Theater

1

• Theater
• Chapter 7
• The Renaissance

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Italian Theatre

• divided into 2 types
• Professional Theatre
• Theatre for the court

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Commedia dellarte
Physical, highly improvisational style of theatre
that originated in Italy in the 1500s. Most
commedia troupes had10-12 members, both male and
female performers, which used colorful costumes
masks. There were a few tragedies, but most are
comedies that didnt rely on scenery, and could
be performed anywhere.
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Scenarri

• (scenarios) plot outlines that served as the
  scripts for commedia plays. The scenario gives a
  summary of the story lines, certain complications
  faced by protagonist(s) and how the story should
  end. The rest, including all of the dialogue, was
  improvised by the actors.

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Comedy Tonight!
Improvisation unscripted form of theatre where
the actors make it up as they go, feeding off
of the crowd. Lazzi standardized comic bits
used in a commedia performance. (pronounced
Lot-cee) (example The Three Stooges)
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Renaissance Theatre

• Stock Characters The same familiar characters
  who appear in the various commedia scenarios.
  There were three categories lovers, masters, and
  servants.

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The Lovers

• didnt wear masks, wore the latest fashions,
  usually the children of the masters who didnt
  want them (the children) to fall in love. Usually
  asked their servants to help them meet or elope.
• (think Romeo and Juliet)

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The Masters

• There are 3 common types of masters

DOTTORE PANTALONE CAPITANO
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Dottore

• a lawyer or doctor who liked to show off how
  smart he was by speaking in Latin (his
  pronunciation and grammar were usually terrible).

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Pantalone

• an old man with mask that had a large, hooked
  nose and a scraggly grey beard. (This is how
  Uncle Sam and Santa Claus developed.) They
  usually wore red.

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Capitano

• a braggart who boasted of his prowess in love
  and war but was really coward. He wore a cape,
  sword, and a large, feathered headdress.

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The Servants

• usually called the zanni, from which we get the
  word zany. There were usually 2 servants in
  each company (one clever and one stupid). One of
  the most popular servants was Arlecchino
  (Harlequin) who was a mixture of cunning and
  stupidity. Wore a clown-like suit with a black
  mask and carried a slapstick.

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Slapstick

• a device made out of 2 pieces of wood hinged
  together. When the two pieces came together with
  force it would make a loud slapping sound.
  Commedia characters often beat one another with
  these sticks. It is from this simple prop that we
  get the modern term slapstick comedy.

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Comeddia Literature

• LArte Rappresentativa A book published in 1699,
  this is Andrea Perruccis first hand account of
  how a commedia dellarte troupe operated.
• Architettura Sebastiano Serlios 1545 account of
  how to create a performance space within an
  existing room.

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Humanism

• by the early 16th century, the surviving plays of
  the great Greek and Roman playwrights had been
  rediscovered, translated, and published in
  Italian. This movement strove desperately to
  recreate the style, staging, and structure of
  classic Greek and Roman Theatre.

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Invented by Italians

• Perspective Scenery a form of three dimensional
  scenic painting that is still extremely common
  today.
• Raked Stage on a raked stage, the stage floor
  gets higher as it moves away from the audience so
  that the back of the stage is actually taller
  than the front.
• - Proscenium Arch the most common form of stage.
  The audience faces the stage from only one
  direction and the performance area is framed by a
  large arch (much like a picture frame). Much of
  our modern stage terminology comes from the
  proscenium.

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Back to Basics

• Autos Sacramentales Spanish liturgical dramas
  performed on the pageant wagons and platform
  stages popular in medieval times.
• Iambic Pentameter (blank verse) style of verse
  which Shakespeare wrote in. Blank verse lines
  contain ten syllables, with light and strong
  stresses alternating, five light and five strong.

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University Wits

• A student theatre group that wrote plays in the
  style of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Thomas
  Kyd and Christopher Marlowe were both members of
  this group.

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Playing in the Yard

• Yard in the theatres of Elizabethan England,
  this was a standing room only section on the
  ground in the center of the theatre, where
  approximately 800 people could stand and watch
  the play. (used in the thrust stages)
• Groundlings notoriously rowdy patrons who watch
  Elizabethan plays from the yard.

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Thrust stage

• in a thrust stage, the audience is seated on
  three sides and tends to be nearer the action
  than in a proscenium staging, but since one wall
  is available for scenic elements, there can be
  more use of spectacle than in the arena. The
  runways used at fashion shows are a type of
  thrust stage.

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Elizabethan Theatre

• The Globe Theatre perhaps the best known
  Elizabethan theatre. It was the original staging
  ground for some of Shakespeares greatest plays.
• Spoken décor convention of the Elizabethan stage
  where the actors described a plays different
  locations to the audience.

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Theatrical Terms

• Role modern term for the part an actor plays. It
  comes from the Elizabethan Practice of handling
  the actor his lines on a roll of paper.
• Part a modern term for the character an actor
  plays in a production. It comes from the
  Elizabethan practice of only giving the actor the
  part of the play he was in, rather than an entire
  script.

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Mardi Gras Predecessor

• Masques Lavish productions, usually staged in
  banquet halls for the monarch and an invited
  audience.

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Time for Some French

• French Theatre Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIIIs
  prime minister wants France as cultural center of
  Europe. They adopt perspective theatre and
  proscenium arch theatre from Italy. Richelieu
  wrote rigid interpretation of Aristotles writing
  on theatre as the neoclassical ideal.

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Neoclassical Ideal

• A series of rigid rules for theatrical writing
  and performance based on the humanist
  interpretation of Aristotles writings on
  theater. The neoclassical ideal came to dominate
  most of European theatres for centuries

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Neoclassical rules

• Only 2 legitimate forms of drama tragedy and
  comedy, never to be mixed together in one play.
• Tragedy had to be stories about royalty and
  nobility.
• Comedy should feature the middle and lower
  classes.
• All plays must contain five acts.
• Play must uphold the concept of poetic justice.
  Bad character punished and good rewarded.
• Misinterpreted Aristotles 3 unities.

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Three Unities

• The neoclassicist believed that all plays should
  adhere to the unities of time (all of the plays
  action should occur within 24 hours), play (all
  of the play should occur in the same place), and
  the action (the play should have only one plot).

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Frances Big 3 Playwrights

• Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) a tragedian, best
  known for his 1637 play, Le Cid. Was later
  attacked by critics for not following the rules
  of French theatre.
• Jean Racine (1639-1699) wrote many adaptations
  of Sophocles and Euripides. Most popular is
  Phaedra, a tragedy. Strict follower of
  neoclassical rules and unities.

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And the BIGGEST

• Moliere (1622-1673) considered the greatest
  French playwright of all time. Joined a traveling
  theatre troupe at 21. Studied and mastered the
  techniques of Italys commedia dellarte huge
  influence on his writing. Most famous for his
  comedies many of his plays were satire on French
  court society, causing controversy.

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French Staging Innovations

• Both audience and stage sit for the entire
  performance.
• Seating of audience on the stage.
• Women as well as men in acting companies with
  equal rights.
• Totally indoor theatre experimenting with
  variety of candles oil lamps for lighting the
  stage. Used reflectors for increased
  illumination.