Филологические науки / 9. Этно-, социо- и психолингвистика

Karimova D.Kh.

Bashkir State University, Russia

Proxemic Capacity of Mid-Twentieth Century American Dramaturgy: Broadway vs. Off-Broadway

Space is a fundamental category in drama, yet it is delineated differently in different languages. At the same time, as G.A. Plunka puts it, “each new form, new play, is a different language” [5]. This is true not only for the fictional world but for the audience, too. Performances take place in bounded spaces, i.e. theatres or sometimes even the street or lofts which for the duration of the play become a performance space.

Localities in plays can either remain static and closed or be open and extended. As a rule, they present a vast tapestry of images in which scenes in towns and open countryside, public and private locales, interiors, and various social environments are constantly being contrasted. Every detail gives off its own cultural and social meaning while the location of dramatis personae, the importance they attach to their personal space, can colour the general way that we are to view the characters themselves. Very illustrative in this case is the 1939 Broadway comedy “The Man Who Came to Dinner” by G.S. Kaufman and M. Hart in which proxemic preferences of Sheridan Whiteside, the lead character, and the way he treats space in general play a specific role, symbolizing his personal traits, social status, professional features, etc.

The following episode is abundant in the aforementioned symbols:

WHITEWIDE: <…> And now, Mrs. Stanley, I have a few small matters to take up with you. Since this corner druggist at my elbow tells me that I shall be confined in this mouldy mortuary for at least another ten days, due entirely to your stupidity and negligence, I shall have to carry on my activities as best I can. I shall require the exclusive use of this room, as well as that drafty sewer which you call the library. I want no one to come in or out while I am in this room.

STANLEY: What do you mean, Sir?

MRS. STANLEY: But we have to go up the stairs to get to our rooms, Mr. Whiteside.

WHITESIDE: Isn’t there a back entrance?

MRS. STANLEY: Why – yes.

WHITESIDE: Then use that. I shall also require a room for my secretary, Miss Cutler. I shall have a great many incoming and outgoing calls, so please use the telephone as little as possible. I sleep until noon and require quiet through the house until that hour. <…> [3]

This fragment presents a quite extraordinary case of proxemic realization in drama which is rooted in the origins of the play in question; the latter, just as any other theatrical piece initially meant for Broadway, which, in A.S. Downer’s words, is “a wholly commercial operation” [2], “insists that its function is to entertain” and “defines entertainment as escapism” [ibid.].

It is noteworthy that proxemic codes are largely represented in both Broadway and Off-Broadway drama works of the mid-twentieth century. Yet their capacity for reflecting the peculiarities of contemporary cultural and social life of people within American linguaculture varies significantly in that most classical Broadway plays effectively dramatize real-life situations in a traditional theatrical manner. And it happens else wise with Off-Broadway theatre. It is obvious that there are also certain differences between the two respective discourses which are accounted for by the following facts:

1. Most mid-twentieth century Broadway shows were commercial productions intended to make a profit for the producers and investors. Ticket sales were the main priority for Broadway performances of the period and depended not only on the effectiveness of the show's advertising, but, what is more, on critical response and word of mouth. Therefore, Broadway plays in the fifties tended to be very light on plot, mostly melodramatic and comic in genre. What is crucial here is that, irrespective of their genres, these plays demonstrated the life of real people belonging to all possible social strata: business men (Uncle Morty in “Awake and Sing” by C. Odets, Ernest Stanley in “The Man Who Came to Dinner”), actors and actresses (Beverly Carlton, Lorraine Sheldon in “The Man Who Came to Dinner”), school-teachers (Mentor Graham in “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” by R.E. Sherwood), (ex-) military people (Moe Axelrod in “Awake and Sing” by C. Odets), policemen (cops in “The Time of Your Life” by W. Saroyan), immigrants (The Arab in “The Time of Your Life”, Sam Feinschreiber in “Awake and Sing”) etc.

2. Off-Broadway shows set up in smaller downtown venues with the express purpose of developing and promoting experimental works. These performances were “originally conceived of as a total rejection of the perceived mass-appeal theatre of Broadway” [6]. Being, in a way, a reaction “against normative values and conventional theatre” [1] Off-Broadway of the time presented the “move from the large scale to the small, from the presumed homogeneity of the audience to self-selecting coteries, from spaces which separated performers from observers to those which brought them into immediate proximity, and itself reflected changing values” [ibid.]. Very often the experimental character of Off-Broadway plays resulted in that their characters were not ordinary contemporaries, but generalized human figures, such as Poet, Scientist, Priest, Man, Woman (in J. Oppenheim’s “Night”), the Girl (in L. Bryant’s “The Game”), He, She (in “Enemies” by N. Boyce and H. Hapgood), or even something inhuman as Angel (in F. Dell’s “The Angel Intrudes”), Life, Death, Youth (in “The Game”). Working with little space and even less money, young Off-Broadway groups often “put up shows in lofts” [4]. They worked to create new performances through a physical, textual, and critical exploration of a particular piece, or explored the group's aims in general, believing that “with practically no costumes or sets, the physical exchange between actor and actor—and actor and spectator—could realize the theater's ultimate purpose” [ibid.]. This theatrical modus operandi was also largely a product of its time and place. In the midst of wars, the arts were being supported more than ever while simultaneously struggling to find a new voice amid the political and social turmoil. They sent a message of equality and harmony: these social microcosms could exist without conflict and without oppression. Mentioning the spatial peculiarities of Off-Broadway performances is very important for our investigation of proxemic potential of American dramaturgy since we intend to work out methods of disclosing, analyzing and further deciphering proxemic codes with the purpose of establishing cultural stereotypes about proxemic behaviour in members of American linguaculture.

In our view, it is next to impossible to try to find motives for this or that spatial behaviour of such dramatis personae as Death or Youth, let alone to connect the former with what is happening within a certain ethnicity, society and culture at a given period of time. Hence, the realistic depiction of contemporary Americans’ lives is what makes Broadway plays so exceptionally valuable for ethno- and cultural linguistics.

Literature:

1. Bigsby Ch. Preface and Acknowledgement // The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Volume III: Post-World War II to the 1990s / ed. by D.B. Wilmeth, Ch. Bigsby. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. – P. 11. – 587 p.

2. Downer A.S. The Revolt from Broadway // A Time of Harvest: American Literature, 1910-1960 / ed. by R.E. Spiller. – New York: Hill and Wang, 1962. – P. 42. – 176 p.

3. Kaufman G.S., Hart M. The Man Who Came to Dinner. – New York: Random House, 1939. – P. 16. – 195 p.

4. Luber S. “Collaborative Theatre Alive and Well in Collaboration Town”. Retrieved April 9, 2012 from http://www.offoffonline.com/article.php?ArticleID=22

5. Plunka G.A. Jean-Claude van Itallie and the Off-Broadway Theatre. – Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999. – P. 14. – 332 p.

6. “The Difference Between Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway”. Retrieved April 9, 2012 from http://www.realforme.com/play/fun/articles/HU-New-York-Theatre