Thursday, September 3, 2009

20th Century Fantasy Draft

OK, I'm in a foul mood today, so I didn't read a play...I couldn't decide what I wanted to read and I have had one of those days plagued with self-doubt, where you think to yourself, "Am I doing the right thing?" I picked up Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead and couldn't get into it, I picked up Everyman and couldn't get into it so I decided to punt and just goof off...I watched Star Trek: Nemesis for approximately the 2,739,473,947 time, give or take a viewing or two and while it is a terrible film, I really like Tom Hardy in it, I love Patrick Stewart and I think its got the coolest battle scene of any of the Trek films.

And while we are on the subject of Star Trek films, I gotta give a big shout out to Captain Robau of the USS Kelvin. For the first time in the entire Star Trek cannon, the captain of a ship other than the Enterprise (or I guess Voyager and DS9), wasn't a total and complete loser (And even the Enterprise had a loser, they put Cameron from Ferris Bueller in command after Kirk and before Picard for God sakes...I'm surprised he didn't try to call in sick for their shake down cruise and have to be talked into showing up by his first officer Commader Bueller, but I digress). Back to Captain Robau, yes he dies two minutes into the film (before they even roll the damn opening credits), but he goes to his death like a total badass and even though the sensors read his elevated vital signs, indicating he is afraid, he has a complete poker face in dealing with Nero and goes out a hero...(Hope I didn't give anything away there)...

So with Fantasy football drafts in the air, I am in full on mock fantasy drafts about anything and everything...Yes I took Phillip Rivers in the 2nd round of my draft and when he finishes his MVP season, you can all credit me for being a genius...so, here is today's fantasy draft...

The Most Influential Theatre Practitioners of the 20th Century...

What does that mean to you? What does that mean to me? How do we determine influence? Can a critic be involved (say Kenneth Tynan)? How about a theorist? Gordon Craig? Adolphe Appia? Artaud?? What about actors? Playwrights? Artistic Directors?? The field is wide open, you determine what influence means to you...Without further ado, here is my top 10:

1. Konstantine Stanislavski -- Influenced everybody, even those who rejected him...Perhaps my #2 pick (after Shakespeare) of most influential of all time...

2. Bertolt Brecht -- Theorist, playwright, director...Unmistakable influence....

3. Peter Brook -- Director, theorist...Dominates the second half of the 20th century, The Empty Space might be the most influential book of the century...add in his productions like The Dream, Marat/Sade, Paul Scofield Lear, The Mahabharata, his work in Paris...

4. Peter Hall -- The founding of the modern Royal Shakespeare Company helped shape modern repertory theatres in both England and the US...his work in theatre and opera has spanned more than 50 years, he directed the English language premiere of Waiting for Godot, he really shaped the modern Royal National Theatre (just the NT under his leadership) and for me, defined what an Artistic Director should be...

5. George Devine -- Founded the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre and created the template for the development of new works for the rest of the century. Died young and didn't establish a lengthy track record but Look Back in Anger changed everything. You can make a case that you can divide the 20th century into pre-1956 and post 1956...

6. Joseph Papp -- The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre has probably introduced more people to Shakespeare than any other organization in the world. His notion of the democratic appeal of theatre helped demystify the experience for countless #'s of people. He was also apparently a terrible director...

7. Laurence Olivier -- The actor of the 20th century...everyone measured themselves against him and he also walked away from Hollywood at the height of his film career to take on the establishment of the English National Theatre...add his iconic performances as Hamlet, Henry V, The Entertainer, and countless others, I believe rate him ahead of Geilgud and Richardson as his closest rivals.

8. Margo Jones, Nina Vance, Zelda Fichandler -- Founders and Artistic Directors of Dallas Theatre Center, the Alley Theatre and Arena Stage respectively. The Founding Mothers of the American Regional Theatre movement. They helped bring to life the notion that high quality professional theatre and culture in general need not be confined to a few blocks in midtown Manhattan.

9. Cameron Mackintosh -- Love him or hate him, he perfected the notion of the event megamusical that changed the face of Broadway and the West End forever (for better or worse). Cats, Les Miz, Phantom etc etc etc ad naseum...Without him, there probably never is a Disney Theatricals and perhaps we wouldn't have the opportunity to see Spider Man the Musical on Broadway this season...not all influences are good influences...

10. Antonin Artaud -- French theorist...obviously insane, spent time in and out of psychiatric hospitals and more than likely killed himself...The Theatre and It's Double was a HUGE influence on Peter Brook, Grotowski, Mnouchkine, The Living Theatre, The Open Theatre, Richard Schechner and countless other...advocated for the sacred and holy in performance and sought to banish or minimize the written word.

So there you have it...clearly I am a director first as I cannot believe my list of 20th century theatre practitioners does not include a single playwright save for Brecht, who makes it for me as much on theory as for playwrighting. Some of the ones on my short list included: Chekhov, Miller, Shaw, Beckett, Osborne, Kushner, O'Neil and Coward, but alas, none of them made it...

Who's got next??

Peace
Rick St. Peter
September 3, 2009

BTW, Happy 62nd Birthday tomorrow to the greatest father in the history of fathers, Richard St. Peter, Sr...Have a great day, Pops and enjoy your trip to the Outer Banks! I am looking forward to Texas at the end of the month!!!

4 comments:

  1. I think Ibsen has to be there. He was toiling in the psychological field as a playwright the same way Freud and Jung were as psychologists. He can lay claim to the title of Father of Modern Drama. I think he wielded far greater influence than Brecht.

    Would Stanislavski have been as influential today, if he had not been embraced by the Group Theatre in the thirties and had acolytes like Lee Strasberg, who Stella Adler...who actually spent time (with Harold Clurman) studying with Stanislavski...claimed that Strasberg got much of it wrong and, upon his death, asked for a moment of silence and then pronounced it would take a hundred years to repair the damage Strasberg did to acting. But The Method was what Strasberg evolved out of the Stanislviski system. And again, if there had been no group and no Strasberg, how pervasive would Stanislavski's theories become?

    And since we're on the Method, I don't think one can under-estimate the influence of Marlon Brando...even though he spent very little time on stage. But if you listen to the actors of the time, he was extremely influential, an impact that even carried into his film work which kept influencing actors coming up for generations...like the DeNiros and Pacinos.

    I think Rodgers and Hammerstein and Oklahoma brought about a sea-change in the musical theatre that remained until Sondheim and Cameron MacIntosh each affected it in very different ways.

    I think Olivier is a good choice because he was able to adapt better than the other two of his triumvirate. Many of the English lions will speak more kindly and more lovingly of Gielgud and Richardson, but it was Olivier who went from matinee idol, to great classical actor, to an Osbourne/Royal Court Modern style that swept away the Binkie Beaumont era. And then there were his tireless efforts to the English stage as Artistic Director, Actor-Manager, Producer, Ambassador of Theatre.

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  2. To be in a foul mood is better than to have foul balls.

    Keep it up...it's quasi-enjoyable reading.

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  3. Thanks...I think that is a quasi-compliment...maybe...

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  4. From my friend Steve in Indiana:


    "Very hard list, and not sure where to start, but gotta throw out a designer or two. Stanley McCandles developed the first theories of how to light a person on the stage, and his methods are still used today. Abe Feder, perhaps teh first true lighting designer, took it away from being technical and one extra job done by the scenic, stage management or just random tech and made lighting an art. I met him at a USITT conference just a few years before his death and was in awe."

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