The XX th Century Theatre

Theatre became international in the 20th century. Rapid modes of communication and travel fostered worldwide touring companies; cultural exchanges of artists, theories, and productions; and international publication of dramatic texts. Numerous experimental movements of varying duration included symbolism, expressionism, theatre of the absurd, epic theatre, documentary drama, and environmental production. However, realism remained the most popular mode of writing and staging in the West, and the picture-frame playhouse—enhanced by lighting, sound, and other technologies—remained the most common style of theatre architecture.

The American theatre in the 20th century fostered playwrights of extraordinary influence, including Eugene O'Neill, Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, and Neil Simon. (See American Literature: Drama). The United States also pioneered musical theatre as the most popular form of commercial, nonprofit, and amateur entertainment. Broadway, the heart of New York City’s theatre district, became synonymous with the production of musicals—both revivals and new works—and with multimillion-dollar production costs. The American theatre also became ethnically and ideologically diverse, beginning in the 1960s with the rise of African American, Latino, Asian American, feminist, and homosexual theatre groups, to name a few. The emergence of professional regional companies or resident theatres (now called the regional theatre movement) formed a parallel trend in the 1960s.

For several decades, government subsidy of the arts in the United States—begun in 1965 when federal legislation established the National Endowment for the Arts—assisted nonprofit theatres, orchestras, museums, and opera and dance companies. In the 1990s, federal funding for the arts came under attack from Congress. Nonprofit professional theatres responded by engaging in co-productions with other theatres, sharing artists and costs, and providing a source for serious dramatic plays that eventually moved to Broadway. Despite rising costs and criticism that Broadway theatre has become homogeneous and predictable, audiences are larger than at almost any time in the history of theatre in the United States, and playwrights, actors, and directors have become household names.

XVII. Find the corresponding to the following in the text.