Transcript Renaissance Theatre

Renaissance Theatre
Influences
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Renaissance=rebirth
New ideas - based on classical teachings
Weakening Church influence
1465=printing press invented
– Classical manuscripts
– Classical plays staged at Universities and
Courts
– “Relearning” of Aristotle, Horace, etc.
Neoclassicism
• Verisimilitude - “Truth Seeming”
• Decorum - Characters were expected to display
“normal” traits of the members of their class or suffer
the consequences if they didn’t. Good is rewarded, evil
punished.
• Purity of Genres - Comedy and tragedy were not
to be mixed - NO element of 1 should be found in the
other
– Tragedy - characters of high station, deal with
affairs of state, elevated language, unhappy endings
– Comedy - lower to middle class, domestic affairs,
“common” language, happy endings
Neoclassic Concept (contin)
• Three Unities
– Time - real time or no more than 24 hrs
– Place - no more than 1 room, town, country
– Action - no sub/secondary/counter plots although
this is least important of 3
• 5 Act Form - probably Horace/Seneca derived
• Purpose - to teach 1st and then and to please
This last concept help “justify” theatre educational as well as social.
Venues
• Italy had- Elongated U-shaped auditoriums.
Boxes in tiers. Most theaters had no seats
so people could move around.
• France/England - Outdoor or “public” and
Indoor or “private. Both were open to
anyone who could pay, but the private
theatre cost more, were smaller, and had a
more select audience. The Globe was
considered a “public” playhouse.
Technical Theatre - Set
• Proscenium Arch - overhead rigging and machinery.
Sometimes consisted of more than 1
• Raked Stage - higher UPstage than DOWNstage. Used to
increase the sense of depth.
• Single Point perspective scenery - calculated from the back
of the house
• Scenery - consisted of a series of wings/flats and was kept
behind the proscenium arch
• Periaktoi - triangluar flats for shifting scenery
• Chariot-and-Pole System - a system of ropes and pulleys to
get a simultaneous shift in scenery with grooves in the floor
• Trap doors - scenes shifted with no curtain
Technical Theatre - Lighting
• Candles and oil lamps for lighting
• Chandeliers over house and stage, candles behind
proscenium arch and footlights
• Little effective control, although “dimmers” were
used
In Italy…
• Opera is invented - LOTS of special effects
created with this medium in mind
• Intermezzi - courtly shows given between acts
• Commedia dell’Arte - “improv” with stock
characters and lazzi (scenario)
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Pantalone - the old man (fool)
Dottore - the doctor (fool)
Capitano - braggart soldier (fool)
Inamorati - young lovers (normal)
Zanni - servants (fools/wits)
In England…
• Religion and Political controversies - Church of England
established and Queen Elizabeth outlaws religious
drama in 1558 (due to Protestant/Catholic disputes)
• England defeats Spain in 1588 and becomes “the” world
power
• Acting becomes a legal profession in 1570s
• Directly under the control of the gov’t - companies had to
have a license, requiring the patronage of a noble.
• Theatre was constructed around London
• The merchant class disliked theatre while the aristocracy
liked it
• Until 1608 theatre buildings were illegal in the city limits
of London so they were built outside the city limits
Performers
• In England - males only (until the reign of Charles II)
• The acting companies functioned on a repertory system; unlike
modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the
troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row.
• The Rose Theatre for example: between Feb. 19 and June 23 the
company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other
days. They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their
most popular play of the season, The First Part of Hieronimo, played
15 times. They never played the same play two days in a row, and
rarely the same play twice in a week. The workload on the actors,
especially the leading performers like Edward Alleyn, must have been
tremendous.
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Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead leaving
the stage largely bare with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage
was in the costumes. Costumes were often bright in color and visually
entrancing. Costumes were expensive, however, so usually players wore
contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. Occasionally,
a lead character would wear a conventionalized version of more historically
accurate garb, but secondary characters would nonetheless remain in
contemporary clothing.
Playwrights
• Other than Shakespeare the big ones are:
• Christopher Marlowe - Marlowe's plays were enormously
successful. little is known about Marlowe. What little evidence
there is can be found in legal records and other official
documents. Marlowe has often been described as a spy, a
brawler, a heretic and a homosexual, as well as a "magician,"
"duellist," "tobacco-user," "counterfeiter" and "rakehell.”
• Ben Jonson - Apart from two tragedies, Jonson's work for the
public theatres was in comedy. The minor early plays, present
somewhat looser plots and less-developed characters than those
written later. He displays the keen eye for absurdity and
hypocrisy that marks his best-known plays; in these early efforts,
however, plot mostly takes second place to variety of incident
and comic set-pieces.
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Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process,
and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from
one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they
wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the
playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or
publication.The profession of dramatist was challenging and far from
lucrative.