English Renaissance Theatre

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English Renaissance Theatre

• 1485 - 1625

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Elizabeth I1558 - 1603

• The Golden Age of England
• Theatre flourished
• Playwriting becomes a viable and more respected
  profession
• Professional actors gain popularity
• Acting companies form, sponsored by royal and/or
  noble patrons
• One of the most creative periods in all of history

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Elizabethan TheatreActors

• Performances develop into entertainment rather
  than celebration so an actor can support himself
  by acting
• All actors were men women are not allowed on
  stage
• Actors still considered vagrants
• must be sponsored by a patron, actors are the
  patron's servants
• Acting companies must be licensed by the crown
• Public performances were outlawed within the city
  limits so a theatre community builds on the
  South Bank

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Playwrights

• Christopher
• Marlowe
• 1574 1637
• Tamburlaine (c.1587)
• The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (c.1589)
• The Jew of Malta (c.1589)
• Wrote for The Admirals Men
• Possibly an atheist, possibly a spy for England
• Was he also Shakespeare?

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Playwrights

• Ben Johnson
• 1572 1637
• A Tale of a Tub (c.1596)
• Volpone (c.1605-6)
• Also wrote masques for James court (acted by
  courtiers, not actors)
• Acted (poorly) wrote for The Admirals Men
• Poet playwright

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Playwrights

• Thomas Kyd
• 1558-1594
• The Spanish Tragedie (c. 1585)
• May have written a version of Hamlet before
  Shakespeare did!!!
• arrested as a heretic in 1593

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William Shakespeare1564 - 1616
actor, poet, playwright
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Shakespeares Life

• Born 23 April 1564 (estimated based on baptism
  records), Stratford-upon-Avon
• Education Free Stratford Grammar School
• Good base in Latin the Classics (Terence,
  Platus, etc.) that he would liberally borrow from
  for his plots later
• Married Anne Hathaway (hes 18, shes 26)
• 3 kids Susanna, and twins Hamnet Judith
• The Lord Chamberlains Men
• Actor first
• Later becomes resident playwright
• Buys into his own acting company
• 1603 they become the Kings Men under James I
• Death 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon

Ophelia (detail). By John Everett Millais,
185152.
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Shakespeares Work

• POET wrote 154 sonnets 2 narrative poems
• Prose
• Blank verse
• Iambic pentameter
• ACTOR starts with Lord Admirals Men as an
  actor, then begins writing
• PLAYWRIGHT
• 36 plays published in the First Folio (1623)
• 3 categories history, tragedy, comedy
• Sources Terence, Petrarch, Holinshed's
  Chronicles

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Shakespeares Plays

• Tragedies to know
• Romeo Juliet
• Hamlet
• Macbeth
• Othello (1st specifically black role!!!)
• Comedies to know
• A Midsummer Nights Dream
• The Tempest
• Histories to know
• Henry VI (3 parts)
• Richard III
• Titus Andronicus

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Elizabethan Conventions

• Costumes
• Actors wore clothes of the day regardless of the
  time period of the play
• exception plays set in Greece Rome!

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Elizabethan Conventions

• Set Props
• Very little of either used
• Thats why you get so many declarative lines in
  Elizabethan plays.
• I die
• Is this poison?

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Theatres

• Pre Renaissance travelling pageant wagons, in
  noblemens ballrooms or halls
• 1576 James Burbage builds The Theatre (1st
  permanent performance space) on the South Bank

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Elizabethan Conventions

• The Theatres
• Standard characteristics
• Open air - usually round - Thrust stage - no
  lights
• Terms to know
• Galleries
• Pit
• Groundling (Penny-stinker)
• Heavens
• Hell
• Hut
• Inner stage