Diapositiva 1

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Origins of
English Drama
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• The Middle Ages
• Miracle and Mystery plays
• Trade Guilds
• Pageants
• Morality plays
• Elizabethan Theatre
• Stage
• Actors
• Scenes
• Audience
• The Globe Theatre

Summary
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Mystery plays

• they developed from the 10th
• to the 16th century
• representation of scenes
• from the Bible
• they were performed in
• churches

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• little by little, out into the churchyard
• then, on pageants
• responsibility taken on by the trade guilds

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• Miracle plays
• Representation of lives of saints
• Combination of professional and
• amateur actors
• Performed on pageants
• Acted in English

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• Trade Guilds

• they were groups of
• tradesmen and artisans
• guild derives from the Old
• English geld, which means
• payment
• on particular feast days
• they prepared biblical plays
• to perform

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Pageants

• processions associated with secular and
  religious rituals
• important aspect of the celebration of Corpus
  Christi

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• re-enacted the entire history of salvation

• plays were performed
• in wagons (pageants)
• each sponsored by a
• guild

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Morality plays

• more refined
• invented plots
• personification of vices and virtues
• didactic purpose
• written in vernacular

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Everyman

• Dutch Elkerlijk
• late 15th century
• Everyman represents all mankind
• is summoned by God, tries to convince several
  friends to accompany him

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• allegorical characters, personifying abstract
  ideas
• Fellowship
• Kindred, Cousin
• Goods
• Good Deeds
• Knowledge
• Beauty, Strength, Discretion, Five Wits

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• Elizabethan Theatre
• It was influenced by Humanism, which
  developed in all Europe
• authors were supported by the Queen
• the Queen had to approve all the plays (Master
  of Revels)
• theatre was considered a form of
  entertainment and not an art

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The Stage

• composed of
• a baldachin that covered
• it
• the inner stage behind a
• curtain
• a balcony
• a garret where there were
• machines
• a trap door

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• The Audience
• plays attracted people from all
  classes
• Royals
• Nobles
• Commoners
• a theatre could hold from 1500 to 3000 people

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• The Scene
• actors used very simple objects
• actors represented physical sensation and
  feelings with words
• the theatre building was deeply linked with the
  performance

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The actors

• The Actors
• the reputation of early Elizabethan actors was
  not good
• later they became the equivalent of todays
  superstars
• young boys played female roles

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• it was built from the timbers of The
  Theatre in 1559
• it went up on flames in 1613
• it was destroyed another time by Puritans in
  1644
• most of the Globe and all of its stage was
  open air

The Globe
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• above the main entrance there was the
  inscription Totus mundus agit histrionem" (the
  whole world is a playhouse)

• Richard Burbage built the Globe for the
  Chamberlains Men
• Shakespeare appeared as an actor on
  the Globes stage