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The Medieval Theatre. The church was against theatre, declaring it was sacreligious , evil, and immoral, so it was difficult for drama to exist. Theatre was extinguished for several hundred years during this era. Ironically, when drama was reborn it appeared as a part of the church.
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The church was against theatre, declaring it was sacreligious, evil, and immoral, so it was difficult for drama to exist. • Theatre was extinguished for several hundred years during this era.
Ironically, when drama was reborn it appeared as a part of the church. • The Passion Play came into existence at this time. This play is still around today, commonly presented around Easter.
Morality Plays • The morality plays, which developed later than the mystery and miracle plays, were popular before and early on in the Renaissance. • The subject matter concerned moral instruction—particularly man’s attempt to save his soul.
Emerging from Darkness • The Renaissance brought great changes. This time is characterized by a renewed interest in the arts and in learning. * From the early 1500s, when small bands of professional actors performed in the homes of noblemen or in booths in the town square, to the early 1600s, when Shakespeare’s company was playing at the Globe, the changes were spectacular.
The Italian Renaissance • Because Latin was understood by scholars of the time and because classical learning was greatly admired, the works of the old Roman playwrights Plautus, Seneca, and Terence influenced the beginnings of drama in Italy.
Italian Renaissance: Neoclassicism • Romans dictated that all plays be written according to the rules of neoclassicism (new classics). • According to this structure plays had to be written in five acts, had to teach a moral lesson, and had to deal with events that could occur in everyday life (be realistic).
Italian Renaissance: Neoclassicism • Such rules were stifling, allowing for little creativity, so that during the entire period of the Italian Ren. very little good drama appeared. • Neoclassic plays were too strictly structured so that new forms of drama began to develop.
One of these forms was the intermezzi, which was originally a series of short scenes of plays with singing and dancing that was presented between the acts of a neoclassic tragedy. • From the intermezzi derived the opera. Opera became so popular that by 1650 it had spread through much of Europe.
Commedia dell’Arte was another form of drama that developed outside the perimeters of neoclassicism during the Italian Renaissance. • Commedia consisted of actors improvising scenes based on stock characters and basic scenarios.
Theatre of Elizabethan England • Although there were traveling players in England before the Elizabethan era (1558-1603), their performances were infrequent and scattered. • In the fifteenth century traveling players were defined by law as vagabonds and rogues.
During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she restored theatre as a very respectable pastime and occupation. • Queen Elizabeth recognized the lack of education and civilization in England. She used theatre as a means to provide these things to the masses. (People who couldn’t read could still watch plays and take educational value from them.)
The three greatest writers of the Elizabethan era were Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare. Of the three William Shakespeare was the greatest.
Shakespeare • By the 1590s Shakespeare was a dramatist and actor in London. • In 1595 he was a shareholder (part owner) in Lord Chamberlain’s Men (very famous acting company). • Shakespeare began writing around 1590 and wrote thirty-eight plays before he died in 1616.
Elizabethan Theatres • During the Elizabethan era there were two types of theatres, public (outdoor) and private (indoor), although the private theatres were open to anyone who could pay the price of admission. • The public theatres operated during the summer and the private theatres during the winter.
Acting Companies • Acting companies at the public theatres consisted of ten to twenty men and three to five boy apprentices. • The boys played female parts until they reached maturity, then they were taken in as permanent members of the company.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth, the English theatre lost popularity for a time; then, nearly sixty years later, it again began to emerge as a lively form of entertainment.
17th and 18th Century Theatre • Great change took place in Europe during the second half of the seventeenth and on through the eighteenth centuries. • In England, the Puritans gained control, beheaded Charles I, and banned theatre. Thirteen years later, Charles II was restored to the throne and lifted the ban. This period is called The Restoration, which lasted for the next forty-two years.
The Restoration • This was a time of dazzling comedy addressing the pettiness of the upper classes. • The most important form of drama during the Restoration was the Comedy of Manners, which satirized the social customs of the time. • Comedies of Manners largely mocked the pretentiousness of the upper class.
A very very famous Comedy of Manners is a play titled The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
French Theatre • Because civil wars divided the country from the 1560s to the 1620s, French theatre developed later than the theatre of England. • A very famous French playwright that you should remember is Moliere.
Moliere • Moliere has often been called the French Shakespeare. • M’s plays deal with stock character types, based on Roman comedy and commedia. Moliere gave his stock characters individual traits.
Two very famous plays written by Moliere are The Miser and The Misanthrope. • Moliere’s plays were in the vein of England’s Comedy of Manners, being farcical in nature.
19th and 20th Century Theatre • Throughout the past two hundred years, changes have come more quickly than any other time in theatrical history. • Never before have so many dramatic forms and styles existed within such a short period of time.
Romanticism • The lure of romanticism showed that there was a growing distrust of reason and a growing idea that one only had to follow his or her instincts to do what was right. • According to this genre, humankind could discover truth by examining nature and breaking free from the restraining forces of society.
Melodrama • Melodrama was characterized by a simple and suspenseful plot and a strong emotional appeal. • Kindness and goodnessisthe solution to all problems.
Realism • Realism came about as a result of oppressive political and economic conditions. • Realists felt that Western society was bad and must be changed-- reveal social ills and injustices.
Expressionism • The entire drama is presented through the eyes of a central character, so that the audience views reality as the character does. • Expressionist writers feel that the way to truth is through an understanding of humankind’s soul.
Surrealism • The movement involves breaking down the barriers between the inner and outer worlds of consciousness.
Absurdism • Absurdism asserts that nothing is good or bad as such—only what human beings attribute to something can make it either moral or immoral. • Truth is to be found in disorder and chaos, because everything is equally illogical.
