Download Renaissance Theatre History

Renaissance Theatre
History
Renaissance Drama
(1500 – 1700 CE)
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Renaissance means rebirth of classical
knowledge.
Italy:
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Known more for stage equipment and
scenery than great plays.
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Ideas from Greek and Roman period blended
to develop perspective paintings and colored
lights.
Continued…
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Street comedy started
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(Commedia Dell’Arte: improvised comedy: no script.)
Troupes:
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Had fixed or stock characters:
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Acting companies traveled from town to town presenting
these comedies.
Identified by costumes and masks (doctor, maid, clown,
male servants).
15th and 16th Centuries developed interludes: one
act farces.
Continued…
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Stock characters:
- Harlequin- clown with diamond outfit
- Pierrot- lovelorn and moody
- Columbine- flirtatious and pretty
- Pantalone- baggy trousers- gullible father or fool
Characters all wore half-masks
Popular across Europe- especially in France with the
playwright- Moliere’
Continued…
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A few works were serious, and some pastoral, but most
were comic.
The acting appears to have been natural though the
actors needed good entrance and exit lines as well as
repartee.
Actors required great skill, physical dexterity, and timing,
since much of humor was visual.
Actors in commedia also had to dance, sing, and do
acrobatics.
Commedia dell’arte introduced women into the theatre
as equals.
France (late 1600s):
Returned to ideas of Aristotle:
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Greek philosopher (considered first literacy critic).
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Three unities:
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-One action
-One day
-One place
Plays portraying heroes were popular.
After French Revolution, Commedia Francaise established
(comedies and farces).
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Led to the development of French professional theatre.
Theatre further developed by the government under direction of Louis
XIV (great supporter of the arts).
Famous playwrights:
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Moliere and Racine
Moliere
Racine
Moliere
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greatest writer in France
changed his name to protect family from
disgrace of theatre connections
acted in the commedia dell’arte
wrote satires- humorous and caustic themes
died on stage from TB while in the show
THE IMAGINARY INVALID
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Next Week:
Elizabethan Theatre