Front cover image for A concise history of Polish theater from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries

A concise history of Polish theater from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries

Based partly on a Kent State U. Open Theatre conference in 1983 which brought together writers, directors, and critics who had been integral to the New York theatre scene of the 1960s and 1970s, this study analyzes the creative shifts of that period. After profiling the American playwright-director before 1960, Gardner (playwriting, American drama, Ohio Wesleyan U.) traces how the Vietnam War, other social issues, and increased funding cued decentralization and experimentation in dramatic styles (e.g., in regional and off-off Broadway theatre), and the emergence of the new playwright-director. Some 90 pages are devoted to appendices listing playwright-directed productions and biographical data on selected playwright-directors. c. Book News Inc
Print Book, English, ©2003
E. Mellen Press, Lewiston, N.Y., ©2003
History
xxviii, 474 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm.
9780773467910, 9780773497214, 0773467912, 0773497218
51768831
1. Theater in independent Poland (11th-18th centuries)
Theater in the Middle Ages (circa 11th-14th centuries)
Renaissance Theater (circa 15th-16th centuries)
Baroque Theater (circa 1650-1750)
Enlightenment Theater (circa 1740-1765)
The creation of the National Theater (1765-1779)
Wojciech Bogusławski
"The father of the National Theater"
2. Theater in Poland under foreign rule (1795-1918)
Creation of the national stages (end of the 18th century
1830)
Dichotomy of Polish theater life (circa 1830-1893)
The nineteenth century
The century of the actor
The great reform of theater and its Polish share (1893-1918)
Stanisław Wyspiański
founder of Modern Polish Theater
3. Theater of the second republic (1918-1939)
General characteristic of the inter-war era (1918-1939)
Reforms of acting
Reforms of directing
Reforms of theater space
4. Theater at the time of the national catastrophes (1939-1956)
"Socrealism" in theater
5. Theater in the country of "real socialism" (1956-1980)
"Theatrical October"
Our little stabilization
The second reform of theater
Dissident theater
6. The twenty years of storm (1980-2000)
Solidarity: theater of hope
Martial law: theater of anger
Communism as usual: theater as usual (second half of the 1980s)
The third republic: new freedoms
new challenges in the 1990s
Selective summary: Polish Theater
National institution
Artistic styles
Audiences
The international context
Polish theater and Poland's history
In brief