ending: curse lifted, Jack Sparrow saved from the
noose, Will and Elizabeth together
5. Sidekick: What better comic relief than Captain Jack Sparrow?
6. Lots of action and witty dialogue we all know we love to quote
it.
7. Physical conflict: Big battle with swords and cannons and the
British Navy fighting an undead army
8. Exotic Location: upon the beautiful blue waters of the
Caribbean
9. Animal Acts: Jack the Monkey and Mr. Cottons Parrot
10. Special Effects: Disney worked very hard on turning those men
into the Digital Undead.
 More on Melodramas
Melodramas can be socially or politically
progressive, but it is always culturally
conservative
Melodrama follows the mainstream cultural
expectations of society
Women are portrayed, culturally, today as
successful in business, succeeding in a man's
job, multi-tasking
They can beat up the guys, but they haven't neglected
their feminine side, beautiful, tender and emotionally
vulnerable and still get rescued
Ex: Elizabeth Swann
Other Melodramas
Popular Entertainments
Minstrel Shows
Was the first truly American
entertainment consisting of
comic skits, variety acts,
dancing, and music, performed
by white people in blackface
Portrayed and lampooned
blacks in stereotypical and often
disparaging ways: as ignorant,
lazy, buffoonish, superstitious,
joyous, and musical.
Minstrel songs and sketches
featured several stock
characters, most popularly the
slave and the dandy.
These were further divided into
sub-archetypes such as the
mammy, her counterpart the old
darky, the provocative mulatto
wench, and the black soldier.
 Wild West Shows
For more info, go to YouTube
and look under Buffalo Bills
Wild West Show
In 1884, the outdoor Wild West Show had
authentic cowboys, Indians, buffaloes, horses,
sharpshooters and melodramas
The show itself consisted of a series of
"historical" scenes interspersed with feats of
showmanship, sharp shooting, racing, or rodeo
style events. Native Americans figured
prominently in many of the scenes, often shown
attacking whites in historical situations with
Buffalo Bill or one of his colleagues riding in and
saving the day
Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact
the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks
on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies.
The show typically ended with a melodramatic
re-enactment of Custer's Last Stand in which
Cody himself portrayed General Custer
Many authentic western personalities were part of
the show:
Sitting Bull and a band of twenty braves
Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler
put on shooting exhibitions
'Calamity Jane'
 Burlesque
In the 19th Century, the term "burlesque" was applied to
a wide range of comic plays, including non-musicals
Beginning in the 1840s, these works entertained the lower and
middle classes in Great Britain and the United States by
making fun of (or "burlesquing") the operas, plays and social
habits of the upper classes
Evolved out of the spontaneous/improvisational tradition
of commedia dellarte
Spoofed Greek tragedies and Shakespeare
Eventually, performers turned to more general satirical comedy,
and burlesque became a platform for mocking the bourgeoisie
Used comedy and music to challenge the established way of
looking at things
It was not until the 20th century that this form became a
combination of comedians and strippers
 Circuses
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891)
developed exhibits in the
American Museum in New
York City
Exhibited human curiosities
and presented variety acts
and plays in a theatre built for
family audiences
Joyce Heth, who he said was
140 years old
The Fiji Mermaid, which
was the head of a monkey
sewn onto the body of a fish
Tom Thumb, the midget
In 1850s, he became involved
with the circus, a touring
version of his museum and
advertised it as the greatest
show on earth
 Acting Theory: Delsarte
Much of the acting between 1800 and 1875
was based on stereotypical physical gestures
and vocal patterns taught by Francois Delsarte
Believed actors could convey emotions and
inner thoughts through specific, pre-established
gestures and body movements
Scientific approach to acting, consistent with
the scientific spirit of the age
System was rejected by modern realists because it
assumed that all human beings reacted the same
way
 Scene Design: The Box Set
Consists of flats
hinged together to
represent a room
Had practical
elements, such as
doors and windows