Realistic Elements In Production

Realistic Elements In Production

1832 - Mme Vestris* introduces the first box-set* on the English stage, complete with ceiling. This is a big departure from the usual perspective scene painted on the back drop. There are three real walls, (made by a continuous series of flats joined together), practical doors and windows (instead of having the actors zip in and out of the old wings), and thickness pieces to make everything look real and solid. The play this is used in is W. B. Bernard*'s The Conquering Game*, produced at the Olympic Theatre*.

1832 In France, George Sand* (the pen name of Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin, baronne Dudevant, 1804-76) is professionally busy publishing novels expressing her feminist views. This year it is Indiana*. She writes over 80 novels, dresses like a man to protest the unequal treatment of women, is personally busy having affairs with Alfred de Musset* and Chopin* while being a single (divorced) mother and supporting her two children by her pen.

In the art of ballet* the romantic period begins this year with La Sylphide*, filled with brilliant choreography and emphasizing the beauty and virtuosity of the leading female dancer (prima ballerina). Later in the century, the pressure of naturalism in the theatre will bring a decline to the ballet.

1833 Santa Anna*, having beaten the Spanish, gets to be president of Mexico* this year, but

he is about to have problems with the Americans who have settled in Texas. In Great Britain, a fellow who has a great influence on the current literary world, Thomas

Carlyle* (1795-1881) is busy being a critic of materialism in his book Sartor Resartus*. 1833 - Around this year the "Jim Crow" song and dance business is enlarged into Ethiopian

Operas* by Rice* (see above). This entertainment form will keep growing. 1835 - In America, a third theatre opens in New Orleans, the St. Charles Theatre *. It is

currently the snazziest theatre in the country, with the largest stage (90 by 95 feet). Gas lighting is now the in thing.

1835 The French writer Honore de Balzac* (1799-1850) comes out with one of the stories, Pere Goriot, that are included in his twenty-year work, The Human Comedy*.

1836 This year Transcendentalism* as a literary movement begins to flourish (1836-60) in New England. It is centered in Concord, MA with Ralph Waldo Emerson* (1803-82) stating the movements main principles in Nature. Margaret Fuller* (1810-50, American critic and social reformer) and Henry David Thoreau* (1817-62, social critic, naturalist and author) are part of this movement. Transcendentalism* is an optimistic philosophy that emphasizes individualism, self-reliance and the rejection of traditional authority (especially Calvinist orthodoxy and Unitarian rationalism).

In the United States Arkansas is admitted as the 25th state. Down in the Southwest a bunch of Texas rebels declare Texas independent from everybody. They defeat and capture Santa Anna*, but he quickly regains his Mexican power. This won't be the end of the dispute.

In Great Britain the novelist Charles Dickens* (1812-70) is just getting started with the publication of his early sketches of London life, Sketches by Boz*. Late this year (1836-7) he becomes famous with the publication of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club*.

1836 - The Russian writer, Nikolai Gogol* (1809-52) has been writing a number of things, but this year he comes out with a delightfully satirical play on provincial and bureaucratic folly, The Inspector General*.

1837 - In America this year a new native-born actress is beginning work at the Park Theatre* in New York. She is Charlotte Cushman* (1816-76.) There she will learn her craft. Later she will be known as the finest tragic actress in the English-speaking world. We'll follow her career.

The English poet, Robert Browning*, has his first play produced, a tragedy, Strafford*. He will be better remembered for Pippa Passes*.

1837 In Great Britain Victoria* (1819-1901) succeeds William IV* as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. She will rule 1837-1901, the longest reign in English history, and become Empress of India.

In the United States, Martin Van Buren* (1782-1862) takes over as the 8th president (1837- 41). Michigan is admitted as the 26th state this year. There will be a lot of economic problems next year.

The master of American fiction, Nathaniel Hawthorne* (1804-64), produces his Twice-Told Tales*.

1838 Dickens comes out with Oliver Twist*. By this time Richard Wagner* (1813-83) is writing his operas. This year he does Rienzi*.

This German composer also writes his own librettos and brings the musical and dramatic expression of German romanticism to its height. He embodies all the major characteristics of the romanticists, passionate nationalism, a return to native folklore for his stories (German mythology, in this case) and a fusion of music and text. He calls his works "Music-dramas". Later we will have some theatrical design theories come out of productions of his works.

1838 - This year Mme Vestris* (1797-1856) tours to America and brings historically correct costumes, real props and a box-set* to the attention of the theatres here.

The English novelist and playwright, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton* (1803-73), brings out his most successful play, The Lady of Lyons*. It's romantic and sentimental, but it will remain popular for many years.

1840's - In America gas lighting is now the way to go in theatres as gas sources become dependable. This makes for much more flexible and spectacular lighting since the gas flow can be controlled through what are called "gas tables" where each gas jet can be turned up and down by one operator. For the next forty years this system will be refined and improved until electricity begins to be available.

1840 - One of Scribe*'s best known plays, A Glass of Water*, comes out this year.