“agitprop Agitation propaganda, a theatrical device employed by the left-wing in Europe and the USA during the 1950s; in the 1960s it developed into what is now termed ‘street theater.’ Its purpose was to convey a political message, or political education, by seeking to interest and entertain.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
“A confusing jamboree of piercing noise, routine roller skating, misogyny and Orwellian special effects, Starlight Express is the perfect gift for the kid who has everything except parents.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged drama/theater, humor, literary oddities
“Hollywood’s Adolph Zukor was said to have offered a trifling $30,000 for movie rights to a Kaufman play. The playwright sent back a telegram offering Zukor $40,000 for Paramount.”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
“Happening: Happenings developed from a combination of assemblage and environment art as artists sought to free art further from the constraints of the wall and the frame. Resembling performance, these events often involved sculpture, sound, time, motion, and living persons. While participants began with a plan, there was no rehearsal and no repeat performance. Spontaneous audience participation was sometimes encouraged. Allen Kaprow is credited with inventing happenings, which took place in New York City in the 1960s.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged art/architecture/design, drama/theater, music, readings/research
“Arna [Wendell] Bontemps: (1902-1973) American writer, librarian, and teacher. Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bontemps moved to California at the age of three. After graduating from Pacific Union college in 1923, he moved to Harlem, where he emerged as an award-winning poet during the Harlem Renaissance. His best-known works, however, are his novels, particularly Black Thunder (1936), and historical novel about the abortive slave rebellion led by Gabriel Prosser in the Virginia of 1800. Bontemps’s most enduring legacy was his work as a librarian and historian of African-American culture. During his twenty-two year career as Librarian at Fisk University, he created one of the principal archival sources for study in the field. Among Bontemps’s thirty works are two additional novels, God Sends Sunday (1931) and Drums at Dusk (1939); a major anthology of folklore coedited with Langston Hughes, The Book of Negro Folklore (1958). A collection of memoirs, The Harlem Renaissance Remembered: Essays (1972); and several histories and fictional accounts of black life written for a juvenile audience. He collaborated with Countee Cullen to transform God Sends Sunday into a successful Broadway musical, St. Louis Woman (1945).”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Harlem Renaissance: With the largest concentration of African-American, West Indian, and African populations in the U.S., Harlem had become the ‘Negro Capital’ (as it was then called) of America by the early 20th century. After World War I, the flourishing intellectual, artistic, musical and political scene focused on historical recollection and redefinition of the African-American experience. Among the best-known artists are Aaron Douglas, William Johnson, and Jacob Lawrence.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
OK, last but not least this morning, here is a reading on Aeschylus and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for all the budding classicists out there.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
OK, last but not least this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “All’s Fair in Love and War.” It’s a nice abstract expression that students, if you want to augment, could work to reify in a few sentences.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Kismet: A musical play (1953) based on a play (1911) by Edward Knoblock about a poet turned beggar who has a series of adventures reminiscent of The Arabian Knights. The music of Alexander Borodin was arranged by Robert Wright and George Forrest. The title comes from the Turkish qismet (‘portion’ or ‘lot’) and is now commonly understood to mean ‘fate.’ Kismet is sometimes advanced as a more becoming alternative to ‘Kiss me” in Horatio Nelson’s putative last words, ‘Kiss me, Hardy.’”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged drama/theater, fiction/literature, music, readings/research
“Bunraku: Japanese puppet theater. Developed during the Tokugawa period, the most important bunraku plays were written by Chikamitsu Monzaemon. The dolls, about three feet in size, are remarkably lifelike; they are operated by their puppet masters who sit on stage and move about with their puppets. The musical narrative (joruri) is chanted by a reciter (gidayu) to the accompaniment of instruments. Many of the same plays have been adapted to kabuki drama.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged asian-pacific history, drama/theater, readings/research
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