Use the vocabulary in bold while talking about the performance

1) What is the theme of the performance?

2) How does the director of the performance heighten the effect of presence?

3)Why do you think the performance was greatly hailed in America?

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British and American theatres

Theatre in London

Most British cities have a theatre, but London has the greatest number. There are over 50 theatres in London’s West End, the area in London with most theatres , and about 35 smaller fringe theatres. A successful play may run for months, even years. In recent years, musicals have been very successful. About 5 million people, many of them tourists, go to see a musical every year in London.

Going to the theatre is not only popular, but also expensive. Not many young people can afford to go. It is possible to get cheaper tickets by going to afternoon performances called matinees or by buying stand-bys,

half-price tickets which are sold half an hour before a performance starts. Britain has a long tradition of drama. British theatre began in the thirteenth century, before the time of Shakespeare, with a serious of short stories from the Bible called The Mystery Plays. Even today, every four years in York and Chester, ordinary people still perform these plays. Acting, both by amateurs and professionals, is still very much alive in Britain. The most famous British theatres are the National theatre and the Barbican. The Royal Shakespeare Company performs both at the Barbican and in Stratford-on-Avon, where Shakespeare was born. These theatres receive money from the government so that they can perform several plays a year. In spite of this money from the government ,many theatres including the National Theatre and the Barbican find it difficult to survive. There are many smaller theatre groups in Britain . Some of them receive money from the government to perform plays which are contemporary and experimental.

Opera and ballet life is also interesting in Britain. Several first –class orchestras are based in London.

Opera of the highest quality is performed in London. The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in central London is leased by the government to the Covent Garden Opera House trust, which receives a government grant. Seasons of opera are performed there and also of ballet by the Royal ballet , which has in recent years been one of the most successful British ventures in the arts.

(From “Highlights by L.V. Kvedchenya )

I Learn the vocabulary in italics and make your own situations with it.

II Discussion points:

1)What kind of tickets are available in London?

2)What do theatres do to survive?

3)What theatre companies are popular in Britain?

British theatre

London’s theatreland buzzes with action in the early evening.

Film and TV drama have their rootsin the theatre, and theatre has long been important in British cultural life. After all, the most celebratedcreative export of all time is Shakespeare. Actually Shakespeare, although uniquely talented, was not the only dramatist of his time; he had competition from Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson and others. The theatre flowered quickly and gloriously in theElizabethan and Jacobean periods. It was

suppressedbriefly by the Puritans, in the 17th century, but since then it has been a vibrantand popular art form right up to the present day. Most periods have had their great playwrights: William Congreve, Oliver Goldsmith, Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Harold Pinter. Even when, as in the mid 19th century, there was a lack of major dramatists, the theatre thrivedon European drama or revivals of classics. Cinema has not destroyed live theatre, as some thought it would. Theatre-going actually increased during the 20th century, the age of film. In London today there are over 100 theatres, which is more than any other city in the world, including New York. Of course, the audiences are not all Londoners; the majority are foreign tourists. But the British are still very theatre-minded, and there are no fewer than 17,000 amateur theatre groups in the country. Every school does drama — the school play is an institution, and can be extremely well-produced with good lighting, music and costumes. The theatre and the cinema have a sort of symbiotic relationship, with many actors, directors and writers doing both. Sir Anthony Hopkins, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson all had careers on the stage before going into films. The theatre writer Tom Stoppard wrote the screen play for the hugely successful “Shakespeare in Love”. Actors in the theatre quite often go into films for the money and fame, and later come back to the stage for the pleasure and artistic satisfaction of it. So Hollywood stars like Nicole Kidman or Dustin Hoffman occasionally appear in small London theatres.

( Information is taken from: “British life and institutions by Mark Farrel).

Discussion points:

1) What is the history of British theatre?

2) Prove that British people are theatre-minded on the basis of the text.

3) What kind of relationship exists between cinema and theatre?

4) Can you see any advantage of theatre over film, or is theatre just old-fashioned?

American Theater

Theater in the United States has been strongly influenced by European drama, but the "musical" is of truly American origin. The musical is a play with spoken lines, songs, and dances. It was not until the 1940s and the production of "Oklahoma" that musicals began to change style and content. Although the basic plot of "Oklahoma" presented an uncomplicated love story, the characters in the play seemed more like real people, and, instead of the routine dancing, ballet was introduced. Since "Oklahoma" many successful musical plays have appeared on the American stage. No longer just light and amusing, they often deal with serious themes, accompanied by sophisticatedmusic and dancing. One example is "West Side Story", a modem version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", the story of young lovers who die tragically.

Set inNew York City, it portraystense and hostile relationships between Puerto Ricans and native New Yorkers.Another highly successful musical play was "My Fair Lady", the musicalversion of a play by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. The firstimportant American playwright of serious, nonmusical drama was Eugene O'Neill, who wrote deep and sensitive analyses of human relationships. O'Neill remains this country's most important dramatist,and his plays are performed frequently. Other notable modern American playwrights include Thornton Wilder, Lilian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, and Arthur Miller. These names are only a few from the long list of contributors to the contemporary stage. The American playwright who is most widely known today is Arthur Miller. His play "Death of a Salesman" has been performed in countries throughout the world.

This work captures with sympathy and understanding the heartbreak of anunsuccessful man who cannot manage the forces in his life. Two important developments in recent years are the "theater of the absurd" and the "black theater". There are also some controversial experimentswith electronic music and lighting, body movements to replace spoken words inexpressing ideas, and even spontaneous audience participation in some performances. Black theater presents plays about black people, written by black playwrights, and performed by black casts. Originally, drama about blacks carried messages of protest against racial prejudice. Today, although this theme of protestis still present, black theater is increasingly concerned with blacks as individual human beings and their problems as ordinary people. In recent years theatrical performances by blacks have increasingly stressed black music: spirituals, gospel singing and jazz and ragtime melodies. New York City is the theater center of the United States. Most important new plays are produced there. For years young actors, actresses, and playwrights have gone to New York, hoping to find success. The New York theater world is divided into two parts. One centers around Broadway, which is one of the city's most important streets. Almost all the large commercial theaters are located on or near Broadway in the midtown area. Most Broadway theatergoers seem to prefer musicals and sophisticated dramas or comedies featuring one or two highly paid stars. The other New York theater division, off-Broadway, has no definite geographic location. Off-Broadway theaters are found throughout the city in buildings once used as garages, offices, and stores. Rents are low, and there is justspace enough for small audiences. Sometimes there is no raised stage.Then the cast performs in the center of the room, surrounded on all sides by the audience. This arrangement is known as "theater-in-the-round". Many theater groups are active outside New York. There are professional companies in almost every major city. Some of them follow repertoryschedules. Different plays are performed several times by the same group of actors within a period of a few weeks or months. There are also traveling acting companies that tour throughout the country. Inaddition, there are nonprofessional university and community theater group. Unlike many other countries, there is no nationally subsidized theater in the US. Some acting companies receive financial help from the National Endowment for the Arts, foundations, and a few communities. However, many theater groups suffer from lack of adequate financing. Frequently commercial theaters must charge very high prices for tickets in order to pay production costs and to make some profit. As a result, many people who love the theater cannot afford to go often.

(Н.Д. Токарева, В. Пеппард “What it is like in the USA).

Discussion points

1). Summarize the contents of the text about American Theatre using the vocabulary in the bold.

2) Make up lists of famous American playwrights and famous American plays.

3) What kind of genres are popular in the USA?

4) Do theatres receive financial help from the government?

5) What can you say about the black theatre?

6) Describe the difference between Broadway and off-Broadway theatres.

7) Are musicals popular in Russia? What is your attitude to them?

8) In what ways are Russian, British and American Theatre different? What features do they have in common?