Theatre has always been a social construction, at least in part. It is created for the people by the people, and it reflects the mind and concerns of society. Ancient Greek theatre was often political; both the comic and tragic poets spoke about the affairs of the state. In festivals like the Great Dionysia, Aristophanes lambasted political figures, while Sophocles showed in great detail the horrors of war. From those first celebrations honouring theatre to the modern day, theatre has displayed the social norms of the period, and was usually produced largely to appeal to the senses of the ruling class. While a great number of human tragedies have occurred over the last few thousand years, nothing has been so earthshaking as the atrocities seen in the last century. Our contemporary theatre is set against the backdrop of terrible wars, presidential assassinations, the attempted genocide of entire races, and the atomic bomb, just to cite a few examples of horrors faced. The picturesque diorama that naturalism and realism presented to audiences a hundred or so years ago does not adequately reflect real life in today's post-war, post-modern society; society has given theatre artists many reasons to ignore the traditional proscenium arch picture box in favour of exploring new forms of theatre in new venues.
Contemporary society has been described as godless, pointless, compassionless, senseless, and with many other adjectives implying a lack of something essential that had previously existed in the threads of civilization. The industrial revolution of the past century was both a blessing and a boon: it allowed for new innovations in manufacturing, transportation, and countless other fields, but it was also the technology that allowed mankind to develop better weaponry and new forms of science. One notable area of science was, of course, eventually responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb. With discoveries such as quantum physics and relativity, scientists began to realize that there was a lot more to understanding the universe than what they had previously believed; instead of being able to neatly fill in a few gaps of information, they now had countless new puzzles to solve. Beginning around the time of the First World War, new theatrical experiments reflected the changes in the mindset of the people - their absolute faith in God, the government, and even the common compassion that held society together was no longer an unconditional constant. A worldwide drop in church attendance records - though this phenomenon was especially pronounced in North America, and other English-speaking countries - around the middle of the century illustrated the decline of religious faith. Many began to question why a loving God would allow such atrocities to happen; events like the Second World War and the 1949 revolution in China, which when combined saw the deaths of approximately 57 million people in total, shook humanity to the core. It became clear that any person from any station in life could now drastically change the course of history, and with the gross abuses of power already present, this was more of a concern than a source of hope. Ironically, it seemed that artists "ceased believing in [] going through the motions of making art to change the world" (Schechner 16), and humanity suffered a painfully obvious loss of hope and faith. The European communist governments aided in illustrating some of the evils mankind was capable of, as they imprisoned, tortured, and killed their people in labour camps if the citizens spoke out against the regiments of the state. Environmentally, there was a large increase in the use of fossil fuels - even in the 1940s, oil was partially a cause for going to war - and their use promoted concern regarding air pollution, the ozone layer, and global warming. A once orderly world seemed to fall into entropy, and people were left with a number of unanswerable questions about God, the universe, fellow man, and life itself (Courtenay-Thompson, p. 1-360). Against all these concerns and more, theatre in the latter half of 20th century took shape.
Aside from outside influences, theatre was also affected by its own past, such as the existential experiments around the time of the First World War, and structural developments such as the arena and thrust stages. While neither stage design was new or revolutionary - arena stages, for example, are seen in settings such as the Roman Coliseum - the 20th century was the first time that non-proscenium stages were prominently used. A good example of locale of said stages is New York, specifically in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatres; North America saw and produced a lot of avant-garde theatre in the post-war period. Both the arena and thrust stages brought the actors out of the nice, neat picture box that the proscenium arch provided, and closed some distance between actors and the audience. As for significant theatrical movements, the Theatre of Cruelty, Expressionist, Futurist, Dadaist, and Surrealist movements contributed substantially to later experiments, such as Absurdist and Existential Drama, Happenings, and Environmental Theatre. The aforementioned experiments occurred for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that theatre artists became fed up with realistic drama no longer being an accurate reflection of society. The experiments were a reaction to the chaos in the real world, and, in a sense, a protest that said world no longer made sense. Additionally, the early avant-garde theatre practices were used to convey reactions to world atrocities, and delving into the world of myth, allegory, and dreams lent a sense of escapism from being bombarded by depressing news. A lot of "the most radical facets of avant-garde aesthetics were found in the early era" (Berghaus 45) leading up to the First World War, and visionaries such as Meyerhold, Artaud, Cocteau, and even Tzara and Sartre contributed significant ideas and practices that influenced modern non-realistic theatre. For example, Futurism employed a mixture of art forms into a performance - this is seen today in movements such as performance art. Out of the many stylistic sources, a style of production that focused on drawing the audience into the action of the play - as opposed to having the audience sit back and merely observe - emerged. As Artaud said, it is essential to "subjugate the audience to the performance" (Harding 43), and sometimes it is essential to disregard the text in favour of creating a suitably aesthetic and creative theatrical environment to do so. This belief contributed to the birth of Grotowski's "poor theatre," which was stripped of everything essential,' save for the audience-actor relationship. In turn, Grotowski became a significant influence to Richard Schechner, the man who coined the term "environmental theatre" in the 1960s to describe the practice of arranging the acting space in such a way that it "makes use of an expressive dimension that is not exploited by traditional performance arrangements" (Kirby 134). Aside from Grotowski, Meyerhold and Artaud had significant impact on environmental theatre: the entirety of the theatre space became a space for performance, and the audience found themselves placed in the midst of the action. At this time theatre also began to move beyond the boundaries of the traditional theatre space and out into a brave new world of infinite possibilities of performances in hallways, bathrooms, grocery stores, and everywhere else imaginable.
There are several types of contemporary theatre that make innovative use of performance spaces. Movements from the middle of the 20th century, such as happenings and multimedia events, built upon previous traditions and greatly influenced contemporary theatre practices. Happenings saw theatre occurring in non-traditional spaces such as parks, malls, and at bus stops; multimedia presentations feature theatre combined with dance, television, and other art forms in order to incorporate new technology and ideas into performances. Between the time of free love,' and the modern world of love having terrible consequences,' those developments, along with environmental theatre, have contributed significantly to theatre today. Amongst current theatrical movements, there is found theatre: a type of performance that is exactly what its name implies. Found theatre is theatre that occurs in a found or discovered space not originally intended to host productions; warehouses, old buildings, and even outdoor locales are often used as performance spaces. One example of a found space performance was the conversion of a London East End brewery to present the German play Murx!, as produced by Berlin's Volksbhne Theatre. A subsidiary form of found theatre is site-specific theatre, which overtly uses the properties, memories, or qualities of a specific space in the performance; essentially, a performance is shaped around the location it takes place at. A recent example of site-specific theatre would be Mimetic Flesh, as produced by the University of Waterloo Drama Department, which incorporated the complex human history of the Lang Tannery into the production. Some contemporary types of performance art - one example could be performance installations, though categorizing the vast variety of performances with just a few words is rarely easy - also utilize innovative spaces for non-traditional performances. A female performance artist who goes only by Orlan' is a performance artist of the body - her corporeal, carnal self is used as performance space as she undergoes surgeries to implant things in her skin and dramatically alter her appearance. All of her performances have made profound political statements on many subjects, including the perceptions of women in the media, prostitution, body images, sexuality, and many other taboos. In a different vein, another form of non-traditional performance is visible in street theatre, which has several subcategories of its own. Though street performers are often viewed as "no more desirable than fleas" (Harrison-Pepper 21) in a city, the tradition has persisted from ancient civilizations such as Greece, right to the modern day. Street theatre can be as it was in medieval Europe, with productions of well-known texts occurring in the outdoors. It can also be a form known as "neighbourhood theatre" (Wilson 322), which is an original drama dealing with the concerns of the local people. Lastly, street theatre can be what is known as guerrilla theatre - an active, politically powerful form of theatre produced by activist groups to provoke change and awareness in people. One example of local guerrilla theatre is the recent production that occurred at the Student Life Centre on campus. It was a mock sweatshop'; the production protested labour conditions in sweatshops, and actively made the audience - those going through the SLC - aware of their continuing existence and abhorrent working conditions. However, the above examples are only some of many types of a rich, new, ever-changing style of performance that utilizes new and creative spaces.
Theatre will always be evolving, much in the same way that the society in which it takes place will constantly be changing in countless small ways. The visionaries, the theatre artists of tomorrow are certain to take the rich performative and literary foundation of today and transform it into something new and innovative. As with previous generations of notable theatre personalities, they will create performances that speak to the needs of people in their time; fellow students today could be included in history books tomorrow. Currently, other forms of media now reflect trends seen in the theatre: the recent popular trend of reality shows on television exhibit some of the ideals of environmental theatre, especially that of performances in new, non-traditional spaces. The idea of voyeurism found in the subtext of environmental theatre is further heightened in society's ability to view spectacles unfolding in someone's living room, in the plastic surgery operating room, or on a remote island. Unfortunately, television lacks one crucial element that will always distinguish theatre from any other type of performance: the connectivity with the human soul, and the reciprocal spirit and the energy that forms the intense connection between audiences and actors.
Bibliography:
Books:
Berghaus, Gnter. Avant-Garde Performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Courtenay-Thompson, Fiona. The 20th Century Year By Year. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999.
Harding, James M. Contours of the Theatrical Avant-Garde. Michigan: Michigan U.P., 2000.
Harrison-Pepper, Sally. Drawing a Circle in the Square. Mississippi: Mississippi U.P., 1990.
Kirby, Michael. The Art of Time. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1969.
Schechner, Richard. The End of Humanism. New York: Performing Arts Journal, 1982.
Wilson, Edwin. The Theatre Experience. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Websites:
Davy de Virville, Mathieu and Marie-Charlotte Fland. ORLAN. March 6, 2006. .