Plays Licensed in 1855
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Joseph Grimaldi
Joseph Grimaldi The most famous and popular of all the clowns in harlequinade and pantomime was Joseph Grimaldi. Despite his Italian name and family origins, he was born in London in 1779, dying in 1837. His style of clowning had its origins in the Italian commedia dell'arte of the sixteenth century, but in the popular Harlequinades of the early nineteenth century he emerged as the founding father of modern day clowns. To this day he is commemorated annually by clowns in their own church, Holy Trinity in Dalston, East London. Joseph Grimaldi was the original 'Clown Joey', the term 'Joey' being used to describe clowns since his day. Of his own name he punned 'I am grim all day - but I make you laugh at night!' Grimaldi became the most popular clown in pantomime, and was responsible for establishing the clown as the main character in the Harlequinade, in place of Harlequin. His career began at the age of three at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. He was later to become the mainstay of the Drury Lane Theatre before settling in at Covent Garden in 1806. His three year contract paid him one pound a week, rising to two pounds the following year, and finally three pounds a week. His debut at Covent Garden was in 'Harlequin and Mother Goose; or the Golden Egg' in 1806. Grimaldi himself had little faith in the piece, and undoubtedly it was hastily put together on a sparsely decorated stage. However, the production ran for 92 nights, and took over £20,000. The lack of great theatrical scenes allowed Grimaldi to project himself to the fore 'he shone with unimpeded brilliance' once critic wrote. -
The Dublin Gate Theatre Archive, 1928 - 1979
Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections Northwestern University Libraries Dublin Gate Theatre Archive The Dublin Gate Theatre Archive, 1928 - 1979 History: The Dublin Gate Theatre was founded by Hilton Edwards (1903-1982) and Micheál MacLiammóir (1899-1978), two Englishmen who had met touring in Ireland with Anew McMaster's acting company. Edwards was a singer and established Shakespearian actor, and MacLiammóir, actually born Alfred Michael Willmore, had been a noted child actor, then a graphic artist, student of Gaelic, and enthusiast of Celtic culture. Taking their company’s name from Peter Godfrey’s Gate Theatre Studio in London, the young actors' goal was to produce and re-interpret world drama in Dublin, classic and contemporary, providing a new kind of theatre in addition to the established Abbey and its purely Irish plays. Beginning in 1928 in the Peacock Theatre for two seasons, and then in the theatre of the eighteenth century Rotunda Buildings, the two founders, with Edwards as actor, producer and lighting expert, and MacLiammóir as star, costume and scenery designer, along with their supporting board of directors, gave Dublin, and other cities when touring, a long and eclectic list of plays. The Dublin Gate Theatre produced, with their imaginative and innovative style, over 400 different works from Sophocles, Shakespeare, Congreve, Chekhov, Ibsen, O’Neill, Wilde, Shaw, Yeats and many others. They also introduced plays from younger Irish playwrights such as Denis Johnston, Mary Manning, Maura Laverty, Brian Friel, Fr. Desmond Forristal and Micheál MacLiammóir himself. Until his death early in 1978, the year of the Gate’s 50th Anniversary, MacLiammóir wrote, as well as acted and designed for the Gate, plays, revues and three one-man shows, and translated and adapted those of other authors. -
Screwball Syll
Webster University FLST 3160: Topics in Film Studies: Screwball Comedy Instructor: Dr. Diane Carson, Ph.D. Email: [email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on classic screwball comedies from the 1930s and 40s. Films studied include It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth, and The Lady Eve. Thematic as well as technical elements will be analyzed. Actors include Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Barbara Stanwyck. Class involves lectures, discussions, written analysis, and in-class screenings. COURSE OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this course is to analyze and inform students about the screwball comedy genre. By the end of the semester, students should have: 1. An understanding of the basic elements of screwball comedies including important elements expressed cinematically in illustrative selections from noteworthy screwball comedy directors. 2. An ability to analyze music and sound, editing (montage), performance, camera movement and angle, composition (mise-en-scene), screenwriting and directing and to understand how these technical elements contribute to the screwball comedy film under scrutiny. 3. An ability to apply various approaches to comic film analysis, including consideration of aesthetic elements, sociocultural critiques, and psychoanalytic methodology. 4. An understanding of diverse directorial styles and the effect upon the viewer. 5. An ability to analyze different kinds of screwball comedies from the earliest example in 1934 through the genre’s development into the early 40s. 6. Acquaintance with several classic screwball comedies and what makes them unique. 7. An ability to think critically about responses to the screwball comedy genre and to have insight into the films under scrutiny. -
Harlequin Toft; Or, Imposture, Pantomime, and the Instabilities of Satire in the Early Eighteenth Century”
Tonya Howe Marymount University ASECS 2009, Richmond, VA “Harlequin Toft; or, Imposture, Pantomime, and the Instabilities of Satire in the Early Eighteenth Century” From October to December of 1726, Mary Toft hacked dead rabbits into small and not-so-small pieces; forced them, piece-by-piece into her vagina; then expelled these “made…monster[s]”i under the gazes of eminent and not-so-eminent medical men, scholars, general readers, and those of the public who could pay to see the freakshow. For some time, this fraud was acknowledged as fact by several medical men, and those who weren't convinced were nonetheless caught up in the debate, publishing tracts, treatises, rebuttals and apologies. Well over ten substantial tracts—earnest medical explanations, “exact diaries” and “narratives,” satirical responses, philosophical mediations, and more—appeared in print throughout the months of November and December. The poets and satirists of the period quickly climbed aboard, too, riding the tide of Toft's fraud. Alexander Pope published an anonymous broadside ballad satirizing the affair, though most students of 18th century will never see this in an anthology; Jonathan Swift, also writing anonymously, weighed in with two critical pieces on the subject. O ballads about Toft—or rather, the different surgeons associated with the case—emphasized the bawdy humor endemic to the meticulous examination and publicization of Toft's lady parts. A fictitious “confession” also appeared, ostensibly in Toft's own words and “natural” style, playing up ample opportunity for sexual innuendo. From November 1726 to January of the following year, the Toft affair made it into the newspapers over fifty times (Nov/Dec=47x; Jan=16x), in both advertisements for related publications and as news in its own right. -
Uniting Commedia Dell'arte Traditions with the Spieltenor Repertoire
UNITING COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE TRADITIONS WITH THE SPIELTENOR REPERTOIRE Corey Trahan, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2012 APPROVED: Stephen Austin, Major Professor Paula Homer, Committee Member Lynn Eustis, Committee Member and Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James Scott, Dean of the School of Music James R. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Trahan, Corey, Uniting Commedia dell’Arte Traditions with the Spieltenor repertoire. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), May 2012, 85 pp., 6 tables, 35 illustrations, references, 84 titles. Sixteenth century commedia dell’arte actors relied on gaudy costumes, physical humor and improvisation to entertain audiences. The spieltenor in the modern operatic repertoire has a similar comedic role. Would today’s spieltenor benefit from consulting the commedia dell’arte’s traditions? To answer this question, I examine the commedia dell’arte’s history, stock characters and performance traditions of early troupes. The spieltenor is discussed in terms of vocal pedagogy and the fach system. I reference critical studies of the commedia dell’arte, sources on improvisatory acting, articles on theatrical masks and costuming, the commedia dell’arte as depicted by visual artists, commedia dell’arte techniques of movement, stances and postures. In addition, I cite vocal pedagogy articles, operatic repertoire and sources on the fach system. My findings suggest that a valid relationship exists between the commedia dell’arte stock characters and the spieltenor roles in the operatic repertoire. I present five case studies, pairing five stock characters with five spieltenor roles. -
The English-Speaking Aristophanes and the Languages of Class Snobbery 1650-1914
Pre-print of Hall, E. in Aristophanes in Performance (Legenda 2005) The English-Speaking Aristophanes and the Languages of Class Snobbery 1650-1914 Edith Hall Introduction In previous chapters it has been seen that as early as the 1650s an Irishman could use Aristophanes to criticise English imperialism, while by the early 19th century the possibility was being explored in France of staging a topical adaptation of Aristophanes. In 1817, moreover, Eugene Scribe could base his vaudeville show Les Comices d’Athènes on Ecclesiazusae. Aristophanes became an important figure for German Romantics, including Hegel, after Friedrich von Schlegel had in 1794 published his fine essay on the aesthetic value of Greek comedy. There von Schlegel proposed that the Romantic ideals of Freedom and Joy (Freiheit, Freude) are integral to all art; since von Schlegel regarded comedy as containing them to the highest degree, for him it was the most democratic of all art forms. Aristophanic comedy made a fundamental contribution to his theory of a popular genre with emancipatory potential. One result of the philosophical interest in Aristophanes was that in the early decades of the 18th century, until the 1848 revolution, the German theatre itself felt the impact of the ancient comic writer: topical Lustspiele displayed interest in his plays, which provided a model for German poets longing for a political comedy, for example the remarkable satirical trilogy Napoleon by Friedrich Rückert (1815-18). This international context illuminates the experiences undergone by Aristophanic comedy in England, and what became known as Britain consequent upon the 1707 Act of Union. -
REFORMATIVE SYMPATHY in NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRIME FICTION Erica Mccrystal
Erica McCrystal 35 REFORMATIVE SYMPATHY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRIME FICTION Erica McCrystal (St. John’s University, New York) Abstract Nineteenth-century British crime novels whose heroes were criminals redefined criminality, alerting readers to the moral failures of the criminal justice system and arguing for institutional reform. My research on this topic begins with William Godwin’s novel Caleb Williams (1794) as a social reform project that exposes hypocrisy and inconsistency of governing institutions. I then assess how contemporary social criticism of crime novels contrasts with the authors’ reformative intentions. Critics argued the ‘Newgate novels’, like those of Edward Bulwer-Lytton and William Harrison Ainsworth, glorified criminality and were therefore a danger to readers. However, Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford (1830) and William Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard (1839) serve, like Caleb Williams, as social reform efforts to alert readers to the moral failings of the criminal justice and penal institutions. They do so, I argue, through the use of sympathy. By making the criminal the victim of a contradictory society, Godwin, Bulwer-Lytton, and Ainsworth draw upon the sympathies of imagined readers. I apply contemporary and modern notions of sympathy to the texts to demonstrate how the authors use sympathy to humanise the title characters in societies that have subjected them to baseless mechanisation. The emergence of crime fiction in nineteenth-century Britain provided readers with imaginative access to a criminal’s perspective and history as they conflicted with the criminal justice system and its punitive power. Novelists working within the genre re- examined criminality, morality, and justice, often delivering powerful social critiques of extant institutions. -
Melodic Speech Patterns in the Traditional Japanese Kyogen Theatre: a Strategy of Contrasting Structures
Spring 2001 97 Melodic Speech Patterns in the Traditional Japanese Kyogen Theatre: A Strategy of Contrasting Structures Zvika Serper To Nomura Mansaku, the greatest living kyogen actor Kyogen are comic short plays that serve as interludes between the serious no dramas, together comprising the nogaku, the Japanese traditional aristocratic theatre. They can be farce, satire, tragi-comedy, etc., dealing with the daily life of the lower and middle classes. Relationships between an ordinary man and his wife or lover, and those between a master and his servant are the most common themes in kyogen, in contrast with the more serious super-human appearances of ghosts, gods, and demons in no. Kyogen can be considered as the realistic antithesis of no not only on the dramatic level, but as regards the acting too.1 Vocal expression in kyogen, as in no, consists of both speech and singing, although the proportions differ completely in the two styles, with far more speech than singing in kyogen. Similar to the other traditional theatre arts in Japan, the art passes from father to sons or disciples, and the acting patterns accumulate and crystallize throughout the generations, including the melodic speech patterns. There is no notation of these patterns in the professional texts, and to date no analysis has been attempted of these traditional speech patterns. The kyogen speech served as one of the main sources for the speech of kabuki, the traditional popular theatre that developed later, and therefore it embodies the nucleus of the presentational speech art of all Japanese traditional theatres. In the present analysis of the principles and aesthetic of the kyogen speech patterns I hope to shed some light on these Japanese theatrical speech patterns and provide greater insight into their complexity. -
This Work Has Been Submitted to NECTAR, the Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research
This work has been submitted to NECTAR, the Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research. Conference or Workshop Item Title: The fears of a clown Creator: Mackley, J. S. Example citation: Mackley, J. S. (2016) The fears of a clown. PapeRr presented to: The Dark Fantastic: Sixth Annual Joint Fantasy Symposium, The University of Northampton, 02 December 2016. A Version: Presented version T http://nectar.Cnorthampton.ac.uk/9062/ NE The Fears of the Clown J.S. Mackley – University of Northampton “The clown may be the source of mirth, but - who shall make the clown laugh?” Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus Many of us read Stephen King’s IT before we were re-terrorised by Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise the Clown and his psychotic mania in the 1990 mini-series. It is said that “Stephen King’s movie IT … did for clowns what Psycho did for showers and what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean.”1 But, many of us had already had our psyches attuned to the danger of clowns when we saw the scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film Poltergeist when we looked at the maniacal grinning face of the Robbie’s clown sitting on the chair during a thunderstorm. The viewers all knew that clown would come to life – changing from the friendly-faced doll, to the demonic entity that drags Robbie under the bed … For many of us, these two depictions of clowns may be the root of Coulrophobia – a “persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of clowns”. Clowns hover on the peripheries of our fears. -
Bamcinématek Presents Stephen Chow: the King of Comedy, Oct 6—12
BAMcinématek presents Stephen Chow: The King of Comedy, Oct 6—12 “The reigning king of Hong Kong comedy.”—J. Hoberman Co-presented with the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York. The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Brooklyn, NY/Sep 8, 2014—From Monday, October 6 through Sunday, October 12, BAMcinématek presents Stephen Chow: The King of Comedy, an eight-film retrospective of the Hong Kong actor, writer, and director. Chow’s audaciously anarchic comedies combine surreal sight gags, non sequiturs, extensive pop culture quoting, and gravity-defying martial arts to sublimely silly effect. Endlessly inventive, the reigning king of Hong Kong mo lei tau (―nonsense comedy‖) yields unfiltered cinematic pleasure. Initially prominent as a children’s television star, Chow became synonymous with mo lei tau, a style of film comedy in which traditional melodramas and kung fu tales are peppered with rapid- fire, fourth-wall-breaking slapstick bits and corny puns. A bigger box-office draw in his homeland than Jackie Chan or Jet Li, Chow—who cites Spielberg and Kubrick, along with Jim Carrey, as influences—has used his clout in recent years to fashion himself as an auteur, scripting, editing, and directing a series of high-budget, homage-filled blockbusters. Typical of Chow’s earliest hits, Johnnie To’s Justice, My Foot! (1992—Oct 8) casts the actor as a fast-talking lawyer whose mouth gets him into trouble, and whose kung fu-fighting wife gets him out of it—one of many tough, smart heroines Chow uses as foils for his feckless alter egos. -
The Farce Element in Moliere
University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1-1926 The farce element in Moliere. Louise Diecks University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Diecks, Louise, "The farce element in Moliere." (1926). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 344. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/344 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE THE FARCE ELEMENT IN MOLIERE A DISSERTATION ---' SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE --- REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES. BY LOUISE DIECKS 1 9 2 6 I N T ROD U C T ION To gain a true appreciation of the works of any author, we must first be familiar with his race, his environment, and the period in which and of which he wrote. The Paris of the early seventeenth century was far different from the modern metropolis of to-day. It was the Paris of ill-paved, badly lighted streets whe te beggar and peasant starved and marquises rolled by in their emblazoned coaches, where d'Artagnan and the King's musketeers spread romance and challenged authority and where conspiracy brewed and criminals died upon the pillory. -
K ___ and National Trades' Journal
^M ^^ ^ ^ ^ ' ' ' ^ ^A ^^^ -M ^ ^c^ , : . 1 ^ - - /J.//y. S^+fr ' 'Af/sff &v&tti' <f£>^ •-f -Jr *y**^Ms£ OUR OWN HISTORY. **'***' *t ^ TO THE ELECTORS AND -NOK-ELECTO KS IMPERIAL OF 1C TO THE CHAR TIST S. THE BOROUGH OF TIVER TON. Fiul oav Countrvm jsn. —A genera ) election be- DEAR, y ®NtY &UENDS 1 l\X ** , ing about to take place , I venture to announce to s»5n write u th e i i am ff *° y° histor y of you my intention of solicitin g the honour of your OWN TIMES - not of the Edw ards inrinrR , suffrages for the representation of your borou gh in X JC rte nrr s, the Jameses , the Charleses , or the * useless the ensuing parliament. 7 ^Les-^mpty, BLO CKHEADS- preserved as Factious par tisans have laboured to impress the !So So* «"»« ?? pegs to hang 8 of tbeir times ul»n—sto p-gaps lest public mind with the idea that the forthcomin g Ae the even* , ' bean empljr ___ election will be merely an insignificant contest of She: SertshouM space in the counti es AND NATIONAL TRADES' J OURNAL. individuals , in which congest " pri n ciples" rail find k^ have chosen this subjec t for the purp ose V " , lace. 1, ou the contrary , am determin ed—at r • I i OL-XN? 509.¦ LONDON, SATURDAY, JUlF PB CE m^^ no p a«in£ vour attention to the fact, that the —¦'' " 24Ti84T"* Five Shilliugs and Sixpence perZ Tiverto n is concer ned—to mnkc the r» nfi nfdr __ ~ ¦ Quar ter least so far as and not mona rch? or th eir rulers , have ARMS T« n„j» _ xt._ i .