The Broad World Of American Theatre

Before the 20th century, people used music and dancing to tell stories, but it had nothing to do with developing musical theater. Musical theatre is a type of play that tells a story through songs, spoken dialogue, and dancing. During the 20th century, there was a lot of change going on in Musical Theatre. Musicals are different from other types of stage works such as opera because a musical would not be a musical without the music, story line, or dancing. European operetta was becoming more popular than American Musical Theatre. The two main types of opera that were being made were called ballad operas and comic operas which had romantic plots. American composers sought to come up with something new, since Musical Theatre was not very popular with the general public. There were a lot of components that helped shape musical theatre in America , but most think that it was mainly developed because of the different tastes developing, likeable styles, spirit and energy by composers in America, it was not. Although musical theaters origins are not certain, Musical theatre gradually developed using influences of ballad opera, comic opera, operetta, vaudeville, and burlesque.

John D’Emilio’s “Capitalism and Gay Identity” contracts what life was like for gay men and lesbians throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1970s, gay men and lesbians were able to come out freely, and eventually started to get accepted by everyone in society. They were able to express themselves without any regards, and started to become the person they were destined to be. People within the gay community have always expressed tendencies of liking the same sex, but societal norms did not allow them to express themselves. However, during the 1980s, as more people decided to openly come out, it started to take a toll on their identity. Society then started to question the importance of people who were brave enough to come out to the world.

Many, if not all, plays are written to evoke thoughts from people in the audience. Through their scripts, authors deliver messages about their opinions on various issues ranging from gender roles to class ranks. These messages are developed to provoke thoughts and questions from people who experience performances. In the play Rome Sweet Rome, the Q Brothers Collective use both new and old theatrical techniques to make parallels between the Roman and United States governments by addressing issues involving women’s roles in society, class rank, and homosexuality. The play uses methods both similar and different to other classic plays to deliver a message that is relatable to issues in today’s world. This message is enhanced through the use of acting styles, set design, costumes, music, and lighting.

Like PIG, many works in queer theatre are representations of life experienced by the writers. The gay community is brought together by similar events such as coming out and harassment by the intolerant. These happenings are the underlying forces that give the material for queer theatre, and as the times change theatre topics evolve. The truth is a state of fabulosity is what one makes of it. We can create the presumptions that the characters in our three plays are all fabulous because they are unapologetically what they want to be; but to take such deep topics and use such a rudimentary term, that is associated with glitzy and loud characteristics, would be to dilute the importance of queer theatre as a movement. Gay theatre is turning a page

In the genre of theatre, there are multiple plays and playwrights that touch on controversial topics found throughout society. These playwrights utilize their own personal styles and theatrical elements to convey a certain message or theme to their audience.

The looming ‘culture war’ phenomena is not a new one nor a particularly unique one in any history; this mythical ‘culture war’ can found, for example, in the in social history of the 1970’s with white evangelicals fighting more moderate and secular minded reformists, resulting in race riots and abortion clinic bombings. Consequently, because this trend is cyclical, we can see it’s reverberations in modern theater and can see, in many ways, that this current direction of America. It begins with the elimination of nuance. ‘Disagree with me, you’re a fascist’ types the antifa member, ‘I’ll punch you in the face you dirty commie,” retorts the MAGA-hat-clad alt-righter: this has become the height of our political discourse. In the-land-of-do-as-you-please,

[1] Since it opened in 1984 the theater has won worldwide acclaim for the quality and scope of its productions. [2] Those productions range from all-male casts (such as the one shown on the next page) performing works in the sixteenth-century Grand Kabuki tradition to U.S. premieres of contemporary works by leading Japanese choreographers. [3] The theater doesn't just book productions; it works closely with the artists, whom it presents. [4] In fact according to the managing director for programs between 60 and 70 percent of the theater's presentations 396 are developed in partnership with the artists. [5] In 1988, for example the theater staged the first, Broadway-style Japanese musical, Utamoro: The Musical which is Tako Izumi's story of the eighteenth-century woodcut artist Utamoro.

When I took my first bow on a stage, I knew that wanted to peruse the performing arts as a permanent career. I was so pleased with myself that I finally found a place where I belong. As I have grown as a performer, I have learned that performing is not just reciting lines in front of an audience but creating a picture with words. There is a technique behind acting and many have come to known this as “method”, “method acting”, or the “Stanislavski method”.

As stated in the Living Theatre book, "should we envy nations with a national theatre? In the United States there is no national theatre, but National Endowment for the Arts and state art agencies do provide some sort of government support towards theatre companies". Furthermore, if people agreed to envy nations with a national theatre they only have a few good points. Like these facts that the French are able to have an official home for theatre, but also have an advantage on icons producing their work. To comment on that a lot of people would be fascinated at the thought that an icon worked there, not really looking at the bigger picture as in if a National Theatre could benefit if you wanted to join. Like picking a college the best college is not always the best for some. Secondly, if we look at theatre it has Europe's name all over it and the United States needs something like that besides typical Broadway. Besides the people who choose to envy just look at the Comedie Francaise and what it has brought to the table and do not see the downside.

There are approximately 9 million people living in the United States who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Of the 126 film releases by major studios (20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Columbia, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers, as well as films released by four major subsidiary studios) in 2015, only 22 of them contained characters who identified as LGBT. In other words, 82.5% of major studio releases failed to represent any of the LGBT U.S. population. The exclusion and/or marginalization of “the Other” has been the main focus over the course of this semester through various films and studies, showing an often one-sided narrative of “the Other”. We find at times, our films relying on stereotypes, which further the separation of minorities from a ruling white heteronormative society. Acknowledging film as a medium for socialization, it is important to monitor what is being constructed and how that is influencing how society views and thinks about a certain “subject”. I want to address the lack of representation of the LGBT community onscreen, but more specifically, the way in which the act of “gay sex” is constructed for its audience. For the purposes of this paper, I use the tv-show turned film Looking, because it is the most recent look into gay sex onscreen, to examine the messages it leaves behind. My hope, is to reflect upon these messages, and more deeply, delve into what

African-American Theatre has gone through exponential changes throughout the course of American history. They have made a push towards defining theatre for a whole of African-American culture. In doing so, African-American actors, directors, technicians, and theatre entrepreneurs strive to be the very best in their field and “create a true American theatre” (Miller 335). The theatre challenges thespians to hold onto their roots but branch out and mingle with the culture of today. The African-American Theatre and American Theatre grow closer and closer to each other with variety of traditions and culture all to entertain and drive theatre to a height sought for so long. African-American Theatre has been ridiculed, humiliated, transformed, destroyed, rebuilt, and enhanced, and it continues to remain and grow developing into a world-renowned art.

When you hear the term ‘gay theatre’ the first thought that may come to mind is that it describes theatre written for and by homosexuals.  If this is true, then before the decriminalization of male homosexual sex in 1967, there was no ‘gay theatre’ in existence due to the political and social landscape of that time. Spanning as far back as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, themes of homosexuality have been rampant within theatrical content, but because theatre always reflects the social conditions of its time period, the theatre’s behavior toward homosexuality was a microcosm of its contemporary governing attitudes.  Before the 1960s, theatre was subject to

emergence of an Underground camp cinema that was intrigued with the concept of homosexuality, the normative constructs of society and how the two co­existed. J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbuam believed this new transformative cinema arose from a need to “defragment the official cinematic senses”(Hoberman, p. 39). In turn, creating new ideas and concepts to be explored. During this time period, queer/homosexual directors like Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, and Andy Warhol created pictures like Flaming Creatures, Scorp io Rising, and Blowjob. These films addressed the relationship of heteronormative constructs to homosexuality in new ways via the use of unconventional methods, including over the top acting, the incorporation of pop icons, androgyny, minimalist framing and intense focus.

Until this day, many members of the LGBTQ community are still fighting for their rights and to be accepted for who they are. This community has to challenge political set beliefs such as same-sex marriage to change the societal norm because of who they choose to love and to find their identity. Jonathon Demme’s Film Philadelphia embodies the G and Q in LGBTQ. The protagonist, Andrew Beckett, is fighting an ongoing battle with AIDS but has continued to excel in his job at a Prestigious Law Firm in Philadelphia. Beckett has kept his identity to himself due to some homophobic remarks made by his boss’s in fear of losing his job. Soon enough, Beckett started to show what looked like lesions on his

The Public Sphere within theatre was a concept that was first delineated by philosopher Jurgen Habermas in his book titled The structural transformation of the public sphere, in which he refers to the right that all citizens hold, the right to participate and engage into discussions on public matters of interest and public issues. Habermas writes: “the audience does not constitute a space for spectators and listeners but a space for speakers and addresses who engage in debate.” (Habermas in Balme 2012). The Public sphere has now become a space, a stage, for performers, speakers and protesters to have a voice rather than for the preliminary use of entertainment for the audience, spectators and listeners.