The Renaissance Theater Flashcards
What types of plays did the worker guilds dramatize?
History
Creation to the day of Judgment
Where is it thought that playwriting and performing originated?
The Resurrection Plays performed at Easter Eve services
What are the 4 parts that have been saved of the worker guild’s plays called?
York, Chester, Coventry, Wakefield
After a while, plays focused less on what?
More on what?
Less on RELIGION
More on COMEDY…dues ex machina (PLOT RESOLVER)
Example of mixing comedy and seriousness?
Noah’s wife kicking and screaming as carried on ark
Most notable play of the period?
Just before Renaissance: “Everyman” Dutch orig.
Before Renaissance play types:
Miracles and mystery (Bible stories/legends)
Moralities (live and die)
Interlude (1 act, similar to moralities)
PLAYWRIGHTS STOPPED BEING ANONYMOUS
Who built 1st Public theater?
What was it called?
When was it built?
Where?
James Burbage
The Theater
1576
Northern suburb of London
Where were most theaters built?
European capitals
What was the most famous Public theater
The Globe
Who owned the Globe?
Shakespeare’s company
When was the Theater torn down?
1599
The Globe was built out of _________
The timbers from the Theater
What did the Globe look like?
Plans didn’t survive so we only know of exterior in London drawings
Stage directions are clues to interior
Accurate drawing of Globe?
C. Walter Hodges
Parts of the Globe?
What does the flag symbolize?
The building proper
The stage
The tiring house/ backstage
Flag=performance for the day
What happened to the Globe?
Burned down in 1613
In Henry V, what did Shakespeare refer to the Globe as?
The Wooden O (building proper…16 sides)
Cost?
Spectators in yard paid less in comparison to patrons in galleries
Total audience?
3000 …so closed during epidemic
Why did the stage jut out?
Close contact with audience
Ceiling=
Floor=
Heavens
Hell
What was the tiring house?
Tall building consisting of machinery, and dressing rooms
The gallery?
Area above (spectators sat, musicians performed, actions acted)
The curtained area?
Area below….”discoveries” in and out objects represent inside vs outside
What was Gerald Bentley’s statement on Renaissance drama?
“A drama of persons, not a drama of places.”
Renaissance theaters could not show reality. What was used to show night? A forest?
Lanterns
Small bushes
Hear scene or See scene?
Hear!
Describe interior of theaters
Painted brightly
Colored tapestries
Describe costumes
Elaborate and expensive
How did they make seemingly more actors
Costume changes
What types of processions?
Military
Religion
Royal
Instrumental and vocal music accompanied_____
Tragedy and comedy
Location of musicians?
Gallery
What signaled entrance and dismissal?
Trumpets
Why songs?
Establish mood
Advance action
Fresh and spontaneous
Where is Shakespeare’s original music?
LOST
Where else did acting companies perform?
Great halls of castle/manor houses
Indoor, covered theaters in London
Entertainment?
Bear being attacked by dogs
The Blackfriars?
Misused monastery fully covered
Pros of the Blackfriars?
Could perform at night and during cold
Year round performances
Shakespeare’s life span
1564-1616
What are Shakespeare’s personal views?
We don’t know
He left nothing in writing…only plays(characters/emotions)
When did Shakespeare write earliest plays?
Early 1590s
Late 1590s plays of Shakespeare:
(Near end of Elizabeth I reign)
England during War of Roses
The tragic period?
1600-07
Plays of evil, violence, and death
Depressed Shakespeare perhaps?
Possibly happened in 1607?
Shakespeare’s possible brother died
Retired when and where?
Stratford in 1610
What was special about the play Henry VII?
Last play
Tardy tribute to Queen Elizabeth.(died in 03)
What happened to the Globe?
1613: burned to ground by cannon in play
What did John Dryden say about Shakespere?
“A great genius whose lofty imagination is matched by his sympathy for all kinds of human behavior.”
Enterprising publishers?
Would do anything to get hands on plays but didn’t publish for fear of being used by competitors
When was Shakespeare’s “first folio”published?
1623
Renaissance time period
1500-1660
Protagonist?
Hamlet
Foils to Hamlet
Laertes
Fortinbras
Antagonist
Claudius
What type of tragedy
Revenge tragedy
Setting of Hamlet
Elsinore Castle in eastern Denmark
Hamlet was first recorded as _______
Shakespeare never wrote completely original
Danish revenge story by saxo grammat in 1100s
Roman Catholic or Humanist
Humanist
Tragedy explained
Main characters=unhappy end
Catharsis
Aristotle…emotional release experienced by audience
Tragic flaw
Trait that leads to downfall of character
Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Tragic hero
Noble birth
Typically male
Error in judgement (7 deadly sins)
Principle foils
Acts differently than hero
Normative characters
Present throughout
Female
Typ. Polar
Involved, affected, but not destroyed
Generic characters
Nameless but important (gaps)
Fool character
Provide humor and are directly related
May be obvious or subtle
Supernatural character
Catalyst to what will happen
Representing guilt/conflict
Affect audience
Normative character?
Horatio
Present throughout, doesn’t die