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Naturalism: Began in France in the nineteenth century. It is an extreme form of realism. Naturalists believed that a "slice of life" should be shown onstage. As a pure movement it did not last long, but some of its ideas appeared frequently in later dramas and films. Emile Zola is the most famous proponent of naturalism. The best known plays are: Before Sunrise, and the Weavers by Gerhart Hauptmann; and The Lower Depths by Maksim Gorky.

Realism- Broadly Speaking, the attempt to present onstage people and events corresponding to those observable in everyday life. Showing onstage what real life looks like.

Theatrical Syndicate- a group of producers that basically controlled theatre in America in the late 19th century they controlled the major stars and the major shows. Theatres wanting to use the major actors and shows had to deal exclusively with the syndicate.

The Cherry Orchard: Written by Anton Chekhov. In this, he teaches us that underneath comedy there is often tragedy.

Naturalist- Those who practiced naturalism. They argued that what was presented on stage should be a "slice of life" (true to life). They wanted the artist's hand in the work unseen, and argued against stage contrivances. They believed the artist should be an objective scientist and believed the most appropiate subject for drama to be the lower class.

Benjamin Franklin Wedekind- A German playwright, who was very contraversal in his time and in ours. He combined symbolism and realism, making it hard to classify him as a certain type of playwright (i.e. a realist, or a naturalist). He wrote Spring's Awakening.Renaissance: late 19th- and early 20th-century movement that aimed at reviving ancient Irish folklore

Theatricalists:Theatricalists expose the devices of theatre, such as the way stage machinery works, to make audiences aware of watching a performance. They also borrow techniques from the circus, music halls, and similar popular entertainments.Riders to the Sea:John Millington Synge wrote Riders to the Sea in 1904. The play was written as a poetic drama in realistic form taken place in Ireland. The play resembles a mothers suffering for the loss of her five sons loss to the sea.

Anton Chekhov- (1860-1904) As a medical student, Anton Chekhov supported his family by writting short stories, and eventually gave up medicine for a literary career. Drawn to theater Anton Chekhov became famous for his realistic "modern" tragicomedies, but eventually lost his life to a battle with TB at the age of 44.

Henrik Ibsen- 20 March 1828 - 23 May 1906) was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright of realistic drama and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of modernism in the theatre. Ibsen is held to be the greatest of Norwegian authors, celebrated as a national symbol by Norwegians, and one of the most important playwrights of all time. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe and any challenge to them was considered immoral and outrageous. Ibsen's work examined the realities that lay behind many facades, possessing a revelatory nature that was disquieting to many contemporaries.

Rabindranath Tagore- was a Bengali mystic, Brahmo poet, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. emphasizing fusion of lyrical flow and emotional rhythm tightly focused on a core idea-were unlike previous Bengali dramas. His works sought to articulate, in Tagore's words, "the play of feeling and not of action".

Adolphe Appia- (1862-1928) A swiss man that was a pioneer to modern stage design seeing possibilities using lighting for scene changes and striking effects, and not using the realistic box set. He was the first to develop a theory of antirealistic staging and felt that realistic staging detracted from the show’s effect. He proposed simple, symbolic sets that worked with the actor in 1891 and he advocated multidirectional colored lighting to paint the stage and to move in harmony with the production. He designed sets for Wagner and wrote 2 books: Music and the Art of Theatre (1892) and The Work of Living Art (1921), and liked his work to speak for itself.

Konstantin Stanislavski: founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898, actor, created the most famous system for training actors to act realistically. Alekseev was his family name, Stanislavski was his stage name. Grandmother was an actress. He studied with theatrical schools, founded amateur groups. Most work was realistic drama (many were Chekhov's plays), but also did some symbolist plays. Published many books. His philosophies concerning acting: Reeducation: learn again each simple, everyday action. Study normal, daily life rituals, habits, and actions. Actions bring emotion.

Edward Gordon Craig- He wished to use light for scene changes and striking effects and moving away from the realistic box set. Architect and scene designer, and son of actress he liked to be in the limelight. He attacked realistic theater and was similar to adolphe appia in their conclusions.

Major Barbara- written in 1905 by George Bernard Shaw; one of his best known plays. pg 381

Eclectics- Artists in the early twentieth century who tried to bridge the gap between realism and antirealism. They were not doctrinaire in their practices and thought that each play should define its own form. Some eclectic directors were: Max Reinhardt, from Austria and Yevgeny Vakhtangov from Russia. ( More info can be found on pg 400 of the text)


John Millington Synge (1871-1909)- An Irish Playwright. He is associated with theAbbey Theatre in Ireland, which dealt with the concerns and myths of the Irish people. This theatre is also associated with early symbolist drama. Synge created realistic poetic dramas such as Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World.

Motivated Lighting: Illumination of the stage picture that seems to come from actual onstage sources, such as a table lamp.

The Bluebird: A 1908 play by Maurice Maeterlinck. It premiered on 30 September 1908 at Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre and has been turned into several films and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera (first performed at the N.Y. Metropolitan in 1919) based on Maeterlinck's original play.

Symbolism: a leading anitrealistic movement. It was a deliberate reaction to realistic theatre and sought to employ in plays revelation and depiction of inner life. It had no plot action, but took the form of a lyrical drama. Static, indirect, evocative, and often ceremonial.

A Doll's House:A realistic play written by Henrik Ibsen that included topics taboo in theatre such as economic injustice, the sexual double standard, and unhappy marriages. Purpose was to call out social problems and elicit change. Very controversial.

George Bernard Shaw- First plays were produce privately for small, selected audiences to circumvent the censor. Most of Shaw’s plays took up social problems and philosophical concepts, they were also witty, engaging comedies with lively dialogue and unusual, well-drawn characters. Characterized as realistic comedies of manners. Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925.