The American Theater and Drama of the twentieth century
Although the United States is one of the modern world countries which was born in the last decades, its history is considered to be rich and colorful. The United States have experienced several historical events from colonial periods to the present days which made the American society experience many changes between ups and downs; Especially in the twentieth century.
The first half of the twentieth century have witnessed many changes at economic, social, political, and cultural levels which affected the American society characteristics. The American theater was born through those circumstances and conditions in which the world was living under the great influence of the industrial revolution. The American culture was introduced to several shifts because of waves of immigration, first and second world wars, and urbanizing. American literary
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As the world wars unfied Americans; poverty, the great depression, and loss of values on the other hand made them dispersed.
The years between the two world wars are now seen as a golden age in American theatre and drama. Even though the American theater contained several elements and productions the goal of all was shared as to make the sound of common people clearly audible.
Traditionally, drama has been described as the most direct and . objective of the literary genres. Drama requires neither the speaker of the lyric poem nor the narrator of prose fiction. It is a uniquely unmediated vision which relies on action rather than de- scription. This emphasis on showing rather than telling often be- comes the envy of writers in other genres. That makes the acter the most required to be talented to embody many personalities and characters; an acter sometimes is a doctor, a teacher, a father, a priest, and so
Houchin, John H. Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2003.
During the past years of the 1900s many factors have happened that resulted in the change of the United States history and future. It changed the everyday lives of Americans of how they survived and supported themselves and their family, in both positive and negative ways that affected them daily. For instance, the political affairs of the government and the election of candidates for certain parties like democratic or republican can affect the history of the country, on how the government or Congress passed laws that were of equal protection to its people and how it helps benefit both civilians and the nation itself. On social occasions this could affect the United States history because it is solely based on how the people will react and respond to a certain topic, action, or movement. Their opinions may differ depending on where they stand, on how they look at it from their perspective in their belief on morals, religion, or sense of patriotism to the United States. Advancements in technology affect the nation’s history as well because the improved technology in the 1900s provided many uses for the Americans. The basis of these technologies were to offer entertainment, transportation, communication, military, and also for labor tasks and work. But the events that occurred during 1945-1980s also established these significant altercations in history; were of either social, like The Beatles. And of a political event such as the Korean War that occurred in 1953. Also, a technological event like as the innovation of the world’s first personal computer. Whether the effects of these three events were of negative or positive, these three incidents led to the change in the...
“You know some guys just can’t hold their arsenic” (Chicago). Theater in the 1920’s was greatly influenced by prohibition, mobsters and large murder cases as shown in the musical Chicago. Prohibition fueled many of the social issues of the day and also influenced theater. 1920’s theater was in turmoil as American society struggled to establish a new moral code. The musical Chicago gives examples of corruption in the legal system and the changing roles of women in society.
Many people see history as a set of facts, or as a collection of stories. The reality, however, is that history is a fluid timeline. Each act of an individual or a group has an effect on others. Each moment in history is a building block that, good or bad, contributes to the stability of the next. This can be seen clearly in American history, as there have been several developments since the 1800’s that have played major roles on the growth of the nation.
The 20th century brought about many changes, with several events molding society in the way we know of it today. With the Great Depression, World War 2 , and the Cold War, America faced many internal and external threats, that endangered the American way of life and forced the country to reshape it’s views to move past events that seemed, at the time, to be the lowest points.
During the late 1700’s and well into the 1800’s, American’s lived through expansive growth including economic transformation, politics, labor classification, and increased population were a result of overall growth of the United States. This growth affected how the Americans lived, worked, voted, and were viewed by their fellow citizens. Americans were transforming the lives for financial gains, their own rights, and overall a more content life.
The Shewhart Cycle is a process by which a leader can gain and maintain control of essential aspects of a project as it progresses from conception through completion. Developed by Dr. Walter Shewhart, the process consists of four distinct steps. Though it has a beginning, the process continues to loop and repeat itself until the end of the project. There are four steps in the process. They are plan, do, check, and act. During planning, the leader determines the requirements for success as well as the obstacles which may be encountered along the way. All essential information is gathered and organized into tasks and timelines. The “Do” step is where action is taken on the tasks identified earlier. Special monitoring during this step will ensure that the tasks are understood, properly resourced, and accomplished. Through checking, the leader can ensure that performance is meeting standards and that adjustments can be made as appropriate. Act, or execute in accordance to the plan. If it is a good plan and carefully monitored, the project should go smoothly. (Clark, 2014).
From the 1950’s through the 1990’s, social and cultural issues impacted American history in a major way. America’s history was influenced by several events that happened over this time period. All of the events that I will talk about will prove how gender issues, the 1960’s counterculture, debates over immigration and multiculturalism, and the creation of “two America’s impacted U.S history. It also will explain why I believe some of the events from the 1950s to the 1990s played a big part in US history, while others may think otherwise.
During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the country in the twenties to the sixties.
It is human nature to tell stories and to appreciate and participate in theatre traditions in every society. Every culture expresses theatre and may have their own traditions that have helped pave the way for how they are today. The involvement of African-Americans has increased tremendously in theatre since the nineteenth century and continues to increase as time goes on. African-Americans have overcome many obstacles with getting their rights and the participation and involvement of Theatre was something also worth fighting for. American history has played an important role with the participation of African-Americans in theatre. Slavery occurrence in America made it difficult for blacks in America to be taken seriously and to take on the characters of more serious roles. With many obstacles in the way African-Americans fought for their rights and also for the freedom that they deserved in America. As the participation of African-Americans involvement within the theatre increase so do the movements in which help make this possible. It is the determination of these leaders, groups, and Theaters that helped increase the participation and created the success that African-Americans received throughout history in American Theatre.
American Theatre: History, Context, Form. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ, 2011. Print. Scott, Freda L. "Black Drama and the Harlem Renaissance."
Sell, Mike. “Arthur Miller and the Drama of American Liberalism.” Arthur Miller's America : Theater & Culture In A Time Of Change. Ed. Enoch Brater. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. 23-30. Print.
...ements demonstrate that the truth of drama lies in the fact that every playwright creates his play in a subconsciously self-reflexive manner while he is one of us as human beings. Thus drama is, in a wider sense, a true reflection of man. A play, the write adds, is multidimensional and many of its events occur simultaneously exactly like life itself. Drama is like life also because the onus is on the audience to find the meaning while in other genres the writer might interfere, technically or otherwise, to impose his point of view.
Theatre serves to reflect society. From Shakespeare to Sophocles, a playwright’s work illustrates the different mechanics within a culture or time period or society. Theatre offers viewers the experience of taking a step back and looking in on themselves. In this way, theatre is a mirror for the world and the way it functions.
Drama according to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance, which comes from a Greek word (drao) meaning action. A dramatic production depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes, it put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. According to Learning Stream, “drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by characters on a stage before an audience.”