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Theatre History: Renaissance (England)

Theatre History: Renaissance (England). ADA4M February 1, 2013. About the Times. 1567-1642 Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabethan drama), then King James I (Jacobean drama). Context. Drama becomes professional and widely popularized, no longer confined to religious matters

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Theatre History: Renaissance (England)

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  1. Theatre History:Renaissance (England) ADA4M February 1, 2013

  2. About the Times • 1567-1642 • Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabethan drama), then King James I (Jacobean drama)

  3. Context • Drama becomes professional and widely popularized, no longer confined to religious matters • Kings, queens, and commoners attending the same plays at the same time • Frequent disruptions to theatre life due to plague • Three main genres: tragedy, comedy, history • Theatre associated with bear- baiting, “orange wenches” (prostitutes), and general disorder, yet still immensely popular

  4. Context • Most popular theatre located across the river from the city of London (in Southwark, now part of London)

  5. Timeline • 1558: Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England • 1567: The Red Lion opens. Unsuccessful. • 1572: Theatres closed due to plague fears. • 1575: All players banned from London • 1576: The Theatre opens • 1577-1595: More theatre (The Rose, The Swan) • 1599: The Globe opens (Shakespeare’s theatre) • 1603: Elizabeth dies, James I becomes King of England • 1642: Puritans close theatres. They stay closed for 18 years.

  6. Anonymous • Watch for: the contrast between crowds and courts, the general sense of what London was like back then

  7. Elizabethan Shakespeare • Queen Elizabeth was an enormous supporter of theatre, and especially of Shakespeare • Clever dialogue, romance, comedies, exotic locations (often magical forests) • Many plots about “cuckolded” husbands • The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and more!

  8. Jacobean Shakespeare • Darker tones, heavier themes • Fallen heroes and more deliberate villains • Although popular with varied crowds, the aim was always to please the monarch, who had ultimate rule over what was allowed • Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest

  9. The Players All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts (As You Like It) • Only men acted; boys were chosen to play ladies (hence the large number of plays focusing on gender swaps: boy playing girl disguised as boy!) • Belonged to companies (e.g. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men) financed by wealthy patrons • Actors were typically cast in roles and would play similar parts in each play • Richard Burbage: one of the most famous actors, played Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth

  10. The Players • Costumes were elaborate, but always fit the current times and fashions, not those in which the play was set

  11. The Audience • Groundlings standing, upper classes seated • Audience could come and go as they pleased • Cheered for good characters, booed and hissed at bad ones, threw rotten vegetables, etc. • Often interplay between actors and audience

  12. Shakespeare in Love • Watch for: actors and stage • Do you think a situation like this could have really happened?

  13. The Theatres • Indoor theatres (e.g. Blackfriars) were too expensive for the poor: we will focus on the theatres of Southwark • The Rose (pictured) • The Swan • The Globe • Problem: often burned • down!

  14. Plays limited by light • “Groundlings” in the “pit” for a penny • Upper classes in the galleries • Minimal staging

  15. Excerpts from prologue to Henry V O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! But pardon, and gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object: can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? … let us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high upreared and abutting fronts The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder: Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; Think when we talk of horses, that you see them … For ’tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings

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