Elizabethan Theatre Flashcards
The Renaissance in England began when?
During the reign of Henry VII, ended with Purtian take over.
The English Renaissance is also referred to as?
Elizabethan Period
What is an interlude?
Brief dramatic entertainments presented at court and in the homes of nobility.
Morality plays became?
More secular and were influenced by Italian Renaissance humanism.
English school dramas were becoming popular…
Written at universities rather than for public, first established by Queen Elizabeth 1 for court entertainment, used Blackfriars for their productions.
Elizabethan playwrights followed?
Structure of the medieval episodic form.
Elizabethan Drama
1) Did not follow unities of time, place, and action.
2) Used many characters, and many scene changes ranging through time place to place.
3) Parallel plots or subplots relate to the main action.
4) Presented violence on stage and often supernatural characters.
5) The soliloquy was popular.
6) Mixed comic and serious scenes,
7) Stage adapted for this type of show.
8) Often used dramas, literary pieces, and history.
Was 1st significant playwright to emerge in the Elizabethan period.
Christopher Marlowe
Focused on the dramatic poetry element of playwriting.
Christopher Marlowe
Describe Iambic pentameter.
Has five beats to a line, has two syllables per beat with the accent on the second beat, developed great lyric beauty.
Was highly educated, earning both bachelors and a master degree.
Christopher Marlowe
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon an was educated only up to age 13.
William Shakespeare
Married Anne Hathaway and has 3 children.
William Shakespeare
By the 1950’s he was in London working as playwright an actor.
William Shakespeare
Lord Chamberlain’s Men
William Shakespeare
Although primarily a playwright, he did small but important roles such as the ghost.
William Shakespeare
What are some of the aspects Shakspeare included in his work?
1) Skillfully alternates scenes so that each episode illuminates or forms a counterpoint.
2) He uses subplots to reinforce major themes that are equally effective.
3) Created a fascinating collection of characters, both principle and supporting.
4) The language was phenomenal.
5) Works were not published until after his death, seven years after his death.
What did many believe the forerunner for Elizabethan public theatres?
Bearbaiting rings or inns adapted for performance.
Theatres were forced to build outside the city limits because?
City officials opposed theatre on moral grounds and forbade in the city.
Galleries consisted of 3 levels.
1) 1st level reserved for the upper classes and nobility.
2) The other galleries were undivided and had bench seating.
3) Lower class spectators that stood in the yard were called groundlings.
4) Food and drink were sold throughout.
Describe the Elizabethan stage
1) Raised platform
2) Trapdoors
3) Behind the raised stage was the tiring house.
4) Facade of the tiring house was the basic scenic elements in theatre.
A three-story building that served as a place for costume changes and storing props.
Tiring House
Tiring house 1st Level
The inner below which had doors for entrances and exits and probably a space used for reveals called the inner below.
Tiring house 2nd Level
The inner above which had playing space with windows called the inner above.
