Theatre

The Art of Acting. From the fall of the Roman Empire until the 10th century, acting hardly existed as an art in Western Europe; only the wandering minstrels gave entertainments in castles and at fairs. In England, the first real actors were amateurs who performed Miracle and Morality plays which were religious in character.

In the Elizabethan age, the first professional theatres were opened. At the time of Shakespeare there were at least six companies of actors. Shakespeare himself joined the Earl of Leicester’s company, which under James I became known as the “King’s Men”. All the women’s parts at that time were played by men and boys. It was very difficult for most actors to earn a living on the stage, even in a London company, and many of them fell into debt. When Shakespeare arrived in London in 1586, the acting was very crude and conventional. There was almost no scenery, and the actors were dressed in the costumes of their day. But when “The Globe” was opened to the public in 1599, it was the golden age of the theatre in England.

In the first half of the 17th century the influence of the Puritans was bad for the popular theatre, and it was not before the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 that theatre-going again became a popular habit. The most popular plays were comedies. It was at this time that women first began to act on the stage.

By the beginning of the 18th century the most popular type of play was the sentimental comedy. The acting was artificial probably due to the influence of French actors. But, later, under the influence of David Garrick and some other actors, acting became much more naturalistic.

David Garrick was one of the greatest actors known (several theatres in Great Britain are named after him). He promoted realistic acting and was also a playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century. But even at his time acting was not very popular. An actor whose acting had offended the audience had to ask pardon on his knees in front of a full house before he could continue in his profession.

During the 19th century acting became more and more naturalistic. Like in Shakespeare’s time, the best actors understood the importance of the team work of the company. One of the most famous actors of that time was Henry Irving. He was the first actor to be knighted.

By the 1920s naturalistic acting reached a peak in the performance of Sir Gerald du Maurier. He hardly appeared to be acting at all.

At present most acting still continues to be naturalistic. Designers make the settings as realistic as possible. Modern producers and directors Peter Hall, Peter Brook and others are trying out new styles of acting.

British Drama Theatre Today. The theatre has always been very strong in Britain. Many British actors and actresses are known all over the world. They are Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Michael Caine, Vanessa Redgrave, Christian Bale, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and many others. A prolific composer of musical theatre in the 20th century, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been referred to as the most commercially successful composer in history. His musicals, which include The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, have dominated the West End for a number of years and have travelled to Broadway in New York and around the world as well as being turned into films.

The centre of theatrical activity is, of course, London with its 40 theatres in the district called “Theatreland”. But every large town in the country has its theatres. Even small towns often have repertory theatres, where different plays are performed for short periods by the same group of professional actors (a repertory company).

Drama is so popular with people of all ages that there are several thousand amateur dramatic societies. Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. It seems that the conventional format of the theatrical play gives the undemonstrative British people a safe opportunity to look behind the mask of accepted social behaviour. The country’s most successful and respected playwrights are usually those who explore the darker side of the personality and of personal relationships.

The Royal National Theatre Company presents a varied programme, including Shakespeare and other international classic drama and new plays by contemporary playwrights. The National Theatre building was opened in 1976 and is located in the South Bank area of central London. It houses three separate auditoria: the Olivier Theatre (for 1,160 people), the Lyttelton Theatre (for 890 people) and the Cottesloe/Dorfman Theatre (for up to 400 people). The National Theatre has won a high reputation for the quality of its production. In 2009, the theatre began National Theatre Live program of broadcasting live productions to cinemas in the United Kingdom and internationally. Today, National Theatre Live productions are broadcast to over 700 venues in 22 countries around the world.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company. The company’s home is in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has recently redeveloped its Royal Shakespeare theatre and Swan theatre. The company produces around 20 plays a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle and on tour across the UK and internationally. In addition to plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the RSC produces new works by modern writers.

Successful plays can sometimes run in theatres without a break for many years. The best example is The Mousetrap, a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. Its 25,000th performance took place on 18 November 2012, and the play is still running at St Martin’s Theatre. The play is also known for its twist ending, which the audience are traditionally asked not to reveal after leaving the theatre.

British theatre has such a fine acting tradition that Hollywood is forever raiding its talent for people to star in films. British television does the same thing. Moreover, Broadway, when looking for its next blockbuster musical, pays close attention to London productions. In short, British theatre is much admired. As a consequence, it is something that British actors are proud of. Many of the most well-known television actors, though they might make most of their money in cinema business, continue to see themselves as first and foremost theatre actors.

Interestingly, several major Hollywood stars (including Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Christian Slater and many others) have taken pay cuts to play in London theatres. Kevin Spacey liked it so much that he decided to take over a theatre. In 2003 he was appointed as new artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre Company (famous as a home for classic and new drama).

There are many theatres and theatre companies for young people: the National Youth Theatre, the Young Vic Company, Polka Theatre, the Scottish Youth Theatre and others. Many famous English actors started their careers in the National Youth Theatre, among them Timothy Dalton, Helen Mirren, and Orlando Bloom.

One British tradition that always surprises tourists is a Christmas pantomime (or a panto). Pantomimes take place around the Christmas period and are nearly always based on well-known children’s stories such as Peter Pan, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. These pantomimes are performed in theatres, village halls and community centres. They contain a number of traditional components:

· Cross dressing – in pantomimes the male roles are often played by women and female roles by men. This makes the audience laugh more.

· Audience participation – an important part of a pantomime. For example, when the villain is behind the main hero, the audience shout “He’s behind you!” Some pantomimes include a song for the audience to join in with, and others invite children up on stage to chat to one of the performers.

· A comedy animal – most pantos feature a comic animal played by two actors in one costume.

Nowadays, pantomimes are great family entertainments and pop stars, comedians, sportsmen and TV celebrities often take part in them.

Museums and art galleries. Painting and sculpture are not as widely popular as music is in Britain. There is a general feeling that you have to be a specialist to appreciate them, especially if they are contemporary. Small private art galleries, where people might look at paintings with a view to buying them, are rare. Nevertheless, London is one of the main centres of the international collector’s world. The two major auction houses of Sotheby’s and Christie’s are world-famous.

Until the 1980s, the country’s major museums and galleries charged nothing for admission. Some of them now do so, although payment is often voluntary.

Britain’s most frequently visited museum, the British museum in London, is also its largest. It was founded in 1753 and is especially famous for its collection of antiquities and as the home, until 1997, of the British Library.

The oldest museum in Britain is the Ashmolean in Oxford, founded in 1683. It has collections of ancient history, fine art and archaeology. Many of the most important specialist museums, however, are in London. They include the Victoria and Albert Museum, which specializes in applied art, the Science Museum, especially popular with children, and the Natural History Museum. Also in London are the Museum of London, illustrating the capital’s history, the Imperial War Museum and the London Transport Museum. A major tourist attraction in London is Madame Tussauds, a museum which contains wax figures of famous people, both living and dead. The exhibition was opened in 1833 by Marie Tussaud, a Swiss modeller in wax. New models are made regularly as people become famous.

Important art collections in London are those of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, which are situated next door to each other in Trafalgar Square.

The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square in London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge. It is the fourth most visited art museum in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

The National Portrait Gallery (opened in 1856) is an art gallery in London, housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist. The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare.

The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom’s national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is a network of four art museums: Tate Britain, London (previously known as the Tate Gallery, founded in 1897), Tate Liverpool (founded in 1988), Tate St Ives, Cornwall (founded in 1993) and Tate Modern, London (founded in 2000). Of these four, Tate Modern is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from 1900 until today. Another London gallery, Tate Britain, is the national gallery of British art from 1500 to the present day.

Outside London, most major towns and cities have their own museums and art galleries.

The huge Tate Modern in London has proved to be astonishingly and unexpectedly popular since it was first opened in 2000. More and more visitors come here in order to understand modern British culture and to indulge their interest in new art. That interest may have boosted from a number of sculptures and installations set up around the countryside in Great Britain. These large sculptures are created by the best British contemporary artists and they provoke debate, controversy and, often, passionate delight. The one which immediately became a national icon is Angel of the North by Antony Gormley. It is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres tall, with wings measuring 54 metres across. The wings do not stand straight sideways, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward; Gormley did this to create “a sense of embrace”. Because of its size and its position near the main northward motorway, it has been seen, with excitement and admiration, by millions of people. Not everyone likes it, but this huge “angel” has become a national talking point – and a source of pride.

Music and Musicians. Thousands of British people are dedicated musicians and many public libraries have a well-stocked music section. Several British orchestras, soloists, singers, choirs, opera companies and ballet companies, and also certain annual musical events, have international reputations. Such enthusiasm is all the more remarkable given England’s small number of well-known classical composers, especially compared with Austria, Germany and Italy.

Key figures include Henry Purcell, who flourished in the Restoration period and is still regarded as one of the finest English composers; Thomas Arne, best known for the patriotic anthem Rule, Britannia!; and Benjamin Britten, perhaps the finest English composer of the last century, best known for the composition The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and the opera Peter Grimes.

Best-known of all English classical-music concert programs is The Proms. The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, mainly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Each season currently consists of more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children’s events. In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. The Proms is very often described as the world’s largest and most democratic musical festival.

The term “Proms” originally referred to concerts in the pleasure gardens of London where the audience could walk about while listening to the music (French se promener = to walk). Today many people prefer to stand during the Proms because the standing tickets are cheaper (£5.00 in 2012) and because they like the tradition of camaraderie that has grown up between the members of the audience and between audience and orchestra since this series of Promenade Concerts opened in 1895.

Back in those days, impresario Robert Newman arranged the first series of indoor promenade concerts. Newman wanted to encourage an audience for concert hall music who would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere. In addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were (and still are) all allowed. He hired a young British conductor Henry Wood who continued his work with the Proms until his death in 1944.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, formed in 1930, became the main orchestra for the Proms. After the war, other orchestras were invited to take part in the Proms. Since that time, almost every major international orchestra, conductor and soloist has performed at the Promenade concerts.

One of the most expected events of the Proms is the Last Night concert which usually takes place on the second Saturday in September. This concert is traditionally performed in a lighter, relaxing manner, with popular classics being followed by a series of British patriotic pieces (such as Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and Rule, Britannia!) in the second half of the concert. It is very difficult to get a ticket for this concert. People who were lucky to have one are likely to queue up much earlier than usual (many overnight, and in past years, some slept outside the hall up to three weeks to guard their place in the queue) in order to ensure a good place to stand in the hall. Many use the occasion to show their love and support for Great Britain. You can often see people in patriotic T-shirts who carry and wave Union Flags as well as other national and regional flags.

The Royal Albert Hall cannot accommodate all people wishing to attend the Last Night. That’s why the Proms in the Park concerts were started in 1996. At first, there was only one, in Hyde Park near the Hall. In recent years, Belfast, Glasgow, Swansea and Manchester hosted a Last Night Prom in the Park. Each location has its own live concert, typically playing the countries’ respective national anthems, before joining in a live big screen video from the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional finale. In 2009, for the first time, the Last Night was shown live in several cinemas across Asia as well as in Canada and Australia. This year, people in Britain can enjoy the Last Night of the Proms celebrations in more ways than ever. They can join the party at one of the Proms in the Park or BBC BigScreen events, or watch the Royal Albert Hall concert at a local cinema!

In the 1960s, British artists had a great influence on the development of modern, or popular, music. The Beatles and other British groups, such as the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, were responsible for several innovations which were then adopted by popular musicians in the USA and the rest of the world. These included the writing of words and music by the performers themselves, and more active audience participation.

Since the 1960s, popular music in Britain has been an enormous and profitable industry. The Beatles were awarded the honour of MBE (Member of the British Empire) for their services to British exports. Within Britain the total sales of the various kinds of musical recording are more than 200 million every year – and the vast majority of them are of popular music. Many worldwide trends have come out of Britain and British pop artists have been active in attempting to cross the boundaries between popular music, folk music and classical music.

Some experts explain the rapid development and success of the British music and culture by a large number of annual festivals which cover a wide variety of genres. Many of the UK’s festivals are world renowned and have been held for many years.

The Edinburgh International Festival (established in 1947) is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh over three weeks at the end of August. The International Festival invites top class performers of opera, theatre, music (especially classical music) and dance from around the world to perform.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an arts festival associated with the Edinburgh Festival. It also takes place in the city of Edinburgh over five weeks during August, and is the largest arts festival in the world. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, more usually called the Fringe, was also started in 1947. Eight theatre companies decided to take advantage of the crowds of theatregoers expected to attend the International Festival by putting on unofficial performances of their own. Since then the Fringe has outgrown the official Festival, and now has its own coordinating organisation (Festival Fringe Society), which sells more than a million tickets each year. The Fringe is focussed on the performing arts, particularly theatre and comedy, although dance and music are also represented.

The most important eisteddfod (Welsh festival) is the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the largest festival of competitive music and poetry in Europe. Its eight days of competitions and performances, entirely in the Welsh language, are staged annually in the first week of August, mostly in Wales. Competitors typically number 6,000 or more, and overall attendances generally exceed 150,000 visitors.

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts. Headline performers for 2011 Glastonbury Festival were U2, Coldplay and Beyoncé. In spite of the fact that the ticket price increases every year (£205 in 2013), the festival remains extremely popular. Tickets to the 2013 festival were sold out in a record time of one hour and forty minutes.

All over Britain you will find people participating in culture by singing, painting, acting, writing poetry themselves. They are also reading, looking, listening, going to theatres and films; studying the history of human beings and also the natural history of their area; exploring architecture and ancient sites; making beautiful gardens. They do all these things out of love and curiosity, while teachers and specialists help them to understand, and to develop their imagination. The British believe that this is how a people should celebrate the culture that satisfies the soul.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11