From Apprenticeship to the academy

Your Playlist:

Description

In this program, Brooks McNamara, expert on 19th-century theater at New York University, and theater historian and author Mary Henderson plot out three crucial transitions in American culture between 1875 and 1914: for budding actors, a shift from apprenticeship to academy-oriented training at centers such as The American Academy of Dramatic Arts; for playwrights, a progression from surface realism to the earliest form of American naturalism; and for America, a change in sensibilities that paved the way for the global, technocentric society of the 20th century. The program also outlines the contributions of impresario David Belasco and the phenomenon of Sarah Bernhardt in the U.S.