Expressionism

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Expressionism
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The Birth of the Expressionist Movement

• Germany 1910
• Rebel against the materialist values
• Opposition of Naturalism, Neo-Romanticism and
  Impressionism

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Main Goal Express Emotion

• Actors behave how most people wouldnt in real
  life (exaggerating their emotions)
• Idea of spiritual renewal, inner struggle to
  achieve spiritual transformation into Der neue
  Mensch

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Forerunners

• Frank Wedekind (Germany)
• Georg Kaiser (Germany)
• August Strindberg (Sweeden)
• Oskar Kokoschka (Austria)

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Max Reinhardt (1873-1943)
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• Austrian actor, manager and producer
• 1890 Drama student in Viena
• 1892 Plays in Saltzburg theatre
• 1893 Goes to Deutsches theatre in Berlin under
  the tuition of Otto Brahm

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Innovations

• New mechanical devices
• New methods of lighting
• Well-schooled crowd work, creating intimacy
  between actors and audience such as in the days
  of ancient Greece

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Theatres Founded by Reinhardt

• 1901 Schall and Rauch (Sound and Smoke) for
  experimental thatre
• 1902 Neues Theater, now called Berliner
  Ensemble
• 1906 Kammerspiele
• 1919 "Grosses Schauspielhaus" (Great Playhouse),
  known as The theatre of the Five Thousand
• 1920 The two Boulevard Theatres
• 1920 established the Saltzburg festival

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Adolphe Appia (1962-1928)
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• Appia grew up in Geneva in early 1860s
• From a young age he had a strong interest of
  music and theatre
• He had ambitions of becoming a director but
  because of his shy tendancies he turned to
  writing to communicate his ideas
• Later on he became an architect and theorist of
  stage lighting and decor
• He was most well known for his many scenic
  designs for Wagners operas

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• He rejected 2D sets for 3D living sets because
  he believed that shade is as necessary as the
  light, to form a connection between the actor and
  the setting of the performance
• He was one of the first designers to understand
  the potential of stage lighting to do more than
  merely illuminate actors and painted scenery

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Thank you !