The Renaissance and Shakespeare

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• The Renaissance and Shakespeare
• GHS

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Brief History

• Cultural movement that spanned the periods of the
  14th through the 17th centuries
• It was not a uniform process. Not every country
  experienced the Rebirth at the same time.

• Renaissance started in Italy in the 1300s.
• Learning focused on classical sources such as the
  Romans (Latin), Greeks, and Arabic and Hebrew
  texts.

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Brief History

• Art accelerated in production and quality from
  the Medieval period.
• Important artists of the period Leonardo da
  Vinci and Michelangelo.

• A move toward Humanism and a desire to seek the
  truth about nature, God, and man.
• Christianity was not rejected many works were
  devoted to it.

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• Reinfusion of ancient texts long forgotten,
  including Greek Christian works that would lead
  to the Protestant reformation.
• The period marked a period of Church reforms and
  eventually movements that would birth the
  American and French Revolutions.

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Renaissance Drama

• By the 15th and 16th centuries, European nations
  had established their own native traditions,
  religious dramas and farces based on Greek and
  Roman plays.
• Drama of the Renaissance mirrored or reproduced
  classical themes.

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Renaissance Drama

• Pastoral Drama
• In this convention the purity and simplicity of
  shepherd life is contrasted with the corruption
  and artificiality of the court or the city.
• Intermezzo
• Was a lighter, more comedic scene interpolated
  between more serious scenes.
• Opera
• Either comedic or serious, some dialogue but
  accompanied with music. Singing used to frame
  and enhance the action of the play.

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The Opera

• Dates back to Florence, Italy in the late
  Sixteenth century (1500s).
• The purpose that lead to creation of Opera was
  the need to understand Greek drama and how music
  was an integral part of drama.
• Even Gregorian chants of the Medieval period were
  a type of liturgical musical dramas, but the
  Opera looked to the classical period for its
  inspiration.

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Opera

• It imitated Greek musical drama, and incorporated
  the chorus and actors together.
• For two hundred years, this art form accelerated.
• The libretto, scenery, costumes, dance, music,
  etc. saw vast improvements and expansion.
• Orchestration, vocal virtuosity etc. expanded the
  Opera to a high art form.

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Examples

• Opera
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vPfyH-MZWMnQ
• Intermezzo
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vCap3qdSPRJw
• Pastoral
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?v5cj0rly3JxY
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vUCIx07t14jwfeatur
  erelated

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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater

• For most Renaissance Drama and Theater, the
  interaction between audience and performer were
  the center.
• The plays and performances were meant to engage
  the audience in a different manner than we see
  today.
• Sometimes, it was difficult to distinguish the
  actor from the spectator.
• Yet, depending on location (country, etc.) the
  drama and theater experience would vary.

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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater

• There was a desire to imitate classical Greek and
  Roman theater.
• The theaters were meant to resemble ancient Roman
  edifices.
• Wooden pillars would be painted to imitate
  marble, with even the trained eye having
  difficulty determining it was not real marble.
• This desire to imitate classical theater lead to
  the development of many play houses that had
  obvious Roman and Greek elements.

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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater
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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater
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Example of a Modern Theater with Roman/Greek and
Renaissance elements
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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater

• Scripts were used, although they were not as
  important when compared to modern theater.
• They played minor role in a production.
• The spectacle of singing, dancing and the
  interaction between the audience and the
  performers took president.
• Renaissance theater would differ from country to
  country and region to region, but the basic
  elements were present.
• The rebirth of classical themes feed the art form
  and helped it to evolve into more modern forms of
  theater.

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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater

• As stated before, plays were meant for
  entertainment, however.
• There were plays that had overtly political,
  religious, and patriotic themes that appealed to
  many audiences.
• Downsides were that those in power would often
  get upset by the plays that were meant to be
  allegories of the current political structure.
• Mystery, miracle and morality plays were still
  produced but their popularity waned.

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Other aspects of Renaissance Drama and Theater

• Sometimes this period is referred to as the Early
  Modern period.
• The ideas of humanism and the search for mans
  place in the world would inspire man great works
  of literature and drama during the entire
  Renaissance era.
• Some believe that the English Renaissance
  represents some of the best this era has to offer.

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Other periods within the Renaissance

• Baroque Period started in the 1600s
• It was a period that exaggerated artistic ideals
• It was a period of high art, drama and music that
  was supported by the Church and the Aristocracy
• This drama had multiple plot turns and a variety
  of situations.
• Baroque theater was a multimedia experience
• Much of the technology used in Broadway and
  commercial plays were invented and developed
  during this era.

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Elizabethan Period

• The Elizabethan Period marked the beginning of
  the Renaissance in England
• It lasted 45 yrs, or the reign of Queen Elizabeth
  I (1558-1603).
• The first English theater was The Red Lion.
• During this period all Arts blossomed, but Drama
  and Theater excelled like no other.

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Elizabethan Period

• The Medieval Period had been primarily been a
  vehicle for religious and moral messages.
• The Elizabethan Period, including plays by
  Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe and others,
  marked a radical departure from this model.

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Elizabethan Period

• The new plays presented colorful and complex
  characters, love, hate, jealousy, lust for power,
  and revenge.
• Under the rein of Queen Elizabeth I, it was a
  social unifying experience.
• It was a very popular form of entertainment both
  common people and nobility alike enjoyed it as a
  pastime.
• However, the town officials and clergy considered
  it tawdry and actors as vagabonds.

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Elizabethan Period

• Elizabethan theater was an interactive event.
• Audiences commonly talked back to the actors and
  even through fruit when displeased with
  performances.
• Women were not allowed to enter the profession,
  so men played all parts including female parts.
• Adolescent boys would play female parts.

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Other aspects of Elizabethan Theater

• Acting companies functioned on the repertory
  system unlike modern productions that can run for
  months to years on end.
• Many plays would be performed for 2 to 3 days and
  then would close.
• Thomas Middletons A Game at Chess ran for 9
  straight days before being closed by the
  authoritiesdue to overly political tone of the
  play.

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Other aspects of Renaissance and Elizabethan
theater

• Many of the public theater houses would perform
  plays 6 days a week
• The theater groups would not perform the same
  play two days in a row and rarely the same place
  twice a week.
• Costumes were often bright in color and visually
  entrancing.
• Costumes were very expensive so many actors would
  were contemporary clothing regardless of the era
  that play was supposed to be.

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Other aspects of Renaissance and Elizabethan
theater

• Scenery was minimal in many productions.
• Costumes would be recycled and used in many
  production before being discarded
• The lead characters would were the most elaborate
  costume while supporting characters would wear
  contemporary clothing.
• Language and the poetry of the plays were the
  centerpiece of a great production, so costumes
  would only be a smaller part of the entire
  production.

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Other aspects of Renaissance and Elizabethan
theater

• Tragedymost popular
• Comedya common style
• City Comedya satirical look at life in London
• Pastoral and Morality plays still existed and
  often were popular alternatives to Tragedies and
  Comedies

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Other aspects of Renaissance and Elizabethan
theater

• After 1610, the new style of tragic-comedy become
  increasing popular,
• An the masque, a courtly form of entertainment
  that included music, dancing with elaborate
  staging and costumes. Masks were often a part of
  the presentation.
• Public masques were a pageant, a procession (like
  a parade) with both secular and religious
  rituals. Usually celebrating the ruler or the
  new ruler.

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The Dumbshow

• It was a piece of dramatic mime
• The Dumbshow was a masque-like interlude of
  silent pantomime usually with allegorical
  content.
• Would be performed before the play, and would
  allude to the content the audience would see in
  the play.

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Shakespeare

• Why do you think his works are important?
• Which works of his do you remember?
• Why should we study them?

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Shakespeares Life

• His father, John Shakespeare, was successful in
  the leather business during Shakespeare's early
  childhood but later met with financial
  difficulties.
• During his prosperous years his father was also
  involved in municipal affairs, holding the
  offices of alderman and bailiff during the 1560s.
  
• While little is known of Shakespeare's boyhood,
  he probably attended the grammar school in
  Stratford, where he would have been educated in
  the classics, particularly Latin grammar and
  literature.

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Shakespeares Life

• In 1594 Shakespeare became an actor and
  playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the
  company that later became the King's Men under
  James I.
• Until the end of his London career Shakespeare
  remained with the company it is thought that as
  an actor he played old men's roles, such as the
  ghost in Hamlet and Old Adam in As You Like It.

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Shakespeares Life

• In 1596 he obtained a coat of arms, and by 1597
  he was prosperous enough to buy New Place in
  Stratford, which later was the home of his
  retirement years.
• In 1599 he became a partner in the ownership of
  the Globe theatre, and in 1608 he was part owner
  of the Blackfriars theater.
• Shakespeare retired and returned to Stratford
  c.1613. He undoubtedly enjoyed a comfortable
  living throughout his career and in retirement,
  although he was never a wealthy man.

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Shakespeares Works

• Some of his Plays include Romeo and Juliet, A
  Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing,
  As You like it, just to name a few.
• Poetry The Passionate Pilgrim, Loves Labours
  Lost, and many sonnets.

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Examples

• Hamlet
• To be or not to be
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?v5ks-NbCHUns
• Much Ado About Nothing
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vPV66ODrTRG4