Evolution Of American Theatre

Through out the years Broadway has produced many wonderful musicals. Many of these musicals are based on comedy, or carry a highly comical tone. However, Broadway is probably most well-known for its more thought evoking, solemn musicals. Topics for these musicals rang anywhere from the obscurity of cats dancing in a junk yard, to the barricades of nineteenth century France. Here are some of the most influential and best known musicals: Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables.

The emergence of a popular mass culture depended upon the introduction of many new forms of entertainment such as film, radio, and theater. One of the most notable forms of theater that emerged was vaudeville, which gained popularity in the late 1800’s, reaching its height in the 1910’s through the 1930’s. Vaudeville theaters’ affordability and accessibility allowed Americans of different ethnic and social backgrounds a chance to socialize in a way that was previously not allowed. Vaudeville had a major impact on popular culture and many films took much of their content from vaudeville acts. An example of a film that was influenced by vaudeville is the play turned film, Wonder Bar. The film features past traditions of vaudeville, while also exploring themes of race and sexuality.

Revue musical theatres are multi-act theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches.The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932. Revue theatres are most famous for their visual spectacle, revues frequently satirized contemporary figures, news or literature. Due to high ticket prices, the revue was typically patronized by audience members who earned even more and felt even less restricted by middle-class. Like much of that era's popular entertainments, revues often featured material based on sophisticated, irreverent dissections of topical matter, public personae and fads, though the primary attraction

“The theatre, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history, because the medium has a kindred movement to that of real life, though an artificial setting and form.”

It happened so much that theatre building became its own job. Many new kinds of theatres were being built. Some examples of new types of theatres were horseshoe theatres, which had balconies in the horseshoe shape and music halls, where the audience could come and go freely and weren 't restricted to certain showtimes. At this time the theatre was opened up to the lower classes. It was not opened to the very lowest class but to the middle class. The entrance into the theatre for the middle class was a side door with a nice but still small staircase. The upper class’ entrance was big double doors in the frontline the building with a big grand staircase. During these years theatre became a big part in American patriotism. “The Victorian period saw a number of innovations that impacted upon theatre design. Lighting changed from candle to gas and then later to electricity.” (Morgan 2018) Though the gas lamps were helpful, sometimes when they were brought inside it started to cause problems. Also “the development of water powered stage machinery made for more spectacular productions to be presented.” (Morgan

Ancient plays throughout different cultures in history contained all male cast, failing to even cast women as they were deemed inferior. Tradition held that the culture in western societies restricted women’s roles. Even as female characters were indeed written in certain plays, the role were portrayed by a male. They regarded women being able to portray these roles as dangerous and that having men play them “neutralized” the danger it possessed. The Greek’s and the Roman’s both held these views making it impossible for women to be on stage.

The Roaring Twenties were characterized by large growth economically and culturally in the United States. One example of the cultural growth that occurred was in Harlem, and it was called the Harlem Renaissance. Like the previous Renaissances of other countries, the Harlem Renaissance displayed a great growth in the arts. The Harlem Renaissance was not only an advancement of African American culture and art, but culture and art of the United States.

African Americans – The cultural transition from the 1970-1960 promoting African Americans literature, was also a musical and vocal movement for a culture coming of age after the liberation of slavery. The fierce anxiety of post-Civil War racism created a “voice” through artistic creativity, making a deliberate statement of the status of America through African American eyes. The timelines show artist telling a story of character and circumstance.

America underwent constant reform between the years of 1840 to 1850. Living in a country established for less than a century, Americans witnessed great wars, new inventions, expansion, and changes within the government. Art wasn 't as prevalent then as it became later on.The pioneers of dance and historic events regarding such happened later. However, it is the history of the people that have influence upon masterpieces born in generations to come.

In her essay Traylor shows evidence of minstrel shows being developed by black slaves and then taken by white people and adapted for the theatre. Traylor states, "When the lore, songs, dance and masking rituals of African slaves made their entrance on the stage, a native American dramatic form was born (Traylor 49)." This is showing us that African-Americans brought us our first "original" piece of American theatre. This was "burgled" from the Afro-American slaves by "white actors in corked-black-face (Traylor 49)." These shows have a lot of improvisation and are described almost as performance art, but the

The first part of the article talks about the tradition of Afro-American sources. She called this American theatre is Afroamerican. She then talks about the two-forms of that developed, the artistic process and how it was expressed to the present day. The second part of the article starts off by explaining how the iconic Negro was an icon for the audience and had an impact on the american theatre audience. What brought their attention was the character types, the inaugurated by the minstrel show and caricatures. She also describes the masking-miming rituals that she quotes it was "something entirely different and new" to the

Many people across the United States roamed around in search of jobs, trying to find a way to get money for their families during the Great Depression. The Great Depression not only impacted those that worked jobs that had physical labor, but those that had jobs related to the theaters and arts as well. As a result, during the Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal programs to alleviate the conflicts and impacts that emerged during the times. One of these programs were the Federal Theatre Project that gave a boost to the economy, gave a variety of jobs and set up many new and different theaters. Therefore, the Federal Theatre Project was successful.

Savannah Live was a musical preformance held in one of the oldest continuing theater halls in the nation. The theater, appropiately named the Historic Savannah Theater, origionally opened in 1818, yet do to years of wear and tear and several fires, the modern theater was retrofitted to look like its 1940s, art-deco self. Although the stage was in the traditional Proscienim style, the play was anything but traditional. The stage hall itself seemed like something right out of the hay day of Broadway, with lights surrounding the procienian arch, red velvet chairs and carpet, the hall was like a time caplse bringing me back into the 20th centry. Mimicing the transformations of the hall throughout the years, the musical took the audience on a journey through musical, and theatrical history.

In such a historically rich city such as Rome there are many spectacles to visit for one’s viewing pleasure. Typical sight-seeing tourists come through Rome expecting to witness monuments and buildings like the Pantheon, Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. However, one spectacle that seems to fly under visitor 's radars are the Roman Theatres. Today there are three theatres still standing in Rome and some are in better conditions than others. When people think of Roman theatres they often tend to forget how grand they really are. Instead, many tourists believe that they are just as simple as their Greek counterparts, which is simply untrue. The ancient Romans did not hold back when it came to creating their world renowned

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players,” (Shakespeare), meaning the whole world is like a stage show and humans are the actors. The quote proves that life can imitate art even when it’s not recognized, art is everywhere you look, in places you never thought to look. Theater is represented in any imaginable way, so why is it not good enough for a simple required subject in school? Fine arts such as drama, dance, and art programs get cut from high schools due to the expenses that go into them. People say theater is not needed for the future, no help in the “real world”, and it’s not a life skill. However, theater is much more than an elective or an “easy A”, theater is something that will stick with you for the rest of your