How vaudeville theatre elements are found in entertainment today Research Paper

How vaudeville theatre elements are found in entertainment today - Research Paper Example The decline of the Vaudeville genre can be traced to the rise of the cinema. Despite the fact that Vaudeville genre no longer exists in its entirety, some of the signature elements of Vaudeville can still be found in the American entertainment industry today. These elements include family entertainment, sensationalism, slapstick, and variety. As earlier stated, Vaudeville gained popularity after the American Civil War. The genre had however been introduced before 1820. At the beginning, the Vaudeville genre only appealed to the men in the society and it mainly had male performers. It was seen as the new and cheerful entertainment that provided the society relief in the times before and after the civil war. It was not until 1865 when Tony Pastor changed this to a form of Vaudeville that included men, women, and children. This followed the opening of ‘Tony Pastor’s Opera House’ in New York. The form of theatre included performances in which objectionable words had b een removed, and was thus appealing to the entire family. This form of Vaudeville genre remained in the entertainment scene for a long time. Later, different creative artists would follow the conventions that had been set by Tony Pastor in Vaudeville theatre performances. They also began to make use of female performers to further to promote the theatre (Page, 4). The acts in the Vaudeville genre consisted of a total of up to 15 different performances that included jugglers, trained animals, acrobats, singers, magicians, and dancers. The Vaudeville genre however evolved to the point where it became a form of light musical drama. There are some Vaudeville theatres that have however retained the original format and can be found in areas such as England. There are also some few theatres in the United States that continue to showcase the different forms of Vaudeville genre. In most cases however, there are only some of the elements of the original Vaudeville genre that can be seen in th e different genres of entertainment that can be found in the American entertainment scene (Bandle 1546). The success of the Vaudeville genre was mainly because of the level of mastery that the different artists that took part in the performances showed. They (the artists) were skilled in the use of the different tools that they had. They were also skilled in utilizing the stage to maximize the effect of their performance. The stage was set in such a way that it made use of few definite possibilities of use. The stage however allowed the use of scenery and lights to be manipulated by the writer or by the creator of the specific performances. The performers of the Vaudeville genre were focused on the enjoyment and the satisfaction of the wide audiences that were present during the performances (Gottlieb 21). There were several forms that made up the variety theatre that made up the Vaudeville genre. One form was the original variety shows that were designed to please the male audience s. There was also the minstrel show that was a form of performance for public amusement. The minstrel performances usually begun with a walk around that had verbal exchanges between the different performers and the audiences. The content of the comedy was adapted to the different social circumstances, issues and

Challenges to the pharmaceutical industry's blockbuster-driven Research Paper

Challenges to the pharmaceutical industry's blockbuster-driven business model, and the effectiveness of GlaxoSmithKline's st - Research Paper Example After discussing the challenges associated with the use of the Blockbuster-Driven Business Model, the effectiveness of GSK’s strategies to meet these challenges will be tackled in details. 2. About the Company: Business Press and Analyst’s Narratives on GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Its Business Performance (i.e. Sales Revenue, Stock Prices, and Market Share) Based in Britain, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a science-based health care company that aims to develop a wide-range of medicines through product researches and innovation (GSK, 2013a). Serving 115 countries worldwide, GSK is one of the top three biggest pharmaceutical companies around the world (GSK, 2013a ; Gilbert, Henske and Singh, 2003). To develop and innovate new drugs, GSK spent as much as ?4 billion in 2002 (GSK, 2013a). Back in July 1986, the share price of GSK was only 7.31 (Yahoo, 2013). Since January 1992, GSK’s share price has been fluctuating due to a series of merger and acquisition, expiry of patent s, heavy investment on new drug innovation, and tight competition in the market. Between 1979 to 1993, GSK filed 6 patents on Augmentin (Community Catalyst, n.d.). As a result, GSK’s share price started to increase in December 1992 at 30.75. ... It was between 1994 to 1995 when GSK contested their point-of-views with the federal appeals court concerning the legal issues behind patent infringement on one of their famous ulcer drug called Zantac (Los Angeles Times, 1995). Since the federal appeals court supported the arguments made by GSK, Novopharm – a Canadian company was not allowed to sell the generic version of Zantac in the U.S. throughout the period when the patent right is still effective (Los Angeles Times, 1995). One of the possible reasons why GSK’s share price significantly decreased from 69.50 in December 1998 down to 48.75 in February 2000 and 35.05 in February 2003 was because of patent litigation of GSK’s Paxil (Evaluate, 2002). In relation to the expiration of GSK’s patent on Advair in 2010, GSK’s share price has also significantly decreased from 42.29 in December 14, 2009 down to the lowest point at 33.46 in May 24, 2010 (Yahoo, 2013). Because of GSK’s business strate gy, this company managed to gradually increase its share price up to 52.51 in December 2013. Since it takes 10 years for GSK to develop new patented drug (Williams et al., 2008), this company has been continuously developing other promising drug that can compete or even better than their existing â€Å"blockbuster† drugs. (See Chart I – Historical Trend of GSK’s Share Price below) Chart I – Historical Trend of GSK’s Share Price Source: Yahoo, 2013 One of GSK’s â€Å"blockbuster† drugs was the Advair Diskus – an inhaler which can be used in the treatment of chronic asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) such as bronchitis or emphysema (Kitamura, 2013; Recruiting Experts Worldwide, 2013). Costing roughly US$300 per dose, the selling of