Transcript Women in Theatre

Women in Theatre
By: Cassie Fry and Danielle Johnston
A Brief Background
• Restoration Theatre
– Political Background
• 1629 -1640: Charles I rules w/o
Parliament
• 1642: Civil War begins
• 1649: King Charles beheaded
• 1642 - 1660: The
Commonwealth
• 1660 - 1685: Reign of Charles II
• 1688: William and Mary take
throne
– Theatrical Background
• Pre-Commonwealth court
theatre
• Court masques
• Courtiers perform
• Scenery
• 1633 William Prynne's treatise
– 1642: Theatres are closed
– Commonwealth Theatre
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Theatres closed/ disassembled
Actors - rogues
Drolls
Davenant's musicals
Italianate Scenery
– The Siege of Rhodes
– 1660: Theatres open
– Restoration of Theatre
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Theatre as royal property
Master of Revels: reduced role
Permits to 2 London companies
William Davenant: Duke's
Company
• Thomas Killigrew: King's
Company
Women off the Stage
• Jeremy Collier’s A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of
the English Stage (London, 1698)
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Collier was a churchman who contributed 5 books to the collection of anti-theatre works.
“Obscenity in any company is a rustic uncreditable talent; but among women it is
particularly rude. Such talk would be very affrontive in conversation, and not to be
endured by any lady of reputation. Whence then comes it to pass that those
liberties which disoblige so much in conversation, should entertain upon the stage.
Do women leave all the regards of decency and conscience behind them when they
come to the play-house? Or does the place transform their inclinations, and turn
their former aversions into pleasure? Or were their pretences to sobriety elsewhere
nothing but hypocrisy and grimace? Such suppositions as these are all satire and
invective; they are rude imputations upon the whole sex. To treat the ladies with
such stuff is no better than taking their money to abuse them. It supposes their
imagination vicious, and their memories ill furnished: that they are practiced in the
language of the stews, and pleased with the scenes of brutishness. When at the
same time the customs of education, and the laws of decency, are so very cautious,
and reserved in regard to women; I say so very reserved, that it is almost a fault for
them to understand they are ill used”
Women off the Stage
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“Through their reiteration of the sensual pleasures of the stage, these works
establish a dynamic of spectatorship which links the gaze inevitably with the
sexuality not only of the object gazed upon but of the spectators themselves.
Theatre thus becomes dangerous not merely as representation in itself but as
representation before an audience. Through the medium of sight, theatre both
excites the passions of viewers and encourages them to imitate the passions they
see enacted before them. Ultimately, concerns of spectatorship underlie almost
every argument against the immorality of the stage. This link between sight and
sex becomes of primary importance with regard to the female spectator, whose
gaze becomes the true source of anxiety for Jeremy Collier and his followers.” (Jean
Marsden)
Women off the Stage
• Emerging influential female audience
• Day to day running of theatre
• Orange Sellers
Women on the Stage
• Women’s first appearance on the English stage
was in 1629.
• Objection
• Tolerance
• Wanted
• Video Women Stage Actresses (5:15)
Elizabeth Barry (1658-1713)
• “Not handsome, her
mouth opening most on
the right side”
• Unsuccessful at first
• First actress to receive a
benefit performance
Nell Gwyn (1650-1687)
• Started her career as an
Orange Wench
• Joined Killigrew’s
Company in 1665.
• Picked out by Dryden
Anne Bracegirdle (1674-1748)
• Trained for the stage at an
early age.
• Her infamous beauty got her
and others into trouble.
• Mistress or wife?
• Video: Actresses and
Mistresses (4:40)
Women Playwrights
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Mrs. Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
Mrs. Manly and Mrs. Susannah Centlivre
Women writers fought an uphill battle
Various tactics were open to women writers
trying to cope with prejudice