TOPICS IN THEATRE HISTORY: VICTORIAN THEATRE Professor Mazer Fall 1996 Bennett Hall 305, x8-7382; cmazer@english.upenn.edu Office Hours: Tu 1:30-3:00, Th 1:00-2:30 (and by appointment) September 5: Introduction: Drama vs. Theatre vs. Theatre History. September 10: Audience, Class, and Melodrama. Reading: Russell Jackson, Victorian Theatre: The Theatre in its Time, pp. 9-45; Douglas Jerrold, Black-Ey'd Susan, in George Rowell, ed., Nineteenth Century Plays. September 12: Pictorialism. Reading: Martin Meisel, "Speaking Pictures: The Drama" (pp. 38-51), "Preamble to the Picture Play" (pp. 91-96), and "The Politics of Domestic Drama" (pp. 142-165), in Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England (RESERVE). September 17: Shakespeare and the Pictorial Theatre. Reading: Michael R. Booth, Victorian Spectacular Theatre, pp. 30-59 (bulkpack); Jackson, pp. 45-50; Richard W. Schoch, "`The Homestead of History': Medievalism on the Mid-Victorian Stage" (bulkpack). September 19: Acting and Character. Reading: Tom Taylor and Charles Reade, Masks and Faces, in Rowell; Jerome K. Jerome, "The Hero," "The Villian," "The Heroine," "The Adventuress," "The Irishman," from Stage- Land (bulkpack); Jackson, pp. 79-109, 119-120. September 24: Bourgeois Theatre and Cup-and-Saucer Comedy. Reading: T. W. Robertson, Caste, in Rowell; Jackson, pp. 50-67, 110-112. Reports: Marie Wilton __________ E.W. Godwin __________ September 26: Henry Irving and Psychological Melodrama. Reading: Leopold Lewis, The Bells, in Rowell; skim through the notes and pictures in David Mayer, ed., Henry Irving and "The Bells" (RESERVE). [APPROXIMATE DUE DATE: Take-Home Assignment #1] October 1: Irving and Shakespeare. Reading: Jackson, pp. 186-193, 221-227; Meisel, "Irving and the Artists," in Realizations, pp. 402, 432 (RESERVE). Reports: William Terriss __________ Charles and Adelaide Calvert __________ Irving's production of Faust __________ October 3: Ellen Terry. Reading: Nina Auerbach, ""Ellen Terry's Victorian Marriage" (bulkpack). Reports: Ellen Terry's Portia __________ Ellen Terry's Lady Macbeh __________ Ellen Terry's Juliet __________ Ellen Terry's Gretchen __________ October 8: Acting and Acting Theory I. Reading: Henry Irving, Preface to the English edition of Denis Diderot, The Paradox of Acting (bulkpack); William Archer, "Introductory," "Sunt Lacrymae Rerum," "`Autosuggestion' and `Innervation,'" and "The Brownies of the Brain," from Masks or Faces? (bulkpack). October 10: Actresses, Prostitution, and Pornography. Reading: Tracy C. Davis, "Actresses and Prostitutes in Victorian London" (bulkpack). [fall break] October 17: Male and Female Cross-Dressing. Reading: Laurence Senelick, "Boys and Girls Together: Subcultural Origins of Glamour Drag and Male Impersonation on the Nineteenth-Century Stage" (bulkpack); J.S. Bratton, "Beating the Bounds: Gender Play and Role Reversal in Edwardian Music Hall" (bulkpack). October 22: Wagner, Music-Drama, and Total Theatre. Reading: Richard Wagner, "The Art-Work of the Future" (bulkpack). Listening Assignment (Ormandy Listening Room, Van Pelt Library): Deryck Cooke, An Introduction to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (on reserve under "Mazer Theatre Arts 140"). October 24: Gilbert, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Reading: W. S. Gilbert, Engaged (bulkpack). Listening Assignment (Ormandy Listening Room, Van Pelt Library): Gilbert and Sullivan, Iolanthe (recorded WITH DIALOGUE) (on reserve under "Mazer Theatre Arts 140"). Report: Gaiety Burlesque __________ October 29: Popular Entertainment: Music Hall and Christmas Pantomime. Reading: Gareth Steadman Jones, "Working-Class Culture and Working-Class Politics in London, 1870-1900: Notes on the Remaking of a Working Class" (bulkpack); David Mayer, "The Sexuality of Pantomime" (bulkpack). October 31: Realism and Naturalism. Reading: Émile Zola, "Naturalism on the Stage," (bulkpack); Meisel, "W.P. Frith and the Shape of Modern Life," in Realizations, pp. 373-401 (RESERVE). Reports: Georg II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen __________ André Antoine __________ November 5: The Ibsen Revolution. Reading: Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (translated by William Archer) (bulkpack). November 7: Ibsen and British Domestic Melodrama. Reading: Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman, Breaking the Butterfly. (bulkpack). [APPROXIMATE DUE DATE: Take-Home Assignment #2] November 12: Ibsen and British Society Drama. Reading: Arthur Wing Pinero, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (bulkpack); Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband. November 14: [TO BE ANNOUNCED: possibly a session with one or more actors from the ACTER Much Ado About Nothing residency, working with us on a scene from a play from our syllabus]. November 19: Acting and Acting Theory II: Bernhardt and Duse. Reading: G. Bernard Shaw, two theatre reviews from The Saturday Review (bulkpack); Susan Bassnett, "Eleanora Duse" (bulkpack). Reports: Tomasso Salvini __________ Adelaide Ristori __________ Mary Anderson __________ November 21: Shaw and the New Drama. Reading: G. Bernard Shaw, The Devil's Disciple (with Preface to Three Plays for Puritans). November 26: The New Stagecraft. Reading: Adolphe Appia, "Ideas on the Reform of Our Mise en Scène" (bulkpack); Edward Gordon Craig, "The Actor and the Über-Marionette" (bulkpack). [Thanksgiving] December 3: Symbolist Drama and Theatre. Reading: Maeterlinck, Pélléas and Mélisande (bulkpack). Report: Aurélien Lugné-Poe __________ December 5: Endings and Beginnings. Reading: J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan. You are responsible for ONE short (10 minutes) in-class presentations on the subject and dates specified above (with the blanks), AND participation in ONE prepared scene, to be presented during the classes noted. BRING YOUR SCRIPTS TO CLASS THAT DAY, even if you are not participating in the prepared in-class staging; if no one has signed up in advance to stage a scene, we might work through a scene and put it on its feet during the class hour. There will be TWO take-home essay assignments, plus ONE final research project, due at a date to be announced, on a topic that must MUST BE APPROVED IN ADVANCE. Attendance in class is crucial; CHRONIC ABSENCE OR LATENESS WILL BE COUNTED AGAINST YOU. The following books can be purchased at the Penn Book Center, 37th and Walnut: Russell Jackson, Victorian Theatre George Rowell, ed., Nineteenth Century Plays. Oscar Wilde, Plays G. Bernard Shaw, Three Plays for Puritans. J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan and Other Plays. The bulkpack can be purchased at the Campus Copy Center, 39th and Walnut: Martin Meisel's Realizations is on reserve in Rosengarten (NX543 .M4 1983). I have set up a listserv for this course on e-mail, to which you have been automatically subscribed (if this is not so, contact me via e-mail). You will be sent a copy of every e-mail message posted to the listserv, and any message you send will be distributed to everyone who signs up (including the professor). Important announcements about assignments and due dates, notices about local theatre events, etc., will be posted regularly, so CHECK YOUR E-MAIL EVERY DAY. The listserv can also be used by you and your classmates as a clearing house for thoughts and impressions about the readings and the class discussions. Just send a note to Mazer140@english.upenn.edu, or reply to any message you receive over the listserv. (But remember: everything you post can be read by everyone; if you have any private comments, or any private replies to a query you read on the listserv, you should send a message privately to the individual's own e-mail address, rather than replying through the listserv). If you are not yet on e-mail, GET AN ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY; you can access your account through your own computer (via a modem or an ethernet connection), or through any computer hooked up to the network (e.g. in the library, in the English Department office, in the Undergraduate English lounge, etc.).