Melodrama a la Disney.

Click for a "mellerdrammer" starring Mickey Mouse. Watch for claptraps, stage machinery, audience participation, and standard gestures!!

CHARACTER ACTORS

I've posted here a few examples, most from the 1860s, of actors made up as standard characters -- stock or stereotype roles. Except for the woman in the breeches role, any actor could take any of these parts, using heavy makeup, wigs, characteristic costume and movements understood as the basic vocabulary of stage language.



SAILOR


BEGGAR


BLACKFACE


GHOST


SERVANT


STAGE YANKEE


BREECHES ROLE (WILLIAM TELL)


DAME ROLE


KING


HUNCHBACK




















It was the general practice that actors had to provide their own make-up and costume; most actors would perforce specialize in a role or roles, taking it up as a "line of business." E.A. Sothern was a light comedian; Madame Celeste was a tragic actress. Utility actors, or supernumeraries, would generally take on most of the roles above, which would be small or unnamed parts. The cross-dressing parts were more important. A breeches role for a woman could be the main character, such as William Tell, above, or Sarah Bernhardt's Hamlet. The Dame role, a widow or old maid of a certain age, played by a man, survives in British pantomime.

You can see by these pictures that the part relied on audience recognition, even before speech, of the type of character. The same thing still occurs in today's comics and in television melodramas.

PLAYBILL FOR THE VAMPIRE (1820)

Theatrical critics applauded the scenery and effects of The Vampire. The European Magazine and London Review said they "demand[ed] a particular notice", specifically pointing out the effects of moonlight and sea, presenting a "coup d'oeil ... rarely, if ever seen excelled." This handbill for the 1820 production of The Vampire shows two moments from the Introductory Scene, and even from this black-and-white line drawing, we can imagine the effect of T.P. Cooke's appearance in fire and smoke in the dark Caves of Staffa.

For centuries demons, witches and ghosts had appeared through the stage floor by means of trapdoors. The English Opera House, for The Vampire, invented a new device of two rubber doors held shut with sandbags as counterweight; an actor would press quickly through and the weights snapped the doors immediately shut, giving an effect of the actor having melted through a solid plane. With blue fire and smoke, the actor seemed to materialize out of thin air. The "vampire trap" (or "trappe anglaise", in France)became a standard device for supernatural appearances. The Review tells us Cooke as Lord Ruthven "sinks through the stage in a scene of terrific grandeur." Theatre history was made.

COMPOSITION FOR TWO

How did two people arrange themselves for viewing by the public? Drama needed a different aesthetic than everyday portraiture. This first photo is a portrait of a husband and wife: this is a record for posterity, showing the sterling worth and solid respectability of the pair. On the stage, attitudes had to show dramatic energy and identify character and emotion. The body was almost never held in a straight line or presented face on as in this portrait.

Two actors working together had to direct themselves toward the audience while maintaining the illusion each was engaged with his partner. Lighting was darker than we are used to; dialogue was not electronically enhanced; an actor turning his back, or even his profile, to the audience could lose the connection he'd worked for.



Ada Rehan and James Lewis are totally engaged with each other, despite Miss Rehan's reading a magazine and Mr. Lewis's back turned toward her. The two actors' bodies lean in parallel toward the same direction. The "S" curve I've mentioned many times is created in both by the turning of the head away from the torso. Arms and legs are held in tension. Especially Mr. Lewis's arms speak of a reaction to something said: shoulders slightly raised, hands opened, but not relaxed. These two are connecting with each other but directing that connection straight out to us.



Here is full body contact between the actors, but we have no doubt it is done for us, not each other. Miss Broughton especially links us with her eyes.



Something a little more passionate, but still a piece of theatrical architecture: bodies weighted on one leg only, arms carefully curved, and facial expressions totally accessible to the viewer. (The actors are McKee Rankin and Lillie Eldridge.)



And here, a very nice dynamic shot from Much Ado About Nothing: John Toole and Teresa Furt. Miss Furt's backward glance is embued with irritation, thanks to her raised arm and downward glance. Mr. Toole uses the "pointing finger" -- used only in admonition or accusation. His body line parallels hers. There is a dramatic connection shown with parallel stances, but the repulsion between the two is communicated by arms and facial expression. We can infer from this still moment a story's beginning (two people with diametrically opposed attitudes or opinions meeting face-to-face) and its end (either the parallel lines will triumph and the pair will embrace, or the conflict will intensify and they will separate angrily, following hints of arms and face), while the climactic middle is frozen before us. Victorian actors were trained to present a continual series of these speaking snapshots on the stage.

SOUVENIR PROGRAMMES

In Victorian theatre, a special production or anniversary performance was often commemorated with programmes printed on satin or silk, as here: