No description available.

This thesis traces Hardy's involvement in the theatre from the 1880s to the 1920s. The narrative of Hardy's relationship with the theatre is set against an analysis of the changing nature of the stage during this period, though I acknowledge throughout the thesis the fact that Hardy's awareness of the theatre did not perfectly keep pace with its evolution. The aim of the thesis is to examine the motivations determining Hardy's work in the theatre in light of the fact that he seemed so dismissive of its efficacy. I trace the history of Hardy's adaptations of his work for the stage, before setting the scripts against the novels in order to weigh the extent to which the novels resist translation into a different medium – whether there is something integral to Hardy's plots that cannot be conveyed on stage. I have chosen to focus predominantly on material that made it beyond a rough sketch on a scrap of paper, on projects that reached the stage of rewritings and commercial negotiations - often years before they were produced. My selection has been determined by the belief that the material is indicative of the development of Hardy's understanding of the relationship between his work and the possibilities adaptation offered. My first chapter, on the history of an adaptation of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' in 1882, argues that Hardy's collaboration with J. Comyns Carr on the script was driven by his desire to assert his copyright over the novel's afterlife. The adaptation may never have been performed, but simply have been registered with the Lord Chamberlain as a deterrent against unauthorised adapters. It was the plagiarism row over Arthur Wing Pinero's possible theft of Hardy's plot in his popular pastoral play, 'The Squire', that pushed Hardy and Carr to stage their version. My second chapter looks at the history of Hardy's adaptations of 'Tess'. I am interested primarily in his writing of two scripts in the mid-1890s, and his negotiations with leading actresses in response to their interest in creating the part of Tess. The chapter then looks at the circumstances leading to the eventual staging of the play in the 1920s, focusing on the difficulties posed by producing a script which was by then thirty years old, and showing its age. In the third chapter I concentrate on plans to stage two novels, 'The Woodlanders' and 'Jude'. Neither was produced, but both are evidence of Hardy's increasing interest in the possibility of selecting from his material, rather than compressing it into the time available. The two adaptations allied Hardy much more closely with the avant garde than his earlier work had done – 'The Woodlanders' was begun in 1889 at the suggestion of J. T. Grein and C. W. Jarvis, two men who would later found the Independent Theatre, a private subscription society which pioneered the staging of Ibsen in England. Hardy's own sketches for adapting 'Jude' (1895, 1897, 1910, 1926) concentrated on Sue's position. I set Hardy’s realignment of 'Jude' against a focus on the place of women in unhappy marriages, drawing principally on Hardy's contribution to a debate about the role of wives in the 'New Review' for June 1894 and a 'Westminster Review' article by the feminist Mona Caird (August 1888), which provoked three months of debate (and 27,000 letters) in 'The Daily Telegraph' on the question 'Is Marriage a Failure?' Caird’s ideal dovetails with Sue's views on marriage as 'legalized prostitution' and her revulsion from 'the dreadful contract to feel in a particular way in a matter whose essence is its voluntariness!' The final chapter of the thesis looks at two adaptations of 'The Dynasts'. The first is a wartime entertainment staged by Harley Granville Barker in 1914, the second is Hardy's own adaptation for Dorset amateur actors (the Hardy Players) to perform in 1916, which concentrated on the impact of the war on the local populace. I then turn to the premiere of Hardy's only full-length drama written specifically for the stage – the one-act Arthurian play 'The Queen of Cornwall' (1923). I argue in this final chapter that Hardy was beginning to move from the role of reluctant adapter to that of director, conscious of the boundaries imposed by the stage and experimenting with how to craft his work to fit within them, rather than abridging his material indiscriminately.

This paper discusses the emergence of vaudeville in California’s Inland Empire region of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. It will consider the social changes underway in late nineteenth-century America and their impact on attitudes towards popular entertainment. This paper will draw on Lawrence Levine’s observations of cultural hierarchies that emerged during the late nineteenth century and shaped American understandings of culture. Entertainment of the nineteenth century will be examined for the ways it was unable to match urban trends, and contrasted with vaudeville’s appeal to a diverse urban populace. The cities of San Bernardino, Redlands and Riverside were home to a number of opera houses and theaters to serve rapidly growing communities, and a review of the performances offered in these communities and at these venues will demonstrate these shifts in popular entertainment.

Theatre history has long interwoven with the production, consumption, and peddling of alcohol. While the seedier aspects of our past generally go unremembered, we can find traces of them in the culture of the times. If we read Shakespeare through the lens of drinking culture, what can we discover about the play and what can that tell us about how to produce his works today? By looking at the rules and customs surrounding alehouses during the English Renaissance I have analyzed the three plays contained within the Falstaffiad (1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Merry Wives of Windsor).

The purpose of this study - Actors, costumes and agreements - is to highlight an almost forgotten part of the history of theatre costume and theatre history.  During at least two hundred years actors in Sweden were expected to contribute to the performance by their costumes. The study is divided into three parts: agreements, memoirs and conversation. Nine agreements between theatres and actors from 1778 to 1971 will be analyzed with focus on costumes. What do they express about the period, fashion and repertoire, audience? The theatres demand of the actors could be very detailed and shifting. Three memoire books and conversation with seven actors represent the actors view. Questions arise about actors poor economy, theatre culture and gender. The study will also show periods with connection between fashion and theatre costume.

In most journalistic studies the film career of Charles Laughton overshadows his theatrical activities to the extent that the reader is hardly aware of the importance of his theatrical innovations to the theater of our time. The more commercial side of Laughton’s career was publicized while his artistic efforts, as characterized by the innovations, were frequently forgotten. More people remember him as the man who played Captain Bligh in the movies than as the man who worked with Bertolt Brecht, created the First Drama Quartette and developed a new American art form, Readers’ Theatre. The rationale of this study is to show the artistic Laughton in vivid enough detail to reverse the journalistic formula of emphasizing his film work and subordinating his theatrical innovations. If he had been strictly a commercial minded artist this study would not be needed. But he was anything but a commercially oriented individual. He was instead a pioneer whose total theatrical accomplishments, as mirrored through his innovations, were as outstanding as his film triumphs. These accomplishments are worthy of attention with his film career acting as a secondary consideration.

A análise aborda o fenômeno artístico e cultural que é o teatro de Liev Tolstói no limiar entre a literatura e a história do teatro russo. A ênfase recai em apenas uma peça e suas quatro versões cênicas, permitindo, por um lado, abranger um grande período de tempo e observar as transformações que ocorrem com O Cadáver Vivo no decurso de um século de história russa; por outro lado, visa aprofundar o estudo dedicado a uma faceta específica da arte de Liev Tolstói. / The analysis addresses the artistic and cultural phenomenon that is the theater of Leo Tolstoy on the threshold between literature and history of Russian theater. The emphasis is in one piece and its four scenic versions, allowing one hand, cover a large period of time and observe the changes that occur with The Living Corpse over a century of Russian history, on the other hand, seeks to deepen study dedicated to a specific facet of the art of Leo Tolstoy.

Since little critical attention has been given to the dramas of this period, it would seem that further examination of them would be of value. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the dramas of the major Romantic poets in order to provide a new critical perspective on their plays specifically and Romantic drama generally. From this it is hoped useful conclusions can be drawn. The study will be limited to the plays of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. John Keats has been omitted from this group because his only drama was written in conjunction with Armitage Brown, a minor writer. The dramas chosen for this investigation are those which either have been produced on the stage or ware submitted for production. If the author submitted more than one play, the play which the critics consider marks the summit of dramatic achievement of the author has been selected. Included in this study are The Borderers by Wordsworth, Remorse by Coleridge, The Cenci by Shelley, and Cain by Byron. The dramas are presented for discussion according to the chronological order in which they were written. The study will include an examination of the background against which the tragedies were written - the state of the contemporary drama, the stage, the plays and the audiences. Those factors which may have affected the work - the author's thoughts, the facts of composition, and elements of Romanticism - will also be considered. In addition, both contemporary and modern criticism will be included. (The criticism beginning with that of George Bernard Shaw in 1886 will be classified as modern.) These criticisms will form the bases for evaluations of the plays.

No description available.

The dissertation deals with the Municipal Theatre of Göteborg with special reference to the period between 1967 and 1971, during which the group theatre developed and paved the way for a repertoire of social criticism. The theatre debate is viewed against the background of the socio-economic, ideo­logical, and cultural development of the 1960,s. After describing conditions at the Municipal Theatre of Göteborg under Mats Johansson's management from 1962 onwards, the study concentrates on analysing three group theatre plays produced by Lennart Hjulström: Flotten (spring 1967) by Kent Andersson, Hemmet (autumn 1967) by Kent Andersson and Bengt Bratt, and Sandlådan (autumn 1968) by Kent Andersson. The first play thematizes the ideological confusion of the middle-aged generation, the second the disappointment of the aged at the betrayal of socialist ideals, and the third the manipulative repression of children's education. A series of stagings with strong elements of social criticism caused a long and intense debate in the summer of 1969 about both the repertoire and the internal conditions of the Municipal Theatre. In spring, 1971, Kent Andersson and Bengt Bratt wrote Tillståndet (an ambiguous title meaning both 'condition' and 'permission'), by which the authors intended to ex­pose the repressive tolerance of bourgeois society. This play functions as an evaluation of both the group theatre period and the situation of the theatre as a whole, and it is therefore analysed in a metaperspective. It also functions as a summary of the criticism of the Swedish welfare state. / digitalisering@umu