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Crash Course Theater
Race Melodrama and Minstrel Shows
Season 1
Episode 30
We’re continuing our discussion of nineteenth-century American theater with a look at some upsetting parts of the US's theatrical past. In the nineteenth century, race and racism contributed to a unique and troubling performance culture, which helped create and spread racist stereotypes that are still with us today.
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12:06
19th century playwrights remade the French theater – first with Realism, then Naturalism.
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12:07
How did American theater develop after the Revolutionary War?
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11:34
In the 18th century, audiences were ready for some really, really dramatic theater.
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11:09
After Germany was unified, we got Sturm, Drang, Weimar Classicism and Goethe.
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11:37
English Sentimental Comedies weren't that funny, but they were definitely sentimental.
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10:51
Let's discuss wizard theater and the rise of classical Chinese theater and Beijing Opera.
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10:13
Learn about the all-night dance shows in India that culminate in killing a Demon.
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11:51
Under the Shoguns, we get Kabuki and Bunraku. And Samurais get in trouble for watching it.
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11:06
American theater existed before Europeans arrived, and the Spanish greatly influenced it.
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11:11
Meet Renaissance France's theater greatest playwright: Molière.
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12:40
The French Neoclassical revival involved a lot of rules – and some rule-breaking.
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10:40
Spain was having kind of a moment in the 16th and 17th centuries.