Theatre HistoryRenaissance

English Renaissance theatre is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642.

Called “early modern English theatre” or “Elizabethan Theatre”.

It includes the drama of William Shakespeare along with many other famous dramatists.

What is the Renaissance Theatre

The Transition?Renaissance theatre derived from several

medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages.

Companies of players attached to households of leading noblemen: foundation for the professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage.

The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of the mystery and morality plays

1572 a law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labeling them vagabonds.

We should always look at our past to make sense

of our future…… in EVERYTHING

The Transition?Beginning in Italy, spreading to Europe by the

16th centuryinfluence affected literature, philosophy, art,

politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry.

Renaissance scholars employed humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.

Money and art went hand in hand. Artists depended totally on patrons

The term "Elizabethan theatre", however, covers only the plays written and performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603).

Jacobean theatre (associated with the reign of King James I, 1603–1625)

Caroline theatre (associated with King Charles I, 1625 until the closure of the theatres in 1642).

"English Renaissance theatre" or "early modern theatre" refers to all three

Some History?

The Progression…Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified

expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses.

With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience.

By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades

Sneaky Sneaks:The City of London authorities were hostile to

public performancesHostility was overmatched by the Queen's

taste for playsTheatres sprang up in suburbs, across the

Thames beyond the authority's control. The companies maintained the pretence that

their public performances were mere rehearsals for the frequent performances before the Queen

Queen Performance = prestige, Public Performance = real source of the

income professional players required.

Theaters…

A 1596 sketch of a performance in progress on the thrust stage of The Swan, a typical circular Elizabethan open-roof playhouse.

Public Theaters…

The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English

Public theaters were responsible for housing the historically popular works.

Public Theaters…The crucial initiating development was the

building of The Theatre by James Burbage and John Brayne in Shoreditch in 1576.

“The Theatre” was rapidly followed by:The Curtain Theatre (1577) the Rose (1587)the Swan (1595)the Globe (1599) the Fortune (1600)the Red Bull (1604)

Fun Fact: All the theaters were built ROUND except for the FIRST “Fortune” and the

“Redbull”

Public Theaters…

Three stories high, built around an open space at the centre.

Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect

Three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open center

Thrust StageThe upper level behind the

stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet

Public Theaters…Theaters were built using:Timber Lath and plaster Thatched roofs (vulnerable to fire) The Globe burned down in June 1613, it was

rebuilt with a tile roof The Fortune burned down

in December 1621, it was rebuilt in brick (and apparently was no longer square).

Private Theaters…A different model was

developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use on a long term basis in 1599

Next came…… The Whitefriars

(1608)The Cockpit (1617)

Private Theaters….Small in comparison to the earlier theatres

Roofed rather than open to the sky it Resembled a modern theater

Usually housed NEW-Avant Garde work

Theater Facts 1580: The Theatre and

the Curtain together (when full) would hold around 5000 spectators – people could see a show for 1 penny.

By 1610: As more theaters were built, that grew to 10,000 – people could still see a show for 1 penny

Private theaters charged 5 to 6 times the amount.

Performances… The acting

companies functioned on a repertory system

Only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume.

Rarely acted the same play two days in a row

Consider this…

1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre

Between Feb. 19 and June 23 (4 months & some change)

The company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days.

They performed 23 different plays, some only once

They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week.

The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Edward Alleyn, must have been tremendous.

Playing Companies…. Some of the

companies of the time:

The Admiral's Men The King's Men The Lord

Chamberlain's Men Oxford's Boys

Staging… Elizabethan theatre

did not make use of lavish scenery

The stage was largely bare with a few key props

Costumes… The main visual appeal on stage was in the

costumes.Costumes were often bright in color and

visually entrancing. ExpensivePlayers wore contemporary clothing

regardless of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear

more historically accurate garb Secondary characters would nonetheless

remain in contemporary clothing.

Writers…. Only men, primarily self-

made men from modest backgrounds

No women were professional dramatists in this era who wrote these plays were.

Some educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not.

Typically not performers/actors – however: William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors

Ben Jonson: Killed an actor in a tavern brawl

Writers…

Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process

If their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance.

They had no ownership of the plays they wrote.

Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it

The playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication.

Writers….1600: Henslowe paid as

little as £6 or £7 per playA playwright, working

alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most

Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades;

He was financially successful because he was an actor and a shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used

Writers…Playwrights dealt with the natural limitation

on their productivity by combining into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts

The majority of plays written in this era were collaborations.

(Jonson and Shakespeare were exceptions to the rule)

A solo artist usually needed months to write a play

A team could write in 2 – 3 weeks

Writers…. Christopher Marlowe 26 February 1564–30

May 1593

A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May 1593. People think it was because of an anti-government script he wrote. He was stabbed to death 10 days after his trial.

Alleged to have been a government spy

The Jew of Malta (c.1589) The Massacre at Paris (c.1593)

Writers…. Thomas Dekker 1570-1632

Dekker was a prolific writer, having part in some 50 plays over his career, frequently in debt.

The Shoemaker's Holiday  (1599)

The Honest Whore, Part II  (1630)

Ben Jonson (funny man) 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637 not successful as an actor,

valuable to the company as a writer

C0-Wrote “Isle of Dogs” and was imprisoned "Leude and mutynous behavior”

1598 – killed another actor in a duel and was imprisoned again – he was let off thanks to the “Neck Verse”

Bartholomew Fair, comedy (performed 31 October 1614; printed 1631)

The Devil is an Ass, comedy (performed 1616; printed 1631)

Writers….

Writers… Thomas Killigrew 7 February 1612 – 19 March 1683

Killigrew was one of twelve children. He became a page to King Charles I

at about the age of thirteen. He used to volunteer as an extra, or

"devil," at the Red Bull Theatre, so that he could see the plays for free.

Limited formal education; the Court and the playhouse were his schoolroom.

The Prisoners (written 1632-5 in London; printed 1641)

The Princess, or Love at First Sight (c. 1636; Naples)

James Burbage1531–1597He built “The Theatre”, the

first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman times

Later “Curtain Theatre”, and “the Blackfriars”

James Burbage's son Richard Burbage became one of the most celebrated actors of his era

Theatrical Entrepreneur….

Philip Henslowe 1550 – 6 January 1616

Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his "Diary", a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London.

In 1584 purchased a property known as The Little Rose, rose gardens and a brothel

He was part of building The Rose From 1591, partnered with the

Admiral's Men after that company split with “The Theatre's” James Burbage

Theatrical Entrepreneur….

Genres….. History Play

English or European history. Shakespeare’s plays about the lives of kings, such as Richard III and Henry V, belong to this category, as do Christopher Marlowe's Edward II

Tragedy (R&J, Othello)Very PopularMarlowe's tragedies were exceptionally

popular, The Jew of Malta. Comedy (Taming Shrew)

A sub-genre developed in this period was the city comedy, looks satirically at life in London.

Examples are Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

The End The rising Puritan

movement was hostile to theatre, which the Puritans thought promoted immorality.

One of their most common complaints was the practice of boys dressing as women to play female roles.

Politically, playwrights and actors worked for the monarchy and aristocracy, so supported the Royalist cause.

The EndThe Puritan faction,

long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the English Civil War, and on September 2, 1642 ordered the closure of the London theatres.

The theatres remained closed for most of the next eighteen years, re-opening after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.