Skip to main content

Up Next

Zola, France, Realism, and Naturalism

Zola, France, Realism, and Naturalism

Season 1 Episode 31
12:06
Episode 5: The Calling

The Calling

Season 4 Episode 5
53:05
When Whales Could Walk

When Whales Could Walk

Season 51 Episode 1
53:31
Back to Show
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.

Only Available with Passport Starting
Support Provided By
Zola, France, Realism, and Naturalism
12:06
19th century playwrights remade the French theater – first with Realism, then Naturalism.
North America Gets a Theater...Riot
12:07
How did American theater develop after the Revolutionary War?
The Rise of Melodrama
11:34
In the 18th century, audiences were ready for some really, really dramatic theater.
Why So Angry, German Theater?
11:09
After Germany was unified, we got Sturm, Drang, Weimar Classicism and Goethe.
England's Sentimental Theater
11:37
English Sentimental Comedies weren't that funny, but they were definitely sentimental.
China, Zaju, and Beijing Opera
10:51
Let's discuss wizard theater and the rise of classical Chinese theater and Beijing Opera.
All Night Demon Dance Party - Kathakali
10:13
Learn about the all-night dance shows in India that culminate in killing a Demon.
Japan, Kabuki, and Bunraku
11:51
Under the Shoguns, we get Kabuki and Bunraku. And Samurais get in trouble for watching it.
Pre-Columbian Theater, Spanish Empire, and Sor Juana
11:06
American theater existed before Europeans arrived, and the Spanish greatly influenced it.
Molière - Man of Satire and Many Burials
11:11
Meet Renaissance France's theater greatest playwright: Molière.
Rules, Rule-Breaking, and French Neoclassicism
12:40
The French Neoclassical revival involved a lot of rules – and some rule-breaking.
The Spanish Golden Age
10:40
Spain was having kind of a moment in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Active loading indicator