Broadway Baby!
What should a theater in the theatre district in Manhattan have in order to be considered a true Broadway house?
500 seats or more
The name of this 19th/20th century variety show format means "voice of the city" in French.
Vaudeville
Opera was "invented" in what year(s)?
1600s/17th Century
This 1700s English genre was blatantly making fun of serious opera.
Ballad Opera
Made famous by Bertolt Brecht, this type of theatre isolated the audience to provoke them to thought.
Epic Theatre
What day of the week is usually a "dark day" on Broadway during which no shows run?
Monday
True or False: Vaudeville theaters were turned into "movie houses" across the country
TRUE...movies took over and pushed out Vaudeville acts from the circuit theaters from coast-to-coast
This element of operatic music imitates the natural inflection of speech.
Recitative
Gilbert and Sullivan were famous for their satirical and formulaic writing, including these fast-paced, silly songs.
Patter Songs (i.e. Modern Major General!)
Associated with Epic Theatre, this tactic strove to be striking, antagonistic, and challenging for the audience.
The Alienation Effect (The "V" Effekt)
Today, Broadway is comprised of HOW MANY professional theaters in the New York City theatre district?
Approximately 40
What was the general timeframe of the lifespan of American Vaudeville?
mid-1800s to 1930s
This element of operatic music serves as a more traditional "song" or vocal solo.
Aria
This 1866 show is considered by many to be the first musical comedy of its kind.
The Black Crook (...not a musical YET...!!)
Describe the idea of "aesthetic distance" between an audience and a piece of theatre.
Challenging the audience to be detached enough from what's happening on stage in order to view it objectively
How can "Off-Off-Broadway" be defined?
Still in NYC, but representing the avant-garde, amateur, or nonunion theaters in the region
These TWO mid-20th century performance styles catered both to in-house studio audiences AND television audiences nationwide:
Sitcoms (situation comedy) and variety shows
This Italian-American composer specialized in one-act operas for modern audiences such as The Telephone.
Gian-Carlo Menotti
This 1927 show is recognized as the FULL INTEGRATION of music and serious drama.
Show Boat
List ONE of the defining factors of audience identity:
Age, culture, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, education, economic status
Seating 1,933 total, this is the largest theatre house on Broadway.
The Gershwin Theater
Movies killed off Vaudeville for good
What differentiates opera from all other genres?
It is completely sung-through, relying fully on music as the main storytelling element.
First seen in Oklahoma!, this specialized kind of dance was specifically used to drive the plot forward.
List ONE way in which the audience might be further isolated by a piece of theatre:
- The use of language/dialect
- Being given a unique identity
- Using unique staging/focal points
- Using direct audience interaction