History of Theatre Quiz 3

Capa y espada

"cape and sword" Full length Spanish Comedia play that revolved around intrigue and duels over honor. The name came from the outfits worn by the minor nobility which the plays featured! Also gives off a daredevil/romantic feel.

Confrerie de la Passion

'Confraternity of the Passion' was an organization in France that produced religious plays.

Sor Juana de la Cruz

Female playwright of the Spanish Golden Age. She was born a nun in Mexico. She wrote The Trials of a Noble House and Love the Greater Labyrinth. These secular dramas were probably produced at the palaces of governmental offices.

Corpus Christi

Festival where Spanish religious plays were performed in late May or early June aprox. 2 months after Easter which celebrates the power of sacraments. The plays performed in these festivals were known as autos sacramentales.

Michel Baron

Finest French tragic actor of the seventeenth century. Molier saw his perform in a children's company and took him into his home and trained him for his own company-But Molier's wife didn't like Michel so he ran back home.

Comedie Francaise

Founded by Louis XIV in 1680, housed the French national theatre. Another converted tennis court that had a horseshoe-shape construction.

Academie Francaise

Funded by Richelieu to foster an Italian neoclassical standard in the arts in France. In which intellectuals organized a literary group that gathered here after 1636. And still exisists today.

Alexandre Hardy

Generally considered to be the first professional French playwright in public theatres at the end of the sixteenth century. Wrote several hundred plays of which thirty survive. He used neoclassical devices such as messengers, the five-act structure, supernational characters, showing all action (even if it was violent!), but paid little attention to the three unities

Salle des Machines

Hall of Machines. Completed in 1660. Largest theatre in Europe. 52w x 232l 142feet of Machinery. Entire royal family and all attendants (over 100 people) could be flown into the space above the stage. Used until 1670 when it was not longer used for theatre.

Moliere

His father was the offical royal court upholsterer. Known for his comedies. Went into debt->banished. His company toured provinces. Tartuffe was apposed by the Church for attacking religion. He died almost on stage... was buried on consecrated grounds in the cemetery next to the cathedral in the night.

Doyens

In the Comedie Francaise, the head of the company and the actor with the longest service.

Comedias, comedias nuevas

In the Spanish Golden Age, a three-act full-length nonreligious play. They were called this whether they were serious, comic, or a mixture of the two. Usually dealt with themes of love and honor, and focused mainly on noblemen.

Companias de partes

In the Spanish Golden Age, acting troupes organized according to the sharing system.

Gradas

In the Spanish Golden Age, benches placed along the side walls of he patio or pit area in a corral.

Entremeses

In the Spanish Golden Age, interludes during the intermissions of comedies; these could be comic sketches, songs, or dances.

Carros

In the Spanish Golden Age, pageant wagons on which autos sacramentales were staged. Starting off with one, but then added more wagons in order to accommodate changing rooms and a platform stage. Since the productions were financed by the local government they were built and stored in city workshops.

Mosqueteros

Literally "mosquitos": in the Spanish Golden Age, the noisy groundlings in the corrales.

Illustre Theatre

Moliere's acting troupe.

Bejart

Moliere's wife, she was much younger than him and very flirtatious. Her older sister Madeleine was rumored to be Molieres lover before her and there is speculation that she could be the love child of that relationship. She did not like Michel Baron despite her husbands patronage of him. She was the leading actress in Molieres group in it's later years, and after the death of Moliere she took over his company and eventually joined the Comedie Francaise.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Most popular seventeenth century Spanish Golden Age playwright after Lope de Vega. Many of his plays are about love and honor, some have violent family situations. Most famous play is Life Is a Dream. He also wrote autos sacramentales/religious plays. Many of his plays were translated into French before English. Influenced French Neoclassicalists, English Restorationists, and German Romantics. His first choice of career was the priesthood, but he entered the government service, then began to write plays for the court. He took a short break to fight in the army then went back to writing court dramas until his death in 1681

Pleiade

Named afer the 7 Sisters constellation. This literary group was formed in 1500 Paris to further writing and culture in France. They produced plays taht were based on the neoclassical model and subsequently were not very original and were produced for the upper-class, scholaraly audience.

Decorum

Neoclassical rule, developed in the Italian Renaissance, that dramatic characters must behave in set ways based on their social class and background.

Corrales

Public theatres were nonreligious plays of the Spanish Golden Age were staged. Constructed in pre-existing courtyards; they were open-air spaces. Performances started at 2 pm.

Pasos

Short comedic pieces that were entertaining sketches that drew on events in daily life. They were written in prose and the plots featured earthy humor and colloquial speech. They poked fun at the manners of the period and were used as humorous interludes between longer pieces.

Lope de Rueda

An important actor, manager, and playwright during the sixteenth century in Spain. He performed, wrote, and directed many religious plays before moving to secular plays. He wrote five full-length plays, and a handfull of comic plays including The Olives.

Hotel de Bourgogne

Completed in 1548. Constructd by confraternity of the passion. 1550-1650 first and sole permanent indoor theatre in Paris. NOT a proscenium-arch theatre.

Pensionnaires

Contracted performers in minor roles with in a French acting troupe.

Palais Cardinal

Erected by Richelieu renamed Palais Royale after his death. First proscenium theatre in France. Fully Italian scene shifting machinery (pole-and-chariot).

Autos sacramentales

In the Spanish Golden Age, religious dramas combining characteristics of mystery and morality plays. Produced inside churches. Meaning: One act religious (sacraments). Supernatural, human, and allegorical characters. Troupes would perform at Corpus Christi and public theaters.

Cazuela/ "Stew Pot"

In the Spanish Golden Age, the gallery located above the tavern in the back wall of a theatre; the area in which women were segregated. It had its own separate entrance and was carefully guarded to prevent men from sneaking in.

Zarzuela

In the Spanish golden age, a court entertainment; usually, a short, stylized musical drama based on mythology and with ornate scenic effects, influenced by Italian opera and intermezzi. ONe of the most famous of these was Celos Aun del Aire Matan. The Italian queen of Fernando VII brought opera to the Spanish court.

Ballets d'entrees

In the decade between 1650-1660, a form of ballet became popular at the court of Louis XIV. It was similar to the masques of Enland, the ballets were not complicated so that even the king could participate. The name comes from a term reffering to the "entries" of which the pieces consisted.

Neoclassical ideal

Interested in rediscovering the classics of Greece and Rome and creating rules to imitate them. Focused on ideas of Verisimilitude, Decorum, Purity of Genres (i.e. Comedy and Tragedy do not mix), Five act Forum, Teach and Please, and the Unities of time, place, and action.

Lope de Vega

One of the most prolific dramatists of all time said to have written over 1,500 plays. Has a distintive episodic form, have many scenes, and large casts, range widely over time and space. Had one aim: to please the audience. He wrote a treatise "The New Art of Playwrighting" in which he claimed his eposodic style.

Societaires

Shareholder. Would be the head of the acting company. 20 year tenure + pension. Women could do this. Had to provide own costumes.

Richelieu

The power behind the throne of Louis XIII. He advanced Italian culture in France by being behind the building of the French Acadamey which adhered strictly to neoclassical ideals, and the Palais Cardinal. He took the power away from the nobles and put it in the hands of the monarch.

Indoor tennis courts

Theatre de Marais (1634) was the first of these. Long narrow buildings with seating on the sides

Pierre Corneille

This French writer was the son of a wealthy lawer. Following his father's suit he became a lawyer and wrote the comedy "Melite" in his spare time. He caught the attention of Richelieu who inducted him into the Society of the Five Authored, and commissioned him to write plays for the carinals entertainment. Although he was popular for his comedies his tragedy "The Cid" The play was a huge success, but was attacked by critics for having violated the neoclassical rules. According to the powers that be it observed the unity of time, but crammed too much action into the 24 hour period. They argued that it also mixed tragedy and drama because there was a happy ending. And lastly it broke the rules of decorum when Chimene agrees to marry her father's murder. Richelieu asked the French Acadamey to end the debate, and they said that he should have adhered more closely to neoclassical ideals. This stung the author and he did not write plays for many years-when he did begin writing again in 1640 his plays strictly adhered to neoclassical principles.

Jean Rachine

This tragic playwrigtht followed Corneille. Created extreme dramatic tension through concentration, charcterization, and by compression dramatic action. His strict belief in neoclassical ideals came from his upbringing and his study of law and literature in Paris. Phedre which was a failure when it opened but has become hi most famous play.

Verisimilitued

Verisimilitude A term that was important to neoclassicists that meant that all drama was meant to be "true to life."

Phadre

Written by Jean Racine in 1677. The play was a flop when it opened but is now one of the most famous of all French tragedies. It is based on Euripides' Hippolytus. The heroine-and title character-who si the second wife of King Theseus falls in love with her step son Hippolytus. All of the events of the play occur in one place (outside a room in Theseus' palace) and cover only a few hours, and the action is unified to the heroine's love for Hippolytus. Having heard that her husban has died, she confesses her love to Hippolytus. He reacts with disgust, and shortly after she finds out that her husband has infact not been killed. Not wanting her husband to find out, she has her maid spread a rumor that it was Hippolytus who confessed his love to her-and Thesus has his son killed. Greif stricken, she confesses and poisons herself.

"New Art of Writing Plays..."

Written by Lope de Vega. His aim was to please his audience. In this treatise he also defnded his eposodic style, and popularized the three-act verse comedia.

The Cid

Written by Pierre Cornille. Based on Castro's Guillen. Follows the drama of Rodrigue and Chimene who are in love but are separated because of a quarrel between their fathers. The action takes place in Seville. Rodrigue must challenge Chimene's father to a duel to protect his father's honor. He ends up killing him. Now Chimene must seek revenege against the man that she loves, she comissions someone to fight him, and thinking that he has been killed she declairs her love for Rodrigue. She finds out that he ist still alive and the king prompts them to marry. The play was a huge success, but was attacked by critics for having violated the neoclassical rules. According to the powers that be it observed the unity of time, but crammed too much action into the 24 hour period. They argued that it also mixed tragedy and drama because there was a happy ending. And lastly it broke the rules of decorum when Chimene agrees to marry her father's murder. Corneille vigorously disagreed.

Jean Chapelain

Wrote his opinion of Cornellie's The Cid for the French Acadamey that claimed that certain aspects of the play should have adhered more closely to neoclassical ideals.