Bloggo Hysterico: A Fractured History of the Theatre via Gaffs, Misunderstandings and Muck-Ups in roughly chronological order Part 3

18TH CENTURY ITALIAN DRAMA:

Gozzi was an aristocrat.  He used exotic locals in his plays, which really spiced up the scenery. (!)

Carlo Gozzi

Gozzi’s works were highly fanticifal.

Carlo Gozzi wrote fanticiful plots that could stretch beyond the imagination

(could the above two students been seated next to each other?)

Gozzi created fiables.

One of Gozzi’s plays is The Venetian Twirl

Gozzi chased Goldoni out of Italy for a number of years.

Carlo Goldoni

Gozzi and Goldoni fought an everpresent battle between spectacle and trueism.

In Goldoni’s Essay on Theatre he stated that comedy should not be improved.

Goldoni wrote in a style called libretti.

(alternate spellings of Goldoni include):

Giddoni, Goldini

18TH CENTURY ENGLISH THEATRE

Licensing Act of 1737:  The king of England could not speak English and so he was exiled. William Walpole came in and took his place. 
(??? The king referred to is George I who had very little English, but who was not exiled -- see entries below for continued confusion)

Wallpall, Woolpoll, Wallpoll

(misspellings of Prime Minister Robert – not William, as the first entry in this section has it – Walpole)

Before 1737 a new king was brought back to England from exile.  Unfortunately he didn’t speak English.

The Licensing Act of 1737 was put into effect after Richard II (!) was returned to power.

(for the record, Richard II was born in 1367 and died in 1400)

The Licensing Act of 1737 tremendously stunned the growth of the theatre.

It seems that Susanna and the Pope were not fans of each other.  For one thing, she was a Whig and he was a Tory...The Pope wrote a pamphlet called A Further Account, which included Susanna with other followers.  The Pope also wrote a farce.

The Pope was a big fan of Garrick and went to see him three times during his first major performance.

(I was completely baffled by the above two answers until I realized that the students refer not the Pope in Rome, but to Alexander Pope, the British man of letters! Susanna refers to Susanna Centlivre a British playwright/actress of the era )

This is the pope:
Clement XII, pope between
1730 and 1740

and this is Alexander Pope
died 1744

(A student writing about David Garrick claimed):  There has been virtually nothing poorly written about this man.  (I would add, “until, perhaps, now.”)

Aquatint of Garrick!

David Garrick was well aquatinted with other prominent 18^th century actors.

(While we see that the student wanted the word “acquainted” rather than aquatinted” there WERE aquatints of Garrick and other prominent eighteenth century actors, so in a twisted way, s/he is right!)

An example of sentimental comedy was Sir Richard Steele’s Honest Dick.

(“Honest Dick” was a nickname for Richard Steele, not a play. There is another rather naughty reading of this answer…)

Sentimental comedy: tears of a clown.

George Gillo wrote The London Merchant.

George Libbol wrote The London Merchant.

(George Lillo is the name the above two are going for)

A famous writer of laughing comedy was Goldsmith, who wrote La Chaussee; another writer of laughing comedy was George Lillo.

(La Chaussée was a French writer of comédie larmoyante, a form similar to sentimental, not laughing comedy – but La Chaussée is not a play -- oh, and George Lillo wrote domestic tragedy, not laughing comedy)

Oliver Goldsmith wrote a manifesto bringing laughter back into the theatre.  He wrote She Stops to Corner.

19th c production of She Stoops to Conquer
(not Corner or Conjure)

Oliver Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conjure.

Goldsmith wrote the laughing comedy, The Stoop.

(the above 3 titles are feeble attempts at Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer)

Olivier Goldstern (one alternate spelling for Goldsmith)

Sheridan based his laughing comedies on Reconstruction comedies.

Covet Garden, The Covet Theatre, Covenant Gardesn, Covet Gardens

(several butcherings of Covent Garden)

The Drury Lane and Covent Garden were the only theatres licensed by the king until 1766 when the Haymaker was licensed as a summer theatre.

(the answer is accurate except for the unfortunate alternative for the Haymarket!)

This is a haymaker

and this is the Haymarket

Kemble acted in the teacup style.

John Philip Kemble acting in the
teaPOT style, here seen as the calmest
Hotspur on record

FRENCH & GERMAN THEATRE IN THE 18TH AND EARLY 19TH CENTURIES:

Diderot wrote The Natural Selection.

An example of le drame is Diderot’s The Natural’s Son.

Le drame was written by Deirdero.

(the above three all refer to Diderot, who wrote a play called The Natural Son – “natural” referring to a bastard)

Although De Loutherbourg was not Italian, he was very significant.

Bishmarsee,  Buiosuissone

(butcherings of Beaumarchais)

Beaumarchais

Beaumarchais wrote the Barber of Seville and the Ballad of Figaro.

Beaumarchais wrote “The Barber of Salville”

The French used the “mellow drame,” which was their equivalent to melodrama.

The Romantic movement in France was caused by lots of different

circumstances, especially the Licensing Act of 1737.  Someone started a fire at the Drury Lane which put that theatre out of commission for a while.  This started the Romantic movement in France, because theatre needed a place to rebuild again.

(I have no words)

The night that the Romantic movement exploded in Paris was the opening of Victor Hernani’s Hugo.

Hugo’s Hermisi.

(the correct author/title for the above two is Victor Hugo’s Hernani)

Daguerre invented the diorama, which were translucent clothes. (!!!)

The Wrath of Medusa was a panorama show.

(This confused answer refers to The Raft (Wrath for Raft?) of the Medusa (based on the gruesome aftermath of the sinking of a ship of that name, which was indeed the subject of a panorama show, and a play, and a painting by Gericault)

Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa

Strum und drang is German for “storm and stress”

AMERICAN THEATRE IN THE 18^th & 19^th CENTURIES:

American Theatre cannot be mentioned without mentioning the Hallam Co.

(there were several variations on the first major African American actor Ira Aldridge, including):

Ira Melbrige, Ian Aldridge, Iad Aldridge, Ira Eldridge.

Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius

(and on The African Roscius – referring to the ancient Roman actor – the title he was given):  

African Rauchus, Rouchus, Rooge, Racius, Raceous, Ratious, Black Rascicuis.

Ira Aldride played Alan the Moore in Titus Andronicus in England.

(that would be Aaron the Moor)

Mr. Brown wrote about African resurrection in Haiti, in King Shotaway.

(the above student got the title right, though s/he screwed up insurrection – the students below didn’t to as well with the title.)

The first African American play was called King Sailaway.

The first African American play was called King Shadaway.

The first African American play was called The Escape, featuring the character King Salaway.

(the above student confused William Wells Brown’s 1858 play The Escape, or A Leap to Freedom, with King Shotaway – or Salaway as s/he puts it – which another Mr. Brown wrote in 1823 for the African Grove (not Groove, as the students below would have you believe)

The first African American Company was called the African Groove.

The first African American theatre was the American Groove.

The Astor Palace Riots were the worst in US theatre history.

(one letter ruins this answer, as it was at Astor Place, not Astor Palace, or Astley Place in the entry just below, that the riots occurred)

Astor Place Riots

Macready was playing the Astley Place Theatre in New York City.

McGreedy, McKreedy, or MacReary

(variations on W.C. Macready, the English actor targeted by the riots)

The Astor Place Riots was partially a result of the anti-British

semitism in the US. (!)

At Astor Place, a large group of anti-British sentimentalists gathered.

The Astor Place Riots reflected the anti-British sentimentality of the U.S.

(the above three students were reaching unsuccessfully for the word “sentiments”)

Big plantation was a style of putting real, big things on stage.

(free plantation is what the student wanted here, along with a better definition)

Daly wrote Light under the Gas Lamps.

One of Augustin Daly’s plays was Under the Gas Can.

(Daly’s play is Under the Gaslight)

Augustin Daly strived to have his ideas run throughout the entire company, manajatorial, (!!!) scenic, and other.

Daly started an ensemble company that did not feature any starts

Eva Rion, Eva Riehn, Eva Reihn, Eva Rien, Ada Rean, Ada Rian,

 Eva Reigh, Aida Rein, Eva Rhean, Ada Rheo, Eva Richu, Evan Rhein, Eva Rhine

(variations on the name of Daly’s leading actress and mistress, Ada Rehan, pictured on the left)

A major actress of Daly’s was Laura Keene.  Eventually Daly’s company lost several actors to Hollywood. (!!!)

Two of Daly’s actors were Edwin Booth and Laura Keene.  She was eccentric and had a wooden leg. (!)

The panorama is a very long cloth on a spindle, called a spieler.

An example of Diorama is the Burning of the Cows

An example of panorama is Mississippi Burning

(the above two examplse refer to the Burning of Moscow, a diorama rather than a panorama…the burning of the cows mystifies me, but Mississippi Burning was a film with Gene Hackman, wasn’t it? – NO similarity, but there was a well-known panorama of the Mississippi River)

Minstrel shows and showboats would perform on the stages of vaudeville houses.

(minstrel shows yes, but showboats…???)

Ada Isaacs Mencken’s body suit for Mazeppa was so reveling (!) for the time that advertisers could tell the public she would be nude. (!!!)

Edwin Booth’s most famous role is his portrayal of Hamlet, which indecently he played for one hundred nights which is a record not broken until 1923

(I think that instead of indecently the student meant to write incidentally, don't you?)

BRITISH THEATRE IN THE 19^th CENTURY

Edmund Kean embodied the Westward Movement because this style was noted for inspirational outbursts and erratic behavior.

(eh??? By Westward s/he MUST mean Romantic, but how you get from one to the other I do not know)

Henry Irving was the first actor to be knitted. 

Statue of Sir Henry Irving
at the National Portrait Gallery

Henry Irving was a mellowdramatatist at heart. 

Henry Irving played many roles in Shakespeare's plays which included Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. His performance of Shylock is why many families name Jewish boys Irving. 
(oh???)

Electric lighting began in 1881 at the Savory Theatre in London, started by Richard D’Oyley Carte.

(he wants Savoy rather than Savory here, at least so one hopes!)

I hope you can read the above, re the Savoy, not Savory, Theatre

FRENCH REALISM AND NATURALISM:

The well-made theatre was the first movement in the new era showing a great rise in suspense. Example: Camus’ play A Glass of Water.

Schlabs play A Glass of Water presented new ideas.

(the play title is right, but the author is not Albert Camus nor Schlab but Scribe and the reference in the first answer is to the well-made play, though there is something to be said for a well-made theatre.)

La Triviata

(maybe my favorite ever botched opera title, referring of course to Verdi’s famous opera La Traviata)

When naturalism in French theatre began there was a major push towards realism -- actually using running water and stage props like cigarette smoking, knitting with yarn and needles, and of course drinking.  Francois Delsarte began this movement and he thought the body should portray emotion with his nine stages of the eye.  French theatre encompassed the science of art. 

(whew!)

Coquelin played Cyrano de Bergerac and Sarah Bernhardt played Christine in the Phantom of the Opera at the new Paris Opera House.

Coquelin played Cyrano

And Bernhardt played many roles (Cleopatra here)
but never ever Christine!

Naturalism: the belief that an actor should present a picture of life without having himself present.

In 1887 the Theatre Libre was founded by Antoine.  He allowed some shows to go up like Osborne’s Look Back in Anger.  It started as a summer theatre, but grew into a huge theatre. (!)

People needed to see realistic and naturalistic plays.  Andre Antoine heard the silent cries of the masses and reacted.

The major playwright of naturalism was Tristan Tzara. 
(just fyi, Tzara founded Dada, about as anti-naturalist as you could get!)

The major playwright of naturalism was Antoine Artaud.

Anthony Antoin became very fond of naturalism and opened a theatre in 1887, the Theatre of the Absurd. (!)

Plaque honoring Antoine and the
Théâtre Libre

Anton Andre, Andre Antonin, A. Anoin, Antonin, Antoine Augustine

(all attempts at the correct spelling of André Antoine, founder of the Théâtre Libre)

Debonaire was the main naturalist playwright and he wrote Therese Beque.

The main naturalist playwright was Therese Raquin.

The Theatre Libre was where a play by Therese Raquin was performed.

Therese Raquel

Emeile Zola wrote Terese Rienalde.

In the year 1879 Duse played the leading role of Emile Zola in Therese Raquin and really impressed the audience as well as critics with her astonishing work.

Eleonora Duse’s first big hit was in 1879 as the lead character in Emile Zola’s Therese Requiem, in Naples.

Emily Zola was a major figure in the French National movement.  Her play, Esther Brileme was first staged at the Theatre Libre.

Emile Zola - no she he

Emily Zola wanted to show life as it really is, and that wasn’t a pretty thing.

Emilie Zola wrote Therese Noir.

Amelie Zola wrote naturalism.

Zola wrote the gritty drama Thessare Resbare.

Naturalism began with Zola’s play Tres Requiem.

Emile Zola came up with the romatic melodrame.

(what you need to know about all of the twisted entries after the one on Coquelin and Bernhardt is that André Antoine founded the Théâtre Libre, that Emile Zola wrote Thérèse Raquin – and that’s about all there is to say about French Realism and Naturalism…shudder!)