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Medieval Theatre First five centuries ( 400-900 A.D) of Middle Ages= Dark Ages Pagan rites an festivities containing theatrical elements like music, dancing, and masks persisted despite the Church’s opposition By the 10th century, the church introduced its own dramatic ceremonies (ending the Dark Ages) Trope: short liturgical plays performed during religious services (mass) Characteristics of tropes: Written in Latin Chanted or sung Performed by choirboys or members of the clergy Financed by church By 1200 religious plays were being performed outside of church By 1375 a religious drama had developed independent of the liturgy Characteristics of Religious Drama: Written in the common language of an area Were written to be spoken rather than chanted or sung Were performed by laymen not clergy Financed by community, not church Why would the church use the theatre when it had forbidden it for 500 years? Theatre had been proven to reach the masses To communicate with members that don’t speak Latin or are uneducated To highlight the events of the Christian calendar Three types of plays: Mystery Plays (also called Cycle Plays) They are a series of short biblical dramas performed in a cycle on a series of outdoor stages through which the audience chronologically rotates Miracle Plays They were performed on the days celebrating a town’s patron saint (to tell their story) Morality Plays They brought moral sentiments and religious beliefs to life through drama Theatre Production Outdoor festivals plays were performed on both fixed or movable stages The movable stages, called mansions, were usually wagons carrying a background scenery Medieval producers gave great attention to special effects, which they called “secrets” Certain emblems, accessories and properties helped audiences to identify specific characters: St. Peter and his keys; Judas and his red hair; angels and their wings Plays often featured music: choruses of angels for heavenly scenes; trumpet fanfares for the entrance of God Controversy and Decline The church carefully watched over the scripts, in order to ensure that the faithful were being taught the accepted doctrine Puritan opposition to the stage was informed by the arguments of the early church fathers who had written against the decadent and violent entertainments of the Romans (pagans) Puritans argued not only that the stage in general was pagan, but that any play that represented a religious figure was inherently idolatrous A sweeping assault against the alleged immortalities of the theatre crushed whatever remained in England of the Medieval dramatic tradition