ENGLAND

ELIZABETHAN ENGLANDThe English Renaissance is often called the Elizabethan Period because its major political figure was Elizabeth I.

Throughout Renaissance, explorations abroad were undertaken, and language and literature flourished.

Queen Elizabeth herself was an amateur linguist, and at the heart of English Renaissance in literature and the arts was THEATER.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA1. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWEAdvanced the art of dramatic structure and contributed a gallery of interesting characters to English drama.

Perfected another element that was to prove central to later Elizabethan plays: dramatic poetry.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA1. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

“Mighty Line” – critics mean the power of his dramatic verse.

- Iambic Pentameter, five beats to a line, 2 syllables to each beat and the accent on the second beat.

- Iambic Pentameter developed strength, subtlety and suppleness, as well as great lyric beauty.Plays: “Doctor Faustus”, “Tamburlaine” and “Edward II”.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA2. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A native of Stratford-upon-Avon (a town about 85 miles northwest of London).

Father was a prosperous glove maker and town alderman.

Mary Arden – his mother, daughter of a prominent landowner and farmer.

Married to Anne Hathaway, who was several years older than he who bore him 3 children.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA2. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

As a dramatist, he worked with elements that had been established in early Elizabethan drama.

AN EXPERT IN MANY ASPECTS OF THEATRE!

He excelled in several genres including tragedy, comedy and history.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA2. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

His tragedies include Romeo and Juliet(1595), Julius Caesar(1599), Hamlet(1601), Othello(1604), Macbeth(1605-06) and King Lear(1605-06).

His comedies include The Comedy of Errors(1592), A Midsummer Night’s Dream(1595), As You Like It(1599)…so on.

ELIZABETHAN DRAMA2. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

His verse especially the power of his metaphors and the music of his language is EXTRAORDINARY, and his characters are so well-rounded and carefully detailed.

He was also A MASTER OF PLOT CONSTRUCTION.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

1. PUBLIC THEATRESThe plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe and their contemporaries were performed primarily in public theatres.

Audience capacity was between 1,500 and 3,000.

Spectators were accommodated in the yard, boxes and galleries.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION1. PUBLIC THEATRES

Yard – on the ground floor, in front of and on the sides of the stage, the standing area.

Groundlings – lower-class audience members who stood there.

Galleries – three tiers of seating ranged on three sides around the stage.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

1. PUBLIC THEATRESLords’ rooms - one tier divided into boxes. Frequented by the wealthy; the undivided tiers were equipped with bench seating.

Spectators even those at the back wall of the galleries were never very far from the actors.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

2. PRIVATE THEATRES indoor spaces lit by candle and high windows.

Private theaters were open to the general public though they were usually smaller and therefore more expensive than public theaters.

The pit of a private theatre had backless benches.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

3. SCENERY AND COSTUMES The Elizabethan did not use painted scenery in their public and private theatres. The extensive, episodic nature of Elizabethan drama requires scenes to be changed rapidly.

Costuming followed the conventions and traditions of medieval English theatre.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

4. ENGLISH ACTORS AND ACTING COMPANIES Acting Companies- each of which had approximately twenty-five members organized in a sharing plan.

CATEGORIES OF PERSONNEL IN A COMPANY:

(1) Shareholders (2) Hirelings and (3) Apprentices.

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE PRODUCTION

CATEGORIES OF PERSONNEL IN A COMPANY:Shareholders – elite members of the company, received a percentage of the troupe’s profits as payment.

Hirelings – actors contracted for a specific period of time and for a specific salary.

Apprentices – young performers training for the profession, were assigned to shareholders.

THEATER AFTER ELIZABETH’S REIGN

Ben Johnson – comic masterpiece Volpone. He championed a more literary approach to drama.

Duchess of Malfi – by John Webster is probably the most renowned Jacobean tragedy.

There was a mixing of serious and comic elements in the early 1600s.

THEATER AFTER ELIZABETH’S REIGN

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher - two playwrights who often collaborated with each other, excelled at the form of mixing serious and comic elements.

Masques – ornate, professionally staged, mythological allegories intended to praise the monarch.

Inigo Jones – began to introduce the Italian style at theatre architecture and scene design into English court masques.