Renaissance Theatre

The renascence Theatre By Macey Colburn, Brendan Simpson, Dayana Romero and Bryan D During the late fourteenth through the early seventeenth hundred an awaking of the arts and learning boomed in the western world. This awaking or rebirth is know as the rebirth. The Renaissance era was a glorious time. European governance changed dramatic eithery in that respect was a rise of kings and princes and merchants became key economic figures. As flock scratch lineed to accumulate more money they had leisure time to gormandize and would become e mount upr to show off their fortune by hiring artists to create extravagant works for them.During the Renaissance there was an apparent change in the art from medieval art. Medieval artists focused on religious subjects in their paintings and sculptures where Renaissance artists focused on human beings and creating realistic paintings and sculptures. In 1450 the effect press was invented and this made literature available to considerable nu mbers of people. The Renaissance as well as saw an impressive development in domain, especially in Italy, England, Spain, and France. The side Renaissance was a time when language and literature flourished.This cessation is often called the Elizabethan period because Queen Elizabeth was the major political figure. She reigned for 45 days from 1558 to 1603. During this time the English were intrigued by language and Queen Elizabeth was an novice linguist. Not only did the English love language they wantwise had a love for the battlefield. Two great dramatists of the Elizabethan era were Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Christopher Marlowe, one of the nearly important variationwrights of the Elizabethan era, was cognise for perfecting a key element to field dramatic poetry.Marlowes mighty line as well as cognise as his dramatic verse in iambic pentameter developed strength, subtlety, and suppleness as comfortably as great lyric beauty. Marlowe wrote severa l plays including Doctor Faustus (c. 1588) Tamburlaine (Parts 1 and 2 c. 1587) and Edwarfared II (c. 1592). Unfortunately this lyric genius life was excommunication short when he was stabbed to death in a tavern altercate in 1593. He died at the age of twenty- nine. The other(a) great playwright of this era was William Shakespeare. Shakespeare appeared on the theatre scene around 1590 just almost the time Marlowe made his de further. He was a native of Stratford-on-Avon and his father was a glove aker and his mother was the daughter of a prominent landowner and farmer. Shakespeare was enlightened in Stratford and he married Ann Hathaway. She bore him tercet children and was several years older than Shakespeare. By the time Shakespeares third child was innate(p) he left his family and went to London where he head start worked as an performer and soon after became a playwright. He combined Senecan dramatic devices, the platform gunpoint, powerful dramatic verse, source materia l form English history, Roman history and drama, and episodic plot structure and made all these elements into the most remarkable plays ever created.The theatres that were big during the Elizabethan era were cosmos or outdoor theatres. The plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe were mainly performed in populace theatres. These theatres where located foreign the city limits of London to avoid government re stringentions. All levels of family be public theatres and the most famous public theatre was the Globe theatre because it was the home of Shakespeares plays. The theatres were built to hold a lot of people and the exact shape of the theatres varied.Depending on the shape of the theatres the public theatres could hold surrounded by 1,500 to 3,000 people. The confront of the public field of honors was a raised platform that was closer to a contemporary thrust than to a proscenium stage. This kind of stage was great for quickly changing locations from a bedroom to a battlefield. I n the stage floor were trapdoors. Behind the raised platform was the stage field. The stage house also cognize as the tiring house was a three story building where changing costumes took place and for storing properties and set pieces.Other than the public theatre there were also private theatres. The Elizabethan private theatres were indoor spaces lit by candles and had high windows. Private theatres were open to the general public and because they were small seating was limited so the private theatres were a bit pricier than the public theatres. Costumes of the Elizabethan Era followed the conventions and traditions of medieval English theatre. During the English Renaissance the monarchy had strict laws and regulations for the acting companies.Elizabethan acting companies could only have twenty five members and these members were nonionic on a sharing plan. There were three categories of personal in a company shareholders, hirelings, and apprentices. Shareholders were the elit e members of the company and received a constituent of the troupes profits. Hirelings were actors that were hired for a certain amount of time and were paid a specific salary and play the minor roles. Apprentices were the young performers. They trained for a profession and were assigned to shareholders. Players were a kinglike pleasure, and to please royalty was a major aim of the companies. The story of the companies between 1572 and 1642 is one of increasing royal favor and vindication, from first 1572 statute which gave warrant to their quality, through the accolade of mail royal patronage after 1603, to final period when the royal protection ceased to be meaningful. There is, none the less, despite the royal favours and the origins of the companies in appointment as entertainers Adult mummers or boy choristers no question but that the profit motive was totally predominant (Gur 19).During this time there were no female performers. Womens roles were often played by boys or men. The exact date of the actresss debut is not cognize, but is usually off-key to be 8 December 1660, when it is know that a woman played Desdemona in a production of Othello by Thomas Killigrews pooves Company. A special prologue was written by the poet Thomas Jordon to plead the first Woman that came to act on the stage in the cataclysm called the Moor of Venice The Woman playes today, mistake me not, / No Man in Gown, or Page in PettyCoat.A week later one Andrew Newport wrote to Sir Richard Leveson that upon our stages we have women actors, as beyond seas (Howe 19). Companies would rarely perform the same play on cardinal consecutive days and each company had to be able to compensate plays in its repertory on very short notice. Because of this the actors were kept on their toes and improvisation was used frequently. Also to keep the actors memories saucy plots or outlines of the dramatic action of the various plays were posted stakestage.Rehearsals were run by playwrigh ts or spark advance actors and because rehearsal time was minimal the prompter became an summation to the production. Not only in England flourish in great age of renaissance theatre but so did Spain. In the 1550 to 1650 was the Golden Spain senesce. Spain became the leading of the New World because of its exploration and conquest of the new world. They controlled all of the Netherlands. tho in 1558 it lost it power because of the defeat of Spanish Armada. The Spanish Armada was when Spain was tone ending for the protestant of Queen Elizabeth in England.One of their difference between the Spanish and the English, was the religious belief drama. Spanish were the ones that practice more about non religion drama. The full-length secular, as to being three acts, which were comedias. Most of the comedias were about love and honor. One of the play writes of the Golden term was Lope de Vega who was born on November 25, 1562 after Shakespeare. He wrote about 1,500 plays but said abou t 470 unsounded today. One of his well known Punishment without Revenge that was written in 1631. Just a fewer years before he died on August 27, 1635.Another known play wright was Calderon de la Barca who was born in Madrid, Spain on January 17, 1600. He was known to be one of the greatest dramatists during the Golden Age. One of his well known plays was Life is a Dream that he wrote in 1636. In 1651 Calderon became a priest and still continue to write plays. May 25, 1681. During the Golden Age there were females that were playwrights, but their production was never pre moveed. These playwrights were presented on a stage called Corrales. The Corrales were located in the courtyard by close together building.The Corrales had a similarity to the English public theater. They had an open- air space. One of the most known Corrales was located in Madrid, the Corral de la Cruz and the Corral del Principe. In the enclose it held about 2,000 specters, 1,000 were for men and 350 for women, and the rest was for the government and the clergy. In the Golden Age only about sixteen to twenty performers. The Spanish did include the women also unlike the English. Although the church did not agree with women being performers, so the Spanish government had to eliminate women from acting.Only women who were married to one of the actors they could be part of the performance. The Renaissance era of theater in France started later than it did on other countries such as England or Spain. In France, Renaissance theater did not start until the late seventeenth century, partially due to a civil war going on at the time between Catholic and Protestant parties, which was brought to an end in fifteen ninety four when King total heat the IV created the Edict of Nantes, which gave tolerance to both the Catholic and protestant religions.Now that there was religious stability and the political system was settled down, French golf-club was able to grow and flourish under King Louis XIV. D uring this time France sent expeditions to Canada and the Louisiana Territory in America. During this period of peace in france, the society was influenced greatly by the innovations and ideas of the Italian Renaissance. Many aspects of French theater were interpreted from themes of the Italian Renaissance. Even though there were many playwrights during this period, a few of the most important were Moliere, Pierre Corneille, and Jean Racine.Moliere was most widely known for his comedies while Corneille and Racine were known for their tragedies. Out of these three writers, Moliere was probably the most authoritative to the french Renaissance. He was not only a dramatist, but he actually acted as well and headed up a theatrical troupe. His first couple ventures into theater were failures, but he soon learned from his mistakes and came back as one of the most influential playwrights in the history of French Renaissance.His work was strongly influenced by Italian commedia dellarte and uses this style in his plays such as Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and The Miser. This style uses exaggerated characters and makes fun of the exaggerations that the characters portray. Corneille and Racine also wrote approximately notable plays such as Corneilles play The Cid and Racines play Phaedra but just about of their plays were looked at in a minus manner for their writing style or lack of following the rules of playwriting at the time.The style of theaters and performance stages used in France during the Renaissance period were also unique. One notable theater was in the Hotel de Bourgogne. It was a long set apart platform stage which was the only indoor theater in capital of France for almost a century until sixteen thirty four. There was also a strong Italian influence in the theaters in France as well. The amphitheaters were a good example of this. Even though the architecture differed slightly, they still consisted of a stage that backed up to a wall with rows of bleac her like seating in front of the stage.In the sixteen fifties, Louis XIV built a theater called the Hall Of Machines. This was the largest playhouse in Europe and enabled sets to be take down onstage from above the stage. Even though the French Renaissance did not start as early as other countries, and some of their ideas were borrowed from other countries such as Italy, it still had an influence on theater and produced some great writers and actors such as Molieres work became prominent at the time. Corneille and Racines tragedies were also notable at the time.But despite the fact that France had some innovations in theater and some great plays, most of their theatrical traditions were hard patterned after the already established ways of Italian theater and designs. MLA Citations Sources http//www. cwu. edu/robinsos/ppages/resources/Theatre_History/Theahis_8. html VIII. The Theatre in France1500-1700, Scott R. Robinson Howe, Elizabeth. Chapter 1. The First English Actresses. Cam bridge Cambridge UP, 1992. Viii+. Print. Gurr, Andrew. 2. The Companies. The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 1970. 1-183. Print.