Non traditional casting: Multi cultural, cross-gender, and blind casting. I.e. : Morgan Freeman plays Petrucchio and Denzel Washington plays Richard III
Box office income for "Miss Saigon" in 1992 exceeded the home ticket income for both the New York Yankees and the Mets that year. There are more plays than films produced each year, more plays than TV films produced each year.
Notes Pp 324-352
Locations where modern theatre happens today:
1) Broadway: New York City, Manhattan (The Big Apple) the greatest challenges, the biggest rewards, and the highest standards. "The Great White Way"- Broadway Avenue, between 44th and 52nd streets. Thirty to Forty theatre Marquees lit every night. A show case for plays that originated elsewhere. Not a fashionable part of town. If you make it on Broadway you are guaranteed a success for life. Ticket price $50-$100. Cost of an ordinary Broadway Musical is $5,000,000.
2) Off-Broadway: Greenwich Village, Soho, Upper East and West sides. Reduced operating budgets. Ticket price $20-$40
3) Off-Off-Broadway: Any where in Manhattan, church basements, schools. More creative works begin here and are less commercial. Ticket prices under $20.
4) Touring Companys: Travel throughtout the United States.
Non Profit Professional Theatre: Called regional or resident theatre. They are noncommercial existing on grants and foundations or private support. There are over 200 of these tax exempt theatres. I.e. Boston's American Repertory Theatre, Chicago's The Goodman Theatre, Louisville's Actors Theatre, Los Angeles's Mark Taper Forum, Minneapolis's The Guthrie Theatre, New Haven, The Long Wharf Theatre, New York's Shakespeare Festival, San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre and Washington's The Arena Stage.
Shakespeare Festivals: Ashland Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Old Globe in San Diego, and the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival.
Summer and Dinner Theatres: Summer Stock, with name actors, also dinner theatre: with dinner, drinks, followed by a show.
Academic and community theatre: MPC is one of these. There are one thousand drama departments offering degrees in the United States. This is called amateur theatre. "Amateur" means lover, no one gets paid.
Theatre in Europe:
1) London, has national theatre, West End theatre (this is London's commercial Broadway), Fringe theatres, Pub theatres. "Cross-overs" are theatre pieces tried out in London first at a cheaper budget and then brought to the United States with revisions.
2) Stratford-On-Avon located a hundred miles west of London, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's birth place.
3) Paris France: Commedie Francaise (Moliere's Theatre)
4) Vincennes France, Arianne Mnouchkine's Theatre de Soleil.
5) Avignon France: Annual July festival at the Palace Du Papes.
6) Germany (Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Oberammergau)
7) Russia, Japan, Canada, South Africa.
A Few Promising New Artists:
1) Martha Clark and Dance Theatre- Pilobolus. Surrealistic dance troupe.
2) Lily Tomlin's "The Search for Signs Of Intelligent Life in the Universe"- Written by Jane Wagner.
3) Jerzy Grotowski and Ritual Arts (Polish) collaborated with Peter Brook for objective Drama.
Human creativity is explored: Intercultural ensembles at the UC Urvine Experiments.
4) Ariane Mnouchkine and Theatre de Soleil, Quasi-Kabuki and Kathakali techniques in the Paris suburbs, they present Greek Tetralogys in a complete theatre ensemble.
5) Robert Wilson and Performance Art, wrote "The CIVIL warS" , "Ka Mountain" (23 hours long), he writes living tableaux.
6) Steven Sondheim and the Broadway Musical, (text pages 300-301) wrote the lyrics for "West Side Story", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" , "Company", "A Little Night Music" , "Into the Woods", "Sweeney Todd", and many, many more........
7) Peter Brook and Intercultural Theatre. He modernizes Shakespeare. A director who divides modern Drama into:
I. Deadly Theatre (Conventional)
II. Holy Theatre (Artaud)
III. Rough Theatre (Brecht)
Brook heads a Paris theatre research group. He directed "Mahabharata" in 1991 from an Indian Novel, and is a nine hour play from the longest single work of world literature.
American Playwrights
1) August Wilson: received five Tony nominations and two Pulitzer Prizes. Was born in Pittsburgh PA. A poet, playwright, of Black life in the United States. He wrote "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", "Fences", and "The Piano Lesson" for Yale Rep Theatre.
2) Arthur Miller: wrote "The Death of a Salesman", "All My Sons", "The Ride Down Mount Morgan". He studies the pleasures and guilt of the American Male.
3) Neil Simon: The most successful Commercial American Playwright in the history of theatre. Writes mainly comedies: "Barefoot in the Park", "The Odd Couple", "Plaza Suite", "Brighton Beach Memoirs", "Biloxi Blues", "Broadway Bound", "Rumors", and many, many more..............
4) Edward Albee: wrote "The Zoo Story", "Krapp's Last Tape", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf", ............an Absurdist.
5) Lanford Wilson: wrote "The Madness of Lady Bright", "The Hot(e)l Baltimore", "Tally's Folly".
6) John Guare: wrote "House of Blue Leaves", "Six Degrees of Separation", ...............Racial stereotyping.
7) Sam Shepard: wrote "Buried Child", "True West", "A Fool for Love". A suprarealist, who writes of the patterns beneath the surface of everyday reality. Themes of Incest, the wild west, the sham of brotherhood, and the American Male.
8) David Mamet: wrote "American Buffalo", "Glen Garry, Glen Ross". A Hyperrealist who uses strong language with many, many four letter words. He is interested in the dialogue of the American Male.
9) Marsha Norman: wrote " `night Mother", about suicide.
10) Wendy Wasserstein: wrote "The Heidi Chronicles" about women's marriages, careers, and romances.
11) Beth Henley: writes comedies : "Crimes of the Heart", "The Miss Firecracker Contest".
12) George C. Wolfe: wrote "The Colored Museum", a satirical musical, and "Jelly's Last Jam", about Jelly Roll Morton.
13) David Henry Hwang: wrote "M. Butterfly" about the dominant\ submissive , male\ female, West\East roles in society.
Conclusion: Theatre is a forum of communication.
Notes pp 495-508