Modern and Contemporary Theatre

In Monday's class, we were asked to pick a movement in the history of theatre and give a short history of it. I chose Modern and contemporary drama.

The Modern Drama era began as an antirealistic reaction. A group called Avant-garde was form which constituted several factions against the realist movement. The modern movement occurred in the late 19th century with a German opera composer named Richard Wagner. He believed that the responsibility of a playwright or composer was to create myths. He was very good at this. He also wanted to portray the people in the play as real characters that were very much related to the audience. He incorporated all of the parts of drams into his work and put more emphasis on the individual parts. In order to create a feeling of unity among the people in the audience and get them focused on the play at hand, he dimmed the lights before each showing to get the focus on the stage. Wagner also rearranged the seating, sloping the floor so that every spectator could have an equal view of the stage.

Reference: http://litera1no4.tripod.com/dramahistory.html