Theatre Royal – Drury Lane – London

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Catherine Street, WC2B 5JF, is an un-air conditioned theatre in Covent Garden, in Westminster, London’s, West End. The current theatre building is actually the most recent of four theatres that have been located in the same spot since 1663, and this makes the Theatre Royal the oldest theatre in London. The current building was listed Grade I in February 1958 by English Heritage. The first incarnation of the theatre came to light after the Puritan Interregnum, which was an 11-year ban on “frivolous” pastimes, including theatre.

It opened May 7, 1663, and was known as the “King’s Playhouse” by many. The original building was a wooden structure made of three tiers, 112 feet long and 59 feet wide. At maximum capacity, it could hold 700 patrons. The performances during this time typically took place around 3 p.m. in order to make use of the daylight. There was no roof over the audience pit, which oftentimes left those attending plays at the mercy of the elements. When the first theatre was destroyed by fire in 1672, the second theatre, named the “Theatre Royale in Drury Lane,” opened in 1794. This theatre lasted almost 120 years but was demolished in 1791 to make room for a bigger theatre, which opened in 1794. This theatre only lasted 15 years, as it also burned down in 1809.     Read the rest of this entry »

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Defining Postmodern Theatre

I’d like to begin by differentiating postmodern theatre from its preceding periodizing categorization, the ‘classical’ and the ‘modern’ drama. Classical drama is characterized by the value placed in the plot and its adherence to Aristotle’s laws of dramatic unities. In the nineteenth century we also observed how Hegelian philosophy filtered into modern drama with the movement of ‘man’/character at the forefront of dramaturgy in the character dramas of Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekov. We also see how Aristotle’s mimesis is taken to the heights in the period of naturalism as influenced by the Darwinian science in the stagings of modern theatre. Raymond Williams observes the perfection of tragedy in modern drama where the alienated predicament of the human being in a highly industrialized world is highlighted. He sees Beckett’s tragicomedies representing the reduction and degradation of the human beings in a new absurdist dramatic structure.

To Elinor Fuchs, it is in the postmodern theatre that we witness the “death of the character” and the eradication of the plot. In this statement we are reminded of Barthes’ announcement of the “death of the author”, Foucault stating the “death of man” and Lyotard hailing the dissolution of metanarratives. As rigid categorization and structures of modernism collapse, eclecticism now characterizes postmodernism. But unlike Jameson’s notion of pastiche and extreme consumerism of multi-national capitalism, critical postmodern theatre derives its theory from the post-structuralists’ insight on semiotics. Read the rest of this entry »

Does Britain Need to Develop a New Tradition of Repertory Theatre?

In Britain, the repertory movement was a theatrical movement that originated in the early years of the twentieth century, was continued and developed between the two world wars, and became, after 1950, the prevailing form of theatrical organisation outside London. The earliest repertory companies were created and introduced as a protest against London’s domination of the theatres in the regions, along with a desire to counter-balance the commercial successes of the ‘West End’. My argument in this essay is that the time has come for a renewal of that protest in the face of a modern domination of British theatre by ‘The West End’.

By the second half of Queen Victoria’s reign, most people earned more money and worked shorter hours than ever before. This meant that for the first time, ordinary workers had enough leisure time to enjoy pastimes. By the mid-1800s, most of the large towns had several theatres, providing a range of ‘song-and-dance’ shows that entertained the whole family. By the 1860s, theatre became so successful that not only were they decorated to make them more comfortable with proper cushioned seats and carpet, but also matinées were introduced and the representational style of theatre was replaced with a new realism, pioneered on the continent by writers such as Ibsen. Read the rest of this entry »

Music Teachers Resources: Making Students Love Music

When your private studio has innovative and interactive music teachers resources, you can certainly focus on developing your students’ interests in music. Through these, you can also motivate them to craft music as both their profession and passion. Teaching music can be a difficult task. It requires much time and effort; thus, makes music education more challenging, dynamic and versatile.

Ideally, a music teacher must have these objectives in mind:

• to offer a custom-made and challenging program for his musically-inclined pupils to maximize their music potential;     Read the rest of this entry »

Effective Music Teachers Resources And Tips: Students’ Feedback

Primarily, a music teacher’s task lies in the idea of effective and creative communication. Thus, credibility and reliability have always been an issue to academic institutions, their teaching and non-teaching personnel and even the student body.

Music teachers simultaneously motivate, inspire, and support their students through innovative music teachers resources. Whether these resources and tips are from the experiences of other teaching individuals, educators, academes or from the internet, what important is you are able to meet your goals and stay committed to your purpose.     Read the rest of this entry »