The Middle Ages to 1800

Feudalism (peasants worked land and paid rent to land owning lords)

Poverty and illiteracy among the masses was common

Trope short dramatized scenes played during mass

Mansions small platforms placed in cathedrals where the crowds saw scenes acted out until the whole story had been played

Three types of plays presented in the Middle Ages

Mystery plays  bible stories re-enacted

Miracle plays  enacting the lives of the saints

Morality  stories teaching right from wrong in which characters personified abstract qualities

Examples of morality plays

Everyman  (Everyman journeys to Death, Worldly Goods, etc. and only Good Deeds accompanies him to the grave)

Passion play evolved during the late Middle Ages.  It depicted scenes from Christ’s life, particularly the last days of His suffering and His resurrection.

Renaissance Theatre

Renaissance means “rebirth” in French

Took place in the 15^th and 16^th centuries

Renaissance started in Italy

            Some figures from the era are:

            Petrarch (scholar and poet)

Leonardo da Vinci (scientist, mathematician, engineer, painter--painted The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa)

            Michelangelo (painter--The Sistine Chapel, poet, architect, sculptor

Machiavelli (diplomat, philosopher, musician, poet, writer—The Prince)

Italian Theatre of the Renaissance

Developed opera and commedia

Commedia dell’ Arte professional improvised comedy performed in the streets for the masses

Seven men and three women would ad-lib action, dialogue, song, and dance around a scenario that usually involved love and intrigue

Effective improvisation is inventive, clever, witty, agile bodies

Characters:

Harlequin  wore patches that evolved into the stylized diamond costume

Pierrot  lovelorn and moody

Columbine  flirtatious and pretty

Pantalone  baggy trousers; the gullible father

The cast wore half mask on stage’ were the first to include women since the Hindu theatre

This art form spread throughout Europe

Influenced the writing of Moliere

Spanish Theatre of the Renaissance

Spain became interested in drama

The golden age of  Spanish drama (1550-1680)

Influenced by commedia dell’ arte and Italian court staging

Three major playwrights evolved

            Miguel de Cervantes wrote the novel Don Quixote and 30 plays

            Lope de Vega wrote a phenomenal 2000 plays with beautiful poetry

                        Vigorous action and dashing romance

            Calderon created 200 plays with spiritual emphasis and elevated poetry

These writers ignored the classical unities of time and place; wrote beautiful dialogue and centered the action around adventure, romance and chivalry

French Renaissance Theatre

Renaissance came late to France

Reached its height during the 17^th century

Increased theatre activity gave rise to neoclassicism

Neoclassicism a form in which dramatists were supposed to observe the cliassic unities and write in a restricted verse form

French drama developed into entertainment mainly for royalty

French playhouses were ornate with carvings washed in gold, velvet covered seats and lavish drapes

Moliere

High point of the French theatre

Wrote witty satire that entertained around the world

Jean-Baptists Poquelin was his real name

When he chose theatre, he chose a different name so that his parents would not be disgraced by having an actor in the family

Wrote plays that drew on the farcical style of commedia

Performed for the court of Louis XIV

Wrote the following:

The Doctor in Spite of Himself  lampoons the field of medicine

Tartuffe  he satirizes hypocrisy

The Imaginary Invalid  he spoofs hypochondria

Ill from tuberculosis in his later years

Ironically, died on stage just after completing a performance of The Imaginary Invalid

Elizabethan Theatre

Great vitality, zest and intellectual curiosity

Queen Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603)

England defeated the Spanish Armada

Increased literary vistas

Introduced printed books in 1475

Elizabeth loved the theatre and the Elizabethan Era was an age of literary enlightenment

Great playwrights that wrote with freedom disregarding he classic unities of time, place and the rule left over from the Greeks that violence should not be  seen on the stage

English playwrights mixed poetry with prose and interspersed comedy with tragedy

The three giants of the Elizabethan theatre wre:

Christopher Marlowe

            Next to Shakespeare is considered the greatest dramatist

            Lived to be only 29 years old

            Came up with blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)

            Wrote seven plays including

Tambulaine, Edward II, The Jew of Malta and Dr. Faustus were his best known

Ben Jonson

            Scorned Shakespeare because Shakespeare knew “small Latin and less Greek”

            Abided by the Aristotelian unities; his work is biting humorous satire

            Wrote Volpone (The Fox) and The Alchemist

When James I inherited the throne, Jonson entertained the court with masques, great extravaganzas  of song, dance and recitation

One show alone could cost $500,000 for lavish costumes and sets

William Shakespeare

            The greatest of all English playwrights

            Born in Stratford-upon-Avon

            Had little formal education

            Married at 18 to Anne Hathaway who was eight years older

Left his wife and children and went to London, where he worked

in the theatre as an actor, manager and writer

In 1596 granted a coat of arms by Queen Elizabeth

Wrote 38 plays creating histories, comedies, tragedies and fantasies

Created the soliloquy (speeches where actors talk alone to reveal their thoughts aloud)

Well known quotes attribute to Shakespeare:

“As luck would have it”

“Greek to me”

“The short and long of it”

“A rose by any other name”

“Haven’t slept a wink”

“All the world’s a stage

“The unkindest cut of all”

“Eating me out of a house and home”

The Theatres

First public playhouse to be erected was The Theatre constructed by James Burbage in 1576 and seated about 1500 people

Theatres were called Wooden O’s because they were round or octagonal with two or three tiers of thatched roof galleries surrounding an open court on three sides.

The groundlings usually tradespeople, soldiers, apprentices and servants paid a penny and stood in the pit around the acting platform.

Peddlers sold oranges and nuts were noisily eaten and sometimes thrown by the audience

There was no scenery.

Some properties were used and so were some sound effects

The most famous theatre, The Globe, burned in 1613—was the result of the thatch roof catching a spark from the cannon shots that announced the king’s entrance in Henry VIII.

Costumes were usually the styles of the day and donated by patrons.  Little attempt was made at historically accuracy.

The Players

Actors were all men

Women’s parts were played by boys whose voices had not changed to masculine lowness or by men with higher than usual voices.  Acting was strenuous requiring, singing, dancing, fighting and fencing.

The great actors:

Richard Burbage

            Son of James Burbage who built The Theatre

            Born in Stratford-upon-Avon like Shakespeare

            Played Shakespeare’s tragic figures  Hamlet, Othello, Richard III and King Lear

Edward Alleyn

Played title role in Tamburlaine,  Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta all by Christopher Marlowe

Alleyn and his partner Philip Henslowe constructed The Fortune Theatre north of London to compete with the Globe.

Wiliam Kemp

            Played Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Shakespeare created the role with the intention of ridiculing the scene stealing actor, but Kemp mad the character his own

Rulers of England

James I rules England from 1603-1625

Reigned after the death of Elizabeth I

Political unrest was brewing throughout his reign and continued after

Charles I was crowned in 1625

Civil war broke out and Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan leader gained control.

Charles I was beheaded and the rest of the Stuart line fled to France

The Puritans closed the theatre because they considered them “dens of iniquity”

Public theatres died in England until Charles II regained control of England in 1660

In Cromwell’s time, plays were performed in secret, meaning some actors and audience members were arrested.

Restoration and 18^th Century Theatre

Restoration came about with the reestablishing of the monarchy in England under Charles II in 1660

Charles II returned and started a new era of drama that was fashioned after what he ad seen in Paris

The Elizabethan playhouses had been torn down by the Puritans, new indoor theatres were built with deep aprons and with proscenium arches

Candles and oil lamps provided lighting in these indoor theatres

Women were allowed to perform

The audience was the sophisticated aristocracy

The crowd was witty, insincere and apt to indulge in foolish pleasures

The plays at the time were comedies of manners that satirized the artificiality of the day

The Restoration ended in 1737 because Parliament passed the Licensing Act which limited the playhouses to two:  The Covent Garden and the Drury Lane.  All other theatres were illegal.  Thus the term, legitimate theatre.

Legitimate theatre has changed meaning and today refers to all live play performances.

The Comedy of Manners

Corresponding to the period of the American Revolution

Both actor and director is credited with establishing a less bombastic style of acting (not overdone)

The actors were Sarah Kemble Siddons and her brother John Phillip Kemble