Burlesque is a performance that was created with caricature and parody to mock by being a humorous comedy with an added sexual essence. In real meaning, you could call burlesque a risqué performance art. In the entertainment form burlesque has been use as poetry, verse, theatrical comedy and more currently as adult entertainment. There are also amateur enthusiasts in a secretive underground burlesque scene. Burlesque has been subject to a lot reticule across the country, but it is still evolving cross-cultural today. A lot of the burlesque forms are distinctively different from each another. Burlesque today has developed into a wide range of artistic, musical, and literary styles within it catering to many different tastes and disciplines from classical to contemporary.
Classical Burlesque, one of the earliest works of burlesque came from Aristophanes, a poet-philosopher, a comic dramatist. Aristophanes had a highly influential personality whose lewd burlesques intended to challenge everything and everyone in ancient Athens. He mocked and spoofed their icons with his performances he played out in riddles with insight and comments, much to the pleasure of the Athenian people who saw respect and truth in humor. Many thought Aristophanes’ with his influence and power could be fatal. Aristophanes was named the Father of Comedy, Aristophanes’ burlesques were comical plays written in a poetic style. The plays were full of figurative language, wisecracks and jousting most of which is lost in translation today. Most of the classical burlesques were intended to be read while others were performed in theatre settings.
In these early burlesques works they were preformed on stage with characters based on real people with real issues. The c...
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...endly’ and cleaner than they once were. Today, people are enjoying going out for live entertainment experimenting with personal style and nurturing the latent theatrical desires within are in fact a new lifestyle for many.
Burlesque theatre was always been risqué and even downright lewd at times, but is an empowering form for women reclaiming their sexual identities. The classical reinterpretations of the theatrical form in different parts of the world show a fascinating diversity of culture reflecting both social history and national tastes. In Great Britain, the art of classical burlesquing has remained relatively unchanged in 200 years and its history is steeped in powerful social change. In fact, technically speaking, burlesquing has been going on for as long as the first person sought to entertain another and will continue to entertain people in the future.
Cullen, Frank, Florence Hackman, and Donald McNeilly. Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
People usually expect to see paintings and sculptures in Art Galleries. Imagine the surprise one finds when they are presented with a man stitching his face into a bizarre caricature, or connected to a machine which controls the artist’s body. These shocking pieces of performance art come under the broad umbrella that is Postmodernism. Emphasis on meaning and shock value has replaced traditional skills and aesthetic values evident in the earlier Modernist movements.
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4 (1988): 519-31. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 11 May 2011.
In his published lecture concerning Aristophanes' plays, Cedric H. Whitman discusses what he considers as the general template of all of Aristophanes' main characters: the comic hero. Whitman defines a comic hero as possessing great individualism, a good deal of poneros, meaning wickedness, and striking a balance of eiron and alazon, which translates into being a mixture of an ironical buffoon, who makes fun of himself for his own amusement, and an imposter, who disguises his true identity or feelings. He sees the comic hero as one who is extremely self-motivated and self-centered: "whatever is heroic is individualistic, and tends toward excess, or at least extremes. It asserts its self primarily . . ." Whitman also declares that poneros is necessary in the character of the comic hero, that this person is villainous, manipulative, and very convincing. The comic hero is shameless in expressing his desires, and he has no shame in pursuing them by any means necessary, whether such acts would be considered right or wrong. Whitman also recognizes the mixture of eiron--ironical buffoonery--and alazon--being an imposter--in the comic hero of Aristophanes' plays. "The mere buffoon, says Aristotle, makes fun for the sake of getting a laugh for others; the ironical man makes fun for his own amusement, which is more worthy of a free man.
Aristophanes plus Comedy. Silliness, Naughtiness, and Tricky Problems. Lecture. Carol Gilbertson. CFL, October 7, 1997.
Latham, Angela J.. Posing a threat: flappers, chorus girls, and other brazen performers of the American 1920s. Hanover, NH: Published by University Press of New England [for] Wesleyan University Press, 2000. Print.
Aside from all the prodigious number of Greek tragedies in history, stands a collection of Greek comedies which serve as humorous relief from the powerful overtone of the tragedy. These comedies were meant to ease the severity and seriousness sometimes associated with the Greek society. The ideas portrayed in the comedies, compared to the tragedies, were ridiculously far-fetched; however, although abnormal, these views are certainly worthy of attention. Throughout his comedy, The Clouds, Aristophanes, along with his frequent use of toilet humor, ridicules aspects of Greek culture when he destroys tradition by denouncing the importance of the gods' influence on the actions of mortals, and he unknowingly parallels Greek society with today's. Aristophanes also defiantly misrepresents an icon like Socrates as comical, atheistic, and consumed by ideas of self interest, which is contradictory to the Socrates seen in Plato's Apology or Phaedo.
Sarah Bernhardt’s acting style, along with her exotic and alluring lifestyle led her to be slightly ostracized in the French Theatre. French styles of acting at the time were said to be “monotonous, rigid and too codified” and followed strict guidelines in accordance with the French acting academies (Pauk). In France,
Throughout the years, America has pursued the performing arts in a large variety of ways. Theatre plays a dramatic and major role in the arts of our society today, and it takes great effort in all aspects. Musical Theatre, specifically, involves a concentration and strength in dance, acting, and singing. This is the base that Musical Theatre is built upon. For my Senior Project, I helped choreograph multiple scenes in a community musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. Choreography is a way of expressing oneself, but it has not always been thought of for that purpose. Agnes de Mille’s expressive talent has drastically affected how people see choreography today. Agnes de Mille’s influence in the world of dance has left a lasting impact in the Performing Arts Department, and her revolutionary works are still known today for their wit, lyricism, emotion, and charm.
What actually was Burlesque? It was a popular and inexpensive form of entertainment whose basic ingredients were girls, gags, and music (Minsky’s Burlesque,26). These shows where aimed for mostly low income and illiterate people. One of the most controversial facts that Burlesque performances confronted was when one of their actresses had an accident on stage. She had a detachable collar that as soon the audience saw her pulled off they started applauding for an encore. As Mae (the actresses) came back to bowed they clapped like crazy. For a moment Mae lost her head and decided to came back to the stage and unbuttoned her bodice as she left the stage again (Minsky’s Burlesque,34). The audience couldn’t believe what just happened that night. It is possible that the Mae’s came back fact was one of the first nudity displays at that time.
...y captivating shows. With the way we currently support our music industry, heavy with electronics and special effects, the art of performing live may become lost in the near future.
Butler, Judith. Ed. Case, Sue-Ellen. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution." Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Community performance can include political debates, social commentaries disguised as autobiographical self-debasing monologues as well as Renaissance Faires with their celebratory and informative performances. Each example can be said to include elements of Brechtian Alienation, even if they are not, perhaps, the performances that Brecht himself had in mind. However, the performances are important in that they force us to examine our own place within both the world of the theater and within our respective realities.
A mere mention of the term theatre acts as a relief to many people. It is in this place that a m...
In her intriguing article “Avant-garde theatre: has Britain lost its mind?” arts and media correspondent on the Observer, Vanessa Thorpe, describes avant-garde as follows: