Play Guide [356k PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

The Great GatsbyTWENTIESThe newfound culture of consumerism, and subsequent greed,gave birth to the social satire of Sinclair Lewis, SherwoodAnderson, Edith Wharton, and H.L. Mencken, whose workspaved the way for the Stephen Colberts and Jon Stewartsof today. The integration of sound in American film, firstattempted in The Jazz Singer in 1927, allowed the creationof movie stars, and the debut of Walt Disney’s MickeyMouse in 1928 changed popular culture forever. The ideaof a mainstream culture began to mature as jazz, originallya product of African American communities, began to beincorporated into white America and the Harlem Renaissance,a period of massive development in African American literaryand artistic culture, took off. States’ racial demographicscontinued to shift drastically with The Great Migration ofAfrican Americans from southern states that had begun at theend of the Civil War and continued throughout the 1920s.Fashion in the 1920sThe 1920s brought with it a strong deviation from Victorian ideals as well asVictorian appearances. Women’s fashion exploded in the 1920s, bringingthe knee length, bare-armed dresses of the flappers, short bobbed haircutsfor women, and the first acceptable modern use of cosmetics. Men beganto abandon their formal daytime apparel, and athletic apparel becameacceptable for daily wear for the first time.The Chrysler Building in New YorkCity, representing the Art Decostyle that arrived in the U.S. in thelate 1920s.The rising popularity of jazz brought with it a rise in the popularity of dance, and thesubsequent need for new and lively music produced an entire generation of musicians thatbecame famous as performers, vocalists, and orchestra leaders, including Duke Ellington,Bing Crosby, and Louis Armstrong. Blues and an early form of country music debutedduring this same time making famous such performers as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey,Jimmie Rodgers and Charlie Poole. Conversations regarding the need for racial equalityand tolerance of sexual orientation became accepted social discourse, in some circles, forthe first time.Art in the 1920sThere were two distinct artistic movements whose roots are grounded in the 1920s.The first, surrealism, began in post-World War I literary and artistic circles, andwas related to the earlier Dada movement. Surrealist works feature unexpectedjuxtaposition, non sequitur, and the element of surprise. Art Deco also began toemerge in art and architecture, though it didn’t catch on in the U.S. until the latterpart of the decade. It is characterized by bold forms and unusual materials such asaluminum, stainless steel, and zebra skin.Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 19