theatre appreciation: chapter 13

patio

Primarily that area of the theatre for standing in front of a stage.

True or False: Critics were more influential than playwrights in formulating dramatic rules during the Italian Renaissance.

True

True or False: English acting companies would rarely perform the same play on two consecutive days.

True

apprentices

Young performers training for the profession. They were assigned to shareholders.

The year-long festival put on by the Chicago Shakespeare theatre to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death included what?

leading chefs and restaurants art exhibitions operas ballets

Elizabethan company rehearsals were run by?

playwrights leading actors

The scene-shifting method of changing wings and back shutters that was developed by Italian Giacomo Torelli is known as the what?

pole-and-chariot system

The box, pit, and gallery theatre, in combination with what innovation, became the standard theatre space in the Western world for the next 300 years.

proscenium arch

The public theatres of Elizabethan London were made up of some of what parts?

tiring house yard for the lower class audience members musician's gallery

Spanish Golden Age

- 1550~1650 - Spain became a leading world power (bc of exploration + conquest of New World) - remained devoutly Catholic nation in face of Protestant Reformation - church instituted Inquisition (court that punished any seeming religious heresy) - popular theatre flourished; incorporated religious + popular secular forms

Lope de Vega

- 1562-1635 - born within year of Shakespeare - remarkable Spanish playwright, one of most prolific dramatists of all time - rumored to have written 1500 plays (800 more likely); 470 survive - best-known: The Sheep Well (c. 1614)

Spanish acting companies

- 16~20 performers - included women, unlike Elizabethan - church didn't support use of women = gov imposed stringent restrictions on women in theatre - ^^: only married/related could be employed in a troupe - most: compañías de partes (sharing companies) - some organized by manager who contracted performers for specific period of time

renaissance background

- European politics changed during - rise: kings, princes - key economic figures: merchants - wealth = leisure time, display fortune = hired artists to create lavish works - renaissance art diff from medieval art - middle ages: painting + sculpture = religious subjects - renaissance: subjects = human beings we can identify with, realistic w/ oils + perspective - exploration + invention period - NA + SA discoveries --> wealth in Europe - scientific advances revolutionized Western ideas abt humanity's position in universe - remarkable developments esp. in Italy, England, Spain, France

Italian Renaissance scientists

- Leonardo (also an artist) - Galileio - made discoveries that supported humanism

Spanish playwrights

- Lope de Vega - Calderón de la Barca

Commedia stock characters

- PANTALONE: lecherous, miserly old Venetian man - DOTTORE: foolish scholar - CAPITANO: cowardly, braggart soldier - zanni: comic male servants (ARLECCHINO aka HARLEQUIN most popular) - all used standard lazzi

Shakespeare's histories

- Richard III (1592-1593) - Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (1597-1598) - Henry V (1599)

Shakespeare's tragedies

- Romeo and Juliet (1595) - Julius Caesar (1599) - Hamlet (1601) - Othello (1604) - Macbeth (1605-1606) - King Lear (1605-1606)

Globe Theatre

- Shakespeare's plays produced here - burned in 1613

Shakespeare's comedies

- The Comedy of Errors (1592) - A Midsummer's Night Dream (1595) - As You Like It (1599) - Twelfth Night (1601)

Elizabethan acting companies

- about 25 members - organized on sharing plan - 3 categories in company: shareholders, hirelings, apprentices - no female performers; all roles played by men, even women's - doubling of roles common

Spanish plays

- close to Elizabethan drama in dramatic form - closer in subject matter to swashbuckling films of 1940s, romance novels, and tv soap operas - full-length plays - also developed popular, short, farcical forms

William Shakespeare

- expert in many aspects of theatre - actor + member of Lord Chamberlain's Men (dramatic company, London's leading troupe) - excelled in several genres (incl. tragedy, comedy, history) - had collabs - Marlow credited in the New Oxford Shakespeare w/ coauthoring the three Henry VI plays - verse extraordinary (powerful metaphors, music of language) - charas well-rounded, carefully detailed like living ppl - master of plot construction - retired to Stratford, became one of its leading citizens - often battled w/ bearbaiting & cockfighting for London's audiences - called "playwright of the ages"

Elizabethan theatre

- extensive, episodic - no painted scenery - stage space didn't represent specific locale - scenes changed rapidly, actor bring out minimal properties to indicate - costuming: followed conventions + traditions of medieval English theatre, temp. clothing, reflective of social classes - exhibit historical + geographical variety - - not overly concerned w/ accuracy

Italian Renaissance

- first center of cultural activity: Italy - then Italy: not unified nation, group of indiv. city-states - art flourished: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo - innovative painting techniques introduced (ex: perspective) - not distinguished for its written drama - originated commedia dell'arte

secular drama

- flourished 1550~1700 - developed in Spain w/ religious drama, created by same artists - full-length: comedias

written drama of Italian Renaissance

- most modeled after Greek + Roman plays - presented at academies, homes of wealthy patrons - mostly didn't leave a mark

English Renaissance

- often called Elizabethan period; Elizabeth I major political figure - explorations abroad - language + literature flourished - at the heart: theatre

Calderón de la Barca

- one of major Spanish playwrights - most famous: Life Is a Dream (c. 1636)

verisimilitude

- overriding concern of neoclassicists - ^^ not the realism found in modern drama

neoclassicists

- overriding concern: verisimilitude - insisted these dramas be recognizable + verifiable from real life - permitted stock dramatic situations + stock characters - another concern: insistence on three unities (grew out of desire for verisim.)

Commedia performers

- played same stock characters throughout career

Commedia companies

- usually 10 performers (7 men, 3 women) - traveling troupes - most successful: organized by families - adaptable; perform in town squares, theatre spaces, home of wealthy merchants, court

Commedia costumes

- wore traditional costumes (Harl.'s patchwork jacket, Dott.'s academic robes) - addition to Harl.'s costume: slapstick - masks: cover part of face, significant element - young lovers didn't wear masks

The pit was...?

... a raucous area where people ate, talked, and jostled about.

In part, the renaissance in theatre achieved its zenith in France after Italy, England, and Spain because...?

... of religious civil war.

Scene design in Elizabethan theatre did not...?

... represent specific locations. ... use painted scenery.

In the discussion about Hamlet, we learn that Shakespeare not only wrote the play, he also...?

... wrote it for Richard Burbage who was considered the finest actor in England. ... acts in the play, appearing as the ghost of Hamlet's father.

cazuela

A gallery for unaccompanied women with a separate entrance.

slapstick

A type of comedy or comic business that relies on exaggerated or ludicrous physical activity for its humor. - back then: addition to Harlequin's costume, wooden sword used in comic fight scenes

hirelings

Actors contracted for a specific period of time and for a specific salary. They usually played minor roles.

commedia dell'arte

An Italian Renaissance form of popular theatre that was highly improvisational, used stock characters, masks, and was staged by traveling professional performers. - flourished in Italy: 1550~1750 - no set text; invented words + actions - scenarios written by company members

Moliere

French comic writer who was greatly influenced by commedia dell'arte and authored Tartuffe.

Jean Racine

French writer of tragedies; author of Phaedra.

comedias

Full-length (three-act) nonreligious plays of the Spanish Golden Age. - themes of love + honor - leading characters: minor members of nobility - extensive, episodic - mix serious + comic subject matter - similar to modern melodrama

One of the newest and finest playhouses serving London, the ______________ Theatre was the home of the great actor Richard Burbage and playwright William Shakespeare.

Globe

What theatre organized a tour of Hamlet to mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth that was scheduled to tour every country in the world?

Globe Theatre

The period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries during which there was a rebirth of learning and an awakening of the arts in Europe.

Renaissance

Improvisations are used by what theatre group to create sketches that then become set scenarios to those used in Commedia dell'arte?

Second City

Ben Jonson

Shakespeare's contemporary who championed a more literary approach to drama.

intermezzi

Short pieces depicting mythological tales. - developed in renaissance - influenced by classical subject matter + dramatic techniques - presented btwn full-length plays, thematically related to them - often req. spectacular scenic effects - popular in 1500s, disappeared in 1600s

scenarios

Short plot outlines without dialogue.

The picture of the raised horseshoe seating is the ______________, the first theatre with a proscenium arch.

Teatro Farnese

unities

Term referring to the preference that a play's plot occur within one day (unity of time), in one place (unity of place), and with no action irrelevant to the plot (unity of action). - Aristotle only suggested unity of action

One of the reasons the government and church officials allowed public theatres to stage performances in Madrid is because?

The audience had to pay a charity fee to support the city hospital.

shareholders

The elite members of the company. They received a percentage of the troupe's profits as payment.

humanism

The major in Renaissance literature. Imitated the Greeks and Romans and focused on human beings rather than the gods. - made available by printing press in Europe (appeared 1450s)

alojeria

The refreshment box inside the theatre.

tiring house

The stage house in the Elizabethan theatre used fr scenic background, changing costumes, and storing properties and scenic pieces. - 1st lvl: 2 doorways, one each side (entrances + exits thru these indicated scene changes)

corrales

The theatres of the Spanish Golden Age, usually located in the courtyard of a series of adjoining buildings. - public theatres - nonreligious plays staged here

What happened to many of the actors from the Comedie-Francais during the French Revolution?

They were imprisoned.

An undivided gallery with inexpensive bleacherlike seating, during the French neoclassical theatre, was called a(n) _______________.

amphitheatre.

True or False: Jean Racine avoided the use of neoclassic rules of tragedy.

False

Who was the contemporary of William Shakespeare who took a more literary approach to drama? He wrote Volpone.

Ben Jonson

lazzi

Comic pieces of business used repeatedly by characters in Italian commedia dell'arte. - usually physical - sometimes bawdy + obscene

The theatrical troupe I Gelosi, led by Isabella and Francesco Andreini, was renowned in Renaissance Italy for what type of theatrical performance?

Commedia dell'arte

True or False: Beginning in the twentieth century, the Comedie-Francais has restricted their performances to only one theatre space.

False. The Comedie-Francais operates the Theatre du Vieux-Columbier and the Studio-Theatre in addition to their main space at the Palais Royal.

neoclassical ideals

Dramatic rules developed by Italian critics during the Italian Renaissance, supposedly based on the writings by Aristotle. - dominated dramatic theory thru much of Europe for nearly 200 yrs

private theatres

Indoor Elizabethan theatres. - lit by candles, high windows - open to general public - usually smaller, thus more expensive

French society as well as theatre was greatly influenced by the ____________ Renaissance.

Italian

Galileo

Italian astronomer that argued that the sun, not the earth, is the center of the solar system.

The design of the Palais-Royal theatre was influenced by?

Italianate scenery and scene changing technology.

Age of Discovery

Italians led w/ explorers like Columbus & Amerigo Vespucci, opening routes to the Americas.

Who were notable French playwrights of tragedy during the seventeenth-century Neoclassical era?

Jean Racine Pierre Corneille

This Italian Renaissance figure was known not only for his works of art but also for his work in science.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonor de la Cueva y Silva

One of the numerous female playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age whose works have received significant scholarly attention.

renaissance

Means "rebirth." Refers to an awakening of the arts and learning in the Western world, which occurred during the period stretching roughly from the late fourteenth through the early seventeenth century. - also prevalent later in England, Spain, France (theatre blossomed)

What French classical playwright is known for his comedies, and was also an actor and the leader of a troupe?

Moliere

Christopher Marlowe

One of the most important of the Elizabethan playwrights. - advanced art of dramatic structure - contributed gallery of interesting characters to English drama - perfected dramatic poetry - Marlow's "mighty line": power of his dramatic verse; iambic pentameter - credited in the New Oxford Shakespeare w/ coauthoring the three Henry VI plays - killed in tavern brawl at 29

What statements are associated with the Renaissance?

Perspective created the illusions of three-dimensional depth on a flat service. Artists treated their subjects as human beings rather than as religious subjects. Exploration and invention challenged accepted ideas, such as Galileo's argument that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the solar system.

pastoral (italian)

Plays that imitated Greek stayr plays -- short, ribald, comic pieces that had been presented as a follow-up to Greek tragedies. - subject matter: romance - characters: shepherds, mythological creatures - not overtly bawdy/sexual (unlike its Greek originals) - usually: lovers deal w/ threats + odds - action serious, endings happy