Exm 4 Flashcards
Where the audience members stood
Pit
Seating for upper class
Boxes
Upper tiers with open seating
Galleries
Method of scene shifting. (On and off stage)
Groove system
Newer, innovative scene changing system
Pole-and-chariot
What place was the center of activity?
Italy
What was the Italian renaissance period?
A period of exploration and invention. Are treated subjects as human beings, rather than religious subjects 
Short pieces, depicting, mythological tails. Presented between the acts of bowling place. Often required spectacular scenic affects.
Intermezzi
Short, ribald comic pieces. Subject matter is romance. Characters are Shepherd and mythological creatures.
Pastoral
How was commedia dell arte performed?
With no set text. Invented words and actions as they went along. (Just a scenario and improv)
Harlequins prop
Slap stick
Italian critics formulated dramatic rules
Neoclassical ideas
Drama should be “true to life” (plausible)
Verisimilitude
Three unities of neoclassical ideals.
- Unity of time
- Unity if place
- Unity of action
What is violence forbidden in neoclassical ideals?
Yes
The chorus and supernatural characters were acceptable 
False
Opposed to the soliloquy (long monologue)
True
The oldest surviving theatre built during the renaissance
Teatro olimpico in Vicenza
Who were intrigued by language
The english
The two primary playwrights during the Elizabethan period
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare
Who created the “mighty line”
Christopher Marlowe
Who perfected dramatic poetry?
Marlowe
Doctor Faustus, Tamburlaine, Edward II
Marlowes works
▪ Senecan dramatic devices
▪ Platform stage
▪ Powerful dramatic verse
▪ Source material from English history, Roman history and
drama, and Italian literature
▪ Episodic plot structure with roots in medieval theatre
Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Othello
Macbeth
King Lear
Shakespeares tragedies
The Comedy of Errors
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
Shakespeares comedies
Richard III
Henry IV
Henry V
Shakespeares history
Who wrote the Spanish tragedy?
Thomas kyd
Who wrote valpone, the alchemist
Ben Johnson
Who wrote trick to catch the old one?
John middleton
Private theatres
Indoor space is, lit by candles in high windows. Open to general public but smaller, and therefore more expensive.
Blackfriars
Private
The theatre
(Later the globe)
The rose
Public
The swan
Public
Globe
Public (Shakespeare)
Rarely used painted scenery. The stage space did not represent a specific locale. Required rapid scene changes. Most costumes were simply contemporary clothing, reflective of social classes been depicted. If needed, they would ask people for certain costumes
The scenery and costumes in Elizabethan period 
included Philip Henslowe
(manager); Edward Alleyn (tragic actor); Christopher
Marlowe (playwright)
They generally resided in the Rose
Lord Admirals men
under rule of Queen
Elizabeth and later known as King’s Men
when King James I took the thrown.
-Shakespeare was a member
-performed in the Theatre at first and later the Globe
Lord Chamberlins men
companies made up entirely
of boys.
It was unique then and would be today.
Boys company
elite members of the company;
received a percentage of the troupe’s profits as payment
Shareholders
actors contracted for a specific period of time and salary
Hirelings
young performers training for the profession; were assigned to shareholders
Apprentices
mocked contemporary types and
behaviors (Ben Johnson-Valpone)
Satiric comedy
mild comedy of love and it’s follies (Shakespeare – As You Like It)
Romantic comedy
London audience mirror of itself (Thomas Dekker – Shoemaker Holiday)
City comedy
tragedy of the average citizen
(Arden of Fevershan -anonymous)
Domestic tragedy
gaining revenge over one’s evil doer
(Thomas Kyd – Spanish tragedy)
Revenge tragedy
had great vigor and focused on
Renaissance problem of aggressive individual behavior
with the Christian precept. Make the individual a villain
at some time a heroic figure. (Macbeth – Shakespeare)
Villain tragedy
showed English history usually in a
favorable light (Shakespeare – Richard III)
History plays
The theatre after Elizabeth’s reign
Jacobean period
Masques
▪ Featured at the court and not found in public or
private theatres ▪ They were mythological allegories intended to
praise the monarch
Jacobean period
Both religious and secular forms of theater flourish during the inquisition
In the Spanish golden age
Who adopted the techniques of medieval religious drama, and continue to produce religious drama throughout their era and beyond
Spain
Full length, secular place that usually dealt with love and honor
Comedias
Given credit for writing 1800 plays in several hundred shorter dramatic pieces
Lope de Vega
Who hired a young play writers and takes their credit
Vega
The writer of the sheep’s well
Lope de Vega
Who wrote life is a dream
Calderon de la Barca
The theaters in Spain
The corrales
▪ Where nonreligious plays by writers like Lope de Vega and Calderón were staged
▪ Constructed in existing courtyards
▪ Open-air spaces with galleries and boxes
protected by a roof
The corrales
compañías de parte
sharing companies, like those of
Elizabethan England
▪ Acting troupes consisted of 16 to 20 performers
▪ Included women (although the church did not support this
Spanish acting companies
French Renaissance theater didn’t peak until
The 17th century
Why did France get into theatre late compared to other European countries
Due to a religious Civil War, taking place in France between Catholics and Protestants
French renaissance flourished under who
Louis XIV (14)
Most important 17th-century French dramatists were
▪ Molière, noted for his comedies
▪ Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine, both known for tragedy
Who were the first European after the Romans to construct permanent theater buildings?
The french
The first permanent theater name
Hôtel de Bourgogne, completed in 1548
Perspective painting
Italy started it, French use it, Spanish, sorta use it, English do not use it 
Theater production in France
Acting companies were organized under a sharing plan, and had women members who could become shareholders
