Bell Ringer 10/8

1. I know that I (Mrs. B) had told you that we would start presentations today, but I have OCTI training that I… honestly… forgot about until last Friday. • Mrs. James will take you through Dance and Drama for the Renaissance (last page of notes.) • We will start presentations TOMORROW! BE READY!!!! • We have a lot to get through before Fall Break! Bell Ringer 10/8

2. Early Renaissance Dance

3. Theatre dance • The visual and geometric characteristics of dance as we know it today are firmly rooted in the developments of the early Renaissance • Dance moved from social to theatrical • The Italians began to create patterns in body movements • Increasing concern for “rules” and conventionalized vocabulary Dance

4. Concern for perfection, for individual expression, dignity, and grace, created a vocabulary for dance steps and a choreography of dance patterns and designs • Courtly surroundings added refinement and restraint • The dancing master assumed greater importance and control Dance

5. Dance became something to watch rather than something to do • Important milestone: GuglielmoEbreoof Pesaro wrote one of the first compilations of dance description and theory • As he tried to record this complex and visually oriented activity, he stressed memory as the most essential ingredients of the dancer’s art Dance

6. Guglielmo’s work was a clear record of formal dance Dance was an art of grace and beauty Made dance fully acceptable from an aesthetic standpoint – dance became an art form Dance

7. Renaissance Performance Dance

8. European indoor court entertainments often took the form of “dinner ballets” • Involved interludes between meal courses • Characters corresponded to the dishes served in the meal • Poseidon, god of the sea, would accompany the fish course Dance

9. Courtly dancing became more and more professional Skilled professionals performed on a raised stage hall, joined by members of the court Dancing technique improved, and more complicated rhythms were introduced Dance

10. Great Granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent • Married to a Frenchman • Captured to convince Pope Leo not to come back to Italy • Ignites Formal Ballet – Catherine de’ Medici • More in the Baroque Period • Loved spectacle and presented lavish entertainments • Some of which nearly bankrupted the French treasury • Le Ballet de Polonais (the “Polish Ballet”) • Renaissance scenic devices overwhelmed the audience with fountains and aquatic machines • Over 10,000 spectators • 3.5 million francs (A LOT!) Dance – Catherine de’ Medici

11. Renaissance Drama

12. Renaissance drama in Italy tended to not reflect the discordant political cloak-and-dagger atmosphere of its surroundings • Italian playwrights chose mostly to write tender, sentimental, pastoral comedies, in a graceful, witty, and polished style • The drama was theatre of the aristocracy, produced with elaborate trappings and usually at court • Sometimes in public squares under courtly sponsorship Renaissance Drama

13. No permanent theatres existed at the time Renaissance Drama

14. Important development: painted scenery • The discovery of mechanical perspective found its way into the theatre in the sixteenth century • The visual effect of falsified perspective “tricks” is based on mechanical principles • From a point slightly upstage of the actual playing area, the scenery gets smaller and smaller to an imaginary vanishing point • Induces a sense of great depth when, in reality, the set recedes only a few feet Renaissance Drama

15. Renaissance Drama

16. The actors were restricted to a narrow playing area adjacent to the full-size downstage wings • If the actors had moved upstage, they would have towered over the buildings • Stage settings became more and more elaborate, and a new “opening” usually brought an audience to see not a new play, but, rather, the new accomplishments of the set designer Renaissance Drama

17. The most significant change in the theatre of this era was a move to enclose the dramatic action within a “picture frame” or proscenium stage • The audience sat on only one side of the stage and watched the action through a rectangular or arched opening • “Picture frame stage” Renaissance Drama

18. Renaissance Drama

19. Developed parallel to the traditions of the regular theatre, and enjoyed tremendous popular support • Featured the actor rather than the script • Identified by 4 characteristics: • Improvisation • Use of Stock Characters • Use of mime and pantomime • Traveled in companies Commedia dell-arte

20. Improvisation • Fully fledged productions had plots and subplots • However, dialogue was completely improvised within the plot outline or scenario • Mostly comic • Acting style appears to have been natural, though the actors needed good entrance and exit lines as well as repartee Commedia dell’arte

21. Whose Line is It Anyway Example • Improvisation • The scene: “The Millionaire Show as 1930s Gangsters” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfnDo6ijbk Commedia dell’arte

22. Use of stock characters: • Young lovers, old fathers, injured soldiers, and comic servants • All wore stock costumes • Actors portraying these roles required great skill, physical dexterity, and timing, since a large part of the humor was visual • Actors also had to dance, sing, and perform acrobatics • Somersaulting without spilling a glass of wine brought down the house Commedia dell’arte

23. Whose Line Is It Anyway Example • Characters • News Anchor • Game Show Host • Drill Sergeant • (Surprise!) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfwfXXCV9XE Commedia dell’arte

24. Use of mime and pantomime All characters, except the lovers and the serving maid wore masks Attitudes were communicated through gestures Commedia dell’arte

25. Whose Line is it Anyway Example Pantomime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx_oh6LM6zU Commedia dell’arte

26. Traveled in companies • Each member of the company played the same role over and over again – never changed parts • Practice was so pervasive that actors often lost their own identities • Many actors even changed their original names to those of the stage personages they portrayed Commedia dell’arte

27. 1550-1650ish, troupes of commedia actors traveled throughout Europe • Their influence and popularity were tremendous, but commedia remained an Italian form, although its characters and situations found their way into the theatre of other nations • By the end of the 1600s, commedia dell’arte had disappeared (for now) Commedia dell’arte

28. Commedia dell’arte introduced women into the theatre as equals Women’s roles were as important as, and often more important than, those of men Women, no longer boys, played the female parts Commedia dell’arte