I use this page to support Non-Realistic Theatre ideas and the Theatre of the Absurd (historical perspective). Also, for my acting and directing classes.
Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook of Radical Thinking
Herbert Blau, University of Wisconsin:
"The selections are wide-ranging, historically informed, judicious ... the commentary by Drain is marked by its fluency and unpretentiousness.."
Dada and Surrealist Performance (Paj Books)
The anarchic Dada movement is the subject of continuing interest among literary and cultural studies scholars as well as among theater professionals. In Dada and Surrealist Performance Annabelle Melzer describes the founding of the movement among the Zurich performance collective known as the Cabaret Voltaire -- including Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Francois Picabia, and Wassily Kandinksy -- and traces its scandalous history through the rift in the 1920s that separated Dada, with its dedication to political provocation, from the more contemplative Surrealism.
German Expressionism
Dada:
Mama Dada:
Belgian Modernism
Modern French Theatre
V. Meyerhold:
2006. I do not remember when and why I made this page. NTL, I use Dada texts rehearsing Godot. Next -- Pinter (Fall).
Dada Performance (PAJ Publications) (Paperback)
by Mel Gordon (Editor) 1555540112
Expressionist Texts (PAJ Publications) (Paperback)
by Mel Gordon (Editor) 1555540139
Expressionism has been a dominant force in painting, film, graphics, theatre, literature, and music throughout the twentieth century. Several of the classics of the style are represented in this volume, including: Sphinx and the Strawman by Oskar Kokoschka, Sancta Susanna by August Stramm, From Morn to Midnight by Georg Kaiser, Ithaka by Gottfried Benn, The Son by Walter Hasenclever, The Transfiguration by Ernst Toller, Crucifixion by Lothar Schreyer.
Theatre in Dada and surrealism (Unknown Binding)
by J. H Matthews 0815600976
The anarchic Dada movement is the subject of continuing interest among literary and cultural studies scholars as well as among theater professionals. In Dada and Surrealist Performance Annabelle Melzer describes the founding of the movement among the Zurich performance collective known as the Cabaret Voltaire -- including Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Francois Picabia, and Wassily Kandinksy -- and traces its scandalous history through the rift in the 1920s that separated Dada, with its dedication to political provocation, from the more contemplative Surrealism.
Dada: Art and Anti-Art (World of Art) (Paperback)
by Hans Richter
"Where and how Dada began is almost as difficult to determine as Homer's birthplace," writes Hans Richter, who was associated with the movement from its early days. Here, through selections from key manifestos and other documents of the time, he records Dada's history, from its beginnings in wartime Zurich to its collapse in the Paris of the 1920s. Dada led on from Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism, and in turn prepared the way for Surrealism. It was enlivened by bizarre and extravagant personalities, notably Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Man Ray, whose contributions are fully discussed. The spirit of Dada reappeared in the 1960s in movements such as Pop Art, which are surveyed in the final section.
The Dada Painters and Poets : An Anthology, Second Edition (Paperbacks in Art History) (Paperback)
by Jack D. Flam (Foreword), Robert Motherwell (Editor)
"This handsome volume," said LJ's reviewer (4/1/52) presents "those pronouncements in art and literature which should have meaning still . . . ." Originally published in 1951, this is a paperback reprint of the second edition (1981) of one of the first books written in English dealing with Dada; it's still one of the best.-- MR
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Mayakovsky rolled Futurism till 1930 and then shot himself. How much futurism can you swallow when your phone rings all the time?
Futurists didn't noticed that they advocated the world without man... that is what we have.
Possible, possible. The world full of men without a single man. The more they you have the less of individual you get. Very Marxist in tendency. Our technology believes in Marxism.
Meyerhold's Biomechanics and his constructivism -- stage as machine. Actors = acrobats. Or workers!
Chekhov would think that Meyerhold went mad; he always thought that Meyerhold got too much brains to be an actor.
Our futurism (science fiction) is different -- horrific! The stage-machine is after actors! That's why they can't act...
Present day political situation: links are dead!
Censoring Internet Free speech and the Supreme Court ...
The great Art is... POLITICAL? Dada didn't
want to be engaged in politics as entertainment and this refusal is a
political statement. Very much like punk culture is a statement -- the
rejection!
Unfortunately, we don't know our roots... Postmodern doesn't credit Dada.
Antirealism and Theatricality Topics: Meyerhold, dada, Surrealism,
Futurism * Terms: Meyerhold (1874-1940) * stylized theatre * cabotin *
biomechanics * defamiliarization * avant-garde * "Ubu Roi" (1896) * Alfred Jarry * Sigmund Freud * "The Interpretation of Dreams" (1899) * Carl Jung * archetypes * collective unconscious * expressionism * Georg Kaiser * "Gas I" * Edward Munch * Jessner* Futurism * Marinetti * Prampolini * sintesi * bruitisme * Tristan Tzara * surrealism * Andre Breton * Apollinaire * "The Breasts of Tiresias" * Jean Cocteau * "The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party"
I. Meyerhold
A. Core issues
1. Naturalism limits the imagination
2. Conscious stylization
3. Non-representational staging
4. Theatre of the triangle vs. straight line
5. Defamiliarization
B. Acting - biomechanics
1. innate capacity of reflex excitability
2. physical competence 3. intention-realization-reaction
II. Alfred Jarry (1873-1907)
A. Ubu Roi
B. Subjectivist approach
C. Lugne-Poe's Theatre de l'Oeuvre
III. New Aesthetic Movements
A. Attempt to find new modes of expression
B. Influence of Freud's theories of the unconscious C. Symbolism - truth is in dreams and intuition D. Jung - cultural spread cannot account for the themes in dreams and visions E. New interest in myth, archetype and symbol as keys to unconscious and art
F. Expressionism
1. Used in 1901 to distinguish group of paintings
2. "Die Brucke" group of artists
3. rejection of traditional forms
4. The material representation of a subjective state of being or experience through the use of stereotypes, stylization and instinctively derived symbols.
G. Futurism
1. Glorified energy and speed of machine age and war 2.
Against museum art.
3. Argued that utilitarian objects are more beautiful
than traditional works of art
4. bruitisme (music) - dynamic noise 5.
sintesi (short plays) - jarring the spectators
H. dada
1. Tristan Tzara (1917)
2. Literary and artistic movement
3. Nihilistic
I. Surrealism
1. Breton breaks with dada (1923)
2. Apollinaire
3. Subjective, unpremeditated, inspired
PS
Theories leave very little time to analize the texts!
Must connect with METHODS (Marxism, socialism, communism, utopia and etc.)
Pata-Theatre and Para-Theatre in web-theatre directory. Total Theatre & Beyond Theatre (web directory links).
School/Movement - Dadaism
Dates - Zurich 1916-1917, Berlin 1919-1920, Cologne/Hanover 1918-1923, Paris 1920-1924
Description/Philosophy
Farce of nothingness
Dance based, melting pot of all artform
Anti-audience, but relied on audience
Rejected concept of art, were anti-war, many were refugees
Opposed tradition, subverted values of Boug. society, offered lies and insults, made use of masks/dances/music, bare stages
Anti-actor - performer is herself, no costume or a masquerade outfit
Art was a private affair - done for self
Founder/Key Influences
Hugo Ball, Emmie Hemmings
Manifestos - there were 7 composed between 1916-1920
Tristan Tzara - “First Celestial Experience of Antiphaline”
Plays and Playwrights
Simultaneous poetry bruitism spontaneity-basis for act
Plays had vague concern for future or none at all
Mainly based on improvisation, they loved to wing it
Plays were brief containing phrases, gibberish, free standing vowels, emphasis on sound not meaning
Other Important Names
Duchamp Mertz -collages
Artists framed household objects and called it art - wanted to knock art off its pedistal
Music - brutist music, sounds - natural rather than machine, homemade but natural
For Future Reference
Videos - Art in the 20th Century (series)
Dada Almanac - Richard Hulsenbeck
Dada Performance. . ., Dada and Surrealist Perform . . - see surrealism
Once, there was a red-haired man who had neither eyes nor ears. He had no hair either so he was called "red-haired" only theoretically.
He could not speak since he had no mouth. He didn't have a nose either.
He had neither legs nor arms. He had no stomach, no back, no spine, and he had no insides whatsoever. He had nothing at all! Therefore, it's not clear who we are actually talking about.
In fact, we would rather not talk about him any more.
A certain old lady, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of a window and splattered on the ground.
Another old lady peeked out of the window, staring down at the remains of the first one, but she also, out of excessive curiosity, fell out of the window and splattered on the ground.
Then a third old lady fell out of the window, then a fourth, then a fifth.
By the time the sixth old lady fell out of the window, I got bored watching them and went to Maltsev market where, they say, someone gave a knitted shawl to a certain blind man.
