Terms+and+Definitions+Screenplay

=European Modernism Script=

[Speaker 1]
//[Pan across busy road, people walking]// During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new ideals began to take over European theatres. Many captivating and innovative plays arose from Europe during this time, including during this time, and it is therefore important to keep track of all of the different movements going on.

[Speaker 2]
This period of time in European theatre got its name, Modernism, from the western cultural movements that appeared during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. //[pan map of Europe]// Modernism affirms the idea of people improving and reshaping their environment through knowledge and technology. It also moves away from the cultural norms of the time, and incorporates nature into its art forms. //[fade in impressionistic painting]// A movement branching from modernism, one could argue, would be Naturalism, which, in the turn of the 20th century, rapidly became incorporated in European theatre.

[Speaker 3]
Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Naturalism was a European theatre movement that attempted to create illusions of reality through dramatic and theatrical strategies, including the use of three-dimensional settings, prose rather than poetry, and more secular worldviews in the script. //[pan stage with heavy scenery and props, have actor hold up several props]// This movement then led to another movement that swept across Europe, which encouraged more emphasis on the emotions of an audience.

[Speaker 4]
//[have emotional, silent reading of lines by an actor]// Expressionism is an art form in which an artists distort reality for an emotional effect. The major expressionist movement in theatre occurred in early 20th century German theatre, one of it's most famous playwrights being August Strindberg.

[Speaker 1]
//[return to pan of busy street]// So, now that we have defined all of the cultural and artistic movements of this time period, let’s move further into the history of why these movements took place.

[End]