Transcript File - History of Visual and Performing Arts

Opening Agenda
•Things to Get:
•Handout from the front table
•Things to Do:
•Opener- Reading
•Class work:
•Commedia dell’Arte notes and
application
•Elizabethan theater notes and
application
•Exit Slip
FYI
• Cincinnati Art Museum Fieldtrip 4/9 Tuesday
after spring break. More info to follow in midMarch.
• Latin Ballroom Dance instructor will be coming
the last week in February. We will be learning
how to Merengue! (and maybe Rumba)
• January Culture Project Due 1/31 A-Day and 1/30
B-Day
Opener- Review
Complete these questions on your opener sheet
1) Identify the title and composer of the piece played.
2) Identify the title, composer, and form of the second piece
played.
3) Why was Palestrina’s music different than Des Prez’s?
4) Which painter was described as being a better sculptor than
painter?
5) Why was the Virgin on the Rocks so controversial that DaVinci
had to repaint it?
6) What subject matter is Raphael famous for depicting?
7) What style of dance developed during the Renaissance?
8) Why were aspects such as a bow, the step to either side, lack
of physical contact, and an emphasis on foot movements
characteristics of Renaissance court dances?
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1. John Farmer, Fair Phyllis
2. Palestrina, Kyrie, Mass
3. Restrained Polyphony
4. Michelangelo
5. No religious clues or information
6. Madonnas
7. Ballet
8. Show quick wit, etiquette and good breeding($!)
Renaissance Theater
Commedia dell’Arte
Commedia dell’ Arte- Overview
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improvisational comedy
Traveling actors
invented dialogue for bare plot outline
Used novels, gossip, and current events
cast of 12 stock characters (stereotyped
personalities)
• 9 men/3 women – all played by men
History and Background
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1500-1700’s
Italy
Manager led troupe/wrote scripts
2 Stock character types:
upper class and servant class
• Characters identified by costumes/masks
• Mobile stage
Scenarios
-plot outlines posted backstage before each
performance
Lazzi
-memorized lines/humorous scenes
-apart from main action
-ignored by main characters
Verisimilitude
- “being true to life;”
- all characters and situations be recognizable
and verifiable from real life.
Stock Characters
Pulcinella
hunchback
chases women
zanni
La Ruffiana
(Old Woman) mother or gossipy townswoman
intrudes into the lives of the Lovers.
Zanni
poor servants from Bergamo, Italy
move to Venice for better jobs
Arlecchino
• Servant
• zanni
• poor peasant
• Illiterate, pretends to read
• Acrobat/clown
• stick-slapstick
(homey the clown)
• patchworked clothing
Brighella
• fat and slow
• always the butt of a joke
• simpelton
• told not to do things
but desires get the better
of him or her
Columbina
• maidservant to the lovers
• lover of Arlecchino
• intelligent
Dottore
• local aristocrat
• Doctor
• snobbish
• rich
• adores food and good wine, fat
Capitano
• Boastful but cowardly Spaniard
• Brags of battles never fought and romances
never experienced
(who does he look like?)
Pantalone
• rich and miserly merchant
• father of one of the lovers
• employs Arlecchino and
treats him cruelly
Pedrolino
• Overly kind zanni
• Gets blamed for everything and he agrees that
it is always his fault
Commedia dell-arte Viewing:
On your viewing guide!
• As you watch the following two clips, answer the
questions found on your Renaissance Theater
opener, viewing guide, and exit slip paper.
• Note:
– You will watch two videos BASED on Italian Renaissance
Theater ideas. Answer the question on your viewing
guide to show your understanding of Commedia
dell’arte.
– HC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g1e8dZM3MY
– WL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Dj0MQP7hQ Start at 5:00 minutes
From Italy to England
The Elizabethan Age
• England’s Renaissance
– named after Queen Elizabeth
1st
– love of language and the art
of theater
Developments
to Theater
• Went from amateur
status to professional
status
– Effect: Companies of
professional actors gave
playwrights a more stable
and experienced group of
performers
• Building of permanent
theaters
– Spaces were now
specifically designed to
present plays
Theater Hating
• The church thought
that “all theatre that
was not religious in
nature was evil”
– No theaters in
London
• White Flag flying=
play today
The Globe Theater
Theater
Construction
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Circular or octagonal
Three stories
Open roof
Open platform with little or
no scenery placed on it
• Plat form stage surrounded
on three sides by an
audience (closer to a proscenium
arch stage)
– Tiring house: stage house; backdrop for the
action
– Inner Stage: roofed area that was used to
suggest an inside setting (back of the
platform)
– Musicians’ gallery: where a small group of
musicians would play music
Form of English Plays
• Series of brief scenes that
frequently changed location from
place to place
– one group of characters left the
stage and another group
entered, the audience knew that
the scene was changing
– spoken décor: when a character
signals a scene change by
announcing it
• freer use of stage space
• Iambic pentameter: words have 2
syllables to each beat and when
spoken, stress is place on the
second beat
Spectators
• Wealthy got benches
• “Groundlings”>poorer
people stood and watched
from the courtyard (“pit”)
• All but wealthy were
uneducated/illiterate
• Much more interaction
than today
Actors
• Only men and boys
• Young boys whose voices
had not changed play
women’s roles
• Would have been
considered indecent for a
woman to appear on stage
William Shakespeare
Widely regarded as the
greatest writer in English
Literature
Shakespeare
• 1563-1616
• Stratford-on-Avon, England
• wrote 37 plays
– comedies, tragedies, histories
• about 154 sonnets
• started out as an actor
Stage Celebrity
• Actor for Lord
Chamberlain’s Men
(London theater co.)
• Also > principal
playwright for them
• 1599> Lord Ch. Co. built
Globe Theater where
most of Shakespeare’s
Play’s were performed
Romeo and Juliet
• Written about 1595
• Considered a tragedy
• West Side Story
(Movie) based on R&J
Exit Slip
• While watching the following clip, answer the
questions found on your Renaissance Theater
Learning Guide.
Hamlet
Activity: Commedia dell’arte
• Objective:
– To demonstrate your understanding of the role of stock
characters in an improv work
• Assignment:
– Groups of Three
– Given an commedia dell’arte scenario to act out
• Grading: All participation points can be earned if…
– Actors create, maintain, and exemplify a stock character that is
true to the scenario provided
– Advance the storyline beyond the plot summary provided
• Time Allowed:
– To practice (assign roles, etc.): 5 minutes
– Performance time required: 45 secs to 1 minute
Show Time!
• Each group will have one minute to perform
• Groups will perform in the order lined up around the
room
– Once one group concludes, the next group must elect a
member to read their given scenario. Scene must begin at
the conclusion of the reading. Timer will begin as soon as
scenario reading is complete.