American Drama: Origins and Influences

American Drama Overview

• American drama originated from Modernist Drama.
• It didn't mature as a form of expression in the US until around the 20th century, even though drama was already popular before then.
• American drama is considered an offshoot of European Drama and can be studied under Modernist Drama.

Influences and Early Development

• American Drama was greatly influenced by British and European drama.
• Theater has existed in America as entertainment since around 1703.
• American drama started being presented to live audiences in the American colonies in the 17th century and continued to grow.
• The British and European drama greatly influenced American Drama in the 18th and 19th centuries.
• Around 1910 (20th century), New York City's theater season began balancing American and British/European plays.
• Before 1910 there more British plays were presented than American plays
• Britain colonized America, and they shared a common language as a result.
• British plays were readily available in America which aided the influence of these plays.
• American drama hadn't carved a niche for itself by that time.
• By the 1830s, American drama tried to deviate from British influence, but most plays copied British models.
• American drama had a slow start in American literature.
• Early plays produced on the American stage were imported from Europe which meant a lack of originality.
• The lack of originality meant that American Drama lagged behind other genres of American literature.
• Some critics believe that American Drama was only "born" at the end of World War I, when Eugene O'Neill's work became known in the 1920s.
• American Drama moved toward realism and naturalism towards the end of the 19th century.
• It replaced the Romanticism that prevailed in American literature.
• Realism dominated comedies and tragedies on the American stage during the 20th century.
• American drama began to address issues like race, gender, sexuality, and death.
• American Drama began to grow as a legitimate literary form in the United States during the 20th century.
• Some of the first major American playwrights began their work on the stage during this time.
• American Drama had different forms and focus before the 20th century, built around Arthur Miller.
• The 1600s and 1700s had very little theatrical activity.
• The early settlers in the American colonies dealt with harsh living conditions after migrating.
• Many new settlers were Puritans, and they saw drama as immoral and placed a ban on all theatrical performances.

Theatrical Performance

• Melodrama became a theatrical performance form in America around the 19th century, introduced by William Dunlop.
• Dunlop is important for giving drama its most important characteristic: dramatic conflict.
• Many plays in America in the 19th century were produced for commercial purposes not published and only meant to be seen on stage.
• American Civil War shifted towards realism, illustrating scenes of humble life, criticizing social conditions, and creating realistic characters.
• Drama on realism presented a faithful representation of real life, playwrights concentrated on middle-class life and preoccupation, and avoided larger.
• Three-dimensional settings, and actors/characters spoke authentically sounding dialogues.
• A melodramatic plot still prevailed early on, but there was a shift towards psychological realism championed by Henrik Ibsen, a modernist Norwegian playwright.

Social Commentary:

• The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a shift towards social realism in American drama, addressing social issues.
• The focus was on the American family, its development, and its disintegration.
• 20th-century American drama reflected upheavals of the first half of the century and passed social commentaries on World Wars and the Great Depression.
• American drama became experimental, with playwrights tinkering with forms, structure, narrative techniques, and vernacular language.
• Early American playwrights were inspired by European playwrights, like Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Anton Chekhov.
• Realism and naturalism gave way to modernism in American drama.
• Eugene O'Neill introduced complex emotional and serious themes and gave American drama literary essence and merit.
• O'Neill was the first American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.
• Expressionism, developed in Germany, influenced American drama in the early 20th century, emphasizing exaggerated emotions.
• American drama gained international attention in the 20th century.
• Renowned playwrights like Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams emerged, exploring the American psyche and human condition.
• Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) remain popular.
• The mid-20th century saw the rise of African-American playwrights like Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, and August Wilson.
• American drama continued to grow and explore identity, social issues, and human interactions.

African Drama

• African Drama is different from all other forms of drama.
• It is unique because of its link to cultural and traditional elements.
• African Drama is inseparable from other genres of literature.
• Modern African Drama is a specific type of dramatic activity and identifiable body of works, critical discourses, theatrical institutions in Africa that came out of primitive theatre/dramatic influences.
• Modern African Drama came out of the modern period and is a child of Modernist Literature.
• Africa had oral performances and theaters before European contact.
• Imperialist Europe left a mark on Africa and its artistic production.
• African literature reflects the experiences of Africans, portraying pre-colonial, imperialist-ruled colonial, and post-colonial eras.
• Individual African experiences formed the themes and settings of African literary works, including dramatic expression.
• Yemi Ogunbiyi (1981) says Traditional African Drama came about as an expression of the relationship/state of connectedness between man, society, and nature.
• Drama rose from basic human needs, including entertainment and message delivery.
• Traditional African Drama is identified with ritualized performances and is often described as a form of entertainment with orality.
• The oral and folkloric nature of African drama is easily seen in pre-colonial African societies' dramatic performances.
• Drama grew at different paces/times in different parts of Africa.
• Drama/theatre in Africa can be broken into different parts to account for different rates of growth.
• Drama exists in West, East, South, and North Africa, each with different characteristics and personalities.
• Questions exist about popular theatre traditions before European contact due to the lack of documented evidence.
• European tradition has had the dominant influence in Africa during colonialism.
• Popular theatre forms are linked to the European theatre, like the circus, burlesque, vaudeville, and musical comedies are influences for African drama.
• West African playwrights and dramatists used greatly influenced by European models but relied on traditional modes for inspiration/source material.
• Popular traditional theatre forms in Nigeria include the Alarinjo Theatre, the Annang Drama, the Kwagh-hir Theatre, Puppet Shows, and the Yankamanci Comical Acts.
• Theatrical forms emerged from ritual performances and later became de-ritualized for entertainment.
• The ritual origin of many traditional dramatic forms has scholars like Kalu Uka argue that traditional drama should be considered as a new era.
• J. P. Clark says the origin of Nigerian drama can be found in the early religious/magical ceremonies and festivals of the Yoruba, the egwugwu and mmo masquerades of the Ibo, Owu and Oru of the Ijaw.
• Ola Rotimi said that African ritual displays shows evidence of imitation, enlightenment, and entertainment.
• Traditional drama in East Africa (Kenya) is rooted in the evidence of relationship in a belief system based on human relationship and the cosmos, and between humans and the supernatural world.
• East African drama emerged from the need to communicate with supernatural beings for supplication or averting natural disasters using incantation or dramatization.
• religious poetry invokes supernatural powers to ward off evil.
• Dramatic forms placate or entreat supernatural beings for favor.
• Kenyan drama ranks above the other countries and serves as the leading voice in East Africa
• Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kenyan revolutionary and nationalist) helped place Kenyan drama in the spotlight of East African drama.
• Kenyan people saw life in stages, with death (passing on to glory) being one of these stages.
• African belief says a person is born, grows up, matures, and must die.
• Death is seen as transcendental (movement from the physical realm to the supernatural).
• Death is part of the growth of the living, particularly when that person attains a ripe mature age.
• Dramatic performances were engaged to help the living come to terms with death and to help them see their ancestors as part of their society.
• The average Kenyan found that drama played a significant role in the rite of passage and other rituals.
• It symbolized the core of Kenyan customs and traditions. In other parts of Africa, drama played a significant role in child's play.
• Children's plays helped society with gender stereotyping and stratification.
• Drama played a symbolic and signifying role in pre-colonial Kenyan society reinforcing cultural thoughts, customs, traditions, beliefs, and all were reflected in every sphere of Kenyan life.

Southern African Drama

• Southern African drama is placed against the conceptual borders of indigenous performing arts.
• It is the art forms of indigenous people that rise to drama/theatre in the region.
• Rituals, festivals, and indigenous ceremonies gave impetus to drama/theatre in the sub-region.
• Southern Africa is rich in artistic cave engravings.
• Traditional theatre cultures and acts like female initiation rites gave instruction to girls.
• Ceremonies practiced by the people symbolically expressed mutual rights and duties.
• The North African stage is as dynamic as that of West Africa.
• Egyptian theatre is a symbolic representation of Northern African theatres
• Egyptian theatre is about 5000 years old.
• Traditional theatre in Egypt is referred to as the Pharaonic Period, and represents 30 dynasties of Pharaonic rulers, divided into 3: the Old, the Middle, and the New Kingdom.
• The Pharaonic Period was characterised by the strong persuasion of beliefs in man's rebirth culminated at the beginning of special ceremonies passage rites.
• Religious and ceremonial observances informed the existence of a priestly caste at the Egyptian theatre and Pharaonic Period.
• Persons were assumed to be the intermediaries between the Pharaohs and the gods.
• These were incorporated into the early drama of the Egyptians, and serve as the origin of drama in Egyptian history.
• Some of the elements of Egyptian traditional ways of life and entertainment also contained elements of drama.
• Music was regarded as sacred art and had royalty and aristocratic ladies performing it in the temple.
• Drama forms visited in the African continent are the traditional forms in existence before foreign influences.
• Colonialism: European churches played a role in changing dramatic forms' stance.
• The church employed theatre to Christianise and enlighten the natives and spread their culture.
• Western education played a significant role in this acculturation.
• Groups exposed to Western forms promoted/spread these forms.
• With the modern African dramatists, a new style of African drama evolved and blended the traditional African drama.
• African drama works were often copied from traditional styles before written tradition.
• Modern Nigerian drama is believed to have been pioneered by Hubert Ogunde with Native Ai Opera.
• His team would be staging the drama in specific times, like done in Medieval England.
• Proponents of Modern Nigerian Drama: Wole Soyinka, J. P. Clark-Bekederemo, Ola Rotimi, Kole Omotoso, Femi Osofisan, Sam Ukala, Tess Onwueme, Bode Sowande, Ahmed Yerima, Ken etc.
• Prominent writers and dramatists, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Joe de Graft, Ama Ata Aidoo, Efua Sutherland, Zades Mda, Tewfik al-Hakim, Athol Fugard.
• African drama is structured into generations and not into periods as done in European literature.
• Wole Soyinka and J. P. Clark were regarded as First Generation playwrights, Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, Zulu Sofola, and Tess Onwueme as Second Generation playwrights.
• female African playwrights, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tess Onwueme, Efua Sutherland, ‘Zulu Sofola,
• The uniqueness of African borrowed from many cultures but experimented with many.
• African dramatists employed European forms of drama and to use these indigenous stories.
• Absurdist Movement has been experimented with by playwrights, Tewfik al-Hakim's Fate of a Cockroach, John Bing's The Wall, Wole Soyinka's Madmen and Specialists,.
• Absurdist plays by playwrights are Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, Issam Mahfouz's The Dictator, Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit.
• Another way African dramatists have experimented with language, as the European languages are not considered for expressing African thoughts.
• The use of indigenous languages became important/incorporation.
• Some believe European languages can convey indigenous ideas.