Word: avant
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...plot, if it may be called that, embraces history, from mythological Greece to the distant future, and has as its centerpiece the violent, haunting images of the American Civil War. For the mastermind of it all, Texas-born Robert Wilson, 42, it is the boldest venture yet in an avant-garde theatrical career that has specialized in audacity. It is the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down, a multimillion-dollar "opera" that, when its segments are finally brought together, will last up to twelve hours...
...among others, profoundly influenced the course of modern theater. Also closely associated with Albee, Schneider won a 1962 Tony Award for directing Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Throughout his career, he resisted any single approach to theater, alternating between commercial and workshop projects, Broadway and regional stages, avant-garde and conventional plays. He once professed disappointment at not directing more classics, but then observed, "A number of the plays I directed when they were new have turned out to be classics. If one didn't get to do King Lear, Endgame, after all, comes close...
Similarly, when two bungling assassins bounce across the stage, or Cenci's partygoers do a ritual dance to the strains of avant-garde rock, the audience is happy to perceive the action on two levels. Those who understand exactly what Artaud meant by his elliptical dialogue appreciate the refined symbolism, while the rest of us can chuckle in relief along with the tongue-in-cheek directors...
Fiddler cannot be called experimental theatre. It is no avant-garde drama in which no one know what to expect. But then again Fiddler is not outdated despite its well-worn themes and the troupe at kirkland stages the traditional musical with sparkle and flair revealing the show's appeal to people of all ages and all times. If you ignore tradition and skip seeing it you will miss something very special...
...instrumentation, rather than detracting from these melodies, heightens them; Anderson doesn't merely colour the songs with African instruments in order to give them an exotic tinge, rather she blends her elements of rock-influenced minimalism and Third World ethnic music so well that she succeeds in creating what avant-garde trumpet player Jon Hassell dubbed "Fourth World Music" "a primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques...