FREE IGNOU MEG 017 AMERICAN DRAMA SOLVED ASSIGNMENT 2024-25
1. Had it not been for the Puritans, the approach
of the world to American Drama would have been different – discuss.
The arrival of the Puritans in the 17th century undoubtedly
cast a long shadow on the development of American drama. Their disapproval of
theatrical performances significantly hampered its growth in the early years.
However, the argument that American drama would have been entirely different
without the Puritans is multifaceted. Here's a closer look:
The Puritan Influence:
Banning Theatrical Performances: The Puritans viewed theatre
as frivolous, immoral, and a distraction from religious devotion. They actively
discouraged or banned theatrical productions in many Puritan settlements. This
stifled the development of a professional theatre tradition and playwriting
scene in early America.
Limited Exposure to European Drama: The Puritan disapproval
limited exposure to the rich European theatrical tradition, particularly the
works of Shakespeare and other playwrights that were flourishing at the time.
This lack of a foundation in established dramatic forms slowed the evolution of
American playwriting.
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| FREE IGNOU MEG 017 AMERICAN DRAMA SOLVED ASSIGNMENT 2024-25 |
Alternative Consequences:
Focus on Religious Performances: In the absence of secular
theatre, religious performances like morality plays and mystery plays might
have flourished. These could have served as a foundation for a unique American
dramatic tradition with a strong moral and religious undercurrent.
Focus on Storytelling: With theatre restricted, storytelling
might have become a more prominent platform for dramatic expression. This could
have led to a richer tradition of oral narratives, eventually influencing
written drama.
The Unintended Impact:
Fueling Artistic Ingenuity: The Puritan restrictions might
have inadvertently fostered artistic ingenuity. People might have sought
alternative ways to express themselves, leading to the development of new
dramatic forms, like minstrel shows or even early vaudeville performances, that
defied or subverted Puritanical ideals.
Underground Theatre: A desire for entertainment might have
driven the creation of underground theatre scenes, similar to what happened in
Europe during the Middle Ages. This could have led to the emergence of a more
rebellious and innovative style of American drama.
A Different Path:
Without the Puritans, American drama might have evolved
differently:
Stronger European Influence: Exposure to European dramatic
traditions might have resulted in a more immediate development of professional
theatre and playwriting, potentially mirroring the British or French theatrical
traditions.
Earlier Exploration of Themes: Themes that were later
explored in American drama, such as social issues, religious hypocrisy, and the
struggle for identity, might have emerged sooner.
The Reality:
The Puritan influence did have a significant impact, but
American drama didn't remain stagnant. Here's what actually happened:
The Rise of American Theatre: Despite the initial challenges,
a professional theatre scene eventually emerged in America in the 18th century.
Playwrights began adapting European styles and incorporating American themes
and experiences.
Impact on American Identity: American drama played a vital
role in exploring themes of national identity, social justice, and the American
experience.
A Unique Blend: American drama eventually developed its own
unique voice, drawing on European traditions, American history, and diverse
cultural influences.
Conclusion:
While the Puritans' disapproval undeniably impacted the
initial trajectory of American drama, it's difficult to say definitively how
different things would have been. The ingenuity of artists and the evolving
American society likely still would have given rise to a vibrant theatre scene.
The Puritan influence might be seen as a hurdle that American drama eventually
overcame, shaping its unique character and themes.
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2. Discuss the American identity and social issues
that influenced American drama.
Drama is known as “the caboose of literature” (Robert
Sherwood), because, like the caboose on a train, it lies at the rear of all
forms of literature. Drama explores issues and styles only after they have been
introduced by the other arts.There was great theatrical activity in the US in
the 19th century, a time when there were no movies, TV, or radio.
Every town of any size had its theatre or “opera house” in
which touring companies of actors performed. However, no significant drama was
performed in this century, with audiences preferring farce, melodrama, and
vaudeville to serious efforts. For the most part, this was “caboose” behaviour.
The theatre tends to dramatize accepted attitudes and values, only after they
have been thoroughly explored by other mediums. Theatre is a social art, one we
attend as part of large group, and we seem to respond to something new as a
group more slowly than we do as individuals. When you laugh or cry in a
theatre, your response is noticed, especially by those who are not so moved.
You are in a sense giving your approval to those attitudes and values presented
in the play.
European drama, which was to influence modern American drama
profoundly, matured in the last third of the 19th century with the achievements
of three playwrights: Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Anton Chekhov.
Ibsen, who was profoundly influenced by psychologists Sigmund
Freud and Carl Jung, tackled subjects such as guilt, sexuality, and mental
illness— subjects that had never before been so realistically and disturbingly
portrayed onstage (like in A Doll’s House and Enemy of the People). Strindberg
brought to his characterizations an unprecedented level of psychological
complexity (like in The Father and The Dance of Death). And Chekhov shifted the
subject matter of drama from wildly theatrical displays of external action and
emotions to the concerns of everyday life (like in The Three Sisters and The
Cherry Orchard). They bequeathed to their literary heirs plays about life as it
is actually lived. They presented characters and situations more or less
realistically, in what has been called the “slice-of-life” dramatic technique.
The pre-eminence of the actor in American drama and theatre
suffered a great deal in the later decades of the century, first, on account of
the rise of the stage manager, or what is called Regisseur in the production of
a play, subordinating the actor to him in discipline and authority and,
secondly, to the rise of theatrical and dramatic realism.
The first phenomenon became all the more forceful when
playwrights, like Augustin Daly, David Belasco and Steele Mockage assumed the
role of producer-director for their plays. However, the actorly tradition did
not die down as such, for the actor, though exceptionally in a few cases, rather
than the playwright, continued to define the play for the audience.
Realism in theatre began earlier than in drama. The old actor
based theatre Influences presupposed a need to be unreal on the stage in order
to reach out to the audience. Bernard Hewitt points out the unreality even in
the best of American acting. Miss Cushman is the best magic actress in English
drama whom we have had on the American stage. Dignity, feeling, sound sense and
the most deliberate and studious care are marked characteristics of her acting.
Viewing her as she was before the incessant repetition of one
abnormal delineation had exaggerated her force and impressiveness to the
borders of the grotesque or the ghastly... The alternative to stage histrionics
came in the form of a shift of focus from the actor to the scene. Steele
Mackage creates a portable stage for his play Hazel Kirke, (1880).
It was the first
significant move towards stage realism. Bernard Hewitt writes: In the Madison
Square theatre an entire Box setting with heavy threedimensional pieces and the
actors too, if need be, could be removed and replaced by another in forty
seconds. It had no apron or proscenium doors… All these characteristics were
part of the trend towards realism in production. The machinery was needed to
shift the realistic scenery. The production must be flamed by the proscenium
arch to create the realistic illusion Hazel Kirke is a significant departure
from Melodrama in that it is no world of heroes and villains but a domestic
arena of familial misunderstanding played out on shifting stages within Box -
like house setting. Both the stage or stages and the drama there on begin a
process of interiorization totally foreign to the ethos of melodrama, and its
predecessors, romantic and national drama as well. A further advance in stage
tradition was carried out by David Belasco who still persisted with sensational
melodramas.
To Belasco goes the credit for the finest triumph in
realistic stage management. In Belasco’s production of a French play, I Gaza in
1895, realistic effects such as the making of thunder, lighting, wind and
galloping horses behind the scenes are achieved with “the dexterity of a master
mechanic”. The stage realism of the sort championed by Mackage and Belasco, is
not a matter of individual inclination and effort but a distinct theatrical
ideology taking shape on the Continent in the latter part of the 19th century.
The earliest theoretician of the realistic stagecraft Duke of Saxe Meiningen
who popularized realism through the concepts of ensemble acting and ruthless
realism on the stage.
What the Duke attempted was evolved ideologically by Andre
Antoine in France through his Theatre Libre in Paris, Otto Brahm in Berlin
through his Frie Buhne. Stage environment or realism, ensemble acting,
directional supremacy and the elimination of unrealisticstage effects were the
passionate causes championed by these theatrical movements.
The thoughtful
American producers and directors like Belasco and others responded
enthusiastically to the new European tidings. For them, it was a two-fold task:
First, they barf to realize the new theatrical art on the American stage which
never allowed itself any notions of art. Secondly, these playwrights had to
contend with the increasing hold of the business interests, which developed
into theatrical syndicates controlling American stage.
The rise of theatrical realism in the late 19th century did
not ipso facto bring about realistic drama. Belasco’s Melodramas staged in
realistic style illustrate that realistic drama is not a matter of theatrical
formulations. Drama was never a privileged element in .4merlcan theatre since
its inception in the 18” century.
Drama flourishes in periods of great cultural reflection as
it did in ancient Greece, Rome and the 16th century Elizabethan England. The
playwrights in these periods were the foremost thinkers of society. The rise of
modem science and the consequent industrial revolution in Europe and America in
the latter part of 19th century brought about a paradigm shift in the
socio-economic situation necessitating a deep cultural reflection. William Dean
Howells, regarded as the father of literary realism in America, is a
theoretician of realist drama as well. In several of his writings, including
his reviews of plays for the periodicals, like Harpers, Atlantic Monthly,
Howells traces the growth of realistic drama in America.
For him, the rise of realist drama, like the rest of
literature, is an evolutionary progress from romanticism. Romanticism included
Melodrama, both European and American as well. The next stage of development
from romanticism was that of the French Well-Made Play and the English Problem
Play. The French Well-Made Play in the hands of playwrights like Eugene Scribe,
Victorian Sardou, Alexander Dumas and Emile Augier, is a dramatic structure “a
complex plot with a maximum of theatrical ingenuity and an absolute minimum of
thought”. It is realistic in the choice of its subject matter and linear in the
progress of the plot and enacts an archetypal action with a preordained
conclusion and moral. The English problem play, though it borrows certain
elements of the French Well-Made play, is structured both in form and content
to deal with an important socio-economic problem of contemporary relevance.
3. Attempt a critical note on ‘Musical’ and ‘Farce’
as important forms of American Drama.
Musicals can be considered as a subgenre of theatrical
performances. It is pop- theatre with decorative stage-settings, accompanied by
pop-songs, and dance to narrate a story. It has striking resemblances with
opera. A musical must tell a compelling story in a compelling way, by blending
song, dance, and other entertaining visual arts to evoke an intellectual,
emotional response. An artist, a medium, and eventually audience are the
preliminary requirement for performing arts.
A popular or commercial art form has to fulfil the same
criteria with an additional requirement of paying audience who can afford the
expenses to make the act of expression profitable. In postmodern era, art is a
commercial endeavour, a hybrid of taste, attitude of the audience, and
popularity. Audience’s demand is the key determiner in the development of the
product; since there is a mercenary motif behind as popular art.
Musicals can be considered as a subgenre of theatrical
performances. It is pop- theatre with decorative stage-settings, accompanied by
pop-songs, and dance to narrate a story. It has striking resemblances with
opera. A musical must tell a compelling story in a compelling way, by blending
song, dance, and other entertaining visual arts to evoke an intellectual,
emotional response.
An artist, a medium,
and eventually audience are the preliminary requirement for performing arts. A
popular or commercial art form has to fulfil the same criteria with an
additional requirement of paying audience who can afford the expenses to make
the act of expression profitable. In postmodern era, art is a commercial
endeavour, a hybrid of taste, attitude of the audience, and popularity.
Audience’s demand is the key determiner in the development of the product;
since there is a mercenary motif behind as popular art.
The musical theatre can be divided into three distinct
categories:
● Musical Comedy
● Musical plays
● Concept Musicals
Musical comedies
usually have energetic zeal, upbeat, and are often witty in tone. It must be
entertaining and humorous. Dancing and singing are the part of the story it
specifically aimed to the comedy written before or middle of the twentieth
century. Some examples are Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate, Annie Get Your Gun,
Guys and Dolls, and Hello, Dolly! Musical plays deals with more serious
subjects and emphases are given on the ‘book’ (the story, characters, and
plot). Instead of entertainment, it is intended to advance and deepen the
story.
Such examples of musical plays include Show Boat (1927),
which highlighted the human cost of interbreeding of humans of different races;
Pal Joey (1940), which displayed intellectual and unemotional “romantic”
traits; and Lady in the Dark (1941), which found a novel experience of
psychoanalysis. Richard Rodgers (music), and Oscar Hammerstein II (books and
lyrics) developed this genre in 1940s and 50s through shows like Oklahama!
(1943), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951). The
combination of melody, narrative, psychological traits of the character and
social issues, represents the verisimilitude of the society in an entertaining
way. The word “concept musical” was coined in Company in 1970 and is used to
explicate musicals that fixed on a particular theme or idea. The primary
purpose is to express a point rather than maintenance of the plot. Assassins
(1990) and Avenue Q (2003) are some examples of concept musical.
While distinguishing between musicals and other genre like
opera, it would be naïve to ignore the complications which arise from the fact
that the musical is a highly collaborative art form. Musical is a perfect
amalgamation of dialogue and song. A musical is a sort of drama where both
dialogue and song are used to uphold the story. In an opera, generally a song
is sung without any dialogue. Musicals are humorous and lighter in matter.
In Musicals, the director, choreographer, and designers play
main roles and partake more in the artistic procedure. They can have an impact
on the work that ends up not just on the tage but in the published play script,
like the visit of the Prince to Yuri Lyubimov’s Taganka theatre, which resulted
in an absolute reform of the opening number in Cabaret . Musicals are somewhat
shaped in the rehearsal room.
Classical background of Musicals: The genesis of Musical
theatre is very complex. Though America is well known for musicals, its origin
lies in ancient Greece. There is a common notion that Oklahama is the first
integrated musical theatre, but musical theatre can trace its root back to the
religious ritual of Dithyramb. Dithyramb means hymn to Dionysus, the god of
poetry, wine, and fertility.
It was first created by Arion in Corinth and became popular
at Athens, where it was danced and sung by fifty men or boys. A flute-player
stood in the midst of dancers. As Musical Theatre is communal activity, where
acting is accompanied by lyrics (song) and often dance, the attic theatre may
be considered as the first form of musical theatre. The theatre was divided
into four parts – the audience sat on the tiers of seats, carved out of the
hill side.
The seats were circular. In front of the seats, which were
known as ‘theatron’ there was the ‘Orchestra’ (the dancing place). It was a
circular space, set apart for the dancing of the chorus. In short, the early
Greek dramas were musicals, and while they had little direct effect on the
development of modern musical theatre, it is reassuring to know that the first
theatre was musical—and that show tunes have been around for 2,500 years. In
414, B.C.E, Aristophanes’ The Birds can be considered as an example of Musical
theatre. Though in England, the Puritans closed the theatre house, forbade
acting, bringing a halt to performing arts that lasted until 1660, the demand
remained the same. The French introduced a formal dance instruction in the late
17th century. During this time the plays were performed in the American
Colonies.
In 1664, the British navy, forcibly, established a colony in
New Amsterdam that was renamed as New-York in the honour of King’s brother,
Duke of York. As High street was the widest boulevard city, the English called
it Broadway. Plays and comic operas were regularly performed for the purpose of
entertainment in the colonies like Charleston, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg.
Though in 1732,
something was performed in the Manhattan store-house, there was no recorded
proof. John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera was the first professional performance
that took place on third December 55 1750 in a simple wooden theatre at Nassau
Street, of Broadway. In 1667, What is a Musical? the infrastructure of theatre
house was renovated and as a result an elaborate theatre house was inaugurated
on John Street.
In1796, The Archers, a comic opera, was performed. Some
critics opine that it was the inception of American musicals. On the Other
hand, in 1767 David Douglass’s seasoned American Company tried to perform The
Disappointment, which can be considered as the earliest American- born musical
theatre on these shore. Since it contained “personal reflections, it was
banned. After a year, Pinafore Fever (1878) flourished and achieved a nation-
wide popularity. The soaring popularity of Pinafore not only attracted a lot of
audience but also fostered a group of musical’s audience. It was the first
model for form, content, and motif of American Musical theatre performance.
With the increasing population of Manhattan Island, Broadway became the
cultural and commercial of the community.
4. Discuss William Dean Howell’s ‘Self Sacrifice’
as a Farce.
5. Discuss ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ as a Marxist play.
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MEG 017 AMERICAN DRAMA
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MEG 017 AMERICAN DRAMA
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