Accelerated Grimace; Expressionism in the American Drama of the 1920s PDF Download

Author: Mardi Valgemae
Publisher: Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 168

View

Book Description
In 1920Ezra Pound wrote: "The Age demanded an image / Of its accelerated grimace," which in the instance of American drama of the 1920s, Valgemae shows, was expressionism. Valgemae goes on to trace the exciting new movement in the theatre and to demonstrate its continuing and vital influence on the theatre today. Thus the book provides an invalu­able guide to much of twentieth-century theatre in America.

Author: Julia A. Walker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139446274
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 314

View

Book Description
Although often dismissed as a minor offshoot of the better-known German movement, expressionism on the American stage represents a critical phase in the development of American dramatic modernism. Situating expressionism within the context of early twentieth-century American culture, Walker demonstrates how playwrights who wrote in this mode were responding both to new communications technologies and to the perceived threat they posed to the embodied act of meaning. At a time when mute bodies gesticulated on the silver screen, ghostly voices emanated from tin horns, and inked words stamped out the personality of the hand that composed them, expressionist playwrights began to represent these new cultural experiences by disarticulating the theatrical languages of bodies, voices and words. In doing so, they not only innovated a new dramatic form, but redefined playwriting from a theatrical craft to a literary art form, heralding the birth of American dramatic modernism.

Author: Jackson R. Bryer
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438129661
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 657

View

Book Description
Features a comprehensive guide to American dramatic literature, from its origins in the early days of the nation to the groundbreaking works of today's best writers.

Author: Jackson R. Bryer
Publisher: Infobase Learning
ISBN: 1438140762
Category : American drama
Languages : en
Pages : 2466

View

Book Description
Provides a comprehensive guide to American dramatic literature, from its origins in the early days of the nation to American classics such as Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Thornton Wilder's Our Town to the groundbreaking works of today's best writers.

Author: Susan Currell
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748630856
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

View

Book Description
Introduces the major cultural and intellectual trends of the decade by introducing and assessing the development of the primary cultural forms: namely, Fiction, Poetry and Drama, Music and Performance, Film and Radio, and Visual Art and Design. A fifth chapter focuses on the unprecedented rise in the 1920s of Leisure and Consumption.

Author: Jeffrey H. Richards
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199731497
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 593

View

Book Description
This volume explores the history of American drama from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It describes origins of early republican drama and its evolution during the pre-war and post-war periods. It traces the emergence of different types of American drama including protest plays, reform drama, political drama, experimental drama, urban plays, feminist drama and realist plays. This volume also analyzes the works of some of the most notable American playwrights including Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller and those written by women dramatists.

Author: David Krasner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405137347
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 600

View

Book Description
This Companion provides an original and authoritative surveyof twentieth-century American drama studies, written by some of thebest scholars and critics in the field. Balances consideration of canonical material with discussion ofworks by previously marginalized playwrights Includes studies of leading dramatists, such as TennesseeWilliams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and Gertrude Stein Allows readers to make new links between particular plays andplaywrights Examines the movements that framed the century, such as theHarlem Renaissance, lesbian and gay drama, and the soloperformances of the 1980s and 1990s Situates American drama within larger discussions aboutAmerican ideas and culture

Author: Brenda Murphy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521327114
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 252

View

Book Description
The importance of Native American realism is traced through a study of the evolution of dramatic theory from the early 1890s through World War I and the uniquely American innovations in realistic drama between world wars.

Author: Ronald Harold Wainscott
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300067767
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 298

View

Book Description
Exploring the emergence of the modern American theatre in New York during a period of immense creative output and experimentation and against a backdrop of conflicting cultural, economic and political events, this text draws upon material from plays and productions in between 1914-1929.

Author: Dominic Symonds
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190216883
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 355

View

Book Description
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are one of the defining duos of musical theater, contributing dozens of classic songs to the Great American Songbook and working together on over 40 shows before Hart's death. With hit after hit on both Broadway and the West End, they produced many of the celebrated songs of the '20s and '30s--such as "Manhattan," "The Lady is a Tramp," and "Bewitched"--that remain popular favorites with great cultural resonance today. Yet the early years of these iconic collaborators have remained largely unexamined. We'll Have Manhattan: The Early Work of Rodgers & Hart provides unprecedented insight into the first, formative period of Rodgers and Hart's collaboration. Author Dominic Symonds examines the pair and their work from their first meeting in 1919 to their brief flirtation with Hollywood in the early 1930s as they left the theater to explore sound film. During this time, their output was prodigious, progressive, and experimental. They developed their characteristic style and a new approach to musical theater writing that provided the groundwork for the development of the Broadway musical. Symonds also analyzes the theme of identity that runs throughout Rodgers and Hart's work, how the business side of the theater affected their artistic output, and their continued experimentation with a song's dramatic role within a narrative. We'll Have Manhattan goes beyond a biographical or historical look at Rodgers and Hart's early years--it's also an accessible but authoritative study of their material. Symonds documents their early shows and provides deft critical and analytical commentary on their evolving practice and its influence on the subsequent development of the American musical. Fans of musical theater and devotees of Rodgers and Hart will find this definitive exploration of their early works to be an essential addition to their Broadway library.