The Italian Renaissance (late 1300’s-1600’s )

1. The Italian Renaissance (late 1300’s-1600’s ) • Cultural center of Europe was Italy. • Renaissance means rebirth • This theme reflected renewed interest in classics and Greece and Roman culture • Advancement in all Arts, Science and learning during this time • Theatre gets closer to our modern styles • Merchants sponsored artists • System of financial support was called patronage • Topics/subjects from the religious to human activity rather than divine. • A change in philosophy called humanism.

2. Neo-classical ideas • Renaissance rules of writing drama influences drama for 200 years. • Rules came from a mistaken understanding of what was meant by the rediscovered Greek & Roman playwrights (Aristotle). • Renaissance writers created plays and copied stories and themes from the Greek and Roman plays.

3. Ideals • Renaissance philosophy demanded all characters be recognizable and verifiable from real life • Unity of time- action doesn’t over more than 24 hours of time. • Unity of place- all action takes place in one location. • Unity of action- plot has only one story line (no subplots). • This wasn’t followed universally. • Particularly and England and Spain, these ideals were ignored

4. What changed in terms of space and styles of theatre decoration? • 1. Visual arts had developed during this time, having a major effect on imagery in theatre • Illusion of depth /perspective painting. • Images were no longer flat. • Architecture, theatre building changed.

5. What was the Proscenium arch? • Proscenium arches or picture from opening around stage spaces • Oldest example is in Vicenza, Italy the Teatro Olimpico completed 3000 people stage has a permanent facade • Doorways build into wall w/deep hallways giving the illusion of deep interior spaces.

6. Permanent facades were not flexible. • Painted scenery could be shifted to reveal new sets behind them. • Painted flats/canvases allowed for changes. • 1st theater with proscenium stage was Teatro Farnes in Parma, Italy in 1618.

7. What changed when scenery was introduced? • Multiple settings behind each other for changes requires that there be more backstage space for scenery and equipment. • Renaissance stages therefore became deeper.

8. What were the standard settings in these plays? • Reuse of standard styles of settings • Tragedies (streets of a wealthy neighborhood) • Comedies (streets of a lower-class homes) • Pastoral plays (Countryside cottages)

9. What is Commedia dell’arte? • A form of improvisational theater that began during the renaissance in Italy. • Troupes of actors toured the Italian country-sides. • They performed using stock characters. • Dialogue was improvised following a basic outline but there were no script.

10. Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • Vecchio A category of aged, male characters members of this group are • Pantalone, • Il Dottore • Il Capitano. • The word means "old one" or simply "old" in Italian. • They are overwhelmingly the antagonists, opposing the love of the innamorati

11. Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • Arlechinno /Harlequin was a clever prankster

12. Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • Punchinello- was a malicious servant • Innamorato, Inamorata- Young hero/heroine • Fontesca-serving maid • Zanni- male servants • All were identified by their half masks or costumes

13. Why is this important? • The stock characters of the Commedia dell’arte influenced the archetypes used in other works. Taking Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as an example: • Nurse = Fontesca • Friar Lawrence, Balthazar, Benvolio = Zanni • Mercutio= Archelinno/Harlequin • Tybalt=Punchinello • Capulet= Vecchio- Il Pantalone • Paris= Vecchio- Il Capitano • Romeo and Juliet= Inamorati

14. What was different in Elizabethan England? • Powerful English Ruler Queen Elizabeth I • ruled for 45 years, 1558-1603 • language literature and the arts flourished due to her patronage. • Acting changed from amateur to professional status • Playwrights now had a stable experienced group of performers for whom to write more detailed and complicated plays. • Permanent theatres built • All classes could attend performances

15. What was theatre-going like in Elizabethan England? • Previous policy by church viewed all non-religious theater as evil. • City of London didn’t permit theatre buildings to be erected inside the city limits. • Theatres were then built across the Thames river in a suburb of London. • Audience members had to take ferry boats to see the play.

16. Flags flying atop a theatre • Signified a play was being given • White= comedy • Black= tragedy • Red= History

17. The Globe theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were presented • Elizabethan theatres were circular or octagonal structures of three stories with an open roof • Theater had a raised platform stage that would be surrounded by the audience on the three sides

18. It was closer to a contemporary thrust stage than a proscenium arch stage being used in Italy at the same time

19. How did plays in England differ from those in Italy at the same time in history? • No neoclassical ideals. • Dramas structured in a series of scenes. • Changes of location. • This influence the use of stage space in England . • Little use of scenery, • entrances and exits signified a change of scene • A piece of furniture suggested the location of the next scent • Characters would speak/announce the change of location called “spoken décor”

20. Noted feature of Elizabethan Drama • Use of poetry • Iambic pentameter • 2 syllables to each beat, 5 beats per line • 10 syllables in each line, stress put on the 2nd beat • Sonnets • William Shakespeare considered the most important playwright during this period

21. William Shakespeare • “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women meerely players; they have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages” -As you like it -William Shakespeare • Awareness of human nature

22. Biographical Info • b. 1564 in Stratford upon Avon to John and Mary Shakespeare 1 of 8 children. • Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway • Has three children Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. • 1587- left to go to London, • member of Lord Chamberlain's men • became a shareholder in the company • helped finance/part owner of the Globe theatre • 1613 Globe theatre burned down • Shakespeare retired to Stratford • d. 1616 @ age 52

23. What was Shakespeare’s body of work? • 154 sonnets • 38 plays ? • (There is some argument here) • Tragedies/Comedies/Histories/Fantasies • Apocrypha • Lost Plays

24. List of plays Comedies • All's Well That Ends Well • As You Like It • The Comedy of Errors • Love's Labour's Lost • Measure for Measure • The Merchant of Venice • The Merry Wives of Windsor • A Midsummer Night's Dream • Much Ado About Nothing • Pericles, Prince of Tyre • The Taming of the Shrew • The Tempest • Twelfth Night • The Two Gentlemen of Verona • The Two Noble Kinsmen • The Winter's Tale Tragedies • Romeo and Juliet • Coriolanus • Titus Andronicus • Timon of Athens • Julius Caesar • Macbeth • Hamlet • Troilus and Cressida • King Lear • Othello • Antony and Cleopatra • Cymbeline • Histories • King John,Richard II, • Henry IV part 1,Henry IV part 2, • Henry V,Henry VI part 1,Henry VI part 2,Henry VI part 3, • Richard III,Henry VIII

25. Other Works attributed to Shakespeare Poems • Shakespeare's Sonnets • Venus and Adonis • The Rape of Lucrece • The Passionate Pilgrim • The Phoenix and the Turtle • A Lover's Complaint Lost plays • Love's Labour's Won • Cardenio† Apocrypha • Arden of Faversham • The Birth of Merlin • Locrine • The London Prodigal • The Puritan • The Second Maiden's Tragedy • Sir John Oldcastle • Thomas Lord Cromwell • A Yorkshire Tragedy • Edward III • Sir Thomas More

26. Controversies • Did Shakespeare really write all the plays attributed to him ? • It is accepted that he had borrowed stories from source history but made them his own/ • Shakespeare wrote sonnets to both a man, his patron, and a mysterious Dark Lady. • Was Shakespeare’s identity lifted by a group of collaborators? Or one person who’s status would be jeopardized?