An Exploration of Style by Steven Gross

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Welcome!

This is a blog of the variety of theatrical styles discussed and discovered in the Exploration of Style class at the University of the Arts taught by Fadi Skeiker in fall 2020.

Feel free to take a look around, ask me questions, comment. If you want to share something you see, please contact me!

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Naturalism

Naturalism is a style in search of truth originating from the rise of scientific methodology with the ideas of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud and rejection of romanticism and thought being given from religious authority. The main thesis of naturalism is that all humans are a product of forces outside of their control, mainly heredity and environment. Emile Zola, who wrote about naturalism most acutely, wrote that theater should be an absolute pursuit and demonstration of truth so every detail in the environment—costumes, set, etc.—should be perfectly factual as possible because it is that environment in which the play takes place and acts as a force on the characters. Director Andre Antoine would rehearse only after the set was in place and would work with actors on the set, specifying their movements and action so that it could be as truthful as possible. Other themes of naturalism are urban settings, pessimism, and direct observation of human life including survival, determination, violence, and determinism.

In my installation, I am focusing on the characteristics of urban setting, pessimism, and cruel outside forces on which the character has no control. My character is a blue stress ball, attempting to simply exist inside a metallic, harsh world, using its individual strength of tape. However the natural force of fire is cruel and turns away its tape, the environment's dust and surfaces don't allow for the ball to stay afloat, and an outside force keeps pushing on the ball, keeping it from its goal. This narrative exists inside an actual boiler closet, allowing absolute truth and factual representation of the environment. The viewer observes the outside forces acting maliciously, which the ball is not able to resist.

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Naturalism installation continued

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Naturalism installation continued

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Realism

Realism is a style that originated around the same time as naturalism, in mid to late nineteenth century Europe, under similar notions of trusting logic and the scientific method more than religious doctrine for understanding truth. Realism veered from naturalism in a few distinct ways. While naturalism exhibited truth by paying attention to every detail of life and replicating it on stage to show the uncontrollable forces of environment and heredity, realism demonstrated truth in analyzing and questioning the values of society and how individuals have agency to control their surroundings. Realism also drew from the theories and observations of Marx and Darwin, but also looked at the Positivism of August Comte and ideas of studying society that he brought to main discourses. Additionally, realism took a look into middle class life and the characters there as reflections of the human condition using a more selective "slice of life" approach.

My realism installation features the questioning of gender roles, a prominent theme in realism during its initial growth, primarily by Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and George Bernard Shaw. I have displayed a variety of characteristics that range in terms of how society assigns them to different gender presentations and expressions alongside paired colors of pink and blue—colors most associated with binary genders in Western society—and a silhouette of a body often assigned to being femme-presenting. With all this juxtaposition, the intended thought process is the questioning of what makes sense together and what feels like it should be othered into another group. The follow up thought would hopefully be, why do I put these categories together? This is all set on a board featuring a birds eye view of a home with a variety of rooms that can be associated with a middle-class socioeconomic perspective. The closing piece is a border of blue checkered pattern which narrows into which aspects are being looked at, mirroring the aspect of realism of selective slice of life. The undeniable aspect of this installation is that all the pieces involved are from board games, a choice of style I made because it is inherently a demonstration of an observation of human condition which can be manipulated, experimented with: all actions tied to the scientific process as well as a sense of agency displayed in realism.

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Expressionism

Expressionism is a style of theater that actually started in other artforms, specifically painting, in Germany in the turn of the twentieth century. One of the most recognizable pinpoints of expressionism is The Scream by Edvard Munch. Its characteristic lack of focus, blurring and blending of environment, and shadowy and unclear figures all create a dreamlike, non-realistic depiction which encapsulates much of the work of expressionistic artists to follow. In theater, the art is often episodic, distorting physical realities, and focusing on emotion and suffering rather than narratives. A large number of expressionistic artists utilize spiritual awakening, either of the "characters" in the piece, the artist themself throughout the process, or the audience in viewing the piece. Visually, there is much focus on shadows, silhouettes, and abstract scenic design, creating not only dreamlike, but nightmarish landscapes.

In my installation, I focused mainly on the aspects of nightmare and shadow to evoke expressionistic style. I utilized specific apertures, focuses, and positions of light to create a dark void. Out of this abstract space, we have a growling lion merged with scissors, an image designed from visceral fears which often appear in nightmarelands. I made some shadows of stalactite-like shapes, distorting the reality and adding in an element of danger, continuing the theme of nightmare. With these fear/emotion-based images, I hope to push a viewer away from attempts at drawing a narrative and just exist with the non-realistic world and images created.

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Visit Original Link

CW: Loud, abrasive sounds

Absurdism

Absurdism as a theatrical style emerged largely after World War II and came into major discourse after critic Martin Esslin labeled a group of playwrights including Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco as absurdist. Esslin drew this conclusion from the philosophical core of these writers' works being connected to existentialism. Theatre of the Absurd is driven by the anxiety, confusion, and hopelessness caused by the universe being unexplainable and unpredictable. The context of being post-World War II is vital to understanding absurdism because it's the extreme destruction of the world and life that brings a loss to the meaning of life and questions of free will. The writers around Theatre of the Absurd search for answers from existentialist works including those by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Existentialism doesn't provide many answers to the questions posed by absurdism which provokes more anxiety and fear: the anxiety of making wrong choices in life and the fear that death will come before finding meaning to life.

In general, absurdism proposes that human existence has no meaning, therefore communication has no value. This leads to much of the dialogue in Theatre of the Absurd being either nonsensical, words not having any meaning or definition but just being sounds, or uncommunicative, completely lost to other characters. Themes also include the uselessness of human actions, alienation and hopelessness, and the universe as illogical. Much of Theatre of the Absurd uses ambiguity and fluidity in time, identity, and sometimes place, non-realism, and chaos. The meaningless of life and hopelessness from uselessness are core to absurdism and motivate all action, if there is any, in the works.

Our soundtrack features a four-part soundscape that parallels an existential crisis. It starts in a near-silence with barely perceptible sounds that create tension and anxiety, waiting for something to happen. Then we hear a large crash and a seemingly endless descending sound with some repeated and nonsense dialogue on top of it. This abruptly shifts into a length of repeated mechanical sounds with some robotic text spoken, leaving us uncertain and unstable. That switches into the last segment of a chaotic guitar soundscape, unnerving and overwhelming. This sequence lives in absurdism as it draws on the anxiety and uncertainty that are created from thinking about the meaningless of life, individual hopelessness, and the largeness of an illogical universe.

Soundtrack created by Steven Gross, Robyn Honabach, Ryan Louis, Ivory Ramirez

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Modernism/Postmodernism

Modernism and postmodernism are used to describe two eras of theatrical (and generally artistic) styles. Modernism in theater spans from naturalism and realism in the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, up until World War II. Postmodernism then takes up theater post-World War II and up until the end of the twentieth century, although some continue postmodernism into contemporary theater.

The stylistic movements under the umbrella of modernism are all tied by their search for a precise answer to life and existence. Each style—naturalism, realism, expressionism—uses specific and rigid methodologies to observe the world and attempt to find purpose in life. Modernism emerged directly following and amid the growth of the scientific method for observing and understanding the world. The writings of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Auguste Comte all inspired attempts to engage with the world through theater that are based on the search for truth.

Postmodernism is simply defined by the reaction that came after modernism in theater and art. All of the various stylistic movements were a rejection of the objective process of finding singular truth in life through art. Instead, postmodern movements embraced multiplicity in truth, narrative, style, and conceptions of theater. Theater makers abandoned the idea of pure narrative storytelling, division of high and low art, and rigidity in the creation of one thing. Postmodern styles were also keen in incorporating the audience into the craft and artmaking itself.

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Epic Theatre

Epic theater, most often largely attributed to Bertolt Brecht, originated in the early to mid-twentieth century in Western Europe. Brecht's work was largely influenced by Marxism and almost always had a strong sociopolitical message which was delivered acutely through his plays. Epic theater uses episodes to tell specific stories that all (sometimes) lined up together in a general world or specific political message. Brecht was well known for his verfremdungseffekt which is often translated as an alienation-effect. This essentially mean that the play would actively estrange the audience from their stability, making them active viewers of the piece to fully take in the work. With this in mind, there was often a use of direct address, speaking stage directions, and using placards to title the scenes and characters. All of these devices further stated quite firmly to the audience that they were watching a play, specifically a Lehrstück or learning play that had a valuable message to be gleaned. In Brecht's theater, there was also a use of music. However unlike current notions of American musical theater, the songs sung would come out of nowhere, not likely advance the plot, and sometimes would tonally be in direct opposition to the content. This was again a technique to jar the audience awake and attentive to the scene. Brecht also used harsh white lighting over the stage and audience to make sure that the audience couldn't fall asleep or feel distanced from the actions on stage. The characters were more often than not quite archetypal, serving as mouthpieces for a general station in society rather than an individual with a unique backstory or action. In this way, actors were encouraged to not fully invest themselves in the character but let the character live as an external façade.

The assignment for this style was to make a Brechtian poster to encourage people to vote:

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Documentary Theater

This is the style that I did in depth research on for the class. Here is a summary of my findings:

Varied Beginnings:

In Ancient Greece, Phrynicus’ The Capture of Miletus used facts from a recent Persian war and actually was censored for the trauma it caused because it was too real.

In mid-nineteenth c. Germany, Georg Buchner’s Danton’s Death using verbatim text from key figures in French Revolution

And then…

Living Newspapers:

Right after WWI and a Communist revolution in Russia, the USSR Department of Agitation and Propaganda contracted the Blue Blouse theatre troupes to create touring productions including the zhivaya gazeta or living newspaper.

“These sketches, presenting facts and information about the progress of the revolution, were the first documentary dramas.”

Erwin Piscator:

In Germany, later in the 1920s, Erwin Piscator experimented with all the new technology for recording material and sharing it including projections. Using a variety of archival information like reports and meeting minutes, he began to define this work.

“[The] central or exclusive reliance on actual rather than imaginary event, on dialogue, song and/or visual materials (photographs, films, pictorial documents) ‘found’ in the historical record or gathered by the playwright/researcher, and by a disposition to set individual behavior in all articulated political and/or social context.”

His most noted play was In Spite of Everything!: Historical revue of the years 1914-1919 in twenty-four scenes with intermittent films which he wrote with Felix Gasbarra and was the history of the German Communist Party.

Hallie Flanagan:

In the 1930s, all the way over in the United States, there’s a Great Depression. So, FDR makes the New Deal including the Works Progress Administration which is intended to make jobs. Part of this was the Federal Theatre Project, led by Hallie Flanagan. She made a Living Newspaper unit which hired unemployed newspaper workers and theater makers to use the Russian methods of talking about societal issues including agriculture (Triple-A Plowed Under, 1935), and housing (One-Third of a Nation, 1938) using actual data and information.

Unity Theatre:

At the same time, 1930s Britain, the Unity Theatre breaks off from the Workers’ Theatre Movement which was the cultural arm of the Communist Party to have a theater that was a unified front against fascism without being tied to communism. They also employed the living newspaper techniques including a play called Busmen (1938) which utilized actually bus workers and data to retell the London bus strikes.

Peter Weiss:

After WWII, back in Germany, Erwin Piscator resurfaces with Peter Weiss who makes a document entitled “Fourteen Propositions for a Documentary Theater” specifying the constraints and expanses of the form.

Point fourteen says, “The documentary theater affirms that reality, whatever the obscurity in which it masks itself, can be explained in minute detail.”

One of his most famous plays is The Investigation (1965) which is a condensed reenactment of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials using real witness testimony.

Anna Deavere Smith:

A few decades and social movements later, Anna Deavere Smith in the United States circa 1980s focuses on the collection of information via interviews and then performing those interviews on stage to capture the voices and stories of America with a focus into identity, race, gender, and politics. Two of her most famous works are Fires in the Mirror (1992) and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1994).

Performance Ethnography:

A sidestep from documentary theater, performance ethnography is a form of research which uses performance as the delivery method for full embodied experience and accessibility to data. It relies upon the understanding that research around people and culture makes most sense when delivered spoken and lived rather than on page.

It differs from documentary theater in that, this is research for research sake which is then translated to be performed whereas documentary theatre uses investigation while meaning from inception to be an artistic, performative venture.

The Work Continues:

There are so many other examples of contemporary documentary theater, especially in the United States. Here are a few to look into if interested: 

Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre Project, Moment Work

The Civilians, investigative theatre

Life Jacket Theatre Company

The Neo-Futurists

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

So What Is It?

My current working definition of documentary theater:

Loosely, the use of text, image, video, language, etc not from imagination but from evidential recording of reality. It aims at bringing reality closest to the audience; intimacy in a presentation of truth based in a shared understanding of fact.