America peaked in the 1950’s, burst in the ’60’s, and fizzled out and almost vanished in
I’m beginning to think I’m scribbling gibberish, like Robert in Proof.
Or what was Jack writing in The Shining? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Continue reading Post-modern plays
This post, when written, will describe and link to church plays.
From Erasmus to Victor Hugo
Shakespeare’s plays evolved from (1) Italian translations and imitations of Roman plays that copied the Greeks and (2) 500 years of indigenous religious plays, secular moralities, and lewd farces. From the first he retained the useful conventions of the Neoclassical Ideal and Aristotle’s elements—the 5-act structure, dialogue in verse (frequently rhymed couplets), kings and heroes—and ignored those that retrained his imagination. His plays intentionally violated the unities of time, place, and action, mixed tragedy and comedy, with parallel plots and gruesome onstage murders. Indigenous medieval drama broadened his scope to include the wit and wisdom of the common man, who spoke contemporary prose (in words now archaic or extinct). What emerged is universally accepted as the best that ever was, and its challenges well worth the rewards.
Shakespeare’s plays, in turn, were imitated and adapted through the centuries that followed, whittled down from several hours to less the two; five acts to four, then three; now mostly two. His poetry turned to purple prose in the 18th Century and was condensed in the 20th, his lengthy, lofty language lost through generations to the Twitter limit of today. Nonetheless, his lines (and those of the contemporary King James Version of the Bible) are quoted more than most of the others put together); his characters are models for our playwrights, and his plots and themes are universal.
For a far more comprehensive overview of the ancient Greeks than the subjective one below, visit Dr Jack.
Continue reading The Classics
For the first two thousand years of Western Civilization, the only literary art most people knew was acquired by ear, because they couldn’t read! Everything they knew they learned from what they saw and heard, from priests and politicians, poets, story-tellers, and, most effectively, from actors on a stage. From the Ancient Greeks and (lesser) Romans through church drama to the Renaissance and Shakespeare, most of what the hoi polloi made of their world and human nature—and of language, its evocative power—came from actors playing characters in worlds imagined by the greatest writers of their times.
Think about that.
Continue reading Drama is Literary ArtIt’s bad enough that only one American in twelve sees a single play a year. Much worse by far is our overwhelming ignorance of dramatic literature.
Cold Reads/International 