Drama - terms

Question 1

3 Golden Ages of Drama:

Answer 1

1. Ancient Greece
2. Rome
3. English Renaissance Drama

Question 2

Liturgical Drama

Answer 2

First example of drama = christian stories being performed at the altar. -> Miracle plays -> mystery plays -> morality plays (christian stories as allegories about morality) -> interludes (short comic breaks which turned into their own thing)

Question 3

The Theatre

Answer 3

first theatre-building in London 1576 (before that plays only toured)

Question 4

The Globe

Answer 4

Shakespeare’s theatre built 1599

Question 5

Shakespeare

Answer 5

1564-1616. Started out as an actor. Wrote 37 plays - most published post mortem.

Elizabethan.

Question 6

soliloquy

Answer 6

An actor alone on stage speaking their thoughts w.o. adressing anyone. = to involve the audience in a characters thoughts.

If other characters are on stage and this happens, it’s called an ‘aside’

Question 7

Marlowe and Jonson

Answer 7

late 1500’s. Contemporary with Shakespeare.

Marlowe: one of the university wits. Best known play: Doctor Faustus. His main theme was always power. Elizabethan.

Question 8

The Puritans

Answer 8

During the Puritan era (1620’s), theatres closed down because the Puritans saw theatre as immoral and brutal.

Question 9

Restoration Drama

Answer 9

Late 1600’s early 1700’s. The comeback of drama after the Puritans. The audience was now mainly upper-class.

New tragicomic genre. Love was often the main subject.

John Dryden was the biggest playwright of this time.