#1 RULES: Neoclassicism & Romanticism
Think: The Big Questions
Do we live in a world of order, where things happen for a reason, or is our world just chaos, where "shit happens"?
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Does following the rules produce “better” theatre, or does it stifle genius and creativity?
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Is there any reason to think that (some) plays could or should be written to be read but not produced?
Introduce
QUIZ
Know: Vocabulary
actor-manager
American seating
antithesis
box set
box, pit, and gallery theatre
breeches roles
Büchner
classless theatre
closet drama
continental seating
decorum
dramaturgy
dialectic
Faust
gesamtkunstwerk
Goethe
Hegel
illusionism
Industrial Revolution
Lessing
levels of appeal
lines of business
Neoclassicism
possession of parts
prompter’s box
repertory system
resident companies
Romanticism
Sturm und Drang
synthesis
thesis
unities (time, place, action)
verisimilitude
Wagner
Woyzeck
Visualize
The Death of Socrates
by David (1787)
Jerusalem
by Blake (1804)
The Raft of the Medusa
by Gericault (1819)
Watch: Historical Context
QUIZ
Crash Course: French Neoclassicism
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The French Neoclassical revival had a bunch of playwrights following a bunch of rules. Unsurprisingly, some of the most interesting plays of the era broke those rules. Today, we'll talk about the rules, and we'll talk about Racine (who followed them), and Corneille (who was not so much a rules guy).
Crash Course: German Theatre
Theater had a slow start in Germany, mainly because Germany wasn't really a thing until *relatively* recent times. After Germany finally became a unified state, it had a couple of really important theatrical movements. Today we'll talk about Sturm and Drang, as well as Weimar Classicism.
Biography: Richard Wagner
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Born in Germany in 1813, Richard Wagner went on to become one of the world's most influential and controversial composers. He is famous for both his epic operas, including the four-part, 18-hour Ring Cycle, as well as for his anti-semitic writings, which, posthumously, made him a favorite of Adolf Hitler.
Hegel & Dialectics
Play Samples
Woyzeck
by Georg Buchner
German (1836)
Romanticism
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Faust
by Johann Goethe
German (1829)
Romanticism
Primary Sources
Compare: Architecture, Design & Technology
Bayreuth: Court Opera House
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Most people associate Bayreuth with the opera house Wagner had built for his operas. But Bayreuth has another opera house: the 18th century Margravial (Court) Opera House.
Bayreuth: Wagner's Festspielhaus
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A video guide of Richard Wagner's Bayreuther Festspielhaus in Germany.
Backstage at the Festspielhaus
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An excerpt from a documentary showing the setup and acoustic properties of Richard Wagner's Bayreuth Festival Stage. Narrating is the composer's grandson, Wolfgang Wagner.
Interpret: Recent Woyzecks
Handspring Puppet Company, SA​
South African setting for a 1999 puppet production from the company that brought us Warhorse.
Theater Basil, Germany​
2017 production at the Schauspiel von Georg Büchner in Basil, Germany.
Vesturport Theatre, Iceland
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2005 trailer from the play Woyzeck by Vesturport with music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
