Theatre Management 4

The fourth chapter of the Theatre Management book is about Commercial Theatre. This chapter discusses the history of Commercial Theatre in the United States. It begins with theatres in 1752 and ends at present. I found the differences between the theatre companies kind of interesting. I did not know that they changed so often or so much.
1752-92: I found it interesting that every actor who was part of some of the earlier companies had to own a share of that company; then the actor could make a bit of profit off of it. Also, the leading actor was typically also the company manager, which seems like an absurd amount of work.
1792-1860: The nation's first native-born actor, Edwin Forrest, did not make his debut until the year of 1820, which seems like a long time considering how long theatre companies had been around America before then. I also found it interesting that most actors played characters according to their type, especially when the goal of most actors today seems to be breaking away from their "type".
1860-96: resident stock companies were practically killed during this era because of the invention and expansion of railways. What was called a "combination company" dominated the times; they would travel to different destinations with their props, scenery and costumes.
1896-1914: since many resident theatre companies had been disbanded, the buildings were typically owned by local banks and investors whose primary focus was to simply make a profit anyway they could. Also, the advent of vaudeville theatre occurred during this time.
1914-60: electronic entertainment took off in 1915 with the film Birth of a Nation. People flocked to movie theatres and away from playhouses partly because of the cheap pricing of movie theatres. Also, movies were a brand new thing and people wanted to test this out. The collapse of the U.S. stock market in the 1930s contributed to the near demise of commerical theatre in the country. To help with films rivaling theatres, television was invented and became available to the public in the 1950s.
1960-90: Broadway theatre became a huge tourist-oriented business during this time and focused its attention mainly on comedies and musicals to keep its crowd entertained.
1990-today: according to the book, the most significant theatrical event of the 1990s was Broadway's adaptation of Walt Disney's classic Beauty and the Beast. This established a major new corporation between the New York City Broadway scene and Walt Disney Studios.