Word: stage
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...LONDON STAGE...
...more than three centuries, one man had despotic power to decide what plays would or would not appear on the public stage in Britain. As the royal censor, the Lord Chamberlain could summarily order an offending word, line or scene stricken from a script, or he could ban a play altogether by refusing to license it for performance. Although blue-penciling has eased in recent years, English playwrights have persistently demanded total dramatic freedom, and last July Parliament abolished the Chamberlain's licensing authority. Two weeks ago, the U.S. folk-rock musical Hair became the first play publicly staged...
Godless Actors. England's play censorship was established during the 16th century in order to stamp out Catholic stage resistance to the Reformation, as well as to protect the people from the bad influence of actors, who were generally held to be godless degenerates. Licensing became an official duty of the Chamberlain in 1737, when Prime Minister Robert Walpole grew so outraged by the political lampoons of Henry Fielding that he forced through a new censorship law. Since then, the Lords Chamberlain have had unchallengeable authority to ban plays by Ibsen (Ghosts), Shaw (Mrs. Warren's Profession), Pirandello...
There may be some unexpected hazards in London's new stage freedom. The Lord Chamberlain's approval once virtually guaranteed a play immunity from lawsuits. But with that protection gone, playwrights face a bewildering maze of common-law provisions against obscenity, sedition, blasphemy and libel, not to mention a recent law against inciting racial hatred. Paradoxically, the end of licensing could lead to new restrictions, imposed by theater owners worried about possible prosecutions...
Zeffirelli's reputation was established at La Scala in Milan, where in 1954 he designed the costumes and sets for, and staged a production of Rossini's La Cenerentola. It was the beginning of the Zeffirelli style-the flamboyant baroque settings, the epic brio that could turn a war horse into a steeplechaser. Although triumphant in opera, he has been somewhat less successful on the dramatic stage. His incoherent Othello was throttled by reviewers at Stratford-on-Avon. After seeing Zeffirelli's Broadway production of The Lady of the Camellias, TIME's critic called...