Chapter Objectives

Chapter Fifteen discusses the modern theater beginning after World War II and continuing to 1990. After reading this chapter you should:

1.

Be familiar with the background of the postwar realistic theater. Have a knowledge of:

the historical background of the postwar era
American selective realism
"Angry Young Men" in England
documentary drama in Germany

2.

Be familiar with the synopsis of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

3.

Be familiar with the movements to depart from realism (1945 - 1980), specifically:

existentialism
Theater of the Absurd
happenings
multimedia
environmental theater
eclecticism

4.

Be familiar with the description of a 1957 production of Waiting for Godot in California.

5.

Understand developments in American Theater after WWII:

African American Theater
musical theater
regional theater
off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theater
alternative regional theaters

6.

Understand how film, radio, and television impacted theater.

7.

Be familiar with the following historical figures:

a. Arthur Miller
b. Tennessee Williams
c. Edward Albee
d. John Osbourne
e. Peter Weiss
f. Jean-Paul Sartre
g. Albert Camus
h. Martin Esslin
i. Samuel Beckett
j. Richard Schnecher
k. Jerzy Grotowski
l. Peter Brook
m. Lorraine Hansberry
n. James Hewlett
o. Ira Aldrige
p. Bob Cole
q. Langston Hughes
r. Paul Robeson
s. William Johnson
t. August Wilson
u. Amiri Baraka
v. W.S. Gilbert
w. Arthur Sullivan
x. George M. Cohan
y. Richard Rodgers
z. Oscar Hammerstein II
aa. Jerome Kern
bb. George Gershwin
cc. Jerome Robbins
dd. Tim Rice
ee. Andrew Lloyd Webber
ff. David Mamet
gg. Sam Shepard

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