THEATRE, HISTORY OF

history of the Western theatre from its origins in preclassical antiquity to the present. The significant theatrical traditions of non-Western cultures are covered in African arts: Literature and theatre; East Asian arts: Dance and theatre; South Asian arts: Dance and theatre; and Southeast Asian arts: The performing arts. For a discussion of drama as a literary form, see literature: Drama, and the articles on individual national literatures. For detailed information on the arts of theatrical performance and stagecraft, see theatre, directing, acting, and theatrical production. The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica 20th-century theatre The achievements of Realism at the end of the 19th century have continued to the present day, but the most influential innovations in early 20th-century theatre came from a vigorous reaction against Realism. Just as the visual arts exploded into a chaos of experiment and revolt, generating numerous styles and isms, so the theatre seized upon anything that came to hand in an effort to express the contradictions of the new age. Inspiration was sought in machines and technology, in Oriental theatre, Cubism, Dada, the psychoanalysis of Freud, and the shock of a world war that spawned widespread disillusionment and alienation. The results of this eclecticism were often anarchic and exhilarating: designers and directors were as influential as playwrights, though relatively little theatre of lasting value was produced. Nevertheless, such early experiments set the tone and widened the theatrical vocabulary for all the innovations that have followed. The beginnings of the revolt against Realism were already hinted at before the 19th century was over, sometimes in the works of the Realist writers themselves. Ibsen, for example, turned increasingly toward Symbolism in his later plays such as Bygmester Solness (1892; The Master Builder) and Naar vi dde vaagner (1899; When We Dead Awaken ), though still in the Realist mold. Frank Wedekind's Frhlings Erwachen (1891; Spring Awakening ) began its study of adolescent love in the slice-of-life Naturalistic mode and ended in the realm of ghosts and dreams, foreshadowing Expressionism, which was to preoccupy other German dramatists during the 1920s. Strindberg also is regarded as one of the fathers of Expressionism by virtue of his later works such as Ett Drmspel (1902; A Dream Play) and Spksonaten (1907; The Spook Sonata ). In France the marionette play Ubu roi (King Ubu), written in 1888 by Alfred Jarry at the age of 15, created a scandal when it was later performed with live actors in 1896. Its use of puppet techniques, masks, placards, and stylized scenery was to be taken up decades later in French avant-garde theatre. Beyond Realism The new stagecraft Since Naturalistic scenery had led to an excessive clutter of archaeologically authentic detail on stage, the reaction against it favoured simplicity, even austerity, but with a heightened expressiveness that could convey the true spirit of a play rather than provide merely superficial dressing. One of the first advocates of this view was the Swiss designer Adolphe Appia, who used the latest technology and exploited the possibilities of electric lighting to suggest a completely new direction in stage design. Appia believed that the setting should serve to focus attention on the actor, not drown him in two-dimensional pictorial detail. The imaginative use of light on a few well-chosen formssimple platforms, flights of steps, and the likewas sufficient to convey the changing mood of a play. Because his views were so radical, Appia had few opportunities to realize his theories. They were, however, carried forward at the beginning of the century by the English designer and director Edward Gordon Craig, who used strong lighting effects on more abstract forms. He felt that a suggestion of reality could create in the imagination of the audience a physical reality: a single Gothic pillar, for instance, designed to stand alone and carefully lit, can suggest a church more effectively than a cardboard and canvas replica faithful to the last detail. But, like Appia, Craig became better known as a theorist than a practitioner. In his book The Art of the Theatre (1905) he outlined his concept of a total theatre in which the stage director alone would be responsible for harmonizing every aspect of the productionacting, music, colour, movement, design, makeup, and lightingso that it might achieve its most unified effect. More controversial were Craig's ideas on the depersonalization of the actor into what he called the bermarionette (super-marionette), based on a new symbolic form of movement and gesture (not unlike that of the Oriental actor) in which the actor's ego would not obtrude on the symbolic design. While they may not have found a practical way of achieving their visions, both Appia and Craig exerted an enormous influence on the next generation of directors and stage designers, particularly in their principle of painting with light. The Austrian director Max Reinhardt came close to achieving many of Craig's ideals, especially in the power he exerted over every aspect of theatrical production. Beginning as an actor in Otto Brahm's company at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Reinhardt won acclaim for his inventive staging of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream in 1905 and thereafter devoted himself entirely to directing: he dominated the theatre of central Europe for 25 years. His flair for bold theatricality made him many enemies among the Realists, but it also returned a sense of colour and richness to the theatre of the time. Reinhardt was pragmatic in his approach to acting: rejecting the idea of one style, he demanded for modern plays a style realistic in feeling but avoiding the drab exactness of Realism. In productions of the classics, he demanded lively, supple speaking in place of the slow, ponderous delivery of the traditionalists. He always made his actors think afresh about their characters instead of assuming ready-made characterizations. In his endeavours to break down the separation of stage and auditorium, Reinhardt often took his actors out of the theatre to play in unconventional settings. He produced Sophocles' Oedipus Rex in a circus arena in Berlin, and for his production of Karl Gustav Vollmller's Mirakel (performed in 1911 and published in 1912; The Miracle), he transformed the huge Olympia exhibition hall in London into a cathedral with the audience as part of the congregation. In 1920 he helped to found the Salzburg Festival and directed Hugo von Hofmannsthal's morality play Jedermann (1911; Everyman) in the cathedral square. Although he was a master of spectacle, his versatility was such that he directed subtle and intimate plays in small theatres with equal skill. Additional reading Reference works. Among the most informative general references are JohnGassner and Edward Quinn (eds.), The Reader'sEncyclopedia of World Drama (1969); Phyllis Hartnoll (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 4th ed. (1983); Martin Banham (ed.), The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre (1988); and Gerald Bordman, The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, 2nd ed. (1992),all offering essays on traditions, developments, personalities,and styles. Profiles of the theatrical world across the globe arefound in Colby H. Kullman and WilliamC. Young (eds.), Theatre Companies of the World, 2 vol. (1986).The language of theatre, covering aspects of drama and production,is explained in Joel Trapido et al. (eds.), AnInternational Dictionary of Theatre Language (1985); and WarrenC. Lounsbury and Norman Boulanger, Theatre BackstageFrom A to Z, 3rd ed., rev. and expanded (1989). Journals treatingall aspects of theatre include Drama Review (quarterly); Drama (quarterly);and New Theatre Quarterly (formerly Theatre Quarterly).Some other useful periodicals are Theatrephile (quarterly),which is devoted to research in popular theatre; and Essays in Theatre (semiannual),an international scholarly publication. General historical works. Clifford Leech and T.W. Craik (eds.), The Revels History of Drama in English, 8 vol. (197683),is a detailed and well-illustrated guide to British and Americantheatre from medieval to modern; Allardyce Nicoll, WorldDrama from Aeschylus to Anouilh, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1976), presentsa comprehensive analysis of the development of drama. Broad surveysinclude Marvin Carlson, Theories of the Theatre:A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present (1984); J.L. Styan, Drama, Stage, and Audience (1975); George Freedley and John A. Reeves, AHistory of the Theatre, 3rd rev. ed. (1968); Bamber Gascoigne, World Theatre (1968); Phyllis Hartnoll, AConcise History of the Theatre, rev. ed. (1985); Richard Southern, The Seven Ages of the Theatre, 2nd ed. (1968); Glynne Wickham, A History of the Theatre (1985); George R. Kernodle, The Theatre in History (1989);and Diana Devlin, Mask and Scene: An Introductionto a World View of Theatre (1989). Raphael Samuel,Ewan MacColl, and Stuart Cosgrove, Theatresof the Left, 1880-1935: Workers' Theatre Movements in Britain andAmerica (1985), focuses on the political face of the art. Historyof the European variety scene is offered in Harold B.Segel, Turn-of-the-Century Cabaret: Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Munich,Vienna, Cracow, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Zurich (1987). See also George Altman et al., Theater Pictorial:A History of World Theater as Recorded in Drawings, Paintings, Engravings,and Photographs (1953); and Richard Leacroft and Helen Leacroft, Theatre and Playhouse: An IllustratedSurvey of Theatre Building from Ancient Greece to the Present Day (1984). National and special studies. Early theatre: E.T. Kirby, Ur-Drama: The Origins of Theatre (1975); Allardyce Nicoll, Masks, Mimes and Miracles:Studies in the Popular Theatre (1931, reissued 1963); MargareteBieber, The History of the Greek and Roman Theatre, 2ndrev. ed. (1961); H.D.F. Kitto, Greek Tragedy:A Literary Study (1939, reprinted 1990); Oliver Taplin, Greek Tragedy in Action (1978, reprinted 1989); J. Michael Walton, The Greek Sense of Theatre:Tragedy Reviewed (1984); Peter D. Arnott, Publicand Performance in the Greek Theatre (1989). Medieval and Renaissance theatre: E.K. Chambers, The Medieval Stage, 2vol. (1903, reprinted 1978); Glynne Wickham, EarlyEnglish Stages, 1300-1660, 3 vol. in 4 (195981); Allardyce Nicoll, A History of EnglishDrama,16601900, 6 vol. (195259, reprinted196570); M.C. Bradbrook, AHistory of Elizabethan Drama, 6 vol., 2nd ed. (197980); E.K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vol.,rev. ed. (1951); Alan C. Dessen, ElizabethanStage Conventions and Modern Interpreters (1984); GeraldEades Bentley, The Profession of Dramatist in Shakespeare'sTime, 1590-1642 (1971), and The Profession of Player in Shakespeare'sTime, 1590-1642 (1984), reprinted together in one volume as TheProfession of Dramatist and Player in Shakespeare's Time, 1590-1642 (1986); A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici,1539-1637, trans. from German (1964, reprinted 1976); AllardyceNicoll, Stuart Masques and the Renaissance Stage (1937,reprinted 1980). Spanish and Italian theatre: N.D. Shergold, A History of the Spanish Stage:From Medieval Times Until the End of the Seventeenth Century (1967); Gwynne Edwards, Dramatists in Perspective: Spanish Theatrein the Twentieth Century (1985); Joseph SpencerKennard, The Italian Theatre, 2 vol. (1932, reprinted1964); Giacomo Oreglia, The Commedia dell'Arte, trans.from Italian (1968, reprinted 1982). French theatre: Frederick W. Hawkins, Annals of the FrenchStage from Its Origins to the Death of Racine, 2 vol. (1884,reprinted 1970), and The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century, 2vol. (1888, reprinted 1969); Virginia Scott, TheCommedia dell'Arte in Paris, 1644-1697 (1990); JohnLough, Paris Theatre Audiences in the Seventeenth & EighteenthCenturies (1957, reprinted 1972); Angelica Goodden, Actio and Persuasion: Dramatic Performance in Eighteenth-CenturyFrance (1986); Harold Hobson, French TheatreSince 1830 (1979); Marvin Carlson, The FrenchStage in the Nineteenth Century (1972); Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd rev. ed. (1980); David Bradby, Modern French Drama, 1940-1990, 2nd ed. (1991). German theatre: W.H. Bruford, Theatre, Drama, and Audiencein Goethe's Germany (1950, reprinted 1974); PeterJelavich, Munich and Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting,and Performance, 1890-1914 (1985); John Willett, The Theatre of the Weimar Republic (1988). British theatre: William Tydeman, English Medieval Theatre,1400-1500 (1986); Keith Sturgess, JacobeanPrivate Theatre (1987); George Rowell, TheVictorian Theatre, 1792-1914, 2nd ed. (1978); GeorgeRowell and Anthony Jackson, The Repertory Movement:A History of Regional Theatre in Britain (1984); RaymondMander and Joe Mitchenson, British MusicHall, rev. ed. (1974); John Elsom, Post-WarBritish Theatre, rev. ed. (1979), and John Elsom (ed.), Post-War British Theatre Criticism (1981); RonaldHayman, British Theatre Since 1955 (1979); JohnRussell Taylor, Anger and After: A Guide to the New BritishDrama, 2nd rev. ed. (1969, reprinted 1977), and The SecondWave: British Drama for the Seventies (1971; also publishedas The Second Wave: British Drama of the Sixties, 1978); Harold Hobson, Theatre in Britain: A PersonalView (1984). Eastern European theatre: Mark Slonim, Russian Theater, from the Empireto the Soviets (1961); Nick Worrall, Modernismto Realism on the Soviet Stage: Tairov, Vakhtangov, Okhlopkov (1989); Konstantin Rudnitsky, Russian and Soviet Theater,1905-1932, trans. from Russian (1988); Bohdan Drozdowski and Catherine Itzen (eds.), Twentieth Century PolishTheatre (1979); E.J. Czerwinski, Contemporary PolishTheater and Drama, 1956-1984 (1988). American theatre: Barnard Hewitt, Theatre U.S.A. 1665-1957 (1959); Mary C. Henderson, Theater in America: 200 Yearsof Plays, Players, and Productions (1986); LeslieCatherine Sanders, The Development of Black Theater in America:From Shadows to Selves (1988); Errol Hill, Shakespearein Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors (1984); Albert Auster, Actresses and Suffragists: Womenin the American Theater, 1890-1920 (1984); Nellie McCaslin, Historical Guide to Children's Theatre in America (1987); Brooks McNamara, The Shuberts of Broadway: A HistoryDrawn from the Collections of the Shubert Archive (1990); Wendy Smith, Real Life Drama: The Group Theatreand America, 1931-1940 (1990); Janet Coleman, TheCompass: The Improvisational Theatre that Revolutionized American Comedy (1991); Brooks Atkinson, Broadway, rev. ed. (1974,reprinted 1985); Ken Bloom, Broadway: An EncyclopedicGuide to the History, People, and Places of Times Square (1991); Benjamin McArthur, Actors and AmericanCulture, 1880-1920 (1984). Canadian theatre: Leonard E. Doucette, Theatre in French Canada:Laying the Foundations, 1606-1867 (1984); E. RossStuart, The History of Prairie Theatre: The Development ofTheatre in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, 1833-1982 (1984); Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly, English-Canadian Theatre (1987); Alan Filewod, Collective Encounters: DocumentaryTheatre in English Canada (1987); Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly (eds.), The Oxford Companion toCanadian Theatre (1989). Kenneth Grahame Rea The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica The Renaissance Classical revival By the early 15th century, artists in Italy were becoming increasingly aware that, while Rome had once been the centre of the Western world, its power and prestige had steadily declined since the invading Germanic tribes broke up the empire. The belief that art, science, and scholarship had flourished during the classical period stimulated the desire for a revival of the values of that period. Both architecture and painting found new inspiration in Greek and Roman models, and the discovery of perspective added new possibilities, which in turn were to have a profound effect on stage scenery. At the same time classical literature was reexamined: new texts were found and old ones edited. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 resulted in an exodus of Greek scholars to Italy, and they brought with them their knowledge of Greek literature. The invention in Europe of the printing press made the new learning more widely accessible and revolutionized the whole educational system. Increased commerce encouraged exploration, and the discovery of the Americas by Columbus in 1492 brought about a new outlook on the world. Whereas learning had traditionally been sought in the seclusion of monasteries, the new learning of the Renaissance was more widespread and dynamic. Scholars were not satisfied with merely understanding the ideals of antiquity; they wanted to re-create them. This also gave man new dignity and confidence. The world was regarded not as something to be overcome in order to have a life in the next world, but as something to be enjoyed. The spirit of the Renaissance was epitomized in the words of the Greek philosopher Protagoras: Man is the measure of all things. Even though this humanist view sometimes clashed with Christian doctrines, the papacy reached, if somewhat reluctantly, a modus vivendi with the new learning. Indeed, the Vatican Library amassed works of classical culture from all over the Christian world. The popes and the wealthy families of Italy became patrons of the arts, gathering scholars and artists in their courts. The Renaissance stage The printed Latin texts of Terence, Plautus, and Seneca were widely read. By the end of the 15th century attempts were made to stage their works, first in Rome, sponsored by Pomponius Laetus, and then in Ferrara. At first the stages resembled classicized versions of the mansions used for mystery plays, though compressed onto a single raised stage with curtained entrances between pillars to represent various houses. Later efforts concentrated on re-creating the form of the classical stage inside large halls. One of the greatest influences on the development of theatre buildings in the Renaissance was the discovery in 1414 of De architectura of Vitruvius, a Roman architect of the 1st century. This 10-volume treatise contained valuable information on the scenery used for classical tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays, along with detailed descriptions of the Roman theatre with its auditorium, orchestra, and stage backed by the scaenae frons. Vitruvius' work, translated and published all over Europe, was provided with woodcuts showing ground plans and front elevations of classical stages. Various reconstructions of the Roman theatre were built, culminating in the beautiful Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, designed by the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio and completed in 1585 by Vincenzo Scamozzi. It is Europe's oldest surviving indoor theatre. Palladio had created a magnificent scaenae frons, but Scamozzi added three-dimensional perspective vistas of street scenes behind the archways. It was this preoccupation with perspective that characterized future developments of the Renaissance stage and indeed the modern theatre, though the effects were usually achieved through painted backdrops and wings. Sebastiano Serlio's influential Second livre de la perspective (1545; The Second Book of Architecture), generally referred to as Architettura, outlined three basic stage settings, suggesting an impressive arrangement of palaces and temples for tragedy, complex street scenes for comedy, and idealized landscapes with trees and cottages for pastoral plays.