Theatre Teachers & Playwrights

Tadashi Suzuki

• He was born on June 20, 1939
• Born in Shimizu City, Japan he worked as a Theatre Director, Founder, & Philosopher
• Very inspired to teach the way of acting to people and others wanting to become actors

Suzuki Method

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNSqRyw3Drw
• He created the Suzuki Method of acting, which he taught to his company
• Founder of the BeSeTo Festival in Tokyo & Saratoga International Theatre Institute
• Created the Sukuzi Company of Toga where he taught in Japan
• Describes work as "One working hypothesis" because he felt "The modern world has dismembered our physical faculties and our essential selves."

Modern Theatre

• His method of teaching is still used in the western hemisphere
• Workers from his company have passed them throughout America
• Starting in Tokyo, his work passed through Eastern Asia
• Zen Zen Zo & Frank Theatre are theatres that teach this style of acting for people who want to learn
• Suzuki focusing on the components of the body have changed theatre to incorporate more of the body in front of the camera as actors

Magnum Opus

• Most famous book was "The Way of Acting" which he wrote in 1986
• Worked in production of the movie Retribution
• Also helped to write the plays: "The Tale of Lear, On the Dramatic Passions, & The Trojan Woman"

Collaborations

• Mainly works with his company
• Every year at the BeSoTo Festival, many actors, directors, and producers meet there
• Has worked with companies such as the Cultural Olympiad & Dusseldorf for "Oedipus Rex"
• Also, worked with directors and producers in Korea and Russia for the play "Electra"

Reflections

• His work became foundation of acting in the East
• People were very fond of the movement and elements body brought
• Teachings jumped off to be in plays, films, and is still brought to festivals in Tokyo, China, & Japan

Impacts

• Theatre schools in the United States teach it
• Countries throughout the world now teach classes just for his style of acting
• The philosophy of putting more of the body into acting started a revolution
• Took the "Stump" out of Acting

August Wilson

• An American playwright known for his series of ten plays, the Pittsburgh Cycle.
• Depicted comic and tragic aspects of life in African American society through the twentieth century.

Influences

• Wilson stated that he was influenced greatly by the "the four B's":
• The Blues
• Argentine novelist and poet Jorge Luis Borges
• Playwright Amiri Baraka
• Painter Romare Bearden

Influences in Detail- The Blues

• Wilson first discovered the blues listening to artists such as Bessie Smith.
• The blues inspired Wilson to begin writing poetry- he bought a stolen typewriter for $10 soon after discovering the music.

Influences in Detail: Luis Borges

• "From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and still have the work resonate with the universal themes of love, honor, duty, betrayal, etc."
• This inspired Wilson to write his Pittsburgh Cycle

Influences in Detail: Amiri Baraka

• "From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays."
• Baraka influenced Wilson by allowing him to comment on social and political issues of the time while maintaining artistic values.

Influences in Detail: Romare Bearden

• "From Romare Bearden I learned that the fullness and richness of everyday life can be rendered without compromise or sentimentality."
• Developed his honest, yet emotional writing style.

Magnum Opus

• Fences is Wilson's best known play- it won a Tony Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize.
• Wilson's best known work is the Pittsburgh Cycle- a series of 10 plays.
• Each play takes place in a different decade of the 20th century and chronicles the tragic and comedic aspects of African American Life.

Creating a Mythos

• Wilson's work took racist stereotypes and turned them into holy archetypes.
• Created a system in which African Americans could live according to their own cultures.

Impact on Theatre

• Audience appeal of Wilson's plays broke down barriers for African American artists
• Allowed African Americans to get access to the mainstream.

Miscellaneous Facts

• Nine of Wilson’s plays have been produced in New York City on Broadway
• Died of liver cancer on October 2nd, 2005.
• Wilson spent his early life in Pittsburgh's Hill District- an economically depressed part of town.
• 9 of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle plays are set in the Hill District.