history of theater essay

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A Brief History of Theatre, Essay Example

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Modern historians understand that theatre has its roots in storytelling and ancient rituals performed by Western and non-Western societies. While the Ancient Greeks were the first to popularize theatre for the purpose of entertainment; they were not the first culture to embrace a form of storytelling that involved people acting out a specific story. This form of storytelling has been around for almost all of human history. Theatre historians focus on where evidence exists in the form of writing and archeological ruins (Zarrilli et. al.; Nagler). Humans have developed a unique ability for symbolic communication (Zarrilli et. al.). This ability is necessary for writing and performing drama (Zarrilli et. al.). To understand ancient dramas, one must understand ancient communication which takes us to the example of the Mesopotamians and the Native Americans in North America who developed complex yet practical systems of writing which were used for communications between individuals and even large tribes (Zarrilli et. al.).

“Telling stories about ourselves, our communities, and our place in the world, allowed an entirely new way of understanding and representing reality.” (Zarrilli et. al.) As human societies continued to evolve, so too did our ways of telling stories. Humans have gone from simple hunter-gatherers to agriculture to industry, all in the short time that we have been on this earth.  This willingness to evolve and this change in the human consciousness brought about a new era of storytelling.

In the modern world, states are the most common form of government structure (Zarrilli et. al.). Centralized control and an organized economic structure are tenets of a state government (Zarrilli et. al.). Changes in the way that government operates along with the rapidly-advancing technology of the modern era has allowed for a variety of artistic mediums to flourish. Early religious and civic festivals of early state societies produced two main methods of drama (Zarrilli et. al.). The first was the reenacting of myths and events of the past (Zarrilli et. al.). The second was the independent or literary dramas (Zarrilli et. al.), such as that of Shakespeare.

The use of imagery is essential for humans in order to access things that are invisible; in other words, things that language cannot accurately describe (Zarrilli et. al.). Such imagery was used heavily throughout the Ancient World, particularly in Ancient Egypt, to represent deities and religious beliefs as well as secular ideas, laws, and cultural norms. The Chinese are also well-known for their use of pictures to describe almost every concept known to their culture. The Chinese have told stories this way for thousands of years.

In many cultures and historical periods, life is viewed through a microcosm and macrocosm. There is a sense of duality that is linked to many modern religions as well as many cultures. The concept of good vs. evil is an idea that is derived from the duality of two of the Abrahamic faiths – Christianity and Islam – and has a presence throughout the world today. This idea of duality is prevalent in many Ancient dramas and many theatrical works today.

While most acting is now performed in movies and TV shows rather than on a stage, theatre is still a cherished performance medium. Human history is filled with examples of ritual and storytelling that involved character acting and role-playing. The development of complex writing and communications systems coupled with the need to feel a sense of purpose in the world.

Bibliography

Zarrilli, Phillip , Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei, Bruce McConachi, and Gary  Jay Williams. Zarrilli Theatre Histories – An Introduction – 1st Edition (Paperback) . N.A.: Routledge, 2007. Print.

Maria Nagler, Alois. A source book in theatrical history, Volume 1959, Part 2 . N.A.: Courier Dover Publications, 1959. Print.

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Introduction: Early Modern Theater History: Where We Are Now, How We Got Here, Where We Go Next

Richard Dutton is a Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University and chair of its English department. He has published widely on early modern drama, especially on censorship and authorship. His most recent publications are Ben Jonson, ‘Volpone’, and the Gunpowder Plot (2008) and A Handbook of Early Modern Theatre (2009). He is working on a book on Shakespeare's adaptation of his plays for court performance.

• Published: 18 September 2012
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Is theatre history a form of social or cultural history, and if so, do those disciplines have theoretical underpinnings (however contested) that should be of interest to theatre historians? Where is the boundary between theatre history and fiction? For most of its early practitioners, despite the new energising of historical studies at large, theatre history seemed inescapably a branch of literature, more about theatre than about history, fathered by a devotion to the plays of William Shakespeare, and centred upon — or at least sheltered within — an activity whose closest affinity was with poetry rather than with social or cultural or political affairs. For Ronald Vince, theatre is without question ‘a sociocultural phenomenon’, and its study ‘in some major aspects a branch of social history’. And social historians, in turn, are major players in the ongoing debate over the place of theory in historical writing, according to Gabrielle Spiegel, because ‘the deepest challenge posed by the ‘linguistic turn’ was to the practice of social history’.

Most working historians tend to be impatient of anything which looks like methodological discussion. Keith Thomas, ‘An Anthropology of Religion and Magic, II’

My epigraph says less about methodology than about Keith Thomas's own sense of his discipline's aversion to it, at least before 1975, when these words were published. His generalization, which was probably not true even then, is surely not true now, thirty years on, when ‘methodological discussion’—the discussion of both procedural and theoretical questions—is a staple of the discipline of history. A few years later, in 1979, the editorial board of Past and Present stated that it ‘has long been conscious of the need to initiate discussion of general points of historical inquiry, theory and method’, and declared its intent to publish essays on such topics at regular intervals, beginning with an essay by Lawrence Stone on the revival of narrative in the writing of history (Stone 1979 ). But this was catch-up rather than innovative; the editorial board's move may have been prompted by the success of another journal, History and Theory , founded two decades earlier and devoted entirely to the issues whose importance Past and Present was belatedly acknowledging.

Since that time, judging from recent books by historians with titles like Practicing History , or The Methodology of History , or History and Tropology , or Historical Representation , or Language and Historical Representation , or The Writing of History , or New Methodologies in History Writing , most historians nowadays are quite ready to see ‘What is history?’ as a complex question, meriting serious conversation rather than what Keith Thomas took to be impatient tolerance. The absence of books with similar titles or themes in the Weld of theater history 1 may be evidence of a perceived absence of interest by theater historians in such issues, or perhaps just evidence of the continuing smallness of our Weld relative to history in general. Perhaps a critical mass has to be reached before theoretical questions become pressing. Whatever the reason, the void suggests that we lag behind our historian colleagues in finding such questions important. In that sense, we theater historians have until recently given the impression of being more impatient of these matters than Thomas declared historians themselves to be.

So I begin with two questions intended to measure the impatience levels of the readers of this volume. My first question: Is theater history a form of social or cultural history, and if so, do those disciplines have theoretical underpinnings (however contested) that should be of interest to theater historians? My second question is more impertinent: Where is the boundary between theater history and fiction? This latter question is not frivolous, though it has, like all questions we ask, an agenda already embedded in it (Martindale 1993 : 15). Nor is this latter question even original with me; it's merely my version of a larger question about history in general, a question that has engaged historians at various times, such as James West Davidson, who asked in 1984 if there was a boundary between history and fiction, while acknowledging that the question was not original with him either. Some years earlier it had engaged Nancy Partner, who wondered if the question had ‘not been much explored’ because it—falsely—seemed so self-evident, and who, two decades later, concluded that in order to write history at all one needed ‘to call on the fiction-making capacity of the mind’ to such an extent that the real question is how history ‘can separate itself out from fiction at all’ (J. Davidson 1984 : 332; Partner 1977 : 195; 1995 : 33).

Thucydides would have understood such arguments, as he would have understood E. L. Doctorow's generalization that ‘There's nonfiction or nonfiction now, there's only narrative’ (J. Davidson 1984 : 332). Certainly the dominant mode in the writing of theater history nowadays—indeed, of history in general, despite the Annales school—is narrative, and much writing in theater history today is not unlike the final chapters of a good mystery novel, where the seemingly insoluble problems to which the reader was introduced at the beginning prove in the end to be susceptible to solution after all.

Problems and solutions are the stuff of narrative, whether fictional or historical. Whether this is because we have a ‘culturally conditioned need’ to represent the past ‘in some kind of narrative logic’, or whether fictional strategies are our own consciously preferred choices for structuring historical narratives, or whether the boundaries between the humanities and the social sciences in general are more porous and problematized than we acknowledge, the fact remains, as Hayden White has told us, that historical writings, like fictional writings, are constructed ‘around particular narrative and rhetorical strategies’ even when they are ‘most rigorously bound to the rules of evidence and scientific methodology’ (Spiegel 2005 : 23; Otter 2005 ; Eley 1996 : 207).

Plus ça change , one might be tempted to think as one reflects upon the history of our own discipline as well as upon that of the historians. A principal impetus for the revolution in historical thinking in the nineteenth century was a desire to discredit the then current belief that history was a branch of literature—or of rhetoric, as Lawrence Stone would have it (Stone 1979 : 3)—and that ‘mere history’ could have little utility until linked with some more noble or virtuous discipline. Macaulay and Carlyle, perhaps the last of their breed in a line stretching from Clarendon or even from Camden, wrote their works in the face of new movements and ideologies that by the middle of the nineteenth century had rejected the notion that the sensibilities of the cultivated mind, linked with a persuasive prose style, were a sufficient guarantor of historical value, and had replaced that notion with a new paradigm, less committed to a search for the ‘moral lessons’ history might afford than to an emphasis upon its own internal coherence and to a new focus upon primary research among documents (Otter 2005 : 109).

These attitudes, revolutionary in their day, are the background noise of our own thinking, and the entailment is that we see history today almost reflexively as a scholarly discipline devoted without question to archival research and documentation. But this notion, now almost two centuries old, has been under attack by historians for some time. Leopold von Ranke's dictum (Ranke 1824 , p. vii ) that the task of the historian was not to produce universal truths but simply to show how things actually were—‘Er will blos zeigen wie es eigentlich gewesen’, a claim generally understood to have initiated the ‘documentary turn’ that followed—has now been disassembled, the recovery of ‘how things actually were’ being one of the casualties of the recent turn by historians to theory and methodology.

The activity we call theater history, which was born of a literary impulse in the midst of this nineteenth-century historiographic transition, was for a long time uncertain of its own status. For most of its early practitioners, despite the new energizing of historical studies at large, theater history seemed inescapably a branch of literature, more about theater than about history, fathered by a devotion to the plays of Shakespeare, and centered upon—or at least sheltered within—an activity whose closest affinity was with poetry rather than with social or cultural or political affairs. It was sometimes viewed by those outside the discipline as a regrettable distraction from the proper study of dramatic poesy.

There was, of course, no question about the attractiveness of the plays themselves (that is, of Shakespeare's plays); their popularity from the eighteenth century onward was one of the enabling forces in the shifting of literary studies in general from a narrow foundation in philology at its earlier extreme to a later interest in reflecting upon aesthetic, moral, and spiritual concerns. This attack upon philology was a kindred manifestation of the Romantic spirit at work among the historians; as history was to be untethered from literature, so literary study was to be untethered from philology.

But now we're back where we started, with literature and history once more converging, undoing their divorce and rediscovering old commonalities, including a new awareness of the importance of language, with historians discussing ‘practice theory’ and ‘the linguistic turn’, finding new interest in the work of Saussure and Derrida and Foucault, or in such nearer narrativist contemporaries as Hayden White, Dominick LaCapra, Frank Ankersmit, Hans Kellner, Nancy Partner, or Allan Megill. Joining the chorus, Stephen Orgel has usefully reminded us that theater history ‘is no different from any other kind of history’, which ideally would mean (though it doesn't yet seem to) that theater historians engage in the same kinds of methodological debates as do other historians (Orgel 2004 : 1).

This turn of events would have alarmed our predecessors, early twentieth-century theater historians such as E. K. Chambers or W. W. Greg, scholars whose labors still anchor much of our own work, if only subliminally. Greg did indeed urge the importance of ‘the development of method’ (Greg 1904–8 , vol. ii, p. ix ), but what he meant by that is best embodied in Chambers's own great works, especially the four-volume Elizabethan Stage , where ‘method’—or a ‘linguistic turn’, could he have known the phrase—meant getting as far away from the literary as possible. Anyone who has read Chambers knows that he succeeded.

Even by the middle of the twentieth century this gap was still apparent, as was the clear distinction between dramatic history, a subset of literary history, and theater history, still a kind of handmaid or orphan. One pursued dramatic history at mid-century (as I did in graduate school) by reading widely outside the Shakespearean box, urged on by the critical essays of T. S. Eliot, and by the exhortations of F. R. Leavis that the verbal was a gateway to the moral. But we didn't read theater history, nor did our professors lecture on it; for them, theater history had only a little more value than it had had a century earlier; it still lacked a foothold and a rationale.

My graduate school professors would have been as perplexed as Greg and Chambers could they have seen where current thinking now stands. They would wonder not merely at the increasing centrality of theater history, but even more at historians concerning themselves with ‘linguistic turn historiography’, or at serious scholars like White or LaCapra or Ankersmit or Spiegel analysing narrativist strategies and asserting that ‘no historical account is possible without some form of troping or emplotment’ (Spiegel 2005 : 23). They would wonder even more at Hans Kellner's redefining of history as ‘a discourse that is fundamentally rhetorical’, or his claim that representing the past requires ‘the creation of powerful, persuasive images’ best understood as ‘metaphors or proposals about reality’ (Kellner 1995 : 2). This would have seemed to them a serious confusion of history with literature, that is, with fiction.

But those are the issues historians are wrestling with today. And yet, despite Doctorow's insight, the traditional distinction between the genres of literature and history continues to govern our assumptions about the difference between fiction and fact. Fictional narratives do not form the basis of our factual research in theater history because fictional accounts do not serve us as evidence. Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to assume that the texts we label as ‘historical’ have any greater value as evidence. What theater historians lack, according to Peter Holland, is any ‘assumed and shared methodology based on an acceptance of what constitutes evidence’, nor have they manifested any agreement on ‘how that evidence generates the potential for meaning’. He also reminds us, almost as an aside, that engaging in the practice of theater history ‘is not the same as understanding or theorizing’ it (Holland 2004 a , pp. xiii, xii).

Nancy Partner concurs, reminding us that everything regarded as ‘evidence’ is of course evident simply by virtue of its existence, but it is not thereby ‘evidence’. Only when we transform it into a meaningful piece of a past whole—however we may conceive that ‘whole’—does it become ‘evidence’. In this sense, she says, ‘all of historical evidence is a major trope, a figure of speech and thought’. Since no collocation of pieces of ‘evidence’, however large, can reproduce the whole of the past, she argues that ‘the trope of metonymy, which extrapolates a whole thing from its contiguous part, is the organizing concept and argument of even the dryest and most cautious historical construct’. Partner, like Hans Kellner, is as much a rhetorician as a historian, and insights like theirs are beginning to be shared by theater historians as well, for example by Peter Holland, who voices concern about the ‘remarkably little investigation of the methodological bases’ upon which so much of our previous and even current scholarship is based, or on ‘the theoretical bases’ on which theater history ‘has been or might be constructed’ (Partner 1986 : 105–6; Holland 2004 a , p. xii).

If our preferred practice is positivist or essentialist, our only defense against such uncongenial assertions about our failure to be theoretical will probably be to go back into the archives and find more documents; in other words, to add to our discipline's ‘traditionally positivist accumulation of data’, in Holland's words. Ronald Vince echoes Holland in describing the largely unexamined ‘documentary imperative’ that ‘continues to characterize most theatre history’; and Joseph Donohue finds the ‘gathering and labeling of evidence’ without a consideration of the assumptions and values underlying such activity to be ‘an excessively narrow’ notion of the discipline (Holland 2003 , p. xvi ; Vince 1989 : 7; Donohue 1989 : 177).

On the other hand, Virginia Scott hopes ‘to see more of us in the archives, because unknown treasures live there’, though she concurrently hopes we will ‘seek wisdom’ about our enterprise ‘from other historians and historiographers and not always from anthropologists, sociologists, and philosophers’ (Scott 2004 : 191–2). She's right about archives; for some of us, archives are magnets, and documents unquestionably comforting, a tangible physical substantiation of a past reality. But they are not without their problems. Christopher Hill learned many years ago that ‘Their apparent objectivity is frequently spurious’ (Hill 1977 : 17). Two things, and only two, can be said unambiguously about surviving documents: one, that they have somehow survived where other similar documents often have not (for conspiracy theorists this alone may be grounds for suspicion), and two, that they contain particularized information set down by a particular writer, with greater or lesser coherence depending upon the writer's command of syntax. One cannot go further than this; one cannot demonstrate a concord between the contents of a documentary account and the actual circumstances it purports to record. Nor can one presume, even subliminally, that the documents that have not survived would, if found, strengthen the narratives we perceive to be implicit in the ones we already have. It has been traditional practice to give surviving documents the benefit of the doubt, to presume that the information they give us forms the proper backbone of whatever narrative we may wish to construct. Perhaps we have no choice but to begin this way with any document. But we must never forget that this is a choice we make, not a requirement of our discourse. So we should practice skepticism whenever we can. Indeed, Christopher Hill has warned us emphatically that a historian must be skeptical of ‘ all his sources’ (Hill 1977 : 18).

I would extend that skepticism to include whatever narrative construct those sources seduce us into preferring. Like our children, our sources often achieve unearned perfection in our eyes simply because they are ours, and we tend to resist when our preferred narratives for them are upset by new data. But we should expect such upsets and should welcome them, and skepticism of our existing sources is the first step. We might begin by being skeptical of second-party documents, that is, documents written by someone other than the provider of the information. One example would be the depositions of witnesses in a court case, where a person summoned by the court would respond orally to a set of prepared questions while the court transcriber wrote down what he believed or understood the deponent to be saying. Depositions in theatrical cases are a major source of data for theater historians, yet such depositions present problems of their own, probably insoluble ones. Not simply that two deponents may disagree over the same matter, but the deeper question of whether the depositions as written represent unambiguously what the deponents actually said or meant to say.

Another familiar form of second-party document is the will, sometimes written with care and deliberation by a scrivener in consultation with a testator in good health, but more usually written by the parish clerk at the bedside of a terminally ill testator surrounded by potential beneficiaries. Our assumption that the final written and signed document reflected the testator's actual desires is often an act of faith. While some stage players remembered their fellow players in their wills, others did not; we devise our own explanations for these inclusions or omissions, which often reflect no more than our desire to write the kind of narrative we want to write. Nor did a testator's signature upon a will necessarily reflect authenticity; Alan Nelson has recently discovered, among the State Papers, a lawsuit contesting the 1625 will of one John Busby, in which the complainant argued, with seemingly strong evidence, that Busby's signature on his will was written by his mother, Busby himself being too weak to write his name and (so the complainant averred) too insensibly near death even to understand what he was signing (or not signing).

We should keep the Busby case in mind as we do our research. We cannot with assurance presume that the contents of second-party documents like parish vestry minutes, livery company records, privy council minutes, and the like—or even of first-party documents like letters—furnish us with ‘evidence’ reflecting the truth about the circumstances they purport to describe. They reflect, as do our own letters and diaries and notes, one way of seeing the world, and not the only way. Though we try to find our sources meaningful, they may nonetheless be in some degree fictional. Indeed, ‘the central fictionality of history’, according to Partner, is ‘its unrelenting meaningfulness’; the one thing that reliably separates history from novels is that ‘histories are relentlessly overplotted’. While a good novelist will withhold information, a historian (she says) must tell all, withhold nothing, offer any explanation that will allow the source, the information, to acquire significance (Partner 1986 : 102).

Robert Stein carries the point further; for him, nothing is inherently a source. A piece of information becomes a source ‘only as it enters into a transaction with a historian to serve the historian's purposes, when it is used, in other words, as “a document” ’. Historians, he notes, regularly use sources ‘for purposes other than those for which they were intended’—our own use of Shakespeare's will is probably the best-known instance of this—because history is an activity in the present. Stein posits a triangular relation among ‘a present entity’ (a surviving text), a present reader of that text, and a present ‘disciplinary structure (in this case, history) that supplies the reader with an interpretive context, a purpose for reading and a protocol for interpretation’. So, for Stein, the mere presentation of data, however accurate, is not yet history, not without the ‘disciplinary structure’ and the ‘protocol’ that are the key mediating factors between the historian and the document (Stein 2005 : 69).

But do we have those keys? Until very recently, many theater historians would have had difficulty describing the disciplinary structure and protocols governing their own work. As an escape from such a requirement, some of us might have been tempted to say, ‘Of course there's a theoretical basis for my work, but I don't need to explicate it because it's implicit in what I do’; but that's imprecise, evasive, and in some cases perhaps not entirely honest. Andrew Gurr tells us that the appeal of anecdotalism—itself a specialized form of fiction—to New Historicists and others is ‘precisely because it is so imprecise’. However, he believes we theater historians have little better to show, because ‘Our knowledge and our use of the texts and contexts of early modern drama are as imprecise as any anecdote’ (Gurr 2004 a : 71). For Gurr, protocol and disciplinary structure are not yet in evidence, though fiction may be.

Geschichte beginnt mit Chronik und endigt mit Essay. Leopold von Ranke Although I don't believe causal arguments are useless, I would certainly maintain that the attribution of causes is a construction, one manner of being historical, and it ought not to be privileged over functional historical narratives. Albert H. Tricomi, Reading Tudor–Stuart Texts through Cultural Historicism

Theater history certainly began with chronicle, as Ranke said it would. Early theater history practitioners such as F. J. Furnivall and F. G. Fleay provided us with the beginnings of our discipline in chronicle form, and chronicle remained a powerful influence upon E. K. Chambers and G. E. Bentley. Even in the late 1970s Lawrence Stone declared the narrative mode in history unambiguously to be ‘the organization of material in a chronologically sequential order’ (Stone 1979 : 3). And despite Ranke's prediction that it would transmute into something else, chronicle seems to be with us still, like Osric, forever leaving but never gone. Ranke's end point, which I understand to be the reflective essay—as opposed to the demonstrative essay, which often has chronicle at its heart—has only recently found practitioners in our discipline. Mostly, when we write, we describe events or happenings and aim for explanations of their causes. Albert Tricomi thinks causes are overrated (my second epigraph), and events as well, finding fault with ‘positivist proponents of event-based analyses’, or indeed with anyone—this presumably would include Stone, just cited—who claims ‘categorically that event-based arguments of the sequential sort are the way to write history’ (Tricomi 1996 : 12–13).

The ‘event’ has been for some time a vexed category in historical thinking. Almost two decades ago William Sewell said, ‘most historians take the effectivity of events so much for granted that their accounts of events tend to lack a theoretical edge’. Marshall Sahlins, an anthropologist rather than a historian, had earlier observed that most historians ‘live in the narrative element’ and as a result lacked any sense of the event as a theoretical category. Sewell, considering these remarks, found them a fair description of his own earlier practice, and concluded that only after exploring the methodologies of other disciplines did he ‘recognize events as a category in need of theoretical work’ (Sewell 1996 : 264; Sahlins 1991 : 15).

Peter Holland has observed, in his assessment of the ongoing REED project, that London-centric theater historians have not ‘theorized the position within the central strategies of theatre history of almost any form of event that is non-metropolitan and/or non-professional’ (Holland 2004 b : 53–4). But this doesn't go nearly far enough. Sahlins and Sewell would no doubt tell us that ‘within the central strategies of theatre history’ (whatever those may be) we have not theorized the notion of events at all, of events as a category, whether or not professional, whether metropolitan or rural.

Jaques, a metropolitan turned rural, was untroubled by such concerns. His Seven Ages speech in As You Like It —a ‘strange eventful history’ in his view—exemplifies the notion that life is apprehended not as a continuum but as a series of stations, each emblematizing a pivotal moment in an uncertain progress. Later in the play, Touchstone parodies this step-by-step view of life's progress with his disquisition on the seven stages of a quarrel. Perhaps Ganymede does so as well in her anatomy of Oliver and Aliena, who ‘no sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved’, and so on, passing swiftly from one marker to the next, ‘and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage’.

We theater historians have until recently tended reflexively to make the same assumptions. We would be likely to note the first appearance of a text, or playing company, or playhouse, or critical stance, or the first major modification of any of these, as an event, while the subsequent continuing existence of the same entity would be not an event, but rather some other kind of phenomenon. Though we all publicly agree that the subsequent continuity is as important as the first appearance, in practice we have tended to scant it in our narratives, finding change more interesting than continuity. Early researchers in the archives like Malone or Halliwell would emerge from their documentary rummagings with evidence for some event or occasion, much like Little Jack Horner with his plum, and the assembling of such evidence, often in books called Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the English Stage or Chronicle History of the London Stage or Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama , solidified the ‘eventful history’ approach. (W. W. Greg praised the ‘careful chronicling’ of the last two of these works, both by F. G. Fleay, saying they had ‘revolutionized the methods of theatrical history’; Greg 1904–8 , vol. ii, p. ix .) We are the heirs of this tradition, and we have built our own stairs to marriage out of the same materials. The older among us were taught that the seven ages of the theater began in 1576 and ended in 1642, and a survey of current texts on theater history will show this to be a still current trope, along with surprising agreement about what the most important intervening eventful dates were as well. Like Jaques, modern practitioners of the discipline have been charmed by Touchstone's methodology; event by event we develop and develop, and thereby we hang our tale. It's only a short step to believing that motley is the only wear.

But even our dependence upon ‘events’ does not make them equivalent to (or reducible to) what surviving documents tell us about them. Monika Otter finds ‘the truly important referents’ of historical narrative nowadays to be ‘not things, people, or places but “events”; and “events” are arguably already an abstraction from reality—someone's attempt to order and emplot raw data into a before/after, cause/effect’ arrangement. Such an arrangement is inescapably narrative, as Nancy Partner has noted: even ‘The most rigorously eventless, characterless, “non-narrative” history has to tell something, has to begin somewhere and proceed and conclude’ (Otter 2005 : 125–6; Partner 1986 : 93). Frank Ankersmit has explored narrative as one way a historian might ‘attempt to give an acceptable account of part of the past’; but John Zammito found problems even in this formulation, asking ‘what makes something an “account?” What makes it “acceptable?”’ Shannon Jackson raises similar queries: ‘What counts as an argument? What kind of work must be done to support it? What is rigor? What is research?’ (Ankersmit 1983 : 207; Zammito 2005 : 156; Jackson 2004 : 242).

These are new kinds of questions, and healthy ones. Otter reminds us that the traditional event-centered narrative had for centuries been spared such interrogation; she instances Isidore of Seville's ‘historia est narratio rei gestae, per quam ea quae in praeterito facta sunt dinoscuntur’ (‘history is a narration of events, through which that which occurred in the past is known’). This formulation generally prevailed through the twentieth century—witness Stone—despite its being assaulted (though not killed) in France by the Annales school, which rejected it for being overly concerned with such trivial and insignificant issues as individual events; it was dismissed as ‘l'histoire événementielle’, inferior to their own preferred narrative mode, ‘l'histoire de la longue durée’ (Otter 2005 : 113; Stone 1979 : 3).

Gareth Stedman Jones offered a further twist, telling us we must get beyond the Isidorean (and Rankean) identification of history with pre-given past events. History, in his view, is ‘an entirely intellectual operation which takes place in the present and in the head. The fact that the “past” in some sense “happened” is not of primary significance since the past is in no sense synonymous with history.’ He reasserted what is by now a mainstream position in historical study, namely that the historian doesn't reconstruct the past, but rather constructs something else from the residues of the past which have survived into the present. Louis Montrose has echoed this view, claiming that we have no access to the past unmediated by ‘surviving textual traces’. Frank Ankersmit noted that the texts we ourselves produce add a further layer of mediation, and he faulted those who believe ‘that nothing of any interest happens’ on the trajectory from the initial evidence to the text we ourselves write. Geoff Eley, sounding the same note, saw history as not ‘the archival reconstruction of what happened’ but rather ‘the continuous contest over how the past is approached or invoked’. All saw as dangerous the assumption that the structure of a historical narrative reflects some presumed structure inherent in the past itself, and all agreed that procedural protocols are needed. ‘The distinction’, wrote Stedman Jones, ‘is not that between theory and non-theory, but between the adequacy or inadequacy of the theory brought to bear’ (Stedman Jones 1976 : 296; Ankersmit 2001 : 51; Montrose 1996 : 6; Eley 1996 : 214).

But what theories are commonly brought to bear in theater history, and how might we determine their adequacy or inadequacy?

History, it has been well said, offers a series of answers to which we do not know the questions. The historian's difficult job is to reconstruct the questions from the recorded answers. Christopher Hill, History and Culture History is perhaps the most thoroughly hermeneutic creation of all culture: from the ‘inside’ because historians begin by creating a text, the Past, through the interpretive creation of and with evidence; and from the ‘outside’ because they then proceed to explain it. Nancy Partner, ‘Making Up Lost Time’

One can hardly imagine two more divergent views of the historian's work than those of my two epigraphs, by an older and a younger member of the profession, the perhaps unconscious positivism of the former deftly encircled by the linguistic turn of the latter. In the spirit of such circling, and with my second epigraph as an exemplar, let me now return to the first of my opening questions: Is theater history a form of social or cultural history, and if so, do those disciplines have theoretical underpinnings (however contested) that ought to be of interest to theater historians? For Ronald Vince, theater is without question ‘a sociocultural phenomenon’, and its study ‘in some major aspects a branch of social history’ (Vince 1989 : 14). And social historians, in turn, are major players in the ongoing debate over the place of theory in historical writing, according to Gabrielle Spiegel, because ‘the deepest challenge posed by the “linguistic turn” was to the practice of social history’. Spiegel sees ‘the rise of cultural history (and its sociocultural cognates in anthropology and sociology)’ as having been governed by ‘discontents arising from the then dominant practice of social history, Marxist and non-Marxist alike’ (Spiegel 2005 : 4). If this is the case, then we may have a fairly straightforward answer to the first part of the question: those social historians and cultural historians who were trained as historians are quite likely as caught up in the questions I've already addressed, as are any other group of historians; perhaps more so. And if Vince is right about theater history being a kind of social history, then the answer to the second part of my question is yes.

But persons who come to the study of society and culture from some other point of origin than graduate study in history—for example, from graduate study in literature (as I do)—may find themselves less well trained and therefore less engaged with these issues, or less alert to their importance. And, until recently, despite Vince (whose background is also in literature), theater historians have tended to fall into this latter category.

There are exceptions, of course. Interpreting the Theatrical Past , a ground-breaking collection of essays published in 1989, raised a number of cogent questions about the theoretical underpinnings of our discipline, questions that remain healthily unresolved, and continue to be discussed in ever widening circles, as evidenced by the publication in 2003 of another collection of essays, entitled Theorizing Practice: Redefining Theatre History , with a largely different set of contributors. Fifteen years after co-editing the earlier volume, Thomas Postlewait asked—and not for the first time—if we can ‘specify a vital academic rationale’ for theater history, ‘distinct from the definitions and rationales that shape each of the other disciplines in the arts’ such as humanities and social sciences. He wondered if ‘we, like musicology, have distinct features as an academic Weld’ (Postlewait 2004 : 184). The implication of his query was that we do not, and that we should. Ronald Vince had earlier proposed the ‘axiom’ that the boundaries of the discipline of theater history ‘tend to expand in direct ratio to the intensity of the efforts to define and confine it’, and predicted that any effort to restrict the definition of theater history ‘as a precondition of study’ would prove ‘both arbitrary and self-defeating’. For Vince, a home for theater history that encompassed both literary study and theater practice was the desideratum. Postlewait, perhaps reflecting on these assumptions, offered a quiet disagreement, confessing his own belief—like Virginia Scott's—in the prior centrality of ‘historical study, historical training, and historical understanding’. But then, in a moment of introspection, he asked, ‘But am I merely announcing my preference for what I happen to do? If so, I am part of the problem—one more person with a special interest that substitutes for a disciplinary program, one more earnest teacher who proclaims an academic mission on the basis of what I see in the mirror’ (Postlewait 2004 : 184–5; Vince 1989 : 13–14).

This is bravely stated, and is a central conundrum. Is theater history a distinct and definable Weld, with a set of commonly agreed—or at least energetically debated—methodological premises, or is it merely the uncritical sum of what practicing theater historians happen to be doing at any given time? If the latter, then does its definition change whenever people change what they're doing? Where on the continuum between a free-floating, methodologically empty cluster of individual researchers and a circumscribed, overdetermined, ideologically rigid group project does our discipline now stand?

One answer might be that it stands everywhere along that continuum, and thus has no center. Among the common charges levied against theater historians by those who are not their friends are the following: that they are anti-theoretical; that they are overawed by ‘facts’; that they believe documentary evidence always trumps imaginative hypotheses; that their discourse remains linear while the discourse of those around them grows richer and more complex; that they are more interested in the questions for which they have answers than in those ‘other’ questions, and that they are often scornful of colleagues who, lacking data, nonetheless tackle the other questions; that there is an unconscious Bardic teleology in their premises, shown by their valuation of the origins of Shakespearean associations—the Globe, the Blackfriars, the King's players, Stratford—above those phenomena that led elsewhere, e.g. to the Red Bull or to the children's companies or to the provinces; and that the books and essays they themselves write easily support the above charges. Until recently, there would have been some truth in each of these observations. But increasingly such opinions may be viewed as assessments of who we were rather than who we are. The work we're doing now, as reflected in the essays in this volume, furnish ample material for a response to these charges.

But it's also true that, for scholars of the early modern period, it's harder to write proper theater history today than it has ever been before. In part this is true because there exists no general agreement among theater historians about what ‘proper’ theater history looks like. Setting aside those studies of social or cultural history that appear to be ‘theater history’ because they are dressed up with references to playacting and playgoing, one is still left with a broad range of perspectives among practitioners of the discipline. One scholar will argue that the proper center of interest for theater historians is the play-text in performance upon the stage; another will insist it is research in the archives; still another will claim it embraces anything performative, wherever and however performed; yet another will say theater must be set in its social and political context; still another will see economics as the key to all mysteries; and so on. But these differing opinions haven't yet become starting points for a debate. Theater history has, for a very long time now, resembled golf more than tennis.

But even when done right—and there's scant consensus on what that phrase might mean—the writing of theater history is difficult. Theater history is, properly, the writing of theater history. The accumulation of data, while commendable, requires intervention before it can become history. Our predecessors, having had far fewer documents to work with than we do, and knowing far less about the early theater than we do, had an easier time of it, because they were freer to construct narratives to Wt their meager data. We have more data now, but more data means more contradictions, more inconsistencies, more evidence that is incommensurate with other evidence, and a greater awareness of what kinds of data are still missing. As a result we are forced into more confusions than our predecessors could have imagined. It's no longer easy—in addition to being no longer fashionable—to write the master narrative that commands general assent; there are too many opportunities for other narratives, other points of view.

And so to the first procedural dilemma for a theater historian. Are ambiguities and contradictions in our data problems to be solved, requiring a selective narrative supporting one preferred interpretation against others and offering that as ‘what really happened’? Or are they a condition inherent in the data and in the nature of our own scholarship, requiring a fuller and more accommodating narrative with room for ambiguity and contradiction and alternative versions? All questions do indeed have agendas already written into them, and by now mine must be clear.

Clifford Geertz maintained that the anthropologist's task was principally interpretive, and for Frank Ankersmit the same was true of the historian, but Ankersmit complicated the issue by noting that interpretations are ‘under-determined’, because ‘only an infinite number of interpretations could account for all the known data’. The entailment of this position is that anyone interested in accounting for the data must be hospitable, even welcoming, to more than simply his or her own interpretation. Or in his words, ‘a maximum of clarity can only be obtained [by] a proliferation of historical interpretations and not by attempting to reduce their number’. This proliferation is one way to avoid what Hans Kellner describes as our tendency ‘to eliminate rather than to entertain possibilities’. Geertz, were he still alive, might have termed Ankersmit's protocol ‘thick interpretation’ (Ankersmit 1994 : 33, 72; Kellner 1989 : 45).

Allan Megill's essay on grand narratives in history focuses more on theory than on interpretation, and concludes with a section entitled ‘The Theory Postulate: Always Theorize’. But how do we theater historians make sense of such a requisite? Megill's premise is that we live in ‘a world that no longer believes in a single History’, but this is not so clear in the world of theater history, where fresh instances of the grand, all-explaining narrative are still to be found. Megill does envisage ‘a greater attentiveness of historians to theory’, yet acknowledges that ‘there are different theories and different ways of being attentive to them’. Echoing Ankersmit, he suggests we approach our work ‘having a greater humility and reflexiveness concerning its own assumptions and conclusions’. In the same vein, Shannon Jackson urges us to ‘resist singularity’, by which she means ‘learning to value varieties of thinking that you do not share and (even more to the point) varieties of practice in which you do not excel’. Geertz would likely have recognized this as another way of saying ‘thick’ (Megill 1995 : 172; Jackson 2004 : 241).

We may call these arguments theorizing if we wish, or we may simply understand them as proposals for ways of proceeding. The terminology is irrelevant. But self-awareness seems to be part of the mix, much as it was for the economist J. M. Keynes when he remarked of his fellow economists (as Terry Eagleton has reminded us) that those who disliked theory, or claimed to get along better without it, were simply in the grip of an older theory.

Even in the most austere scholarly report from the archives, the inventive faculty—selecting, pruning, editing, commenting, interpreting, delivering judgements—is in full play. [Thus] claims for historical knowledge must always be fatally circumscribed by the character and prejudices of its narrator. Simon Schama, Dead Certainties

A year after Schama's remarks were published, David Perkins proposed that narrative history could not make use of the techniques and strategies of modernist and postmodernist fiction, because such techniques had been consciously developed ‘in opposition to traditional, linear narrative and closure’. In Perkins's view they ‘problematize such narratives, expose them incoherence and inexplicability.’ Perkins found it typical of postmodernist cultural criticism to emphasize ‘them as mere artifice, deny their claim to be explanatory. And they do this on the basis of an interpretation of life that emphasizes the truth of hat historical reality is an array of particulars, heterogeneous and unstructurable’ (Perkins 1992 : 48, 59).

But what Perkins found inappropriate for historical narrative, Hans Kellner found desirable, approvingly calling such strategies ‘crooked readings’, that is, readings that ‘unfocus the texts they examine in order to put into the foreground the constructed, rhetorical nature of the past, and to bring out the purposes, often hidden and unrecognized, in our retrospective creations’ (Kellner 1989 : 7). Kellner described with disparaging amusement the common if mistaken belief—perhaps Perkins's belief—that the ‘first duty of the historian’ is to follow the ‘influential tradition of scholarship, which presumes (a) that there is a “story” out there waiting to be told, and (b) that this story can be told straight by an honest, industrious historian using the right methods’ (Kellner 1989 , p. vii ).

But the master narrative is no longer in fashion, as Kellner well knows; it has been called in question with increasing vigor in recent years by scholars in a variety of fields. The classical scholar Charles Martindale tells us, ‘there is nothing outside the discourses of history by which accounts of the past can be tested or checked. There is no independent access to historical “reality” outside the discourses which constitute it’ (Martindale 1993 : 19–20). W. W. Greg was beginning to think along these lines a hundred years ago, when he told us there was ‘no such thing as a clearly defined historical Weld’, that ‘facts are linked to other facts in all directions, and investigation merely leads to further and yet further questions’ (Greg 1904–8 , vol. ii, p. ix ). The ‘further questions’, and our welcoming of them, still remain the key. The physicist Niels Bohr, rejecting essentialism, famously remarked in 1927 that physics was not about things but about the results of experiments. Perhaps theater history too will one day be less focused upon things and more upon the various ways of dealing with those things; not ‘Here's my narrative’ but ‘What various narratives are potential here, and how can I do them all justice, even if I find some of them uncongenial?’

We will never know all we wish to know, we will never fill all the gaps in our information, and we will always have more questions. But those questions are a sign of health in our discipline, not a sign of inadequacy. Questions are always more important than answers; as Socrates well knew, anyone can come up with an answer. Coming up with the right question is far more valuable, for the right question keeps reminding us that there are other answers in play that may be as useful as the one we favor. ‘All historians know’—Nancy Partner risks a generalization here, but it's a good one to conclude with—‘all historians know that history is no longer the discipline busily fulfilling its positivistic promise to tell it all as it really happened. And, in fact, that cultural moment, of naïve assertions about splicing together an entire, indub-itable, objectively once-existing Past, was a very brief digression in history's longer, more richly compromised life’ (Partner 1986 : 117).

We have survived that digression, and are now experiencing what Herbert Blau calls ‘the swift accrual of history affecting theatre history’ (Blau 2004 : 253). If this ‘accrual’ brings with it a heightened interest in methodological issues of the kind historians themselves see as important, then we should be pleased that we're at such an interesting juncture in the development of our own discipline.

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History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing Essay

Pros and cons of the theory of ritual origins, how might this theory help understand the opening sequence of oedipus, purposes of playing, purposes of playing in aristophanes’ works, the most important purposes of playing today.

According to the theory of ritual origins, the theatre was initially a part of religious rituals that were mostly aimed at describing the natural forces which could not be controlled by human beings. The main advantage of the framework is that it helps to explain why so many playwrights chose to include supernatural beings or even deities in their works. This issue is particularly relevant if one speaks about ancient Greek theatre. Secondly, this theory can be useful for analyzing the main characters’ struggle against these deities. Yet, this model has some limitations. For instance, it cannot fully explain the impact of the story-telling traditions on the development of theatre.

The opening sequence of Oedipus can be explained with the help of ritual origins theory. In particular, Oedipus sees people, who are struggling with plague and famine, and they beg him for his assistance since in the past, Oedipus once saved Thebes. By using the ritual origins theory, one can argue that this scene explores the conflict between a human being and the forces that are beyond his/her control. Ancient people could perceive these forces as the wrath of gods and goddesses.

More importantly, the protagonist should be viewed as a person who challenges these forces. Overall, the actor, who plays the part of Oedipus, should portray him as a firm and resolute individual. Moreover, it is necessary to show that he does not want to give way to fear or panic.

There are several goals that playing may achieve. First, one can say that it is supposed to reflect ethical virtues and vices existing in a society. Secondly, it should offer moral instructions that can show how a person can make his/her moral choices under certain circumstances. Additionally, playing has to be entertaining and engage the audience. These are some of the main objectives that can be identified.

Aristophanes’ works were primarily supposed to highlight the vices of society and ridicule them. In turn, Aeschylus tried to describe the ethical universe in which his characters lived and show how conflicting this world is. In turn, Euripides strived to describe the experiences of an individual who could not understand or accept the injustice of society. These are some of the different views that can be considered. On the whole, Euripides’ position seems to be favored more.

Overall, one can say that the main goal of playing today is to describe how an individual responds to challenges posed by the outside world. This approach enables playwrights or film-directors to throw light on the moral choices that this person takes. Additionally, in this way, it is possible to engage the audience and make empathize with the characters. Finally, this method helps the author to develop the narrative of the play. This is why this particular goal is often chosen.

One can mention such a movie as The Shawshank Redemption to illustrate this idea. This film tells the story of a person who was unjustly convicted of homicide. Furthermore, the viewers can learn more about the protagonist, only when he is confronted with great challenges. The struggles of the main character and his eventual victory are the things that make this film very fulfilling.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 14). History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-theatre-purposes-of-playing/

"History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing." IvyPanda , 14 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-theatre-purposes-of-playing/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing'. 14 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-theatre-purposes-of-playing/.

1. IvyPanda . "History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-theatre-purposes-of-playing/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "History of Theatre: Purposes of Playing." February 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/history-of-theatre-purposes-of-playing/.

• The Philosophers Bergson and Aristophanes
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• Differences in the Context: Seneca, Medea & Euripides, Medea
• “Peter Pan” Play by Barrie and Its Performance
• Theatrical Plays: Symbolism and Values Analysis
• Drama Elements Developed by Aristotle
• A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
• Relations Between Characters in "A View From the Bridge"

Visiting Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?

You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. We may not admit visitors near the end of the day.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Portrait of a Woman, Said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart (Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray, 1727–1772)

François Hubert Drouais

The Ballet from "Robert le Diable"

Edgar Degas

Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) as Robert le Diable

Gustave Courbet

Bacchante with lowered eyes

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Marcantonio Pasqualini (1614–1691) Crowned by Apollo

Andrea Sacchi

Head of Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914)

Edouard Manet

Jean Sorabella Independent Scholar

October 2004

Opera, whose name comes from the Italian word for a work, realizes the Baroque ambition of integrating all the arts. Music and drama are the fundamental ingredients, as are the arts of staging and costume design; opera is therefore a visual as well as an audible art. Throughout its history, opera has reflected trends current in the several arts of which it is composed. Developments in architecture and painting have manifested themselves on the operatic stage in the design of sets and costumes for specific performances, and opera has also affected the visual arts beyond the stage in such domains as the design and decoration of opera houses and the portraiture of singers and composers. A feature unique to opera, however, is the power of music, particularly that written for the several registers of the human singing voice, which is arguably the artistic means best suited to the expression of emotion and the portrayal of character.

From the Court to the Public Theater In its origins, opera, like every other type of spectacle, expressed noble prerogatives and was staged in courtly settings. In seventeenth-century Italy, the birthplace of the form, lavish entertainments featuring fireworks and sensational effects as well as instrumental music, singing, dances, and speeches were staged to celebrate princely weddings or to welcome regal guests. Although not operas in the modern sense, these integrated entertainments fostered collaboration among the arts and prompted the theoretical justifications upon which true opera—and ballet , whose early development runs parallel—was built. The Florentine Camerata, a group of composers and dramatists active in Florence around 1600, set out to revive the great traditions of the classical Greek stage , in which music and drama reinforced each other. Toward this end, they developed recitative, a type of sung speech featuring the solo voice and an unadorned vocal line expressive of the text. Early operas, largely based on mythological themes and peopled with noble characters, promoted aristocratic ideals.

Although music and drama were the essential features of opera, visual effects often dominated the court productions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the designers of sets and theatrical machinery sometimes received greater acclaim than the composers who wrote the music. The audiences for court performances were part of the spectacle, since the convention of darkening the theater did not yet exist. Magnificently garbed and seated in orderly ranks, the spectators followed the action of the opera, which might last several hours, in a printed libretto, literally “a little book” produced for the occasion. Today the word libretto denotes the text of the opera, the drama that is set to music, but in the days of court opera, librettos were attractively illustrated and therefore involved the talents of draftsmen and engravers , who were also engaged to commemorate the festivities.

Although the spectacular emphasis of court performances continued as opera evolved, musical considerations guided its evolution. It was early noticed that music could express mood, define character, and enliven dramatic situations, sometimes more eloquently than verbal expression alone. Arias for solo voice might express a sentiment both musically and verbally; ensembles, choruses, and orchestral interludes likewise produced effective color. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), who used recitative as well as lyrical solos, madrigals, and instrumental color in operas on a variety of classical themes, is considered the first genius of operatic composition, and his “favola in musica” Orfeo (1607) is often seen as the first true opera. Although Monteverdi spent the early part of his career writing for the dukes of Mantua, his last works were intended for the public opera houses of Venice, the first of which opened in 1637. The public became and still remains the primary audience for the opera, although court productions continued to be devised wherever courts existed.

Opera in the Age of Enlightenment By the end of the eighteenth century, opera was an international phenomenon, and both comic and serious genres flourished in France, England, and the Habsburg empire as well as in Italy, although Italian remained the standard language of the libretto. Decorative objects of the period suggest the popularity of opera outside a court context ( 17.190.1867 ). Painters, such as François Boucher and Antoine Watteau , continued to devise set designs, but focus shifted to the quality of the music, which rose very high. Under composers such as Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) and Georg Frideric Handel (1685–1759), the orchestra expanded to include woodwind instruments, horns, and drums in addition to the original strings . The castrato soprano voice was frequently given the hero’s part, and castrati were among the greatest stars of the period. The magnificently ornamented music written for such virtuoso singers thrilled audiences but also diminished the dramatic element of opera and provoked calls for reform. These were answered by Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–1787), whose Orfeo ed Euridice of 1762 recasts the time-honored operatic story of the artist whose song can thwart death itself.

The reinvigoration of opera at the end of the eighteenth century was assured by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), whose music for voices and orchestra is alive with dramatic purpose. In The Marriage of Figaro (1786), for example, exquisite melodies describe and enrich the personalities of the clever servant Figaro, his vivacious fiancée Susanna, the lovelorn Countess, the philandering Count, and the eager teenager Cherubino. The extremely effective libretto for this opera, written by Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838), was based on a contemporary French play by Beaumarchais. Don Giovanni (1787), another collaboration between Mozart and Da Ponte, presents the last days of an unrepentant seducer and culminates in two unforgettable scenes in which the statue of a man whom he has murdered accepts an invitation to dinner and arrives to escort him to hell. Mozart’s last opera, a German comedy called The Magic Flute (1791), takes place in fantastic settings that still inspire experiments in set and costume design; two recent productions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, for instance, were devised by the artists Marc Chagall and David Hockney.

The Flourishing of Opera in the Nineteenth Century In the nineteenth century, conditions were ripe for broadening the audience for opera and for changes in the form itself. Bourgeois taste displaced court concerns in the selection of dramatic subjects, while composers, singers, and theater impresarios vied for popular success. In France and Italy, broad cultural movements like Romanticism , Orientalism , and Realism manifested themselves in opera as in the visual arts, while the rise of nationalism produced vigorous new operatic traditions in Germany and Russia.

The Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century launched a burst of interest in the irrational, the otherworldly, the exotic, and the historical, all subjects admirably suited to operatic portrayal. For instance, Gaetano Donizetti’s (1797–1848) Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, includes such themes as ancestral enmity, star-crossed love, and the tragic death of the heroine—which, in this case, is preceded by a vocally demanding expression of madness. Similar concerns were paramount in the contemporary French opera, whose leading composer was the German-born Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864). His Robert le Diable (1831), like the several other successful works that he created for the Paris Opéra, was staged with lavish effects, spectacular sets, choreographed dances, and huge onstage ensembles, that is, with all the hallmarks of French grand opera ( 29.100.552 ). The devil himself is a primary character in another example of the genre, Faust (1859), written by Charles Gounod (1818–1893). Because nineteenth-century operas were often based on earlier stage plays or literary works, Romantic subject matter prevailed in opera long after writers and painters had turned to other concerns. Georges Bizet (1838–1875), for example, based his Carmen (1875) on an early nineteenth-century novella by Prosper Mérimée and, like its source, the opera is full of the Spanish flavor that so appealed to French nineteenth-century audiences. The passion, violence, and impropriety so prominently featured in opera ran contrary to the ideals of contemporary bourgeois society, and artists’ portrayals of spectators, particularly women, watching from the privacy of their boxes suggest the constraints placed upon them as well as the attraction of opera’s cathartic subject matter.

High tragedy dominates the operas composed by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), whose feeling for drama helped him produce wonderfully expressive music for chorus, ensembles, solo voices, and the orchestra. His first public success came with Nabucco (1842), in which a stirring chorus expresses the longing of captives for their homeland. The plots of Verdi’s operas involve moral conflict and powerful emotions: Rigoletto (1851) presents a court jester whose desire for revenge inadvertently leads to his own daughter’s death; Aida (1871) tells the story of an Ethiopian princess in love with an Egyptian general who represents her country’s enemy; Otello (1887), adapted from Shakespeare , concerns the hero’s fatal jealousy, which results in his undoing and the murder of his wife. Verdi’s operas are full of memorable scenarios, and the exotic settings invite set designers to explore the whole history of art. On stage, the triumphal parade in Aida can evoke the grandeur of pharaonic Egypt , and the arrival of the ambassadors in Otello may resemble a Venetian painting brought to life.

Verdi’s contemporary Richard Wagner (1813–1883) took a completely different approach to opera. His ideal was the Gesamtkunstwerk , or total work of art, in which drama, staging, and music would forge a powerful unity. Wagner realized these aims by controlling every aspect of his works, writing his own librettos and supervising set design as well as composing the music. In many ways, Wagner magnified the opera beyond any proportions it had attained before. He scored his works for a large orchestra, requiring herculean voices to complement it, and he raised in his dramas such profound themes as redemption through love and the rapport between humanity and the divine. His largest project, Der Ring des Nibelungen (1853–74), is a sweeping drama in four parts, each one longer than a standard Italian opera. The story of the Ring , based on Germanic mythology, presents many opportunities for visual spectacle, among them the Rhine Maidens swimming under water, the Valkyries riding in on winged horses, Siegfried’s combat with the dragon Fafner, Brünhilde asleep in the midst of magic flames, and the fall of Valhalla itself. Frustrated with the physical limitations of contemporary theaters, Wagner found the means to build a new house to his own specifications at Bayreuth in Bavaria, and here he departed from established convention by darkening the auditorium during performances and covering the orchestra pit so as to focus all attention on the stage.

The culmination of Wagner’s career in Germany coincided with the building of a new opera house in Paris, designed by Charles Garnier and opened in 1875. The prominent position of the Opéra within the new system of boulevards devised by Baron Haussmann during the Second Empire demonstrates the social importance of opera at the time, while the lavish ornament of the building makes it seem at once a temple and a palace. Among the artists involved in decorating the Opéra were Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who designed bronze figures carrying candelabra for the grand staircase, and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux , who contributed an animated marble group for the facade ( 11.10 ).

By the late nineteenth century, opera was viewed as the ultimate art form, suitable for portraying the grandest aspirations not only of heroic men and women but also of peoples and nations. The celebrated Russian opera Boris Godunov (1874), written by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881), dramatizes a stormy period in Russian history and gives special emphasis to the chorus of common people that crowd around the glittering world of the czar. Although Catherine the Great promoted Italian opera and even wrote some of her own librettos, Russian opera was largely an invention of the nineteenth century, a sign of social ferment as well as rising nationalism. The vigorous Russian literature of the period furnished rich material for such operas as Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s (1840–1893) Eugene Onegin (1879), based (like Boris Godunov ) on a work by Aleksandr Pushkin. Sergei Prokofiev’s (1891–1953) War and Peace and The Gambler were based on works by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, respectively.

Although the great operatic composers devoted much of their attention to subjects tragic, awesome, or macabre, they also produced comic operas that are still staged and loved. Mozart’s operas contain much that is humorous, both musically and visually. Verdi scored a colossal failure with an early comic opera but ended his career with Falstaff (1893), based on the antics of the jolly Shakespearean knight. The comic operas of Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), such as The Barber of Seville (1816), are rife with tunes that brilliantly express fast-paced intrigue in hilarious situations. Even Wagner composed one masterpiece, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), with a happy ending and a number of comic features. The setting is sixteenth-century Nuremberg, and the action revolves around a group of craftsmen-singers, foremost among them the shoemaker-poet Hans Sachs. The discussion of art that runs throughout the opera applies specifically to music but may also be extended to other genres; the artist Albrecht Dürer , presumably alive among the characters, is mentioned in the opera.

Opera and the Kinship of the Arts On occasion, the opera has magnified the lives of artists actual and fictional as well as the heroics of warriors, princes, and revolutionaries. The flamboyant sixteenth-century artist Benvenuto Cellini provided material for the eponymous opera (1838) by Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), which culminates in the casting of a bronze statue on stage. More recently, Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) wrote an opera, Mathis der Maler (1938), about the German Renaissance artist Matthias Grünewald, and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) composed a chamber opera, The Rake’s Progress (1951), inspired by the well-known cycle of satirical prints—and their painted prototypes—by William Hogarth. Artists are among the characters in two of Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) most popular works: Cavaradossi, the leading man in Tosca (1900), is a painter, as is the sympathetic Marcello, companion to the poet Rodolfo, the tragic hero of La Bohème (1898).

Finally, portraits of singers demonstrate the complementary histories of art and opera. Andrea Sacchi’s portrait of Marcantonio Pasqualini (1614–1691) represents the castrato in a classical landscape that evokes the pastoral subjects of much seventeenth-century opera ( 1981.317 ). In a painting by François Hubert Drouais, the eighteenth-century singer Madame Charles Simon Favart (1727–1772) appears in fashionable attire rather than stage costume ( 17.120.210 ), but later portraits capture operatic characters as well as the singers who portrayed them. Gustave Courbet painted the Paris Opéra tenor Louis Gueymard (1822–1880) in the role of Robert, the complicated hero of Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable ( 19.84 ), and Augustus Saint-Gaudens portrayed the soprano Eva Rohr in the costume of Marguerite from Gounod’s Faust ( 1990.317 ). Édouard Manet’s several portraits of the baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914) capture the singer’s piercing eyes and expressive face, which gave credibility to his portrayals of Mephistopheles and Hamlet ( 59.129 ).

Sorabella, Jean. “The Opera.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/opra/hd_opra.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Béhar, Pierre, and Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly. Spectaculum Europaeum: Theatre and Spectacle in Europe (1580–1750) . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999.

Parker, Roger, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Sadie, Stanley, ed. History of Opera . New York: Norton, 1990.

Warrack, John, and Ewan West. The Oxford Dictionary of Opera . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Additional Essays by Jean Sorabella

• Sorabella, Jean. “ Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe .” (April 2011)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Portraiture in Renaissance and Baroque Europe .” (August 2007)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Venetian Color and Florentine Design .” (October 2002)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Art of the Roman Provinces, 1–500 A.D. .” (May 2010)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Baroque and Later Art .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Nude in Western Art and Its Beginnings in Antiquity .” (January 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Monasticism in Western Medieval Europe .” (originally published October 2001, last revised March 2013)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Interior Design in England, 1600–1800 .” (October 2003)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Vikings (780–1100) .” (October 2002)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Painting the Life of Christ in Medieval and Renaissance Italy .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Crucifixion and Passion of Christ in Italian Painting .” (June 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Carolingian Art .” (December 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Ottonian Art .” (September 2008)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Ballet .” (October 2004)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ Baroque Rome .” (October 2003)
• Sorabella, Jean. “ The Grand Tour .” (October 2003)

Related Essays

• Antoine Watteau (1684–1721)
• François Boucher (1703–1770)
• Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827–1875)
• Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century Art
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• Baroque Rome
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• France, 1900 A.D.–present
• Germany and Switzerland, 1900 A.D.–present
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History as Theater

Joyce Antler and Elinor Fuchs | Feb 1, 2009

Thirty-five years after its publication by Houghton Mifflin and nearly thirty after its theatrical debut, Year One of the Empire, a documentary drama about the “splendid” little war with Spain in 1898 and the horrific Philippine-American War that followed, was summoned back to performance by the war in Iraq. In March 2008 it had its New York City premiere at the Metropolitan Playhouse in Manhattan’s East Village. It was also given an “all-star” reading at the New York Theatre Workshop in September 2008. The play chronicles the moment when America literally became an empire and the “American Century” began. After the war with Spain, the United States annexed the Philippine Islands. The military conflict that followed cost the lives of more than four thousand American soldiers and 50,000 Filipino combatants. Upwards of 250,000 Filipino civilians died from war-related disease and famine, according to official estimates. The anti-imperialists who opposed annexation pointed to another kind of loss: America had “thrown away its ancient principles,” as William James put it, “and joined the common pack of wolves.”

Year One of the Empire was first performed at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles in 1980, where it won the Drama-Logue Critics’ award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre for Playwriting. The 2008 Metropolitan Playhouse production also garnered accolades: The New York Times described it as “enlightening, entertaining … engrossing.” NewYorkTheater.com called it “the best kind of documentary theatre, keeping us compelled and engaged throughout and providing lots of food for thought for afterwards.” In this essay, the authors describe their reasons for writing Year One of the Empire and explain why they chose to create a documentary drama rather than a historical narrative. The essay includes comments from Metropolitan actors and director Alex Roe, who offer reflections about the roles they performed, historical drama, and the politics of history.

Year One of the Empire came out of our discovery of a little-known chapter in American history, the three-year war fought by the United States in the Philippine Islands from 1899 to 1902. We were not yet the theater scholar and historian we later became, but were young Americans living through the anguish of Vietnam. We hoped that history would help us understand the national dilemmas of that time, and we saw theater, with its immediacy, colliding perspectives, and communality, as the medium that could best express that understanding. The more we read about the Philippine “insurrection,” the more we realized that Vietnam was not unique in American history, and the startling similarities between the conflicts in the Philippines and in Vietnam (and appallingly, in Iraq as well) became apparent: the difficulty of fighting a war in a terrain alien to our own; the confusion of confronting an enemy that could melt into the general populace; the frustration of capturing a town only to see it return to hostile forces as soon as we withdrew; the official assurances of speedy victory followed by additional troop deployments; a revolving door of military leaders and tactics with little improvement on the ground; the devastation wreaked on the civilian population; and, perhaps most shamefully, the resort to a policy of torture, and in eerie parallel, to water torture, by our own military as the bewildering resistance dragged on.

We decided to make this first American war of the 20th century the subject of our play.

It was a turning point in modern American history that has to this day not significantly impressed itself on the wider American consciousness. Theater seemed to us an ideal medium in which to cultivate a public witnessing about such a shaping event. American theater tends on the whole to be a theater of private enterprise: its economic base and its prevailing subjects have a common identity. But with this play we imagined a theater that could use the simple commonality of attending a play, of being an audience, as a platform from which to take account of our shared history and present concerns as Americans.

In 1967, when we began our research, there was little published material about the Philippine-American war. Our research for Year One took the better part of the next four years, and took us to scores of archives and libraries. From the array of materials that we unearthed—most of them primary sources—the story of a national crisis of conscience emerged, not unlike our own in the midst of the Vietnam War. The February 1900 editorial in The Nation from which we took our title attested to the distress felt by many Americans at the dawn of the new century. After a year of war in the Philippines, with no end in sight, the editors said, America could show only a “terrible array of disasters.”

Our theatrical text is culled directly from press reports, U.S. Senate debates and hearings, war department dispatches, court-martial transcripts, personal correspondence, autobiographies, popular humor, army marching songs, political pamphlets, and much more. Our writing consisted of a kind of “film editing,” in which we sought attractions, collisions, and counterpoint among our many hundreds of pages of historical notes. The language of the play consists of documentary fragments taken from their immediate contexts and woven together to make a dramatic narrative. In some cases we created dramatic settings for these quotations—for instance, an exchange of letters between the police commissioner (and later Rough Rider, governor, and vice presidential nominee) Theodore Roosevelt and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge might become a face-to-face dialogue. The published version of the play included 30 pages of “Notes and Sources” elucidating the construction of scenes as well as another 25 pages of character biographies and a chronology of events.

The theatrical form invited a complexity of perspectives, as it permitted us to include without comment the equivalent of historical footnotes—explanations, excursions, and competing points of view—and the myriad choices that comprise “history.” 1 Spectators could witness in the present tense, as it were, the intentions, appetites, bargains, arguments, blunders, and fantasies of our many historical actors: imperialists and anti-imperialists, senators and representatives, party bosses, third-party activists, military commanders, soldiers in the field, war department officials, reporters and editors, a native Filipina, and many others. We named 50 such figures, not counting a kind of chorus of anonymous aides, clerks, and correspondents. Our narrative emerged through a panorama of documentary speakers, rather than through the unitary historian’s voice, though our own point of view was necessarily conveyed through the choice, editing, and juxtaposition of those documents.

The 11 actors in the Metropolitan Playhouse production played several, often opposed, roles each—e.g., the actor who played Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a leading member of the imperialist cabal, also played the aged former Massachusetts governor, George Boutwell, an eloquent voice of anti-imperialist protest, and finally a foot soldier in the Philippines, confessing to the brutality of the American troops. Also notable was the director’s decision to portray the turn-of-the-century white males who dominate the period and our text with a mixed cast that included three female and two African American performers. An additional layer of reflection and commentary was introduced by having a black actor play, for instance, Admiral George Dewey, the pro-war Republican Senator John Spooner of Wisconsin, and Secretary of War Elihu Root. The tension—the Brechtian distancing—between actor and role evoked by this bold choice induced the audience to see all the more clearly the social biases that were woven into the pro-war rhetoric that appealed to both “manliness” and the duty to “civilize” our “little brown brothers.”

Viewers told us that the moral authority of the aged Senator George Frisbie Hoar, the “conscience” of the Republican Party and the leader of the Senate opposition to the Philippine War, was, if anything, enhanced because that role was played by the female actor Mikel Sarah Lambert. “ The most important quality of Sen. Hoar was a fervor ,” Mikel wrote to us in explanation to us of her sense of the character. “ As I got more and more familiar with the words I found a simple and controlled anger growing inside me. This man cared deeply about what was right. He had to voice his concerns, and voice them eloquently. He was the fellow who said: “Wait! this is not right! ”

Like Mikel, several of the actors came to appreciate the heroic efforts of those who fought against taking the Philippines and the ensuing war. Olivia Negron, who played the sharp-tongued, anti-imperialist Senator Richard Pettigrew of South Dakota also played Edward Atkinson, a Massachusetts printer who got involved with the anti-imperialists. Atkinson computed the cost of the Philippine War to convince Andrew Carnegie, the main source of funding for the Anti-Imperialist League, how much more cost-effective it would be to stop the war than to prosecute it. “ He has become a great hero of mine ,” Olivia commented, “ right up there with Lincoln, Washington, and Juarez. ”

The third female actor, Jeanmarie Esposito, played Juliana Lopez, the only Filipino (and only female) character in the play. Writes Esposito: “ I played a soldier whose motivation to fight and kill was to ‘civilize’ the Filipinos. What thrilled me about the inclusion of Juliana Lopez’s perspective was that we saw that she was an educated, refined Filipina who played the piano. Nothing about her needed to be ‘civilized’. ’”

One of the greatest challenges for the actors was to present their characters sympathetically, even when they disagreed with them. Gregory Jones, who played Henry Cabot Lodge—the “mastermind,” along with Roosevelt, of the “large imperial policy we both desire”—explains that he approached Lodge “ as I would Iago or Javert, with the intent of humanizing a character who often seems, on the page, like a black-hearted monster. I tried to remember, first of all, that the bellicosity of Lodge’s Senate speeches likely sprang from his political agenda, not necessarily from the heart of the man. In fact, his letters to TR, while containing the same viewpoints, were much softer and more pragmatic. So two characters emerged, Lodge the witty realist in the private TR scenes, and Lodge the imperialistic demagogue in the Senate scenes. We all play roles in life depending on the context. Lodge played at least two. I played them both in Year One.”

For Greg, a further challenge came in the soldier testimony scene late in the play. With director Alex Roe’s guidance, he realized that imparting information about torture and war crimes could carry greatest power if delivered almost inexpressively, with deliberate lack of “drama.” “ So where my Lodge was a weapon of tension with ramrod posture and clipped consonants ,” he recalls, “ my soldier was a puddle, slouching with his mouth open, almost losing the words in his throat. It was thrilling to play that contrast every night, and to listen to the audience react to descriptions of these atrocities. After two hours of flitting about the stage, the actors became quite still. We drew the audience into that stillness. Then, as we spoke about the water cure, we heard gasping, groaning, weeping ... the things we felt the first time we read the script. ”

Beyond their own roles, the actors responded to the urgency of the historical moment as it was revealed in Year One —the stern truths of economic and political desire, military malfeasance, racism and machismo. In an interesting coincidence, John Tobias, who played Henry Adams and General Elwell S. Otis, had himself edited a 1962 documentary collection, The Adventure of America , about America’s westward expansion, with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt, that included a few pages on the acquisition of the Philippines. “ However ,” John wrote, “ your play gave me important new insights into the extent of the betrayal and racist dismissal of the insurgents’ attempt at independent nation-building. Without editorializing, using only words actually spoken or written and actions done by the real people portrayed, the play recreates uncomfortably true, and little-known events. "

Whatever the lessons a history play offers, for it to work well, it must ultimately be theatrical. So writes J.M. McDonough, our Andrew Carnegie, for whom Year One was a “ rare anomaly ,” a play that speaks three times, to “ the turn into the 20th century, the 1960s, and the present day. In that respect, it is a history play, not unlike the history plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. ”

For director Alex Roe, the dramatization of history expressed in our play gave contemporary theatergoers a window into “the events of the past as products of sympathetic, fallible people, a record of the course taken by lives in all their dynamic possibilities.” Such a vision of history is deeply empowering, Alex believes. As spectators experience history “in living, breathing, and competing bodies before our eyes,” they can understand that our “present is shaped by each of us as we act within our own means.” The living, contingent nature of “history” he points to was startlingly brought to the fore by the nuances of humor, ignorance, cynicism, and conspiratorial maneuvering that colored the historical language under his direction—a coloring uniquely particular to this theater and this cast at this moment.

For us, the historian and theater scholar, the performance of this drama of American history has in its small way accomplished the public witnessing we had imagined when we began our work on Year One some 40 years ago. Nightly we watched as audiences rediscovered this unfamiliar yet all too familiar history. In their hushed, sometimes emotional responses, and in their observations and questions in the regular “Talkback” sessions after performances, we sensed a total involvement that is difficult for the authoritative historical text to achieve. “History as theater” seemed to justify itself both as history and as theater.

—Joyce Antler is the Samuel B. Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture and Women’s and Gender Studies at Brandeis University. Her most recent book is You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother (2007). Elinor Fuchs is professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. Her books include The Death of Character (1996) and Making An Exit (2005).

1. Carol Martin observes that even more than “enacting history,” documentary theatre has the capacity to “stage historiography.” See Carol Martin, “Bodies of Evidence,” TDR: The Drama Review 50:3 (Fall 2006), 9.

Tags: Scholarly Communication North America Military History

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Musical Theater: A Brief History

The following information on musical theater is excerpted from the Berklee Online course Script Analysis for Theater , authored by David Valdes, which is enrolling now.

Theater has always been based on crafting stories and images meant to yield emotional experiences for an audience, whether to enlighten, educate, persuade, or entertain. It is a live mirror on society that each viewer holds singly. Your experience as a human informs your experience of a play in text or onstage. In that regard, it resembles all other literature: there is no subjectively “right” way to feel about what you read and see.

But there is one way in which theater is the most distinct of literary genres: its full expression depends on more than its creator. Whereas fiction or poetry are complete works of art by the time they reach the reader, the finished text of a play is only half the product of theater. Theater is crafted specifically with the notion of performance for a live audience. A great play on the page is literature; a great play on the stage is theater.

This changes the equation from other genres in two ways: it’s never the same play twice and it inherently requires community.

Musical Theater and Community

Though I prefer to think of plays in artistic terms instead of corporate ones, if literature is a product and the audience is the consumer, theater is the only product which is changed every time it reaches consumers (often by the consumers themselves). The size and make-up of the audience, the conditions of the performance, the skill of those involved in the production—all of these factors will shape how the play lands, night after night. One night an audience might be vocal in their enjoyment of the show; the next night, the same cast and crew might face the proverbial crickets. The staging of A Raisin in the Sun at your high school might make you cry, while the regional theater production makes you sleepy. Because theater is the only live genre, this will always be true.

While this means not having control over the end product that a novelist might, it also highlights the second difference, one not definitive of other mediums: the making of theater necessarily fosters community. This has always been true.

Historical and Global Context

The earliest forms of drama in Africa were performances at festivals, often masked and incorporating dance, that brought the audiences stories of spirits and ancestors they already knew. In parts of western Africa, whole villages would take part, blurring the line between performer and player. Hunting parties would reenact their kills, with spectators providing the rhythm and music. Similar dramatic rituals were common across the ancient Inca, Mayan, and Aztec worlds in the Americas.

What is also as old as theatrical expression is the incorporation of music into the proceedings. Dig into the history of most cultures and you will find that the use of music and instruments for pageantry is nearly as old as the culture itself. Classical Indian musical theater dates to at least 400 BCE, with Chinese opera taking off in the third century. Around that same time, in the Mayan classic period, feast days were celebrated with elaborate musical pageants dramatizing the reign of the current rulers, with performers often wearing headdresses that would put the costume designers of Gypsy to shame.

Across Africa, performances depicting scenes of village life and honoring milestones (like initiations or returning from a hunt) have incorporated body decorations, props, music, pantomime, and dance for centuries, possibly even longer. In North America, Native American and First Nations storytellers have always used drumming and chanting to share history, repeat mythology, and celebrate cultural events.

Over time, certain patterns emerged in European theater. The zarzuela in Spain, with alternating scenes of song and drama, emerged in the 1650s. Mixing operatic tradition with popular music of the day, zarzuelas featured solos, duets, and chorus numbers, and incorporated dance. Zarzuelas spread beyond Europe to South America and beyond, with Cuba and the Philippines eventually adapting their own versions. You can easily spot the genetic code of zarzuelas in Broadway musicals even now.

The rise of musical theater in the US showed other influences as well: operetta (in the use of songs to carry the narrative), vaudeville (in the humor), and burlesque (with its costuming and spectacle). More controversially, early musical theater also borrowed racist practices of minstrel shows , from blackface to stereotyping of characters. (The former disappeared eventually, but the latter often remains.)

Today, musical theater is as diverse as it is global. Japan loves anime-based shows (like Sera Myu , 30-plus musicals based on the Japanese manga series Sailor Moon ) and Brazil favors a local spin, as in its Lion King , which replaces the English songs of Elton John with Brazilian music composed by Gilberto Gil. Musicals have found life in film (especially in India, where Bollywood films are huge) and on TV, with the rise of one-night-only live broadcasts of popular shows.

Types of Musicals

There are four main genres of musicals common today:

Book Musicals

Book musicals are those musicals which contain a traditional story structure, in which the songs are interwoven with scenes of recurring characters (with “book” referring to the non-sung text). The book is the script, including dialogue and stage directions; when you add the lyrics, this is called the libretto. The score is the music. Shows like The Color Purple and Flower Drum Song are examples of book musicals.

Cabaret-Style Musicals

Cabaret-style musical theater is typically less plot-oriented and based on a collage or pastiche of songs related to each other thematically or stylistically. The long-running Forbidden Broadway series is cabaret-style, as are song cycles like Songs for a New World . (Amusingly, Cabaret , despite its title, is not.)

Sung-Through Musicals

Sung-through shows are entirely song-based, with little to no spoken text; the dialogue occurs in the lyrics. Though comparatively less common than book musicals, some of the most successful musicals of all time have used this form, including Cats and Hamilton .

Jukebox Musicals

Jukebox musicals are shows that string existing, well-known songs together around the standard story structure. The genre really took off after the global success of Mamma Mia (based on the music of ABBA) in 1999. Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar (based on the music of Spanish band Mecano), in 2005, was a similar smash, becoming the most-seen Spanish-language play in history. More recently, Broadway hosted Head Over Heels and Jagged Little Pill , based respectively on the music of the Go-Go’s and Alanis Morissette.

Archetypal Numbers and Characters in Musicals

As with any convention, stock characters and devices are common in musicals. Nothing requires a musical to have all or any specific elements, but here are five of the most common musical numbers:

The Overture

Played by the orchestra or band before the action begins, the overture typically blends melodies and passages from numbers across the entire show.

The Opening Number

The opening number is sung, introducing the protagonist or multiple characters in the context of their worlds when we first meet them, and usually includes the entire ensemble by its end. It gives us the starting point from which the character will change—the baseline we need for motion to occur.

The “I Want” Song

The “I want” song—usually sung by one of the leads—tells the audience what the character wishes for or values or fears, something the other characters may not know, and it is this knowledge which drives the story.

The “11 o’clock number”

The “11 o’clock number” comes late in the show, usually around what Gustav Freytag would call the second turn, as we see a character on the verge of failure or success, reckoning with what their journey has (or will) cost them or what that means.

Check out this video of “Answer Me” from The Band’s Visit (Itamar Moses with music and lyrics by David Yazbek, 2016). This musical makes an unusual choice for its 11 o’clock number: the song is given to perhaps the most minor character, not one of the leads, and it is the only time in the show where the entire ensemble performs together, as opposed to being a solo for one character.

The finale draws together the entire cast for a number that encompasses the themes of the show, sometimes resolving the action, sometimes showing the moments after the resolution, and sometimes simply celebrating that the show is over. Finales may continue through the bows, and some shows even save the finale for during or after the bows.

Types of Musical Theater Characters

The list of musical theater character tropes is as long as the list of musicals itself, but some that pop up frequently are the ingénue (the innocent who learns the ways of life), the lovable con (who can’t resist the game even if it breaks hearts), the bad girl/bad boy with a good heart (who the lead dislikes and then falls in love with), the wise elder (who dispenses wisdom to young lovers or social outcasts), and the romantic foil (who always comes this close to winning one lead away from the other lead, with whom they do end up).

Putting a fresh spin on wise elder: Peppermint, the first transgender woman to headline on Broadway, plays Pythia, the Oracle in the musical Head Over Heels .

Musicals That Defy Expectations

Contemporary composers often play off expected conventions to create surprise or fresh spins on the format. Moving a standard number, changing who sings a particular kind of song, or omitting an expected element entirely can change how an audience experiences the storytelling or comment on the convention itself. Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop , which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama , is a musical about the writing of a musical. The show is premised on the expectations of viewers and its protagonist alike. Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along runs backwards in time, ending on songs that could serve as opening numbers and an “I want” song in any other context.

Some creators change the balance (such as in the “play with music” James Joyce’s The Dead ) and others try to mimic naturalism by treating music as diegetic, most famously in Once . Others have gone immersive, such as Here Lies Love , using the music of David Byrne to tell the story of Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, while making its audience participate in disco dancing, a protest, and a funeral.

Even working within conventions need not be limiting. The handling of the subject matter alone can create distinctive work that feels far from the hoofers and tappers that some associate with musical theater. Fun Home won the Tony with three people playing the protagonist in a story about a lesbian trying to process the suicide of her closeted gay father. We Live in Cairo tells the story of the Arab Spring, in multiple languages, with its two acts divided by tone: the first upbeat and electric as revolution comes; the second tragic and wistful as its promises are not kept. Both shows use familiar conventions but feel completely new.

From Mayan temples to 42nd Street, costumed performers have incorporated music and movement into entertainment for thousands of years. The American music form is known for familiar numbers and characters that audiences may expect, but everywhere around the world, the form is always evolving. And that’s what keeps people performing and attending those performances.

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Free The History Of Theatre Essay Sample

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The information about the origins of theatre that we have nowadays originates from divider sketches, enrichments, antiquities, and hieroglyphics that demonstrate the significance of effective chases, regular changes, life cycles, and stories of the divine beings. Theater most likely emerged as an execution of custom exercises that did not require initiation on the part of the onlooker. Early social orders saw associations between specific activities performed by the gathering or pioneers in the gathering and the wanted aftereffects of the entire society. These activities moved from propensity, to custom, and after that on to function and custom. The physical area of such performances was named theatron. Rituals commonly incorporate components that engross or give joy, for example, costumes, masks and talented entertainers. The first country to develop theatre and acting was ancient Greece. Greek theater, most created in Athens, is the foundation of the Western convention; theater is originally a Greek word. The Greeks' history started around 700 B.C. with celebrations respecting their numerous divine beings. There were three main types of drama and performances in the theatre of ancient Greece: comedy, satyr play and tragedy. Athenian tragedy is the most established surviving type of tragedy, it is a sort of move dramatization that shaped an essential part of the showy society of the city-state. Although couple of tragedies composed from this time really remain, the subjects and achievements of Greek tragedy still resound to contemporary groups of onlookers. The term tragedy (tragos and tribute) truly signifies "goat song," after the celebration members' goat-like moving around conciliatory goats for prizes. The most well-known Greek playwrights of tragedies are Euripedes, Sophocles and Aeschylus. No tragedies from the sixth century and just 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in amid the fifth century have survived. Most Athenian tragedies dramatise occasions from Greek mythology. Comedy was additionally a vital piece of old Greek theater. Nobody is entirely certain of the birthplaces of comic drama, however it is said that they detived from impersonation. Athenian comedy is traditionally partitioned into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New Comedy". All comedies of note amid this time are by Aristophanes. Old Comedy survives today to a great extent as the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is generally lost. Aristophanes, who contended in the significant Athenian celebrations, composed 40 plays, 11 of which survived- - including the most disputable bit of writing to originate from antiquated Greece, Lysistrata, a hilarious story around a solid lady who drives a female coalition to end war in Greece. New Comedy is known principally from the significant papyrus parts of plays by Menander. Aristotle characterized satire as a representation of absurd individuals that includes some sort of mistake or grotesqueness that does not bring about torment or destruction. Western theater created and extended significantly under the Romans. Roman theater got from religious celebrations. The primary Roman theatre performance happened in Roman Empire around 362-365 B.C. The primary essential works of Roman writing were the tragedies and comedies that Livius Andronicus composed from 240 BC. The Romans are famous for utilizing different societies and hones and enhancing them, but the similar thing can be said about their way of dealing with the theatre. People of Roman Empire acquired such systems as in Greece in their theatrical system, yet made them particularly Roman by enhancing and changing those techniques. Despite the fact that Rome had a local custom of performance, the Hellenization of Roman society in the third century BC had a significant and empowering impact on Roman theater and supported the improvement of Latin writing of the most astounding quality for the stage. Apart from Greece, comic performances were widely spread in Rome than tragic ones. Titus Maccius Plautus can be cosidered as an amazingly famous Roman comedy playwright. He is ascribed to write more than 130 plays including such plays as The Braggart Warrior, The Casket and Pot of Gold. Another famous playwright was Publius Terentius Afer who composed six plays, and all of those six plays have survived incorporating Mother-in-Law and Self-Tormentor. Though Terence wasn't as well known as Plautus yet his commentators consider his written work more profound and more created. The majority of the six comedies that Terence composed somewhere around 166 and 160 BC have survived; the many-sided quality of his plots, in which he regularly consolidated a few Greek firsts, was some of the time condemned, yet his twofold plots empowered a refined presentation of differentiating human conduct. The theater was unquestionably by all account not a unique type of entertaining people in Rome. Showy excitement in Rome incorporated the famous chariot hustling, horse dashing, battles between wild creatures, and battles between male citizens, or warriors. It likewise housed wrestling, battling, and like wild beasts such as lions. The Roman people likewise had somewhat called ocean fights in which the lakes or amphitheaters like the Colosseum were overwhelmed for the event. Christians were regularly the casualties of the Roman people's bloodthirst, and numerous were sentenced to fight until the very end in the amphiteater. The main changeless theater systems in Rome were believed to be committed to the god Venus. It is still uncertain where the Romans got the arrangement for their theater yet the outline was intricate. The theaters had a stage buildings which were passageways that allowed to access to the symphony territory or hall. The stage was found around five feet and had a window ornament. After the fall of the Roman Empire, little itinerant groups went around performing wherever there was a crowd of people. They comprised of storytellers, buffoons, performers and numerous different entertainers. Later, celebrations sprung up where performers would demonstrate their gifts. On the other hand, the effective Catholic Church made progress amid the Middle Ages to stamp out such performances and change over the performers. Notwithstanding its request that acting and voyaging performances were sinful, the Church was really instrumental in restoring theater in the Middle Ages. By the Early Middle Ages, churches in Europe started arranging performed forms of specific scriptural occasions on particular days of the year. These sensations were incorporated into request to vivify yearly festivals. Music frequently would be fused into the dramatizations. Symbolic objects and activities – vestments, sacred places, censers, and mime performed by clerics – reviewed the occasions which Christian custom celebraThe primary recorded formal dramatization or play is known as the Regularis Concordia by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The lion's share of exhibitions were held in cloisters toward the start of the age. Religious dramatization was performed only in places of worship until around 1200 when they were performed outside once in a while. Execution of religious plays outside of the church started at some point in the twelfth century through a customarily acknowledged procedure of blending shorter formal dramatizations into longer plays which were then deciphered into vernacular and performed by laymen. In the arranging of formal dramatization there were numerous traditions utilized as a part of the congregation. Little grand structures called houses were utilized to outline the surroundings of a play. Little plays had stand out manor, longer plays had two or more. Ensembles for ceremonial dramatization were church garments to which genuine or typical embellishments were included. A large portion of the lines of the dramatization were droned in Latin instead of talked. Numerous plays were performed outside amid the spring and summer months. Cycle plays likewise got to be well known. The cycle plays were made out of numerous short plays or scenes and could or couldn't be religious. Cycle plays could take a couple of hours or 25 or more days to perform. The cycle plays differed yet typically all managed religious figures, scriptural works of the congregation and sermons of the congregation. The plays had little feeling of order, and the greater part of their creators were unknown. As the Viking attacks stopped amidst the eleventh century, ritualistic show had spread from Russia to Scandinavia to Italy. Just in Muslim-involved Spain were formal dramatizations not displayed by any stretch of the imagination. The significance of the High Middle Ages in the advancement of theater was the financial and political changes that prompted the arrangement of societies and the development of towns. Around the end of the fourteenth century the church was controlling less and less of the generation of plays, yet it generally watched out for the substance of plays and their presentation. Some of the time towns would put on appears, yet frequently people would orchestrate a generation. The congregation constantly claimed all authority to support or object a script before it turned into a generation. Toward the end of the Late Middle Ages, proficient performers started to show up in England and Europe. Richard III and Henry VII both kept up little organizations of expert on-screen characters. The end of medieval drama occurred because of various elements, including the debilitating force of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation and the banning of religious plays in numerous nations. Elizabeth I prohibit every single religious play in 1558 and the considerable cycle plays had been hushed by the 1580s. Essentially, religious plays were banned in the Netherlands in 1539, the Papal States in 1547 and in Paris in 1548. Around 1485, Italian rulers started to fund preparations of Roman plays and impersonations of them. This incited enthusiasm for changing Roman plays into Italian and also the written work of new plays. Commedia dell'arte troupes performed exuberant improvisational playlets crosswise over Europe for quite a long time. It began in Italy in the 1560s. Commedia dell'arte was an on-screen character focused theater, requiring little view and not very many props. The neoclassical perfect was framed in Italy and spread all through Europe. This perfect was described by an enthusiasm for abstract hypothesis and a longing to peruse and comprehend hypothetical works, for example, Horace's Art of Poetry and Aristotle's Poetics. The neoclassical perfect requested versimilitude which managed the solid appearance of truth. In light of versimilitude, dream and heavenly components were maintained a strategic distance from in neoclassical plays. The theme and speeches were likewise demoralized. The truth was pushed in dramatization alongside plays that show moral lessons. Plays did not start from composed show but rather from situations called lazzi, which were free structures that gave the circumstances, difficulties, and result of the activity, around which the performers would improvise. In Italy using so as to arrange was made well known point of view construction modeling and painting. These techniques gave gathering of people individuals the figment of separation and profundity. Landscape and stages were raked or calculated to expand the figment and make a viewpoint setting. The Italians were likewise keen on the structural planning of the theaters themselves. The teatro olympico was assembled somewhere around 1580 and 1584 and was utilized for some preparations. The teatro farnese at Parma was viewed as the model of the present day stage, and it gloated a vast proscenium curve. The Italians utilized music and move as a part of the vast majority of their services, celebrations, and showy presentations. Celebrations were critical and restored a great part of the lost exhibition of Roman times. A troupe regularly comprised of 13 to 14 individuals. Most taking so as to perform artists were paid an offer of the play's benefits generally proportionate to the extent of their part. The style of theater was in its top from 1575 to 1650, yet even after that time new situations were composed and performed. Commedia dell'arte was comic drama of expert players. This was independent from novice show due to the abnormal state of exhibitions. Each part of the show was top notch from the scripts to the ensembles. Two parts of Commedia dell'arte were spontaneous creation and stock characters. A percentage of ad lib because so well done was on the grounds that performing artists would play the same characters their entire lives. The solid notorieties of the organizations acquired enormous crowds. During its Golden Age, Spain saw an amazing increment in the creation of live theater and in addition the in significance of theater inside of Spanish society. Amid the sixteenth and seventeenth hundreds of years the Spanish theater prospered - with religion as its essential source. Amid the sixteenth century, Spain held a religious celebration three times every year called the Corpus Christie celebration which underlined the force of the Church. At the celebration, they performed plays called automobiles sacramentales.The cars sacramentales had a portion of the parts of ethical quality plays and also a few parts of cycle plays, and they included human and additionally extraordinary characters. The plays that were introduced, once in a while old plays and some of the time new, were performed by a solitary organization and later by two organizations. The plays were exhibited on carros, or wagons, which held everything required for execution. By 1500 secular dramas had started to rise. A standout amongst the most vital early works was The Comedy of Calisto and Melibea which initially comprised of sixteen acts, and later was expanded to twenty-one acts. Albeit composed by numerous men, the work is ascribed to Fernando de Rojas. Significant artists of the period included Lope de Vega and Calderon de la Barca. Proficient theater in Spain started around 1550 drove by Lope de Rueda, who was a performer and creator. He was initially seen in religious plays, yet later he composed plays for mainstream gatherings of people. A couple of his works incorporate The Frauds, Medore, Aumelina, and Eufemia. Rueda ordinarily played nitwits or dolts, yet his characters were the most completely created of the time. He is viewed as the father of the Spanish proficient theater furthermore was the best entertainer of his day. The wellsprings of impact for the developing national theater of Spain were as various as the theater that country wound up delivering. Narrating customs starting in Italian Commedia dell'arte and the remarkably Spanish articulation of Western Europe's voyaging minstrel entertainments contributed a populist impact on the accounts and the music, individually, of right on time Spanish theater. In Spain, Comedia was the word used to portray any full-length play, whether it was not kidding or comic. Most Comedias were separated into three acts and started with a loa, or preamble. The most understood Spanish dramatist is Lope Felix de Voga Carpio. Vega is accepted to have composed 800 comedies, 450 of which survived. His plays have unmistakably characterized activities which keep the group of onlookers intrigued, and the greater part of his plays manage the subject of affection and honor. Neo-Aristotelian criticism and ceremonial shows, then again, contributed abstract and moralistic points of view. Public theaters in Spain were known as corrales. The main corrales was inherent Madrid and was known as the Corral de la Cruz. A couple of open theaters were likewise inherent these urban areas. Exhibitions started at 2:00 p.m. in the fall and 4:00 p.m. in spring and were required to end no less than one hour before sunset. A lot of ahead of schedule French dramatization had little effect on the universe of theater. Screenwriters over and over again took into account the gentry and never deliver any plays of enduring hobby. Conditions did change around 1597, nonetheless, when more talented organizations and writers started to show up in Paris. France's first expert producer was Alexandre Hardy who showed up around 1597. A standout amongst the most popular French theaters was the Hotel de Bourgone which was the main perpetual theater in Paris somewhere around 1595 and 1629. There were no lasting seats with the exception of the seats running at the edge dividers. Around the dividers of the assembly room were exhibitions which were separated into boxes for the rich and the nobility. The assembly room held 1600 theater-goers. The French are additionally noted for their advancement of routines for moving view. A few illustrations of their work were the Chariot and Pole framework, the Wings and Shudders framework, and the mainstream Mansion Platea framework. These advancements were in the end utilized as a part of numerous different nations in Europe and secured France's place in theater history. The productive and questionable dramatist Heinrich Ibsen composed 25 plays amid the late nineteenth century, two of which are the oft-delivered A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler. Ibsen is known as the father of cutting edge authenticity. His most noteworthy ability was giving the group of onlookers foundation on individuals and circumstances, without making the composition exhausting or self-evident. His plays were extremely typical, and some of his topics were thought shocking for their time. While much twentieth century theater proceeded and developed the ventures of authenticity and Naturalism, there was likewise a lot of test theater that rejected those traditions. These analyses frame part of the innovator and postmodernist developments and included types of political theater and additionally all the more tastefully orientated work. Conflict in the world and in the realm of theater had set in by 1968. Opposition happened in the theater in view of the push for change and development in what had been an exceptionally agreeable showy air. Despite the clashing perspectives, theater was solid and shockingly financially stable. A percentage of the changes and advancements that happened amid the following years made and refine the emotional craftsmanship we see today. Financial changes have influenced theaters in the period after 1968. Indicates started paring down their throws and having less landscape. With the bringing down of generation costs, ticket costs descended also. Nonetheless, the making of shows with incredible scenes and innovative sets or lighting like Les Miserables and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera could legitimize a higher ticket cost. Interestingly, enterprises, called Angels, would set up cash to back appears. This permitted makers and architects to have the flexibility to make new and inventive theater preparations. In the United States, the scandalous year 1968 brought the acquaintance of nakedness and vulgarity to the stage. College theaters likewise picked up consideration for creating solid and dubious theater. After the immense ubiquity of the British Edwardian musical comedies, the American musical theater came to command the musical stage, starting with the Princess Theater musicals.

Works cited

"Origins of Theatre." Origins of Theatre. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. <http://www.cwu.edu/~robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_1.html>.

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Theatre Essay Example

• December 22, 2022

The Importance of Theatre

Theatre Essay Introduction

Theatre is one of the oldest traditional activities in the world, and it is as old as human civilization. It is a form of expressing emotions on stage. Also, it is the best way to understand empathy better. It has been considered as the best way to teach themes like morality and religion. Over the centuries, it had spread to various different counties and cultures. Some of them brought their interpretation into it, and others embraced the ancient characteristics. Today, it became a wealthy marketplace despite cinema's popularity because it is an indispensable tradition for us. In this sense, cinema is a developed version of the theatre, and they both help us empathize with other people emotions and thoughts on common themes or problems which we have been facing for centuries. Therefore, modern societies are still showing so much attention to it. After all, this paper focuses on the significance of theatre and its evolution in different cultures over the centuries. Many cultures embraced and valued theatre in the past because it carried a critical role in society in terms of moral education, historical and religious narratives.

Body Paragraphs

Ancient Greece was the first culture that showed so much value to the theatre. For example, they valued arts, architecture, literature, and philosophy along with theatre. They were one of the most developed cultures of their times. Originally, the theatre was a type of structure that was considered a place for religious rituals and social gatherings. One can highlight that ancient Greece played a critical role in the development of theatre. Thus, they invented tragedy when the poet and the first actor Thespis came to Athens in 534 BCE with his troupe on wagons, and performances were given in the Agora (Bay para. 4). Also, they used chorus in the plays, and it became the most important characteristic of Hellenistic era tragedies. Tragedies were essential to them because they honoured their Gods, Goddesses and mortal heroes like kings and warriors. Tragedies included death, war, religion and moral lectures, and historical themes. Therefore, Ancient Greece was the first society which developed theatre and created a tradition in history.

In its later development, they built theatres in several cities, which were inspired by the Theatre of Dionysus. Also, in the beginning times, admission was free, then they have put an entrance price for theatre, and poor citizens were given entrance money (Bay para. 6). Thus, their community sought the poor citizens, and they provided the money because theatres were essential places to teach religious lectures and historical narratives to their citizens. In other words, they sought the development of poor citizens with it.

Ancient Greece was the heart of civilization and arts. Many cultures which came after them copied their arts and architecture. In this sense, the Roman empire followed Greek theatre, and they only changed few aspects of it. For instance, in their culture, theatre mostly was a center of entertainment, and it did not express any deep religious convictions (Bay para. 12). Also, they built much bigger theatres in every city.

The ancient Roman empire was not the only society that copied Greeks. In later centuries, theatres in Europe were influenced by Greeks in terms of tragedy plays and stage design. For instance, in Ancient Greece, the first theatre plays were performed in the streets of Agora, which were the marketplace, and in the middle ages, Pageant Plays were performed on special movable stages or carts in European countries (“History of Theatre” n.p). Until the 17th century, European theatres mostly was in control of the church, and they used theatre's influence to teach religious narratives and moral lessons and during the II. Charles reign, theatres became more independent so that they could focus on different topics. Also, in that era, Shakespeare was one of the most important playwriters who led theatre to innovation. For example, he invented tragicomedy plays that combined tragedy, and comedy. His plays included various themes such as history, folklore, morality conflict, passion, love, and death.

Theatre Essay Conclusion

Consequently, theatre is the oldest entertainment tradition in the world, and it is old as civilization. Over the centuries, ruler classes used it for teaching religious and historical narratives and morality lessons while entertaining their society. In the modern world, theatre is still valued by the masses because there is a magical environment in live performances. The reason for theatre popularity is that many cultures embraced and valued theatre in the past because it carried a critical role in society in terms of moral education, historical and religious narratives. Eventually, it became a significant tradition for us.

Works Cited

Bay, Howard. “Theatre.” Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/theater-building

Gianni, Dottore. Theatre in Asia I: Background, India and China , 1 Jan. 1970

“History of Theatre | Ancient Greece to Modern Day.” YouTube , YouTube, 24 Sept. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NmD2TGKnY8 t=800s.

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Jump back to 1914 on Congress Avenue thanks to a rescued essay

Howdy Texas history buffs,

Every once in a wonderful while, a Think Texas reader offers me a cache of personal papers that illuminates the state's history in a way that cannot be duplicated.

Jack Robertson did just that when he introduced me to the writings of his father, Rupert Robertson (1895-1968). After going through a box of memorabilia that belonged to Rupert, Jack made sure that key papers were archived in the right place, in this case the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas.

Then Jack made some of Rupert's youthful essays available to the public through a digital project run by the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. One gem, which I share in today's Think Texas column, describes a night on Congress Avenue in Austin during the period before World War I when Rupert was a UT student.

The short essay is packed with historical details that are now preserved permanently. Check it out .

Some more columns about preserving family history:

• 'They lived through some pretty interesting decades': Ask your elders the right questions
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• When looking for an African-American ancestor, start at the Carver Genealogy Center
• Trip to LBJ Presidential Library unearths unexpected family history

Revisit Congress Avenue in 1914, where revelers in cars crowd out horse drawn buggies

You don't have much time before Father's Day, which falls on June 16 this year, to match the magnificent gift given by a Texas man, originally from Marlin, who came close to immortalizing his father.

Jack Robertson, 81, uncovered a treasure trove of old Texas documents, essays, letters, photos and other ephemera in a box of memorabilia that had belonged to his father, Rupert Robertson (1895-1968).

A University of Texas professor emeritus of accounting, Jack recognized the historical value of Rupert's descriptive essays written for his English classes at UT from 1914 to 1916, as well as the evidence from his military service during World War I, when Rupert was a balloonist.

Since the elder Robertson starred on the Marlin high school track team and earned his track letter at UT in Austin, his son Jack wanted to preserve his father's writing at the university's Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, a marvelously eccentric museum and archive tucked into the north end of Royal Memorial Stadium.

Terence "Terry" Todd, the late director of the Stark Center, and his wide, Jan Todd, current director, welcomed Rupert's personal papers, many from more than 100 years ago.

"Terry asked me to include a biography of my father, so independent researchers could add the personhood of the author to the context of the stories," Jack says. "Ten months and 62 pages later, I delivered the biography."

You read that right, the dutiful son produced a biography of his father that weighs in at 62 single-spaced pages, which, while short of being a book, is much more than a bio sketch.

I can't pretend to have read every word of this opus, but combined with Rupert's own writing, the world of Texas in the early 20th century became incrementally clearer to me through this gift from Jack Robertson.

In 1914, Rupert Robertson wrote the following essay about a night on Congress Avenue, one of many he executed for English classes at UT. Note the keen details as Rupert's attention wanders — through various sentence structures — from one sensation to another. This was a time when most of the city's commercial traffic and entertainment venues were concentrated on Congress, but before the Paramount Theatre opened as the Majestic Theatre in 1915.

This particular personal anecdote — and others like it from all over the state — is available digitally to the public at thestoryoftexas.com through the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum as part of the "Help Us Tell the Story of Texas" project.

"The rain is coming down slowly, and it wets the street so that it glistens under the big arc lights like a large mirror.

"The red and yellow drays are bespattered with mud. The streetcars, automobiles and other vehicles are rumbling down the street with such a terrible drum that I would think I was by myself if I could not see the throng of people moving up and down the street.

"Some are gazing at the beautifully lighted show windows which contain various shades of the latest styles of clothing; some are on the inside of the store purchasing articles, and some are looking at the red, white and green moving picture signs, and debate with themselves whether to go in or stay outside and parade the street with the "mob."

"The crowd is composed mostly of university students, but they are not in a hurry tonight. This is unusual, because as a general rule, these fellows are restless, and always go with push and vim wherever they are. But the college spirit is here, for every now and then I hear the jolly laugh of some young man at the joke or remark of one of his companions.

"Boys and girls in couples, clad in their grey and brown rainproof garments, are present in great numbers. There is an air of happiness and success among them as they go down one side of the street and come up the other; the thought of the green-back English book and the brown cloth-covered mathematic text is left behind and forgotten.

"The crowd is divided into groups which represent different fraternities, clubs and various other organizations. Each individual bunch has a characteristic of its own. The Rusticusses wearing big hats, the Phi Gamma Deltas grey mackinaws with a blue stripe, the Sigma Nu's ties, and the other organizations have some similar distinction.

"The rest of the crowd is compiled of town girls and boys; brown (Mexican American); Negro men and women; and a great part of the Jewish population. Here and there, and at every corner, I see a policeman watching the crowd as a cowboy on horseback watches a herd of cattle.

"The street is as crowded with vehicles as the sidewalks are with people. Along the curbing are many automobiles with their radiators pointing toward the crowd and the rear ends toward the middle of the street. At intervals are found horses and buggies, but not many because automobiles are rapidly taking their place.

"Then there are the candy vendors in their dingy clothing, selling brown peanut and pecan candies. The popcorn man has his wagon driven close to the curbing, and is selling chewing gum, peanuts and pink popcorn. The whole scene has an atmosphere of relaxation and freedom in spite of the gloominess of the weather."

READ MORE OF THIS ESSAY BY RUPERT ROBERTSON

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Fun Texas Fact

UT observatory dedicated in Davis Mountains

On May 5, 1939, the telescope of the University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory was dedicated. The observatory, located on Mount Locke near Fort Davis, owes its foundation to the unexpected legacy of William Johnson McDonald, bachelor banker of Paris, Texas, who died in 1926 and left the university $850,000 for the establishment of an astronomical observatory.

The university, having no astronomy faculty, signed a 30-year collaborative agreement with the University of Chicago in 1932, whereby Texas financed the telescope and Chicago provided the astronomers.

World War II severely restricted astronomical research in many parts of the world, but McDonald gained the services of several refugee European astronomers. At the end of the war McDonald astronomers received many awards from American and European astronomical societies.

Construction of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope on Mount Fowlkes, adjacent to Mount Locke, began in 1994, and it became operational in 1999.

READ MORE TEXAS FACTS AT TEXAS DAY BY DAY

Sign Up for the Newsletter

You can sign up for the free weekly Think, Texas newsletter at these USA Today Network sites:

• Abilene: reporternews.com/newsletters
• Amarillo: amarillo.com/newsletters
• Austin: statesman.com/newsletters
• Corpus Christi : caller.com/newsletters
• El Paso : elpasotimes.com/newsletters
• Lubbock : lubbockonline.com/newsletters
• San Angelo : gosanangelo.com/newsletters
• Wichita Falls: timesrecordnews.com/newsletters

See past Think, Texas columns at statesman.com/news/austin-history .

Happy Trails,

Michael Barnes, Columnist

Think, Texas and Austin American-Statesman, USA Today Network

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Jump back to 1914 on Congress Avenue thanks to a rescued essay

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Sustaining the Flame at the Latinx Theatre Commons Tenth Anniversary Convening

My experience of the third day of the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) Tenth Anniversary Convening began just after midnight, when I walked into the Marriott Courtyard’s private lounge and found old friends and new immersed in boisterous conversation and celebration. I was home. I had watched Thursday’s livestream of the Opening Ceremonies, caught the faces of friends I hadn’t seen in years, and my heart was bursting at the thought of seeing them in person. Driving to Boston held a profound sense of anticipation for the reunion, and it did not disappoint. Looking back, I see how this one day engaged all four tenets of the LTC: scholarship, advocacy, art-making, and, of course, convening.

Saturday morning began early with a meeting for the Wallace Field Studies Project, a conversation among scholar-practitioners working on the creation of a robust and accessible archive of Latine theatre and performance. We were in the room where the LTC had held its first convening in 2013, and the vast room I had held in my memory now struck me as cozy. Had the room shrunk? No matter. The LTC had inspired me to enter the academy back in 2015, and to discuss the current state of the archive with this circle of scholar-champions— Carla Della Gatta , Jorge Huerta, Anne García-Romero , Brian Eugenio Herrera , Patricia Herrera , Noe Montez , and Patricia Ybarra —was deeply meaningful. Libraries around the country hold the papers of renowned Latine theatremakers and companies, but the archive is far greater than what is renowned. Moreover, some of those materials are mis-archived and unlocatable, or undigitized and unsearchable, creating an erasure, in effect, of our performance history. Furthermore, there are records held in personal storage spaces and theatre offices that are at risk of deterioration for the lack of the appropriate conditions needed to maintain documents and other ephemera in good condition. In short, there is a crisis of Latine theatre and performance documentation that only fuels misunderstanding of our work. Without context, critique is flawed. Without access to writings and recordings of earlier work, creatives are denied the inspiration and legacy of cultural art forms, practices, and aesthetics. What will it take to build an accessible portal to our vast art history and legacy? All of this and more was our Saturday morning’s discussion.

Abigail Vega speaks to conveners at the Latinx Theatre Commons Tenth Anniversary Convening. Photo by Anna Olivella.

While I was attending this meeting, there was a concurrent session on “Balancing Life and Art” facilitated by Tiffany Vega-Gibson and Adriana Gaviria , longtime LTC “commoners” (folks who share the responsibility for the commons) and leaders of the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) . Vega-Gibson is a PAAL national board member, and Gaviria serves on the PAAL executive team. Cristina Fernandez , PAAL chief rep for Los Angeles, also joined the roundtable where conveners shared their experiences as artists with caregiving responsibilities, such as childcare, elder care, and care for family members with special needs and disabilities. Gaviria noted, “Our one-hour scheduled session extended to two hours, demonstrating the desire we all had for more of these conversations and spaces.” She continued:

We all have so many varied experiences, and it was deeply special hearing and learning from each other. As champion for the 2019 LTC Miami Convening , we held our first national conversation for caregivers, allyship, and community in the arts specifically geared toward Latiné artists, and five years later, although I have seen a shift for more supportive workplaces, I still see the importance and value in checking in with each other on a human level, learning what challenges we are facing, and continuing to explore with each other more supportive solutions in balancing life and art.

The first ten years were about growth, and the next ten would be about self-determination.

Next came the meeting for LTC steering and advisory committee members. With so many attending this weekend, a conversation about the LTC’s future was an opportunity not to be missed. Important concerns were on the table, including the future of the movement itself. The day before, the LTC’s next three-year round of programming had been announced, an ambitious slate of diverse projects reflecting the LTC’s passion and scope for projects that would continue to transform the narrative of the American theatre and elevate the visibility of Latine theatre making and theatremakers. Saturday’s steering and advisory committee meeting was necessary to take the pulse of the LTC and support its healthiest future. As Lisa Portes put it, the first ten years were about growth, and the next ten would be about self-determination.

During the first half of this meeting, we sat around six tables that held the same materials: a page with the LTC’s mission, vision, and values statements; copies of the LTC’s budgets over the past few years; the notes from the LTC small group meeting held in April 2018; the consultant agreement for the LTC producer, and the relationship language between HowlRound Theatre Commons and the LTC. This set of documents allowed us to generate questions about all the above, beginning with, is the LTC eternal? Do our budgets match our ethos? Are we supporting our producer (who supports all our programming) equitably and humanely? Do we feel the relationship with HowlRound is sound and mutually beneficial? We were charged with generating investigatory questions; what more do we need to know to make informed decisions?

A quick break for lunch provided another opportunity for hugs and hellos to dear friends, but soon we were guided on to the next task. Knowing that it would be impossible to have a deep dive into all five potential topics, we were invited to vote for those we most wished to discuss. Strips of stickers were distributed to everyone, and we voted by posting them among the sheets that named the five talking points. Few stickers were placed on “the future of the LTC,” perhaps indicating that most of us were not quite ready to say goodbye to this remarkable instrument of solidarity and change. “The Producer’s Agreement” and “Relationship with HowlRound” were selected for our topics of discussion. Soon, the conference tables were struck, and the room was transformed into one dominated by a large circle of chairs. From this point on, we would all be in conversation together.

I was grateful for the wisdom of the organizers who placed our most pressing questions before us and invited us to determine which we felt were right to discuss at this moment.

Tara Houston , one of last year’s Producer’s Support Group (a small group of volunteers who covered the producer’s work while the LTC producer was on leave), continued to facilitate this conversation. She invited us to center ourselves with breath and then, keeping our feet flat on the floor, to imagine roots stemming from the soles of our feet into the ground, and further, to imagine our roots intertwining with those of everyone gathered in the room. With this image we became more than a hive mind: we were grounded together. Tara reminded us of something said by José Luis Valenzuela on an earlier day, about the flame we carry within us. She invited us to imagine that light illuminating the ones who came before us, the ones who worked beside us but who might not be in the room that day, and the ones yet to come. We were holding the past, present, and future simultaneously in our hearts and minds. Thus, we began the conversation on the relationship between HowlRound and the LTC.

HowlRound and the LTC were birthed at almost the same time, in 2012. Since then, HowlRound has provided infrastructural support for the LTC’s operations, and it serves informally as a fiscal sponsor so that the LTC can apply for grants. HowlRound hosted Café Onda , the LTC’s blog, before it became unwieldy; after that, the essays were folded into HowlRound, supported by HowlRound’s editorial team. Now funders were asking if the LTC should be hosted by a different organization, such as an independent Latine cultural organization that more reflected the LTC’s cultural identity. We imagined the burden that such a realignment might place on a typically under-resourced arts organization. We also imagined becoming our own nonprofit 501(c)3 and the organizational responsibilities that would require us to function and carry out our plans. Clearly this conversation would need to be picked up in the future. There were too many variables to consider and too many questions to answer. Tara Houston wisely reminded us that “decisions are an illusion.”

We turned our attention to discuss the producer’s contract, which since the beginning has been as a consultant, not an employee. While this status allowed the producer to remain free of allegiance to a “boss” such as HowlRound or Emerson College (over the LTC), it also means that the producer has had to source their own benefits, such as health insurance, and pay self-employment tax, which, as any independent contractor knows, can take a big bite out of one’s earnings. Advocacy was raised for the health and well-being of the LTC producer. It was clear from a review of the job description and glance at the upcoming schedule that they were asked for more than was possible. That is, to be in multiple places at once, producing multiple programs within a too short period of time. Even with an increase in the fee and added benefits, the demands were simply unhealthy. We called upon the LTC steering committee to reactivate the Governance Committee, and to consider the schedule of the proposed LTC programming. Perhaps some can be moved to later dates. Again, this conversation is one that will need to be continued, and soon.

R. Réal Vargas Alanis and Jean Carlo Yunen A. in discussion at the Latinx Theatre Commons Tenth Anniversary Convening. Photo by Anna Olivella.

The meeting ended with a feeling of urgency, advocacy, and support for the movement which, Miranda Gonzalez reminded us, only moves at the rate of our own healing. I was grateful for the wisdom of the organizers who placed our most pressing questions before us and invited us to determine which we felt were right to discuss at this moment. The conversation was respectful, curious, caring, and open-hearted, like a family meeting. Folks asked, “How can I help?”

On to the artmaking! Four teams of Boston-based Latine artists worked with four groups of conveners in simultaneous workshops to create vibrant presentations. Daniel Irizarry , currently devising and directing Plum Box—Strange—Ideal & More Than… at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , shared his physical approach to theatremaking inspired by dada, clowning, and the grotesque. The ensemble performed in unison and individually, creating order and disorder among them, and including wild gestural tableaux while declaring their visions for the future of Latine theatre. “I see available spaces to create and inspire for all artists that need it and want it,” shouted Daniel Jáquez . “¡Veo un mundo donde todos son gay y tienen aire acondicionado !” said Krystal Ortiz. Anne García-Romero envisioned “Expansive Latine productions in every city giving opportunities across lines of age, class, race, culture, and ethnicity!” Next, Eddie Maisonet stepped up and offered a reminder to consider accessibility for our artists and audiences as we ask them to engage in our creative work. We risk alienation and exclusion when only slight adjustments could make the experiences we create enjoyable for all. Eddie shared information about Think Outside the Vox , a resource for culturally competent audio description, toward the prioritization of health and peace in our theatre and performance making.

Boston’s Hyde Square Task Force crafted the final creative presentations with two more groups that both explored the folkloric tradition of plena, a musical genre of Puerto Rico that serves as a way to spread messages among the people. Nicolas Perez and Josie Ross and their ensemble created lyrics to a captivating rhythm performed with drums and shakers interwoven with the words aquí na’ma te quiero (here, I only love you). In a very short time, everyone in the audience was singing along, swept up by the joy of the music and the singers. Then Juan De Los Santos and Genesis Rodriguez and their ensemble delved into plena and dance. Keeping in mind the future of Latine theatre, De Los Santos reminded us that we need to know who we are to know what we might do in the future. The dreams of our parents are often realized in us, as they sacrifice theirs for the sake of ours. Making one’s dreams come true not only honors our lives but our parents’ as well.

Participants of the LTC Tenth Anniversary Convening showcase what they learned during local artist workshops. Photo by Anna Olivella.

The final sharing began, as people clad in long, full white cotton skirts danced on and into a circle. One by one, each dancer made their way to the center of the circle to express their own joy and intention. When each had their turn, the circle opened into a line, and audience members were invited to join and dance through the room. This session could not have ended any more joyously, with tradition, inspiration, collaboration, and camaraderie resonating through the room.

The time came to say farewell. Miranda Gonzalez, Sylvia Cervantes Blush , and I were invited to say a few words about dear leaders of our field who had passed on since our first convening in Boston. I remembered how, at that convening, we had built a Día de los Muertos altar that had held images and memorabilia of our heroes living and dead; some of those heroes were now gone. We honored the inimitable Miriam Colón, María Irene Fornés, Margarita Galbán, Hugo Medrano, Diane Rodriguez, and Myrna Salazar. This session was streamed and recorded by HowlRound so I won’t say too much here, except that I was moved by the sharing that followed as conveners voiced the names of those they wished to remember and honor in the circle, and the room responded in unison, “ ¡Presente!”

As with all LTC convenings, it was hard to leave this party. The only comfort was the reassurance that another was on the way.

Our closing ceremonies provided us the opportunity to express our gratitude and visions for the future. Postcards and note cards were distributed to everyone in the room. Lisa Portes invited us to write our mailing address on the postcard, and a commitment statement, a vision we would strive to manifest. This is a tradition of LTC convenings, to articulate our commitments and activate the power generated by community support. On the notecards, headed by the phrase Muchas Gracias , we were invited to write a note of gratitude to someone at the convening and then to bring the cards with us to the closing fiesta . Finally, we were called to consider mentorship, as mentors and mentees all, to commit to learning from each other. We moved the chairs away and with our commitment postcards in hand, headed to the west end of the room for a group photo and the final ritual. Juliana Frey-Méndez , Fran Astorga , Juan Carlo Yunén Aróstegui, JZ Marrero, Becka Morton , and Laura Moreno created a “threshold” where they stood in the middle of the room. They asked us to breathe together and consider our individual commitments as projects held and supported by community embrace and generosity. We walked across the threshold, handed over our cards to them, and then created one circle around the bag in which the cards were placed. Juliana invited us to rub our hands together, acknowledging the power generated by that friction, and then to extend them toward our commitments. “These are the hands that sustain the flame.” Our shared focus empowered our visions.

Clave and Blues performing at the Closing Fiesta of the Latinx Theatre Commons Tenth Anniversary Convening. Photo by Anna Olivella. 

On to the Closing Fiesta at Croma, a converted church space, where we were greeted with mouthwatering pollo guisado, maduros, arroz, and flan created by Dominican restaurant Merengue. Soon, the excellent Clave and Blues took the stage, and we were on the dance floor the rest of the night. Gratitude cards were shared, mentorships confirmed (and re-confirmed), and so many photos snapped. As with all LTC convenings, it was hard to leave this party. The only comfort was the reassurance that another was on the way. Latine theatremakers passionate about our work and our familia will certainly gather again.

Many thanks to all the people who made this Tenth Anniversary Convening possible: LTC producer Jacqueline Flores , the vision and planning committees, the HowlRound team, and Emerson College. As Jacqueline said at the end, she witnessed people “doing incredible, innovative, and vulnerable things” throughout the convening, and we were poised to take that spirit, the flame, forward and beyond.

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The LTC Tenth Anniversary Convening was a celebration of the last ten years, a reflection on the LTC's learnings and successes thus far, and an opportunity to discuss the future of the LTC and have field-wide discussions. This series features documentation and reflections from attendees. 

The article is just the start of the conversation—we want to know what you think about this subject, too! HowlRound is a space for knowledge-sharing, and we welcome spirited, thoughtful, and on-topic dialogue. Find our full comments policy here

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Revisit Congress Avenue in 1914, where revelers in cars crowd out horse drawn buggies

You don't have much time before Father's Day, which falls on June 16 this year, to match the magnificent gift given by a Texas man, originally from Marlin, who came close to immortalizing his father.

Jack Robertson, 81, uncovered a treasure trove of old Texas documents, essays, letters, photos and other ephemera in a box of memorabilia that had belonged to his father, Rupert Robertson (1895-1968).

A University of Texas professor emeritus of accounting, Jack recognized the historical value of Rupert's descriptive essays written for his English classes at UT from 1914 to 1916, as well as the evidence from his military service during World War I, when Rupert was a balloonist.

Since the elder Robertson starred on the Marlin high school track team and earned his track letter at UT in Austin, his son Jack wanted to preserve his father's writing at the university's Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports, a marvelously eccentric museum and archive tucked into the north end of Royal Memorial Stadium.

Terence "Terry" Todd, the late director of the Stark Center, and his wide, Jan Todd, current director, welcomed Rupert's personal papers, many from more than 100 years ago.

"Terry asked me to include a biography of my father, so independent researchers could add the personhood of the author to the context of the stories," Jack says. "Ten months and 62 pages later, I delivered the biography."

You read that right, the dutiful son produced a biography of his father that weighs in at 62 single-spaced pages, which, while short of being a book, is much more than a bio sketch.

I can't pretend to have read every word of this opus, but combined with Rupert's own writing, the world of Texas in the early 20th century became incrementally clearer to me through this gift from Jack Robertson.

A choice essay on Austin from Rupert Robertson

In 1914, Rupert Robertson wrote the following essay about a night on Congress Avenue, one of many he executed for English classes at UT. Note the keen details as Rupert's attention wanders — through various sentence structures — from one sensation to another. This was a time when most of the city's commercial traffic and entertainment venues were concentrated on Congress, but before the Paramount Theatre opened as the Majestic Theatre in 1915.

This particular personal anecdote — and others like it from all over the state — is available digitally to the public at thestoryoftexas.com through the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum as part of the "Help Us Tell the Story of Texas" project.

"The rain is coming down slowly, and it wets the street so that it glistens under the big arc lights like a large mirror.

"The red and yellow drays are bespattered with mud. The streetcars, automobiles and other vehicles are rumbling down the street with such a terrible drum that I would think I was by myself if I could not see the throng of people moving up and down the street.

"Some are gazing at the beautifully lighted show windows which contain various shades of the latest styles of clothing; some are on the inside of the store purchasing articles, and some are looking at the red, white and green moving picture signs, and debate with themselves whether to go in or stay outside and parade the street with the "mob."

"The crowd is composed mostly of university students, but they are not in a hurry tonight. This is unusual, because as a general rule, these fellows are restless, and always go with push and vim wherever they are. But the college spirit is here, for every now and then I hear the jolly laugh of some young man at the joke or remark of one of his companions.

"Boys and girls in couples, clad in their grey and brown rainproof garments, are present in great numbers. There is an air of happiness and success among them as they go down one side of the street and come up the other; the thought of the green-back English book and the brown cloth-covered mathematic text is left behind and forgotten.

"The crowd is divided into groups which represent different fraternities, clubs and various other organizations. Each individual bunch has a characteristic of its own. The Rusticusses wearing big hats, the Phi Gamma Deltas grey mackinaws with a blue stripe, the Sigma Nu's ties, and the other organizations have some similar distinction.

"The rest of the crowd is compiled of town girls and boys; brown (Mexican American); Negro men and women; and a great part of the Jewish population. Here and there, and at every corner, I see a policeman watching the crowd as a cowboy on horseback watches a herd of cattle.

"The street is as crowded with vehicles as the sidewalks are with people. Along the curbing are many automobiles with their radiators pointing toward the crowd and the rear ends toward the middle of the street. At intervals are found horses and buggies, but not many because automobiles are rapidly taking their place.

"Then there are the candy vendors in their dingy clothing, selling brown peanut and pecan candies. The popcorn man has his wagon driven close to the curbing, and is selling chewing gum, peanuts and pink popcorn. The whole scene has an atmosphere of relaxation and freedom in spite of the gloominess of the weather."

Rupert Robertson the athlete

"After starting the biography," Jack Robertson writes, "I needed to continue to the end."

Rupert Cook Robertson was born March 31, 1895 in the rural town of Kosse, Texas (pop. 500) in southern Limestone County. His father, Charles Onward "C.O." Robertson was born in Alabama in 1867; his mother Martha Adeline "Mattie" Price Robertson, was born in Blue Ridge in Falls County in 1872.

Rupert was known as a "city boy" in Kosse, where his family owned a general store, but he spent much time on his grandfather's Price's farm in Falls County, where "all activity revolved around the fields and seasons."

Even in the early 20th century, rural Texas remained closer to the rhythms of the 19th century. "His transport was shoe-leather and horse-and-buggy," his son writes. "His water came from a well. His sanitation was the outhouse. His entertainment was outdoors with family and friends."

Socially, this was the "segregated South," with scant interaction between the races, other than the employer-worker relationships, Jack reminds readers.

Rupert was not the only Kosse native to make it big in sports. David E. "Kosse" Johnson Jr. starred as a halfback on the Rice Institute team during the 1950s and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers.

Another nearby exposure to big-time sports: Pro baseball teams — such as White Sox, Cardinals, Reds, Athletics and Giants — held spring training camps in nearby Marlin, which attracted flocks of tourists because its mineral water that promised reputed healing properties.

Rupert attended Marlin High School from 1912 to 1914. He lived in a boarding house operated by his Aunt Clara Belle Price. Even today, one can walk by blocks and blocks of sizable Victorian and farmhouse-style homes in Marlin.

Since his father disapproved of football, Rupert ran track. State high school track meets were held at UT's Clark Field beginning in 1905. The big four regional teams were Belton, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. According to University of Texas Interscholastic League records, Marlin competed strongly from 1910 to 1915, and the school earned the top spot in 1914. As usual, Rupert won individual and team medals. (Jack's documents on these events are startlingly detailed.)

When Rupert entered UT in 1914, Austin was home to about 30,000 people, and 2,300 of those were members of the university's student body. His freshman class, for which he served as secretary-treasurer, counted 674 members.

Rupert said he wanted to study business in order to take over the family general store in Kosse. Jack always imagined that his father was recruited for his track skills, but he also turns up evidence of family and friends who had attended UT, and would have supported Rupert collegiate aspiration. He belonged to that generation of Texans whose families had survived pioneer life in the country and saw brighter horizons for their children in the cities and through higher education.

Rupert joined an athletic fraternity, Sigma Delta Psi, as well as Kappa Alpha, which includes among its brothers athletes who were Rupert's friends. Sports were already big on campus and getting bigger. Folks like Billy Disch, L. Theo Bellmont and Clyde Littlefield led what was becoming a dominant college power in football, basketball, track, tennis, gymnastics, wrestling and soccer — Rupert played wing on the soccer team. In track, he did well in high hurdles, mile relay and other events.

Life in the military and its aftermath

UT sports hollowed out, however, once the U.S. entered World War I on April 6, 1917. Athletes were among the first to enlist and the campus opened military training centers, which were later badly stricken by the flu epidemic in 1918-1919.

Rupert enlisted in the Army on Aug. 5, 1917 in Houston. Much of what he wrote about his first months is fairly anodyne but still illuminating about Austin and San Antonio, where he trained at Camp Travis, during the war. (For instance, Rupert did not pause his habit of dating campus beauties.) After basic training, he was assigned to Fort Omaha, Nebraska, on March, 26 1918 to enter the balloon school. He qualified to be a spherical balloon pilot.

Rupert's family expressed concern whenever the press reported balloon any accidents and explosions, but young man made it through two years in the corps unscathed. He skipped the flu, too, at a time when the military was among the hardest hit sectors in the U.S. by the pandemic. Aug. 30, 1918, Rupert was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Service. After a series of service flights, he was honorably discharged on Aug. 11, 1919 with bronze victory button.

The rest of Rupert's young adult life was spent working in real estate, insurance and various other Kosse businesses, as well as farming citrus fruit and working for firms in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi and California. In the Valley, he met and married widow Lois Lucille Rose Bartlett; they produced Sara Ellen Robertson Moore and Jack Robertson.

Rupert suffered from various medical conditions, including diabetes and depression, some of them traced to his military service. Lois taught school and the family eventually moved to Marlin, where Jack grew up. A good deal of the remaining personal history consists of Jack's childhood memories of his family while growing up there. (We'd need another column or two to do that part justice.)

Rupert died Jan. 10, 1968 at age 72.

Michael Barnes writes about the people, places, culture and history of Austin and Texas. He can be reached at [email protected]. Sign up for the free weekly digital newsletter, Think, Texas, at statesman.com/newsletters, or at the newsletter page of your local USA Today Network paper.

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Out of the Centre

Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 10 May 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

The Unique Burial of a Child of Early Scythian Time at the Cemetery of Saryg-Bulun (Tuva)

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Pages:  379-406

In 1988, the Tuvan Archaeological Expedition (led by M. E. Kilunovskaya and V. A. Semenov) discovered a unique burial of the early Iron Age at Saryg-Bulun in Central Tuva. There are two burial mounds of the Aldy-Bel culture dated by 7th century BC. Within the barrows, which adjoined one another, forming a figure-of-eight, there were discovered 7 burials, from which a representative collection of artifacts was recovered. Burial 5 was the most unique, it was found in a coffin made of a larch trunk, with a tightly closed lid. Due to the preservative properties of larch and lack of air access, the coffin contained a well-preserved mummy of a child with an accompanying set of grave goods. The interred individual retained the skin on his face and had a leather headdress painted with red pigment and a coat, sewn from jerboa fur. The coat was belted with a leather belt with bronze ornaments and buckles. Besides that, a leather quiver with arrows with the shafts decorated with painted ornaments, fully preserved battle pick and a bow were buried in the coffin. Unexpectedly, the full-genomic analysis, showed that the individual was female. This fact opens a new aspect in the study of the social history of the Scythian society and perhaps brings us back to the myth of the Amazons, discussed by Herodotus. Of course, this discovery is unique in its preservation for the Scythian culture of Tuva and requires careful study and conservation.

Keywords: Tuva, Early Iron Age, early Scythian period, Aldy-Bel culture, barrow, burial in the coffin, mummy, full genome sequencing, aDNA

Information about authors: Marina Kilunovskaya (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Vladimir Semenov (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected] Varvara Busova  (Moscow, Russian Federation).  (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Kharis Mustafin  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Technical Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Irina Alborova  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected] Alina Matzvai  (Moscow, Russian Federation). Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.  Institutsky Lane, 9, Dolgoprudny, 141701, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation E-mail:  [email protected]

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“Baby Reindeer” and “Under the Bridge” Are Stranger Than Fiction

By Inkoo Kang

When Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd), the protagonist of the autobiographical Netflix sensation “Baby Reindeer,” recalls the act of kindness toward a stranger that would come to derail his life, his initial explanation is deceptively simple: “I felt sorry for her.” Donny is a fledgling comedian in his late twenties, tending bar at a London pub to make ends meet. Martha (Jessica Gunning) is a heavyset, middle-aged frump who claims to be a high-powered lawyer but simultaneously insists that a cup of tea is beyond her means. Donny—maybe amused, maybe intrigued, definitely pitying—gives her one on the house. She becomes a regular and, after finding his e-mail address on his personal Web site, inundates him with dozens of missives a day, many of them brimming with lust and misspellings. She follows him home and to his gigs. Her convictions about their relationship—first and foremost the belief that they’re in one—are pure delusion. But Martha also senses a truth about Donny that no one else does. Early on, she asks, “Somebody hurt you, didn’t they?”

In the seven-part series—a half-hour drama that can be hard to watch despite, and at times because of, its protagonist’s hard-won forthrightness—Donny becomes a Dante of his own broken psyche, tracing his descent into abject self-loathing. The stalking is only the first circle of Hell. His real torment is the onslaught of painful memories triggered by Martha’s pursuit. Some years prior, Donny had met one of his comedy heroes, a fiftysomething TV writer named Darrien (Tom Goodman-Hill), who presented himself as a Sherpa to the industry’s summit. A flashback episode traces how the two men became enmeshed in a drug-fuelled “collaboration” that, in retrospect, seems designed to enable Darrien’s predations. One of the show’s most haunting images is that of Donny covering his own mouth in an effort not to scream as Darrien sexually assaults him. A scream would be tantamount to an accusation, and he can’t afford to alienate his best hope of professional success.

In the present, convinced that his encounters with Darrien have “shifted” his desires, Donny treats his own orientation as a riddle to solve. His misery helps to explain his passivity toward Martha, whom he’s loath to report to the police, even as she exhibits increasingly violent behavior; for all her volatility, she sees him the way he wants to be seen. Her jealous antics also provide him with a reason to distance himself from Teri (Nava Mau), a trans woman Donny is at once enamored of and embarrassed by, terrified that he’ll be outed as anything but a cisgender man seeking cis women. In his shaky internal logic, Martha’s public advances burnish his heterosexuality while his private romance with Teri threatens it.

On one level, the show functions as a case study in why male survivors of abuse so rarely come forward: the police don’t take Donny’s complaints seriously, and his loutish co-workers see Martha’s overtures as a source of amusement. But the series goes further in illustrating how survivors need not be “perfect victims” to merit empathy, and in showing how dizzying the aftermath of such a violation can be. Blessed with neither street smarts nor a strong sense of self-preservation, Donny makes mistake after mistake, first in trying to deny what he later identifies as grooming, then in his attempts to ward off Martha. His long silence—and consequent inability to address his trauma—blights nearly all his relationships, until his pain comes rushing out, mid-comedy set, in a fit of compulsive logorrhea. The result, like most of Donny’s standup, is more mortifying than funny.

In real life, Gadd exorcised these demons with greater premeditation: his high-concept one-man shows about both experiences were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. “Baby Reindeer” sidesteps some ethical questions with its comparatively helpless, almost unwitting hero—the implication, for example, that his indulgence of Martha is unrelated to the material she can provide rings a bit hollow, given that Gadd has constructed a TV series with her as the hook. But there’s catharsis to be found in the clarity with which Donny recounts what happened to him, and in his readiness to acknowledge both his missteps and the depths of his fascination. Rather than vilify his stalker, he deliberately teases out the parallels between them, showing how easily a moment of vulnerability—or of validation—can spiral into obsession. In doing so, he brings narrative cohesion to the chaos, producing a tightly controlled confessional that forges an almost too close bond with the viewer—and illuminates the dark, strange paths that shame can trick us into taking.

The very human messiness of attempting to apportion blame also drives the new Hulu crime drama “Under the Bridge.” The limited series is based on the real-life murder of a fourteen-year-old Indian Canadian girl named Reena Virk, in 1997, but it’s pointedly not a whodunnit—the circumstances of the beating by her peers that preceded her death, and the culprit who dealt the final blow, are revealed surprisingly swiftly. The show’s true interest lies in the trial that follows, and in the dynamic between the girls from a local group home, called the Bic Girls for their perceived disposability, and the uncool, middle-class, tragically impressionable Reena (Vritika Gupta). Some days, she’s in with the Bic Girls; other days, she couldn’t be more on the outs. Her frenemies are quickly implicated in her killing, and the suspense derives from who’ll be judged most responsible—an answer that hangs almost entirely on how much adult support each teen can rely on, and whom it’s easiest for the police and the prosecutor to spin a story around.

“Under the Bridge” is adapted from a book by Rebecca Godfrey, who stumbled upon the investigation after returning to her home town of Victoria, British Columbia, around the time of Reena’s disappearance. The series creator, Quinn Shephard, inserts a version of the author, who died shortly before filming, into the story; the fictionalized Rebecca is played by a disaffected, chain-smoking Riley Keough, styled like grunge-era Winona Ryder. Rebecca is writing a book nebulously centered on the town’s “misunderstood girls” until Reena’s case becomes its sole focus. Talking to an old friend (Lily Gladstone), a policewoman probing the “schoolgirl murder,” she expresses the hope of producing something in the vein of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” The comparison isn’t flattering. Like Capote, Rebecca gets overly attached to one of the suspects, a baby-faced gangster named Warren (Javon Walton), who reminds her of her long-dead brother. Rebecca, still youthful enough to pass herself off as a college student, identifies too closely with the teens on the margins—minutes after she’s introduced, she’s sitting cross-legged on a girl’s bed, offering her a cigarette. The eschewal of journalistic distance gets her sources to talk; it also prevents her from evaluating their testimony clearly.

The show’s incessant leaps back and forth in time and exhaustive exposition, including an episode dedicated to the history of Reena’s family and their immigration to Canada, leave it feeling bloated and occasionally preachy. But, with a soundtrack of Nirvana and the Notorious B.I.G., the project is also enlivened by a distinctly nineties verve. The spirit of the era is best embodied by Jo (a pitch-perfect Chloe Guidry), a Bic Girl who sports barrettes, crop tops, pencil brows, and a heart-shaped locket that holds a photo of her idol, the mafioso John Gotti. Her callow bravado—fuelled, perhaps, by a turbulent home life that we learn just enough about—renders her both naïve and vicious; the series is built on a bone-deep understanding of how dopey and dangerous adolescent girls can be, often in the same breath. Jo, the ringleader, puts out a cigarette between Reena’s eyes, in a mock bindi, on the night of her death. That act of racial othering may have encouraged her accomplices—the group was eventually known as the Shoreline Six—to see Reena as even more expendable than they were. To make sense of the tragedy, Rebecca reaches for the gothic, comparing it to a fairy tale. Such stories, she says, are about “girls punished for selfishness—or for no reason at all.” ♦

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