Download Theatre History from the Middle ages to English

Renaissance Theatre in Italy
The Italian Renaissance (late 1300’s-1600’s )
• Cultural center of Europe was Italy.
• Renaissance means rebirth
– This theme reflected renewed interest in classics and Greece and
Roman culture
– Advancement in all Arts, Science and learning during this time
• Theatre gets closer to our modern styles
• Merchants sponsored artists
– System of financial support was called patronage
• Topics/subjects from the religious to human activity rather than
divine.
• A change in philosophy called humanism.
Renaissance = Rebirth
• Historians in 1800’s believed learning had
stopped during the Middle Ages and came
back in the 1300-1400’s and named the period
the Renaissance.
• Historians now disagree on this point and
whether there was a rebirth or perhaps there
were several rebirths.
Italian Theatre
• Medieval Italian Theatre depended on
portable stages
• The Ten Books of Architecture, written c. 16-13
BCE by Vitruvius, was rediscoverd in a
monastery in Switzerland. Included plans for
Greek inspired Roman Theatre
• Led to the building of new theatres and
eventually the Olympic Theatre in Vicenza.
Neo-classical ideas
• Renaissance rules of writing drama influences
drama for 200 years.
• Rules came from a mistaken understanding of
what was meant by the rediscovered Greek &
Roman playwrights (Aristotle).
• Renaissance writers created plays and copied
stories and themes from the Greek and Roman
plays.
Ideals
• Renaissance philosophy demanded all
characters be recognizable and verifiable from
real life
– Unity of time- action doesn’t over more than 24 hours
of time.
– Unity of place- all action takes place in one location.
– Unity of action- plot has only one story line (no
subplots).
• This wasn’t followed universally.
• Particularly and England and Spain, these ideals were
ignored
What changed in terms of space and styles of
theatre decoration?
• 1. Visual arts had developed during this
time, having a major effect on imagery in
theatre
– Illusion of depth /perspective painting.
– Images were no longer flat.
– Architecture, theatre building changed.
Lorenzetti
Bonaventura
Berlinghieri,
St Francis
of Assisi,
1235
• Van Eyke
Vanishing Point Perspective
• Made it possible to draw buildings, trees, and
figures on to backdrops with perspective and
the correct proportions.
• The illusion of reality was being developed.
What was the Proscenium arch?
• Proscenium arches or
picture from opening
around stage spaces
• Oldest example is in
Vicenza, Italy the
Teatro Olimpico
completed 3000 people
stage has a permanent
facade
• Doorways build into
wall w/deep hallways
giving the illusion of
deep interior spaces.
Olympic Theatre
Permanent facades were not flexible.
• Painted scenery could
be shifted to reveal
new sets behind them.
• Painted flats/canvases
allowed for changes.
• 1st theater with
proscenium stage was
Teatro Farnes in
Parma, Italy in 1618.
Proscenium Arch Theatre
• Completed in 1618,
Teatro Farnese was the
first theatre with a
proscenium arch.
• Horseshoe auditorium
held about 3500 people
Teatro Farnes
What changed when scenery was introduced?
• Multiple settings behind each other for
changes requires that there be more
backstage space for scenery and equipment.
• Renaissance stages therefore became
deeper.
What were the standard settings in these
plays?
– Tragedies (streets of a wealthy Reuse of
standard styles of settings
– neighborhood)
– Comedies (streets of a lower-class homes)
– Pastoral plays (Countryside cottages)
• Intermezzi- short pieces depicting
mythological tales presented between acts
• Thematically related to main play
What is Commedia dell’arte?
• A form of improvisational theater that
began during the renaissance in Italy.
• Troupes of actors toured the Italian
country-sides.
• They performed using stock characters.
• Dialogue was improvised following a
basic outline but there were no script.
Who were the stock characters
in Commedia dell’arte?
• male characters
members of this group are
–
–
–
–
Pantalone,
Il Dottore
Il Capitano.
Called vecchio - means "old
one" or simply "old" in
Italian.
• They are overwhelmingly
the antagonists, opposing
the love of the innamorati
Who were the stock characters
in Commedia dell’arte?
• Arlechinno
/Harlequin was a
clever prankster
Who were the stock characters
in Commedia dell’arte?
• Punchinello- was a malicious servant
• Innamorato, Inamorata- Young
hero/heroine
• Fontesca-serving maid
• Zanni- male servants
• All were identified by their half masks or
costumes
Why is this important?
• The stock characters of the Commedia
dell’arte influenced the archetypes used in
other works. Taking Shakespeare’s Romeo
and Juliet as an example:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Nurse = Fontesca
Friar Lawrence, Balthazar, Benvolio = Zanni
Mercutio= Archelinno/Harlequin
Tybalt=Punchinello
Capulet= Vecchio- Il Pantalone
Paris= Vecchio- Il Capitano
Romeo and Juliet= Inamorati
Lazzo (lazzi)
• Improvised scenes in commedia
– Arlecchino, a zanni (comic servant) and cherries
Women and Commedia
• Evidence shows women were part of the
troupe
• May have been married into the troupe
• May not have had equal status
Female stock characters
– Wives
– Innamoratas/lovers
– Ingenues- young innocent, naïve young women
– Servants
– Mistresses
– Wantons
Elizabethan England
• Powerful English Ruler Queen Elizabeth I
– ruled for 45 years, 1588-1603
– language literature and the arts flourished due to
her patronage.
• Acting changed from amateur to professional status
• Playwrights now had a stable experienced group of
performers for whom to write more detailed and
complicated plays.
• Permanent theatres built
• All classes could attend performances
What was theatre-going like in Elizabethan
England?
• Previous policy by church viewed all nonreligious theater as evil.
• City of London didn’t permit theatre buildings
to be erected inside the city limits.
• Theatres were then built across the Thames
river in a suburb of London.
Flags flying atop a theatre
• Signified a play was being
given
– White= comedy
– Black= tragedy
– Red= History
The Globe theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were presented
• Elizabethan theatres
were circular or
octagonal structures of
three stories with an
open roof
• Theater had a raised
platform stage that
would be surrounded
by the audience on the
three sides
It was closer to a contemporary thrust stage than a
proscenium arch stage being used in Italy at the
same time
How did plays in England differ from
those in Italy at the same time in
history?
•
•
•
•
•
No neoclassical ideals.
Dramas structured in a series of scene
Changes of location.
This influenced the use of stage space in England .
Little use of scenery,
– entrances and exits signified a change of scene
– A piece of furniture suggested the location of the next
scene
– Characters would speak/announce the change of location
called “spoken décor”
Noted feature of Elizabethan Drama
• Use of poetry
• William Shakespeare considered the most
important playwright during this period
Iambic Pentameter
• Iambic pentameter
• 2 syllables to each beat, 5 beats per line
• 10 syllables in each line, stress put on the 2nd
beat
• Sonnets
Macbeth
• Is this a dagger which I see before me,
• The handle toward my hand? Come, let me
clutch thee.
• I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
William Shakespeare
• “All the world’s a stage and all the men and
women merely players; they have their exits
and entrances; and one man in his time plays
many parts, his acts being seven ages”
-As you like it -William Shakespeare
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/lifesubj+
1.html
• Awareness of human nature
Biographical Info
• b. 1564 in Stratford upon Avon to John
and Mary Shakespeare 1 of 8 children.
• Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway
– Has three children Susanna, Hamnet and
Judith.
• 1587- left to go to London,
– member of Lord Chamberlain's men
– became a shareholder in the company
– helped finance/part owner of the Globe
theatre
• 1613 Globe theatre burned down
– Shakespeare retired to Stratford
• d. 1616 @ age 52
What was Shakespeare’s body of work?
• 154 sonnets
• 38 plays ?
• (There is some argument here)
– Tragedies/Comedies/Histories/Fantasies
– Apocrypha – plays said to be written by
Shakespeare but actually written by
someone else; Thomas Middleton.
– Lost Plays – Ex. Loves Labour Won
List of plays
Comedies
•
All's Well That Ends Well
•
As You Like It
•
The Comedy of Errors
•
Love's Labour's Lost
•
Measure for Measure
•
The Merchant of Venice
•
The Merry Wives of Windsor
•
A Midsummer Night's Dream
•
Much Ado About Nothing
•
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
•
The Taming of the Shrew
•
The Tempest
•
Twelfth Night
•
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
•
The Two Noble Kinsmen
•
The Winter's Tale
Tragedies
• Romeo and Juliet
• Coriolanus
• Titus Andronicus
• Timon of Athens
• Julius Caesar
• Macbeth
• Hamlet
• Troilus and Cressida
• King Lear
• Othello
• Antony and Cleopatra
• Cymbeline
Histories
•King John, Richard II,
•Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2,
•Henry V, Henry VI part 1, Henry VI part 2, Henry VI part 3,
•Richard III, Henry VIII
Other Works attributed to Shakespeare
Poems
• Shakespeare's Sonnets
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• The Passionate Pilgrim
• The Phoenix and the Turtle
• A Lover's Complaint
Lost plays
• Love's Labour's Won
• Cardenio
Apocrypha
• Arden of Faversham
• The Birth of Merlin
• Locrine
• The London Prodigal
• The Puritan
• The Second Maiden's Tragedy
• Sir John Oldcastle
• Thomas Lord Cromwell
• A Yorkshire Tragedy
• Edward III
• Sir Thomas More
Controversies
• Did Shakespeare really write all the plays
attributed to him ?
– It is accepted that he had borrowed stories
from source history but made them his own/
• Shakespeare wrote sonnets to both a man,
his patron, and a mysterious Dark Lady.
• Was Shakespeare’s identity lifted by a group of
collaborators? Or one person who’s status
would be jeopardized?