Worksheet 8 Flashcards
de’ Medici family
Prosperous and powerful Italian Family that financed the artists and scientists of the Renaissance (commissioned and employed Michelangelo, Donatello, Galileo)
The foundations of modern theatre are…
Commercial theatre
Theatre spaces which were completely redesigned
Use of women
Verisimilitude
Appearing to be truthful, truth seeming
Types of productions are
Commedia erudita Tragicomedy Intermezzi Commedia dell' arte Drama in Musica
What is drama in musica?
It evolved out of the intermezzi and Greek tragedy, an attempt to recreate the link between speech and music as was done in Greek tragedy. evolved into opera
What is tragicomedy?
Ends happily but raises complex questions
Sends conflicting messages because of both elements comedy and tragedy
What is commedia dell’ arte?
Improvised performance within a rehearsal framework
Example: whose line is it anyway
What are the 3 categories of characters?
Lovers
Masters
Servants
What are lovers?
Most realistic
Young and handsome, did not wear masks
Were usually dressed in the latest fashions
Children of the master characters
What are masters?
Hypocrites
Pantalone: carries a purse, bent over to protect it
Dirty old men
Dottore: coward but tried to hide behind his power
Capitano: arrogant, inside timid, pretend to be more powerful then he actually is
What are servants?
Also called zanni
Lowest of the social class,
most known was Harlequin
crafty, stupid, witty
What is lazzi?
Comic business
What are 3 types of lazzi?
Fight
Fear
Sack
What is fight lazzi?
2 servants who are threatening to fight each other, master tries to stop but gets beat up
What is fear lazzi?
Characters who are scared
What is sack lazzi?
Hide in a sack
Clear design of actor area
Actors stayed on stage and audience stayed on the floor
The two did not mix
Clear design of audience areas
Box seats: (sky box) well to do sat here, expensive seating
Pit: cheaper seats down in front
Galleries: least expensive, nose bleed
Development of the proscenium stage
Developed to frame the stage picture
Government controlled
plays had to be approved to be produced
Cardinal Richelieu
chief minister of France, set up the French academy
The unities of the French Renaissance was
Time: has to take place within 24 hours
Place: one location
Action: had to have only one plot, one storyline
Poetic justice
Punish the wicked
Reward the good
The French Renaissance comic playwrite
Moliere: wrote 12 syllables per line, two lines that rhyme at a time
Incorporated a voice of reasoning
Influenced by plays called slap sticky
Allowed women on stage
Mousetrap effect
a character incriminates himself
