Chaplin, Charlie (1889–1977)
Charles Spenser Chaplin was born in London on April 16, 1889, and died on Christmas Day, 1977, at home in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. He had been…
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Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905–1980)
Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher, left-wing political activist, playwright, and novelist. One of the leading French public intellectuals of the twentieth century, he was…
Ball, Hugo (1886–1927)
Born in Pirmasens on February 22, 1886, the German writer Hugo Ball is best known as the co-founder, with Tristan Tzara, of the Cabaret Voltaire…
Darktown Follies (Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, 1913)
One of the earliest large-scale musical revues to be created and performed by an all-Black cast, Darktown Follies premiered in 1913 at the Lafayette Theatre…
Zangirimono [Cropped-hair Plays]
In Meiji-era Japan, as part of the reforms to kabuki in response to modernization, playwright Kawatake Mokuami (1816–1893) and actor Onoe Kikugorō V (1844–1903) developed…
Mishima, Yukio (1925–1970)
Mishima Yukio is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka. He was an acclaimed novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist. He was nominated three times for the…
Katsureki-mono
“Living history” plays were historical kabuki plays produced during the Meiji period 10s and 20s (1868–1888) in an attempt to reform the practices associated with…
Takarazuka Revue Company (1913--)
The popular Takarazuka Revue Company, based in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, is the oldest established musical theater company in Japan. The performers are unmarried women; if…
Jiyū-gekijō [Free Theater]
Jiyū-gekijō [Free Theater], founded in 1909 by the director Osanai Kaoru (1881–1928) and kabuki actor Ichikawa Sadanji II (1880–1940), was established to produce contemporary realist…
Synge, John Millington (1871–1909)
J. M. Synge (pronounced “Sing”) is best known for his plays, first staged at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, that vividly depicted rural life in Ireland. His…
Geijutsu-za
The first iteration of the Geijutsu-za (Art Theater) was founded in 1913 by the actors Shimamura Hōgetsu (1871–1918) and Matsui Sumako (1886–1919) after they were…
Bungei Kyōkai
Launched in February 1906 out of a drama club of Waseda University students, Bungei Kyōkai was one of the two pioneering organizations of the modernist…
The Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre is a term that has come to encapsulate the many iterations of the National Theatre of Ireland. Located in Dublin, the Abbey…
Asakusa Opera
Asakusa Opera is a form of modern Japanese popular entertainment which combines elements of musical theater, namely opera, operetta, US musicals, and sketch comedy such…
Shinkokugeki [New National Theater]
In response to the growth of shingeki, the actor Sawada Shōjirō developed a form of theater designed to appeal to the urban masses, especially in…
Kawatake Mokuami (1816–1893)
A playwright at the end of the Edo period and throughout much of the Meiji period, Kawatake Mokuami wrote over 360 plays during his fifty-year…
Pirandello, Luigi (1867–1936)
Born in the Sicilian town of Agrigento and educated in Palermo, Rome, and Bonn (Germany), the Nobel Prize winner (1934) Luigi Pirandello is a key…
Mori, ōgai (1862–1922)
Mori ōgai served as a surgeon in the Japanese Imperial Army, and was a translator, novelist, dramatist, and literary theorist during the Meiji and Taisho…
Shimamura, Hōgetsu (1871–1918)
Shimamura, Hōgetsu was a shingeki theater director, playwright, translator, critic, and one of the faremost leaders of the modernist movement in Japanese theater in the…
Circus
The modern circus emerged and developed during the period when Western industrializing societies were undergoing transformation as a result of socioeconomic modernization. Philip Astley’s popular…
Shin Kabuki
Shin Kabuki literally “new kabuki,” a modern outgrowth of traditional kabuki and one of the fruits of Japan’s modernist theater movement.
Glaspell, Susan (1876–1948)
Susan Glaspell shaped the development of American Modernism not only as an award-winning author but also as a founding member of the Provincetown Players, the…
Kawakami, Sadayakko (1871–1946)
Sadayakko (also sometimes transliterated Sada Yakko or Sada Yacco) was Japan’s first modern actress, a pioneer of Western drama in Japan and one of the…
Soganoya, Gorō (1877–1948)
Soganoya, Gorō was a Japanese actor, director and playwright who created of a new genre of modern comedy called kigeki (also shinkigeki). He wrote around…
Hijikata, Yoshi (1898–1959)
A shingeki director and one of the most important early leaders of the modernist movement in Japanese theater, Hijikata Yoshi was the cofounder of the…