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Explore the themes and elements of Elizabethan drama, including morality plays, poetic style, and the genius of Shakespeare's work. Learn about the basic elements of theatre and the six elements of drama according to Aristotle.
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BBL 3208SHAKESPEAREAND RENAISSANCE DRAMAWEEK 3 Themes and Elements of Elizabethan Drama
THEMES • Shakespeare would have grown up watching Tudor morality plays, which were the most popular form of drama in Elizabethan England up until the late 1580s. • These plays were entertaining allegories, using humorous techniques such as farce and slapstick. • As the word morality implies, the themes of these plays dealt with virtue. The characters in the plays represent the importance of choosing a Godly, or virtuous life, over a less pious path.
At the same time, intellectuals and academics were interested in studying and performing the plays of the ancient Romans, particularly writers such as Plutarch and Seneca. • These plays were not as entertaining as the Tudor morality plays, often having little action and dominated by long soliloquies. More important than entertainment in these plays was a focus on poetic style and correctness.
By the time that Shakespeare moved to London, both these styles had merged and created a new style of play that could be appreciated by the general public as well as being intellectually challenging for academics. • You will often find, during your study of English, examples of where a part of a Shakespearean text works on different levels. • This is part of the genius of Shakespeare's work. He wrote his plays for a diverse audience with complex themes, mostly exploring the concepts of humanity and the frailty of the human condition.
The stylistic techniques appeal to a wide audience. • This makes Shakespearean texts ideal to debate and to practise inferring meaning and examining relevance to audiences, even in modern times. The following are just a few examples of themes in famous Shakespearean plays.
Play Romeo and Juliet Themes The power of love The individual versus society The inevitability of fate
Play Julius Caesar Themes Fate and free will The distinction between public and private faces The importance of compromise Misinterpretation
Play A Midsummer Night's Dream Themes Magic Dreams Difficulty in love
The Basic Elements of Theatre • Script/Text, Scenario, Plan: • This is the starting point of the theatrical performance. The element most often considered as the domain of the playwright in theatre. • The playwright’s script is the text by which theatre is created. It can be simplistic, as in the 16th century, with the scenarios used by the acting troupes of the Commedia dell’ arte, or it can be elaborate, such as the works of William Shakespeare. • The script, scenario, or plan is what the director uses as a blue print to build a production from.
The Process: • This is the coordination of the creative efforts usually headed up in theatre by the director. It is the pure process by which the playwright’s work is brought to realization by the director, actors, designers, technicians, dancers, musicians, and any other collaborators that come together on the script, scenario, or plan. This is the works in progress stage.
The Product: • This is the end result of the process of work involved. The final product that results from all of the labors coming together to complete the finished work of script, scenario, and plan, in union with all of the collaborators in the process to create the final product. This is what the audience will witness as they sit in the theatre and view the work.
The Audience: • Theatre requires an audience. For all of the arts public is essential. The physical presence of an audience can change a performance, inspire actors, and create expectations. Theatre is a living breathing art form. The presence of live actors on the stage in front of live audiences sets it apart from modern day films and television.
Elements of Drama • Most successful playwrights follow the theories of playwriting and drama that were established over two thousand years ago by a man named Aristotle. • In his works the Poetics Aristotle outlined the six elements of drama in his critical analysis of the classical Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by the Greek playwright, Sophocles, in the fifth century B.C • The six elements as they are outlined involve: Thought, Theme, Ideas; Action or Plot; Characters; Language; Music; and Spectacle.
1. Thought/Theme/Ideas • What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is clearly stated in the title. It may be stated through dialogue by a character acting as the playwright’s voice. • Or it may be the theme is less obvious and emerges only after some study or thought. The abstract issues and feelings that grow out of the dramatic action.
2. Action/Plot • The events of a play; the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means. • The plot must have some sort of unity and clarity by setting up a pattern by which each action initiating the next rather than standing alone without connection to what came before it or what follows. • In the plot of a play, characters are involved in conflict that has a pattern of movement. The action and movement in the play begins from the initial entanglement, through rising action, climax, and falling action to resolution.
3. Characters • These are the people presented in the play that are involved in the perusing plot. • Each character should have their own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio economic background, and language.
4. Language • The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the language. • Language and dialog delivered by the characters moves the plot and action along, provides exposition, defines the distinct characters. • Each playwright can create their own specific style in relationship to language choices they use in establishing character and dialogue.
5. Music • Music can encompass the rhythm of dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean the aspects of the melody and music compositions as with musical theatre. • Each theatrical presentation delivers music, rhythm and melody in its own distinctive manner. Music is not a part of every play. But, music can be included to mean all sounds in a production.
Music can expand to all sound effects, the actor’s voices, songs, and instrumental music played as underscore in a play. Music creates patterns and establishes tempo in theatre. In the aspects of the musical the songs are used to push the plot forward and move the story to a higher level of intensity. Composers and lyricist work together with playwrights to strengthen the themes and ideas of the play. Character’s wants and desires can be strengthened for the audience through lyrics and music.
6. Spectacle • The spectacle in the theatre can involve all of the aspects of scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production. • The visual elements of the play created for theatrical event. The qualities determined by the playwright that create the world and atmosphere of the play for the audience’s eye.
