Medieval Theatre to Renaissance Theater

1. Medieval Theatre to Renaissance Theater By Mr. Healy

2. The Fall of Rome in Broad Strokes… • The Roman Empire had become to large to manage • Soon it split into small independently controlled states

3. After the fall of Rome • Europe fell into the Dark Ages • These were characterized by a shrinking population, deurbanization, and an increase in the authority of the Holy Roman Church

4. Question • What affect do you think an increase in the power of the Catholic Church had?

5. Theater in the Middle Ages • The Church labeled our Greek and Roman originators Pagan, and therefore performances of this type were banned • They were instead replaced by Religious Ceremonies • In this way they were not so different from the Greeks

6. Move towards Morality • Liturgical Drama: A dramatic form that celebrates morality and the Christian Religion • Subjects were taken from the Bible and lives of the Saints

7. Mystery Play • A type of liturgical drama • Subject focused on some Miracle or mystery from the Bible • The scenes were not interconnected like our plays today • Instead the only unifying theme was that they were about Christian faith

8. Mystery Plays • Mechanical devices, trapdoors, and other artifices were employed to portray flying angels, fire-spouting monsters, miraculous transformations, and graphic martyrdoms.

9. Mystery Plays • Plots included: Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment. • Plays were organized into Cycles • Cycles: groups of 25 to 50 plays that took days to performs • In France a single play, The Acts of the Apostles by Arnoul and Simon Gréban, contained 494 speaking parts and 61,908 lines of rhymed verse; it took 40 days to perform

10. Mystery Plays • Eventually these plays took on sacrilegious elements • Furthermore, satirical elements were introduced to mock physicians, soldiers, judges, and even monks and priests • Pope Innocent III banned them • Because, you know, Popes didn’t like fun • Renaissance scholars found little of interest in their great rambling texts,

11. Bonus Word • Satire: the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

12. Morality Plays • Plays were forced out of the Church and into the hands of guilds, or organized groups of artists • Allegorical play in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt him to choose a Godly life over one of evil. • Allegory:a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

13. Everyman • The most famous Morality Play • God Sentences Everyman to die • He tries to find friends to help him show God he deserves life in heaven • Most of his “friends” abandon him (Pride, Beauty, Five Wits, Strength and Discretion)

14. Good Deeds • Good Deeds is the only one who does not abandon Everyman, and goes with him to reckon with God What do you think the Moral of this story is?

15. English Renaissance Theater • At this time, England had broken away from the Catholic Church • The Renaissance has lead to a rediscovery of Classical texts and ideas • Theater emerges as a prime source of entertainment in England for both commoners and Nobles alike

16. Transition to Secular Theater • Secular: denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. • With the break from the Church, Nobles began funding theater • In the sixteenth century, the Elizabethan stage became almost wholly professional and public • Side note: Elizabethan is named after Queen Elizabeth of England • This means actors were now paid, and the shows were available to everyone

17. MONEY $$$$$ • The new theater groups devoted their entire lives to the art and craft of play producing. • Likewise, the production of plays at this time was a good financial venture.

18. Patronage • Groups swore patronage, or loyalty to, a particular noble who financed them • This protected them from harsh anti theater laws which saw traveling theater troupes as vagabonds • As you can see, theater was still not universally respected as an art

19. Construction of Theaters • Successful acting companies eventually built their own performance venues • Theaters sprung up in London • Soon, However, theaters drew the ire of the law and were forced out of the city limits • Still, theater was fashionable and profitable

20. Acting • Acting Performances were “over the top” • The actors expressed themselves in a highly operatic manner with flamboyant expressions

21. The Shows Themselves • Plays did not attempt to persuade anyone that they were not in a theater • Very little scenery to add to illusion • Only male actors played the parts • Actors would break fourth wall and speak to audience • Costumes were huge and colorful • They were also not historically accurate • For example, in Shakespeare’s plays about Roman subjects, actors did not wear togas

22. Video about theatre • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_cTCdkCAcc

23. Shakespeare (1564-1616) • He was actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later The King’s Men • He never published his own work. His work was compiled by his friends and published in the First Folio. • Contemporary, Ben Johnson, famously said Shakespeare was “not of an age, but for all time”

24. Shakespeare • Shakespeare: wrote 38 plays in 3 genres • Tragedies • Comedies • History Plays • Plays were performed at The Globe, which burned down from a cannon fired during a production of Henry VIII

25. History Plays • These plays dramatized figures from Medieval English History • However, They were really about the politics and social situations of his own society • Audiences recognized and enjoyed this fact

26. Mini Biography • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geev441vbMI

27. 5 interesting facts about Shakespeare • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDRpEb7heG8

28. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) • Came just before Shakespeare but yet less famous in history • Still very important in the study of Renaissance drama • He was one of the first people to write for a living • He created scathing social and political commentary that was often sensational and violent • He Died in a Bar Fight

29. Marlowe • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CbWeIkgF-g

30. Dr. Faustus (1592) • Faustus has learned all earthly knowledge and now desires to know MAGIC • He summons the devil, Mephistopheles, who is Lucifer’s servant • Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer for 24 years with Meph as his servant • What do you all think happens next?

31. Dr. Faustus • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZeFGKA2MqQ

32. Quotes • For, falling to a devilish exercise,And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,He surfeits upon cursed necromancy.Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.

33. Quotes • FAUSTUSWas not that Lucifer an angel once?MEPHISTOPHELESYes Faustus, and most dearly loved of God.FAUSTUSHow comes it, then, that he is prince of devils?MEPHISTOPHELESO, by aspiring pride and insolence,For which God threw him from the face of heaven. (1.3.61-66)

34. Questions • What was the central conflict of Dr. Faustus? • Would you make the same deal as Dr.Faustus? • Is this a Christian Tragedy? Does it’s ending fit with Christian Ideals?

35. Questions? • Is Dr. Faustus “a Renaissance man who had to pay the medieval price for being one” like scholar R.M Dawkins said? • Think about what I have been saying about the Renaissance and people’s thirst for knowledge at that time

36. Dr. Faustus • At the time Marlowe was writing, John Calvin had developed a theory about human salvation called Predestination. • This theory said that each human being was fated from the beginning of his or her life to be damned or saved. It raised questions about exactly how much control a person had over his or her own salvation.

37. Dr. Faustus • Doctor Faustus stood out from the crowd by combining things we associate with medieval drama (like allegory) to explore what we now think of as modern questions: What form should knowledge take? What is the nature of true power? Should we believe in fate or free will? • Wasn’t a straight forward morality play

38. Elizabethan Theatre wrap up • In 1642, with England on the verge of a civil war, the Puritan Parliament closed all theaters • Stage plays were forbidden because they distracted the nation from its efforts to “appease and avert the wrath of God” • Theaters were not reopened for almost 20 years in 1660

39. During the Restoration • Set designers added Scenery to add the illusion of depth on the stage • Others experimented with lighting using chandeliers and candles around the stage • The lightheartedness of the plays reflected a society recovering from years of division and unrest

40. Restoration Comedies • Restoration comedies involved quick wit • Playwrights wrote Comedies of Manners, which satirized the behaviors of society before and during the restoration period. Comedic plays relied on situational humor: disguises, mistaken identity, and misunderstandings

41. Restoration Comedy • Most popular type of play • Restoration comedies became social commentaries; they were not a mirror of society, but rather exaggerations of society that the audience would recognize and appreciate. • in Restoration plays, women sometimes played the role of men as a form of situation comedy. • 1st appearance of women!

42. Focus on the Upper Class • Audiences were mainly upper class • Therefore plays often had Upper Class nobles and their courts as the focus

43. Focus on Love and sex • Situational humor often involved sexual themes such as adulterous husbands and flirtatious women • Sexual innuendo or jokes were big (That’s what she said)

44. Stock characters • Plays included stock characters • Stock Character: a fictional character based on a common stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics.

45. Stock Characters • Rake: a historic term applied to a man who is habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanising. Often a rake was also prodigal who wasted his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, wine, women and song, incurring lavish debts in the process. Comparable terms are "libertine" and "debauchee".

46. The Fop • He is a "man of fashion" who overdresses, aspires to wit, and generally puts on airs, which may include aspiring to a higher social station than others think he has. He may be somewhat effeminate, although this rarely affects his pursuit of an heiress.

48. Top 10 job skills • http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/12/10/the-10-skills-that-will-get-you-a-job-in-2013/