New Connections, New Starts - 1911 -

New Connections, New Starts - 1911 -

This year the Abbey Theatre* tours to New York City, providing the American theatre with some ideas about performing and about playwrighting. In Great Britain, Edith Craig* (1869- 1947), Ellen Terry*s daughter and sister of Edward Gordon Craig*, turns from acting to production and begins directing the Pioneer Players*. In Liverpool another vigorous provincial repertory company starts up. In Russia Stanislavsky* founds the First Studio* to train students and work out theatrical problems that arise. It is under the direction of Leopold Sullerzhitsky* (1872-1916) and is also designed to encourage nonrealistic approaches to production. Several future theatrical leaders get their training here, Richard Boleslavsky*, Mikhail Chekhov* and Yevgeny Vakhtangov*.

In Paris, a dramatic critic-turned-director, Jacques Copeau* (1879-1949,) has his adaptation of The Brothers Karamazov* produced at the Th‚ƒtre des Arts.

This is the year Strindberg* dies. By this time he is one of the most famous dramatists in the world, not for the popularity of his plays (they are never widely popular) but for the controversy and inspiration they engender. His view of human beings as tortured and alienated will attract many later writers. He leads the way in developing dramatic devices that show how psychological and spiritual states can be revealed on the stage. He is the first playwright to make a lot of use of the unconscious and this will be a major influence on later playwrights.

Also this year, Hugo von Hofmannsthal* (1874-1929), who started in the 1890s writing neo- romantic plays, has come to believe that words are meaningless and is now reworking older theatre pieces. He did an Elektra* in 1903, and this year he comes out with Everyman*. Last year (1911) he wrote (with Richard Strauss*) an opera libretto, Der Rosenkavalier*. Some of Also this year, Hugo von Hofmannsthal* (1874-1929), who started in the 1890s writing neo- romantic plays, has come to believe that words are meaningless and is now reworking older theatre pieces. He did an Elektra* in 1903, and this year he comes out with Everyman*. Last year (1911) he wrote (with Richard Strauss*) an opera libretto, Der Rosenkavalier*. Some of

he will write The Great World Theatre*. Max Reinhardt* brings America his first touring production, Sumurum*. It is a poetic staging

of an Arabian Nights story with settings by Ernst Stern* (1876-1954). In Moscow, Stanislavsky* is very impressed by Edward Gordon Craig* and hires him to

design and direct an abstract production of Hamlet*. It doesn't get done the way Craig* wants it to and Stanislavsky* has to finish it. It's a fascinating production, a controversial success and a landmark of the modern theatre. It makes a deep impression on Stanislavsky*, causing him to change some of his basic ideas about acting.

In St. Petersburg, Evreinov* puts on his most famous monodrama, The Theatre of the Soul*. He is also busy experimenting with a variety of styles and running two of the most noted cabaret theatres of the time.

In Paris this year, the first play of Claudel* (1868-1955) to be seen on the French stage, The Tidings Brought to Mary*, is put on by Lugne-Poe*'s Theatre de L'Oeuvre* (which is reopened this year.) Claudel* writes a poetic drama for a form of total theatre that hasn't really developed yet. Experimental staging is required for all his plays.

Edith Craig*'s Pioneer Players* do two plays by Claudel*, The Tidings Brought to Mary* and The Exchange*.

This year in America, Belasco* reaches the peak of naturalistic detail in his production of The Governor's Lady*. It takes place in a Childs Restaurant which he reproduces on the stage of the Belasco Theatre* and has it stocked with food every day by the Childs chain so the actors can eat it during the performance.

1912-13 The Russian-sponsored Balkan League pushes the Turks out of Europe in the Balkan Wars. This replaces Turkey-in-Europe with a bunch of dissatisfied, mutually antagonistic Balkan states. What we have here is a highly unstable situation, ready to explode.

By this time 1000 watt spotlights and color media are in common use in theatre lighting. Footlights are beginning to be replaced by spotlights mounted in the house.

Mary Wigman* (originally Marie Wiegmann, 1886-1973), a German, trained in eurythmics, refuses a job in ballet and starts a career dancing in what will become "modern dance."

In France, Jacques Copeau* comes out with a manifesto for a new theatre. His views are directly opposite to those of Meyerhold*. Copeau* argues that the director's job is to faithfully translate the playwright's script into the "poetry of the theatre." The actor is the only essential theatrical element, and is primary as the "living presence" of the author. Copeau* wants to return to the bare platform stage. In order to put his ideas into action, he takes over the Theatre du Vieux-Columbier* and converts it into a design based on Craig*'s architectural model of the ideal theatre. It seats only 400 and has a forestage, architectural steps and platform and a set of basic curtains that can be moved on rods to indicate changes in scene. Although Copeau* is interested in Antoine*'s innovations, he doesn't like the realistic theatre.

He wants to bring back the "true beauty and poetry" of the French stage. He will spend a lot of his time training actors and influencing European and American theatre.

In Birmingham, England, the Birmingham Repertory Company* gets off to a good start. It will become influential after the war. In America, the fight between the Syndicate* and the Schuberts* reaches its peak and the grip of the Syndicate* is broken. Now the Syndicate* was a cooperative arrangement among independent businessmen, but the Schuberts* had a new type organization, a corporation, and they have bought or built so many theatres around the country that they are rapidly becoming a monopoly. Local managers who are fed up with the high-handed methods of the Syndicate* are happy to switch to the Schuberts*.

In London, the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree* (1853-1917) produces Shaw*'s Pygmalion*. It's a resounding success. In Paris, Jacques Copeau* stages The Exchange* by Claudel*, at his Theatre du Vieux-Columbier*. Also this year Claudel*'s The Hostage* goes on at Lugne-Poe's Theatre de L'Oeuvre*. (Edith Craig* will produce this one in 1916 for the Pioneer Players*.)

In New York City, a play-producing society is founded, called the Washington Square Players*. Their first program of one-acts is put on at the Bandbox Theatre*. Some of the plays are written especially for the occasion. This group will help spearhead a new theatre movement in America.

In Russia, Alexander Tairov* (1885-1950) opens his own theatre, the Kamerny * (the Chamber Theatre) in Moscow. He is into making theatre something like the sacred dances in an ancient temple. Rhythmical movement and the actor as the basic creative force in the theatre are the focus of his work. His settings are architectural, steps and levels. His work produces theatrical productions closer to ritual than the usual experimental performances.

In Germany, in the Dresden State Theatre*, a complex scenery-shifting arrangement is installed by Adolph Linnebach* (1876-1963). This combines sliding platforms with elevators, flying scenery, small wagons and manual shifting.

In many German theatres of this period there are also plaster domes (kuppelhorizont*) that curve around and above the stage and eliminate the need for a lot of upstage masking pieces. It is designed to give the impression of infinite space.

1914 This year marks the end of one period of history and the beginning of another. The heir- presumptive to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnian terrorists. Vienna (Austria) decides it's now or never (if they want to reestablish themselves as a great power) and Germany, alarmed by that "encirclement" of France, Great Britain and Russia, decides to support Austria. The "guns of August" start firing. Everybody expects a short war, over by Christmas, and, fought in the old way, with gallantry, dash, flourishing cavalry assaults when the evenings can be spent enjoying the admiration of civilians and civilized the benefits of dinners and dances. They are very wrong.

The Germans plan to encircle the French armies before the Russians get mobilized, but the Russians invade East Prussia. In the West (in contrast to the Eastern frontier where the

Germans are fighting the Russians,) the Battle of the Marne sets Germany back and the year ends with the Allies and the Germans failing to outflank each other in Flanders.

In the West, both sides are now dug in (in interconnected sections of "trenches") along a 400 mile line from the English channel to the Swiss frontier. The major combatants are the "Allies" (Great Britain, France, Russia, and later, Italy, Japan, Romania and Greece) against the "Central Powers" (Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.)