Theatrical Culture Research Articles

Bulbs Onstage: Theatrical Hygiene and the Electrification of Performance

European theatres were electrified between 1883 and 1913. This process has traditionally been associated with the advent of modernist theatre, but the details have rarely been examined, nor has the scope of the process's social and technological impacts been analysed. Reconstructing light bulbs’ early appearances in theatrical practice and discourse, this article traces the intricate entanglement between the electrical industry and theatrical culture around the turn of the century and highlights electricity's entanglement with concepts of hygiene and healing. Discussing an early light bulb in use in Bayreuth in 1882, the marketing strategies of the German Edison Company and Adolphe Appia's early manifesto, the article shows how electrification of theatres was shaped by competing visions of a future theatre. Also it demonstrates that aesthetics, technology and politics were intricately entangled in this process. Refuting teleological narratives of aesthetic progress, the paper proposes reframing modernist theatre's artistic autonomy as dependent on its embeddedness within the technologies of modernity.

Theater without Borders: To Raise the Question of Blurring the Line between Professional and Amateur Creativity

Recently, the amateur theater movement, which seemed to have lost its significance three decades ago, is reviving and, moreover, transforming, now qualitatively different from the socio-cultural phenomenon that it was in the past. This paper examines the development of amateur creativity at the present stage. We will talk about private commercial theaters, amateur studios and laboratories, which over the past decade have not only gained wide popularity, but also, in the context of postmodern transformations, have become direct competitors to professional art, thereby blurring the boundaries between professional and amateur creativity. The functions of professional theaters, the tasks and problems that arise before them, have also affected the amateur art to the same extent. The author comes to the conclusion that the boundaries between professional and amateur theater are gradually blurring, which, in the near future, may lead to new global transformations in the field of theater culture.

Bosnian Drama and Theater: Some Literary and Theatrical Aspects

This text is an introduction to the thematic block of the journal Social Sciences and Humanities Studies on the literary and theatrical aspects of Bosnian drama and theater. It recalls the presence of theatrical and sub-theatrical phenomena on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in antiquity, and then lists the specifics of Bosnian culture in the Middle Ages, from which arises a specific relationship to drama and theater. The attitude of Islamic culture towards theater and drama significantly influenced the status that drama has even after the departure of the Ottoman Empire from Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there are significant differences concerning European civic theater. Through the most important conclusions from the individual texts that make up this block, the status that Bosnian drama has in our theatrical culture is pointed out.

Crew Resource Management Training for Surgical Teams, A Fragmented Landscape

Medical Crew Resource Management (CRM) training courses are designed to increase patient safety by reducing the effects of human errors. These training courses are most popular in surgery and a wide range of medical CRM training courses for surgical teams is now available. However, the effects of these CRM training courses on patient outcomes are inconclusive. Although surgical teams feel the need to be trained in team collaboration skills, they are often puzzled about what criteria to apply when choosing a medical CRM training course. This study aimed to compare CRM training courses on didactic components and simulation-exercises to explore if these courses are interchangeable. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted among 10 main CRM training providers of surgical teams in the Netherlands. Although a large variety was found in the content of CRM training courses, the most substantial differences were found in the simulation-exercises. Nine out of 10 trainers stated that standard simulation-exercises would be a step forward to ensure quality in CRM trainings. According to the trainers, the implementation of medical CRM can reduce human errors and as a result, preventable patient complications. They suggested a quality standard for CRM trainers in the medical field to ensure the quality of medical team training as a way to reach this. Medical CRM training courses are diverse and noninterchangeable. Trainers expect that if CRM becomes part of surgical training and is embedded in operating theatre culture, it could be of great value for patients and professionals.

Epic Heritage - The Gold Treasure

The article discusses the role and importance of folk art heritage in the development of national theater art in Central Asia. To date, the theatrical art of the region has a great experience and it has the opportunity to compare its culture with others. Epic direction is one of the points of support, one of the heights from which you can look at the experience and trends of the world of theatrical art. (72) In folk epics, various elements of culture and spirituality are traced, and the peculiarities of a particular nationality are revealed. The entry of the European style of theater into the framework of the culture of Central Asia certainly influenced the development of traditional theater of the people. Creative figures faced the problem of showing their performances on closed stages, in rooms. In the pieces, folk customs are presented following a common pattern, whereas national theatres offer their own interpretation, reflecting the culture, customs, and the nation’s past. Not only essentially different pieces of the same title and subject, created by different nations, differ in style, methods, means of artistic representation and character interpretation, and never a hero of one nation is a repetition of the image created by the neighboring nation. This is how the nation’s mentality, culture, spiritual character, and traditional values are exposed. This, in turn, is a dominant feature in the evolution of theatres. Thus, the epic heritage serves as the golden treasure of the theatrical culture of Central Asia.

근대 초기 영국 희곡의 국외 연구동향: 여성과 극장을 중심으로

This paper surveys recent studies in early modern English drama with a focus on women’s active involvement in the seventeenth-century dramatic production and theater culture. Questioning the powerful cultural paradigm of “the English all-male stage,” critics of the late 1990s called for a need to revise the literary and theater history that had largely excluded women. While feminist critics have brought to our attention how early modern women’s literary activities were neglected in the literary criticism, their revisionist projects of discovering women writers comparable to Shakespeare or Jonson fail to account for the women’s more extensive contribution to early modern drama and theater culture. In the recent scholarship, the notions of women’s dramatic production and theatricality have been considerably expanded to include non-commercial dramatic genres and women’s diverse roles and their work in and out of the theater. Pointing out how women thrived in some dramatic genres such as translation, closet drama, and household drama, critics have emphasized the interconnectedness between women’s “private” drama and a variety of theatrical traditions and dramatic forms in commercial, public theater. Early modern women’s theatricality has also been broadly expanded to reexamine the significance of women’s court and street performances, French and Italian actresses in London streets, and women’s off-stage or on-page contributions to early modern dramatic literature and performance. Such interdisciplinary efforts have uncovered a diverse range of female theatrical activities beyond the single-sex playhouse stages, which has changed our understanding of early modern drama including the plays of Shakespeare and other canonical authors.

Repertory theater of production type – trends in the dialogue of cultures in modern music and theater culture (on the example of the Ural Opera Ballet Theater)

This article reviews a new model of repertory opera theater of production type, which has emerged at the intersection of traditional repertoire and project, or production theaters: it represents a special channel of intercultural communication. Opera performance creates a space simultaneously in several dimensions – musical, verbal, and visual; it resembles a form of polylogue of the authors and stage directors of the performance, becomes a realization of the dialogue of cultures, and turns into a unique form of art involving the representatives of different cultural systems. This is proven by particular artistic experiences of the dialogue of cultures in modern opera on the example of Ural Opera Ballet Theater in Yekaterinburg and its projects “Satyagraha”, “The Passenger”, “The Greek Passion”, and “Three Sisters”. A number of important ideas of theoretical and historical culturology find practical substantiation: the paramount prerequisite for the effectiveness of any activity – the unity of theory and practice is realizes in the sphere of artistic culture. It is determined that within the framework of repertory theatre, production direction must take consider the time requirements that are solved in the field of the dialogue of cultures. The article demonstrates that the dialogue of cultures manifests as the dominant trend in the development of theatrical culture, allowing a more effective response of the creative process to the demands of time. It is proven that the work created in the process of the dialogue of cultures, which contains polyphony of voices, requires peculiar work with the audience, who is also engaged in dialogue with the performance.

Artistic Aspects of Embodiment of Postmodern Theater Practices in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. When integrated into the European art space, the countries of Eastern Europe take the path of creating a new model of cultural development in a post-pandemic society. Added to the world of theater innovations and, in particular, post-modern theater practices, it makes it necessary to search for new types of communication with the audience, creating such a balance between the actor and the audience that would meet new historical realities, shape its cultural landmarks, moral values, and provide meaning for current events. Consequently, the new historical realities require theatrical culture to change the artistic trajectories of development and at the same time determine the cultural reflection on its place and role. In culturological and art studies, the theater, as a rule, is considered as a system component of the cultural space. This corresponds to the generally accepted approach: the definition of culture as a set of spheres, each of which has its own specifics. These areas are combined by certain socially significant factors (worldview, way of being, set of values), according to which they must coordinate their way of existence. Now, in a post-pandemic society, there is not enough research that examines the latest formations at the place of origin and is perceived as the products of the local experience of the individual and the society to which he belongs.

Communicative-Linguistic and Aesthetic-Literary Potentials of Theater Culture

Communicative-Linguistic and Aesthetic-Literary Potentials of Theater Culture

Words have Weight (unless you’ve never had to carry that weight): The White Lens in Theatre

Whether it’s an expert opinion or an offhand comment from an emerging actor, racism in Canadian theatre culture has embedded itself in our views, our training, and the ways we make theatre and take in theatre. In this article, Eva Barrie uses a racist review of a show she was in and unpacks how the theatre community has supported those thought processes. She discusses how discussing racism has been continuously silenced by the white establishment: in the first part of the article, she reproduces an essay written in 2017, which was pulled from release by an online theatre publication for “turning off white readers” and “not being relevant since the Toronto theatre community isn’t racist.” In the second part, she includes reflections from September 2020, after the murder of George Floyd. The piece sheds light on the calls for change from BIPOC artists and the possibility of a more inclusive future.

The uniqueness of theatrical memoiristics of T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik

The subject of this research is the memoir heritage of Tatiana Lvovna Shchepkina-Kupernik. The novelty is defined by the absence of works dedicated specifically to the theatrical memoirs of Tatiana Lvovna Shchepkina-Kupernik. This article examines her memoiristics as part of the history of Russian theater, which allows the researchers to determine the author's contribution to the Russian theater studies. The goal of this consists in drawing attention of the audience and researchers to the memoiristics of Tatiana Lvovna Shchepkina-Kupernik, as well as in describing the role of her theatrical memoirs within the Russian literary studies and the history of Russian theater. Analysis is conducted on the key peculiarities of the memoir heritage of T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik: stylistic uniqueness, attention to details of the theatrical culture, mastery of sculptural portraits. The author also reveals fascinating rare facts about the prominent figures of art and theatrical events of the late XIX – early XX centuries. The conclusion is made that the memoirs of T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik represent a rich source on the history of Russian theatre. The details of theatrical culture, in-depth analysis of acting, portraits of the outstanding figures of Russian and foreign culture – all these facts makes her memoir heritage an invaluable material that contributes to the study of the Russian theatrical art.

An emerging nation, its Arabic theatre heritage and the influence of English-language stage drama

The authors analyse and decode several unique features of theatrical culture and the teaching and performance of Shakespeare in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar. What could be described as a traditional and conservative Bedouin society, Qataris have with little native tradition of the performing arts nevertheless uneasily allowed the development of both an Arabic-language and English-language theatre culture. Parallel to national theatre efforts has been an equally prominent English expatriate drama tradition stretching back to the 1950s in Doha. As part of economic diversification strategies (since almost all government revenues are derived from petroleum and natural gas production), the government of the State of Qatar has embarked on a number of cultural development projects, including new museums, heritage preservation, book publishing, music and theatre, and educational development (for example, the higher education hub called Education City). Some of this social and economic development focuses on local culture, while other initiatives encourage international engagement with well-known Western cultural icons such as Shakespeare, as well as contemporary visual artists including Damien Hirst, Richard Serra and Luc Tuymans, to signal Qatar's desire to brand itself as an emerging, sophisticated and cosmopolitan nation. This study examines the ambivalence in Qatar towards the Western artistic influence as a form of cultural imperialism and erosive of Muslim values, yet the local fondness for English culture in part due to Britain's protectorship over the Gulf states in the form of the maritime truces and Political Resident system. Tracing the history of the Doha Players troupe, as well as the state-sponsored Qatar National Theatre, provides the context for the difficulties in presenting The Tempest to a local audience in November 2015. The directors faced the challenges of censorship, logistical concerns and the tradition of gender segregation that permeates all layers of society and education. This study presents a complex and conflicting portrait of Qataris’ ambivalent attitudes not only towards Shakespeare, but also towards Qatar's colonial heritage, Western literature, modernity, the newly dominant Anglo-American paradigm of education (related to the rise of global Englishes) and the extraordinary transformation of Qatar from a traditional mixed beddu/hadar culture to a significant regional power broker within two generations.

Egypt: Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1869–1930, by Carmen M. K. Gitre, and Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s, by Raphael Cormack (book review)

Acting Egyptian: Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1869–1930, by Carmen M. K. Gitre, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019. 192 pages. $50. Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring '20s, by Raphael Cormack. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021. 384 pages. $28.95.

Transnational Influences

The Budapest premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s Kísértetek (Gengangere) was on 17 October 1908 by the Thália Társaság, a Hungarian independent theatre. Though banned earlier, by 1908, Ibsen’s text had already been played all over Europe. Between 1880 and 1908, the search of IbsenStage indicates 402 records, but probably the actual performance number was higher. The popularity of the text can be seen in the fact that all the independent theatres staged it, and most of the famous and less famous travelling companies and travelling stars also kept it in their repertoires. Though, usually, the high-artistic independent and the commercial international and regional travelling companies are treated separately, here, I argue for their close real and/or virtual interconnections, creating such a theatrical and cultural network, in which the local, the regional, the national, and the transnational interacted with and were influenced by each other. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such interaction among different forces and agents on different levels was one of the special features of cultural mobility (Greenblatt) which characterized intercultural theatre culture, existing in Europe and America, and extending its influence almost all over the globe.

Cultural Mobility, Networks, and Theatre

The Budapest premiere of Henrik Ibsen’s Kísértetek (Gengangere) was on 17 October 1908 by the Thália Társaság, a Hungarian independent theatre. Though banned earlier, by 1908, Ibsen’s text had already been played all over Europe. Between 1880 and 1908, the search of IbsenStage indicates 402 records, but probably the actual performance number was higher. The popularity of the text can be seen in the fact that all the independent theatres staged it, and most of the famous and less famous travelling companies and travelling stars also kept it in their repertoires. Though, usually, the high-artistic independent and the commercial international and regional travelling companies are treated separately, here, I argue for their close real and/or virtual interconnections, creating such a theatrical and cultural network, in which the local, the regional, the national, and the transnational interacted with and were influenced by each other. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such interaction among different forces and agents on different levels was one of the special features of cultural mobility (Greenblatt) which characterized intercultural theatre culture, existing in Europe and America, and extending its influence almost all over the globe.

Stanislavsky’s method and some conceptual echoes in Russian culture

ABSTRACT Konstantin Stanislavsky created his artistic method of psychological symbolism, trying to overcome the legacy of the socio-typological theatre of the nineteenth century, where the actors’ internal resources were aimed at reproducing recognizable social reflexes of consciousness. Alexander Ostrovsky`s theatre consolidated this tradition in Russian theatrical culture, offering a powerful ensemble of dramatic characters and typical situations of Russian life. The theatre production becomes a continuous discovery of the author’s intention by the director, not a simple presentation of social types. The truth of life, the manifestation of essence as an identity in all changes of action, the fullness of experience, and the persuasiveness of the presentation are the leading motives in the perception of the artistic system of Stanislavsky by Russian directors of the Soviet era such as Oleg Efremov and Georgi Tovstonogov. These directors saw the merits of Stanislavsky’s artistic method, but also recognized the need for innovations as they contemplated an artistic trajectory of the Moscow Art Theatre. However, an essential revision of the psychological symbolism of Stanislavsky, for whom the possibility of the creation was based on a simple reflection of the most intense effects of impulsive expressions of our internal nature, took place in the late Soviet and post-Soviet time in the phenomenological theatre of Piotr Fomenko, Anatoli Vasiliev and Аndrei Zholdak, in which every symbolizing consciousness became a natural attitude – an approach different from the one that focused on capturing the essence of reality of human life.

CRISIS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THEATRE IN THE CONTEXT OF MAINSTREAMING OF PERFORMATIVITY AESTHETIC

. Immediacy of the paper is related with strengthening of points of performative aesthetic in culture and art of last two decades. Accordingly to that, authors consider a conflict between two aesthetic paradigms of theatric culture: performative, on the one side, and psychological and realistic, on the other side. The researchers trace a correlation between appearance of a crisis in theatrical culture and transformation of cultural identity. Also, the paper clarifies a concept “cultural identity”, considers manifestations of crisis of cultural identity in theatre, reveals aesthetic values of two paradigms mentioned above, highlights related contradictions, mark perspectives in researching identification process in modern theatre.

Lothario's Corpse: Libertine Drama and the Long-running Restoration, 1700-1832 by Daniel Gustafson

Reviewed by: Lothario's Corpse: Libertine Drama and the Long-running Restoration, 1700-1832 by Daniel Gustafson Elaine McGirr Daniel Gustafson, Lothario's Corpse: Libertine Drama and the Long-running Restoration, 1700-1832. Bucknell University Press. 2020. 238 pp. "When did the Restoration end?" is a question much debated in the Restoration offices. In Lothario's Corpse Daniel Gustafson makes a compelling case for a Restoration that is, if not unending, at least subject to unexpected revivals. The Restoration, after all, Gustafson reminds us, is a period "organized around reappearance, revival, and reenactment" (169); this spirit of returning animates much of the eighteenth century. Lothario's Corpse further reminds us that the act of proclaiming something–a body, a movement, an ideology–dead, is to acknowledge its continuing power. Lothario's modern presence in our vocabulary as the prototypical seducer, as charismatic as he is bad, is evidence of the continuing attractions and dangers of the Stuart rake identity and politics he embodied. Gustafson sets the scene with two spectacular stories of "corpsing"–breaking character & punctuating the theatrical illusion. These two examples bookend the period under consideration–from Powell's dresser's unlicensed moonlighting as the corpse in 1703 to Robert Coates's over-the-top and much-encored death throes in the 1820s. These moments of theatrical corpsing, however, were for me upstaged by Lothario's corpse behaving as it should. Gustafson reminds us that the final act of The Fair Penitent [End Page 111] takes place in full sight of Lothario's corpse, which frames and contextualizes the violence that preceded and follows his fateful duel with Altamont, something all too easy to forget when reading, but viscerally powerful in performance. Like Lothario's corpse, then, the spectre of Restoration libertine drama– and the radical freedoms promised by the Restoration rake–haunts the eighteenth-century cultural and political imagination, and this ghostly quality means it is never as dead as its detractors need it to be. Moreover, as Gustafson persuasively demonstrates, the Restoration rake had its uses in developing, contesting, and naturalizing the liberty of the British subject. Gustafson argues that the "characters and scenarios" of Restoration libertine drama "occupied the cultural imaginary in ways that contributed to a series of extended debates over political liberty, theatrical culture, and modern institutions of social discipline" (4). Significantly, Gustafson extends the field of analysis beyond the text or performance history of libertine dramas to engage with what he calls "poses"–"the repertoires of behavior associated with the figure of the rake" (12). Like the "dear perfidious" Lothario himself, it is the simultaneously radical and absolutist, appealing and abhorrent comic rake figure who is the most frequently revived in Lothario's Corpse and the political and cultural debates around sovereign desire, personal liberty and self-possession Gustafson traces. Thus, The Fair Penitent's Lothario gives way to The Beggar's Opera's Macheath and The Provok'd Wife's Sir John Brute, who find living parallels in Boswell and Wilks, and then more ghostly ones in Rochester and Charles II. The book moves chronologically, starting with the 1690s reformation of manners, morals and the stage, and ending with the 1830s return to Restoration figures and debates, not necessarily as nostalgic conservatism, but, like the Restoration itself, as a kind of novel return, a revival that is always also an adaptation. I found this Gustafson's most compelling line of argument. His attention to detail in echoes, shadows and allusions to libertine drama and its rakes was largely compelling, as in the argument in Chapter 2 tracing Dorimant and "Dorimant" through stage, periodical, and other utterances. Gustafson details how Dorimant was claimed and repurposed as an avatar for both anticapitalism and commercial politeness. The chronological range of the book and the wealth of examples also amply highlighted the pervasiveness of Lothario's corpse as well as the political range his libertine assertion of personal liberty could be put to. But this range also limited the depth of attention Gustafson could afford each pivotal moment under analysis. The analysis of Dorimant could have benefitted from the significance of performers, with their own ghosts and associations: in the 1720s, Dorimant was one of Wilks...

Poverty and Charity in Early Modern Theater and Performance. Robert Henke. Studies in Theatre History and Culture. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015. xiv + 198 pp. $55.

Poverty and Charity in Early Modern Theater and Performance. Robert Henke. Studies in Theatre History and Culture. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015. xiv + 198 pp. $55.

From Jerusalem to Athens by Nurit Yaari

Reviewed by: From Jerusalem to Athens by Nurit Yaari Shiraz Biggie FROM JERUSALEM TO ATHENS. By Nurit Yaari. Oxford University Press. 2018. 480 pp. Hardcover and ebook, $140.00. Discussions of Israeli theatre, and Jewish theatre in general, often begin with the Talmudic prohibition against the theatre sparked by the encounter and rejection of Hellenism. Nurit Yaari’s book, From Jerusalem to Athens, is no exception, but builds from the idea that the Jewish rabbinical tradition (Jerusalem) and the classical tradition (Athens) are critical and often intertwined influences on Israel’s modern theatre. Yaari argues the contemporary encounter with classical Greek theatre has influenced Israeli artists to address questions of identity and “engage in an intellectual, artistic, and political dialogue with both Jewish culture (the particular) and classical Greek drama (the universal)” (p. 7). From the very beginning, Yaari establishes the role of Greek theatre as a “universal” to be reckoned with through a specific production. In her introduction, she situates the origins of Hebrew theatre with efforts dating back to the Italian Renaissance and Enlightenment periods that combined classical Greek drama elements with the Hebrew language. After establishing this precedent, the book focuses on productions staged either just before or within the modern State of Israel. Yaari’s work is expansive, looking at three types of productions: first, those directly following and using the Greek texts in translation; second, those created by theatrical artists across other traditions that are in dialogue with Greek drama (Anouilh, etc.); and, finally and critically, those native Israeli-written dramas inspired by Greek texts. The book is most exciting and illuminating in discussing the latter, offering significant new insights and approaches to the works in question. The book’s chapter organization is based on particular points of inquiry, such as chapters that explore a theatrical company, a specific Greek or Israeli playwright, conflict, or directorial approaches. Her book traces and frames the theatre of Israel in relation to “Athens” and how this interchange allowed for rich experimentation for Israeli theatre makers. Underlying her book is the broad question of theatre history—why this particular play here and now? Thus, many of the individual chapters are directly related to wars and conflicts in which Israel has played a part and seek to make arguments beyond not only the theatre itself, but on a changing Israeli society. Her book’s strength and weakness lie in this comprehensive mapping of “Athens” onto the “Jerusalem” of Israeli theatre. Yaari looks at 70 years of Israeli theatre (1945–2015), covering 22 Greek plays and touching on approximately 86 productions. Periodically, this [End Page 604] expansiveness obscures an overall through-line to the manuscript in favor of specific chapter arguments. The book occasionally places different productions in conjunction with contemporary Israeli events; the author does not always provide enough context on these events for the reader who is less familiar with Israeli society. As a contribution to the study of Israeli theatre, using the argument that the encounter between “Athens” and “Jerusalem” has been fruitful, the book offers a new way of viewing Israeli drama and its significant figures and adds to the growing English-language scholarship that aims to take Israeli theatre beyond its diasporic origins. One of Yaari’s methodological strengths, which allows her to intertwine a production’s reception with its cultural context, focuses on staging rather than only the play texts. She includes not only the play’s translation but a comprehensive discussion of all the elements of theatrical language, using production photos, designs, interviews, and reviews to piece together a picture of the theatrical event. She also draws on her own vast experience with and reception of many of the productions included. This multifaceted approach helps establish for the readera strong impression oftheactualproductions that are importantto her overall analysis. This approach also helps clarify the line between critical and audience response that marks not only the individual productions, but also the theatre culture of Israel more generally. The first two chapters approach two of Israel’s most well-known theatres, Habima (Israel’s National Theatre) and the Cameri (Tel Aviv’s municipal theatre), looking at their first attempts at classical drama in the mid-1940s...