the birth of drama

Raffaella Mannori 2013-2014

THE BIRTH OF DRAMA

MYSTERY PLAYS

MORALITY PLAYS

ENGLISH PLAYHOUSES

THE AUDIENCE

THE ACTORSTHE BIRTH OF DRAMA

OBJECTIONS TO PLAYHOUSES

SOME IMPORTANT

DATES


THE BIRTH OF DRAMA

THE

BIR

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LITURGICAL DRAMA

MYSTERY PLAYS

MORALITY PLAYS

INTERLUDES


MYSTERY PLAYS


MYSTERY PLAYS The history of English drama begins with the elaboration of the ecclesiastical liturgy;The rituals of Christian church at Christmas and Easter were inherently dramatic ( mutually answering dialogues between the priest and the choir);This liturgical dram moved out of the church , first into the churchyard and then into the market place ;Once outside the church vernacular ousted Latin and the story elements include the whole range of sacred history from thecreation to the Last Judgement;Liturgical drama gave way to plays in English, performed in the open , not related to liturgy but still religious in subject matters;Their organisation and financing passed into lay hands :trade guilds took over the sponsoring of the plays


MYSTERY PLAYS


Morality PLAYSThey differ from MYRACLE PLAYS because they didn’t deal with biblical stories but with personified abstractions of virtues and vices, who struggle for man’ssoul;They developed in the 15° century ;Other common themes were THE DANCE OF DEATH ( in which Death comes and summons all, high and low alike) and the SEVEN DEADLY SINS


EVERYMAN


EVERYMAN EVERYMAN is summoned by death to make long journey from which there is no return ;he looks for friends to accompany him , but neither FELLOWSHI and GOOD DEEDS are willing to act as guide.


THE INTERLUDEA kind of secular morality play with comic and realistic elements;a sort of playlet which oiginated as a performance between the courses of a banquet;it marked the transiction from medieval religious drama to Tudor secular drama


Elisabethan playhouses

The world of the theatre

• The building of permanent playhouses in London marked a break with the past.

• The beginning of the plays was announced by the hoisting of a flag and the blowing of a trumpet

London’s permanent theatres



Towards the end of the 16th century, several theatres were built.• The Curtain (by James Burbage, 1577)• The Rose (by Henslowe, 1587) The Swan (by Francis

Langley, 1595)• The Globe (by Richard Burbage, 1599)• The Fortune (by Henslowe, 1600)• At the end of the reign of Elisabeth there were 11 theatres in

London, including public and private houses


SOME IMPORTANT DATES

• The Elisabethan theatrical world 1558-1642 ( in which theatres were closed down by the Puritans who controlled the City of London)

• The first permanent public theatre :The Theatre (by James Burbage, 1576)


Respectable people and officers of the Church often made complaints of the growing numners of play-actors : the plays were often lewd and profane; the play-actors were often vagrants, irresponsible and immoral

people; the taverns and disreputable houses were often found in the

neighbourhood of the theatres; theatre itself was a public danger in the ay of spreading

diseases; the streets were overcrowded after perfomances and so crimes

occured in the crowd and beggars infested the theatre section Elisabeth ‘s policy was to compromise she regulated abuses but

allowed the theatre to thrive. In 1576 one oredr prohibitd all theatrical performances within

the city bounderies This banishment was not a misfortne but a cause of immediate

growth : across the iver there was room or as many thaetres as people desired.

OBJECTIONS TO PLAYHOUSES



The playhouses:• were round or octagonal in

shape;• were 12 metres high;• had a diameter of 25 metres;• had a rectangular stage.

The Architecture of Theatres



The same basic structure consisted of:a stage partially covered by a thatched roof supported by two pillars and projected into a central area.

Internal layout



The structure includedthree tiers of galleries around the stage with actor’s dressing room at the back.

Internal layout



Elisabethan playhouses


• The spectators ate and drank during the performance.

• They freely expressed their emotions with laughter or tears.

• They had a relish for language and long speeches.

The audience



• They were eager for sensation and overwhelming emotion.

• They loved metaphor and extremes.

• They enjoyed thrills and horror.

• They loved chronicles and history plays with heroic deeds (strong national feeling).

The audience



• Actors had to join a company of a prominent figure and bear his livery and arms (The Chamberlain’s Men of Elizabeth I and the King’s Men of James I).

• Theatrical companies were gradually transformed from irregular associations of men dependent on the favour of a lord to stable business organisations

The actors



An actor’s shareholding depended on the sum he invested to buy props and costumes of which he was joint owner.

They : share in the profits and the expenses; handle the financial questions; hire extra stff; decide which play to perfom; wok as stage- hands

The actors



• They had to vary their repertoire.• They had no more than two weeks to

prepare a new play.

The actors


• They often found themselves playing several roles in the same performance.

• They should have excellent memory.


• Companies included 5/6 boys to play female roles until their voices broke.

• They learnt singing, dancing, diction and feminine gestures and intonation from a very young age.

• Contemporary audiences found them very convincing.

Female roles



• Elisabethan drama was the result of a fusion between two different elements :

• The classical drama of the Renaissance• The domestic tradition of mystery plays,

morality plays.

THE BIRTH OF DRAMA



• Mingling of comic and tragic elements ;• In the absolute disrespect of the Aristotelian

unities of time, place and action;• In the concept of crime & punishment , which

was a characteristic of morality plays;• Tragedy does not spring from the hostility of

fate as it does in the Greek tradition but from a flaw in the protagonist’s personality.

MEDIEVAL ELEMENTS



Seneca influenced tragedy:A. The theme of revenge;B. The inevitability of Fate;C. The violent treatment of murder , cruelty

and lust;D. The stoic moralising;E. The supernatural element in the apparition

of ghosts and forwarding dreams

CLASSICAL ELEMENTS



Why did liturgical dram move out of the church? Fill in the table in the following slide about the

characteristics of mystery plays and morality plays: What does the interlude represent in the development

of English drama? What are the two souls which form the Elisabethan

drama ? What is the «blank verse»? When was the end of Medieval religious drama? Which period did Reinassaince drama flouurish in

England? What is the difference between public and private

playhouses?

QUESTIONS



Why did liturgical dram move out of the church? Fill in the table in the following slide about the characteristics of

mystery plays and morality plays: Why was medieval dram important in the develoment of the

genre? What is the «blank verse»? When was the end of Medieval religious drama? Which period did Reinassaince drama flouurish in England? What are the main characteristics of the Reinaissance drama? What were the main reasons to write for Reinnaissance

playwrights? Who were the «University Wits « and who was the most

celebrated among them? Why was Italy often chosen in English plays as a background

for violent crimes and unning behaviour?

QUESTIONS



MYSTERY PLAYS vs MORALITY PLAYS


MYSTERY MORALITY

Subiect

Language

Characters

Setting

Sponsoring

Place of performance

Authorship

Actors

Most famous

the birth of drama

Documents

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deadly sins raffaella

permanent public theatre

myracle plays

elisabethan theatrical

birth of dramaobjections

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