•   Procession may have developed from processions designed to take the Eucharist wafer to the sick or feeble.
•       Donate to the church, and you get to walk in to the Eucharist procession, show off wealth
•      Walking with religion

Mystery Plays and the Guilds

• What is a Guild?

•       Beginning of labor unions
• ·      Established standards of their trades
• ·      Allowed a sense of identity
• ·      Facilitated participation in developing market economy
• ·      Functioned like monasteries and monks; usually someone in the guild in charge of religion
• ·      Rivalries for “the best” plays; rivalries between guilds to produce the best plays
• ·      Tie between religion and economics

The Mystery Plays(aka the Cycle Plays)

• ·      Recognizable actors
• ·      Part doubling
• ·      Anachronism-costumes, sets everything is contemporary to things that are Biblical
• ·      Audience participation(first time Biblical stories are available in the language that you speak, aka not Latin)
• ·      Day-long Festivals
• ·      Special effects-“masters of secrets, or masters of mysteries”
• ·      In the vernacular
• ·      Performed by guildsmen
• ·       Pageant Wagons
• ·      Processionals-you could pick and choose when and where what you wanted to see
• ·      A way of accessing Biblical stories, perhaps for the first time, accessing religion

What came before the Theatre?

• ·      Fall of Rome C.E.
• ·      Traveling minstrels
• ·      Christianization, rise of Catholic Church- huge religious and political power, outrageous crusades to reclaim the Holy Land, take Jerusalem back from the Muslims
• ·      Catholic Mass-hugely theatrical, focused on the idea of spectacle, all of mass is done in Latin
• ·      Transubstantiation –it was law to believe in this

Liturgical Drama (short little pieces of Biblical stories that priests acted out)

• ·      Enacted by priests during Catholic Mass
• ·      Quem Quaeritis (c.915)
• ·      In latin
• ·      Dramatized readings/chants of Biblical stories
• ·      As churches get more elaborate, playing spaces begin to be built into them

Theatre moves out of the church

• ·      Saint’s Plays-plays about the lives of the saints; not necessarily taken verbatim from the Bible; written with the Bible in mind, but involve a little bit of storytelling and require playwriting
• ·      Morality Plays-dramatizing Biblical ideals, allegory (everyone story, people named kin, friends, ad family, good deeds) etc.
• ·      Miracle Plays
• ·      Performance in the classroom as a rhetorical exercise-it’s a way of teaching
• ·      Hrosvitha (c.935) THE FIRST known playwright-she was a nun

Much Ado About Nothing(the play)

• (1598)
• ·      First recorded performance in 1613 at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding
• ·      One of Shakespeare’s later (more “mature”) comedies, uses well-known conventions
• ·      About to write Hamlet
• ·      Ambiguity surrounding the title
• ·      Shakespeare drawing from well known sources and mythology
• ·      Renaissance gender roles

Much Ado About Nothing -Themes/questions

Shakespearian Prosody 

-Iambic Pentameter, Blank Verse(no rhyme), Rhymed Verse, Prose

Much Ado About Nothing- Prose

What is blank verse?

-any verse comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same meter, usually iambic pentameter

-five feet of (Iams) divided, with short/long syllables

-accentual syllabic speaking-we mix the way we speak- you do not have two stresses the same

“If music be the food of love, play on”  (important-must,love, on)

trochee- stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one

-once the playwright wrote the play, he sold it to the theatre and it was no longer his. The theater broke it up into parts and there was never a WHOLE script so no one could steal the play

The way Shakespeare wrote gave the actors everything they needed to know, except who was speaking before them or how long they needed to wait-This made CUE parts VITAL

ROMEO and JULIET most famous

Hamlet: “To be or not to be that is the question”-there is an extra syllable (he’s questioning suicide) this is called an effeminate ending

Its not meant to sound unnatural- but not meant to sound like Prose

Prose: There are Two Kinds

-a lot of dialogue occurs in blank verse, when you get to prose, you aren’t metrically connected in any way.

-its called the tennis match

-find the word which you throw back in there face

ABBA

Chiasmus, Antithesis & triads, rhetorical questioning, metaphor, antistrophe & paradox

The Renaissance (early 16^thcentury to early 17^th)

• ·      “Renaissance” means  “rebirth” of classical material
• ·      Humanism (man can be in charge of his own destiny)
• ·      Tie between science and art- looking at how we define humanity, people like DeVinci, people concerned with anatomy, scientific method, scientific and religious development happening
• ·      Martin Luther and the Reformation (places 95 pieces of what’s wrong with the catholic church, essentially we get the protestant church), and writers like  Edmund Spenser and John Milton who write poems about Christianity
• ·      Queen Elizabeth I and stabilized English religion

Professional Theatre Companies

• ·      Elizabeth outlawed religious subjects
• ·      FIRST TIME IN WESTERN, Theatre as commercial, money making venture, which means they are playing often, and have purpose built performance spaces, and charging admission, theatre are also in control of profits (own costumes, props, staffs,) and also full time companies: full-time actors
• ·      Company formation depended on patronage
• ·      Theatrical profession still feared for its questionable morality
• ·      Foundation of numerous companies led to heavy competition for audiences (and artists)-generally running a play 6 days a week (not on Sunday) around 2p.m., and a quick turnover of plays Hamlet ran for 10 performances- there was a constant demand for new plays, every year 8-10 plays were performed

The Theatres

·      First purpose built theatre - The Red Lion (1567

·      The Theatre (1576) became The Globe (1599)

·      Globe burned down in 1613 and rebuilt

·      Open air spaces

·      Thrust stage

·      Galleries vs. pit space

• ·      “The Heavens”-usually painted to look like the sky
• ·      The tiring house-where the dressing rooms were, or where the actors would come on
• ·      No scenery-all of the scenery in Shakespeare plays is herbal-its all outside and all during the day, you had to rely on what characters were telling you
• ·      Costumes mostly contemporary

• ·      Shareholders-part owners, part artists-personal stake in the company besides financial, play most of the major roles
• ·      Temporary/contract salaried workers
• ·      Apprentices (young boys)-no women on an Elizabethan stage
• ·      Parts written for specific actors like Richard Burbage, William Kempe and Robert Armin
• ·      Skilled verse speakers, singers and dancers, at the end of every play there was a Jig- multitalented people
• ·      Plays generally had to contain something for everyone- a scene of low humor, complex philosophical thought, appeal to queen to lowest beggar (looking for broad audience)
• ·      Quick turnover of new material 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Born to a glove maker in Stratford-Upon-Avon –he didn’t come from a super rich family, he went to primary school and that’s it

•Moved to London (alone) as actor and playwright

•Lots of controversy, many details unknown or unclear ( we don’t know what he looks like, we don’t know his sexuality, we don’t know his religious beliefs)

•38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long narrative poems and other works

•“Upstart Crow” –idea that he pissed people off of being good but that he came from “nowhere”

•Plays usually not set in England

•Blank verse(unrhymed) and iambic pentameter

•Quarto vs. Folio texts –accurate script, came from Shakespeare’s notes

Shakespeare’s Contemporaries-

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

• ·      University educated
• ·      Dr. Faustus(1592)---before Shakespeare became big
• ·      Questionable political and religious ties
• ·      Spy for Elizabeth government

John Webster (1580-1634)

• ·      Born and lived in London
• ·      Dark, disturbing, violent, view of humans
• ·      The Duchess of Malfi (1612)

Ben Johnson (1572-1637)

• ·      University educated
• ·      Lord Admiral’s Men under Henslowe
• ·      Volpone (1599), satirical and humorous-fakes own death to see who will go to funeral

• read the script
• read the book
• analysis/artistic response
• meet with director and designers
• period research

     Latino/a Performance

o   Hispanic: refers to people from Spain; European descent; can mean the entire Iberian Peninsula; can mean people from countries that Spain once controlled—like Mexico; showed up on the US census form 1980; not a race because the people are from so many different places

o   Latin America: people from Latin America; differentiated from Hispanics; added to the US census in 2000

o   Chicano/a: people of specifically Mexican descent, who were born in the US; this is a race because people are from a specific place with a specific identity; added to US census in 1980; they have a common origin; language is an issue—a lot probably have families that do not speak English well

o   Tejano/a: anyone of Latin American or Chicano descent living in Texas; not a race; designated as where the person is living

o   History and Central Concerns

§  Pre-colonial (pre-1500s) performance relied on ritual and a connection to the world; Spain conquered a lot of places

§  Europeans used performance to spread Christian doctrine

§  Because it was tied to religion it became a job; trained to be an actor, etc.

§  Became a way to control people; put on plays that would be huge on spectacle, but tuned it towards Christianity

§  Exploitation of spectacle—Spain wanted to entertain the people, they could convince people to accept Christianity

§  Moving forward, theatre becomes a finding voice

§  Concerns include family, religion, language, and cultural identity and history

·      Language became huge—Spanglish

o   El Teatro Campesino (1965)

§  Still around today

§  Biggest name in Hispanic/Latino performance and theatre

§  Cultural arm of the United Farm Workers’ Union

·      United Farm Workers’ Union—strike for minimum wage that went on for 5 years; California finally started to work with them; founded by Cesar Chavez

§  Original members were all farmers, staging events from their daily lives

§  Performances on flat bed trucks in fields so that people would not have to miss work to see the plays; it comes to you and tells your story

§  Founded by Luis Valdez (“Father of Chicano Theatre”)

§  Led to the founding of numerous college campus and community-based troupes; grassroots—community people getting together and telling community stories

o   Zoot Suit (1978)

§  Luis Valdez was the first Chicano man to get a play on Broadway

§  Blends events of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial with the 1940s Zoot Suit Riots

·      Sleepy Lagoon murder—this man was found day, and the police took anyone who was Hispanic or Latino to jail

·      Zoot Suit Riots—clashes between white marines and Hispanics who were identified by this Zoot Suit; white sailors coming back from WW2, and did not like men who were not serving wearing big, nice suits, and the police would arrest anyone who was Latino or Hispanic

§  Plays on this idea of “Pachucos”—Americans in southwest, who speak in a very distinct dialect, and dress in a very distinctive way

§  Running commentary and news headlines

§  El Pachuco character has a very distinct accent, and speaks Spanglish

§  Agit Prop Theatre: theatre that advocates social change; using performance to actually change things, not just talk about it

o   Maria Irene Fornes (1930)

§  Born in Havana, Cuba

§  Moved to U.S. in 1945

§  Trained as a painter in Grenache Village in Spain

§  Traveled to Spain and France to study art, but started seeing theatre

§  Samuel Beckett is a huge influence

§  1972—she founds New York Theatre Strategy and works closely with Sam Shepherd

§  Fefu and her Friends (1977)

·      8 women who are working for a theatre education project that will educate children through theatre; follows these 8 women and learning about their personal lives and work in theatre; done in 4 acts, but in act 2, there are 4 scenes that happen simultaneously; the audience is broken up into 4 groups and the audience sees the 4 scenes in act 2 separately and in different orders

§  Emphasis on precise movement and actor position on stage; she writes very specific stage direction; pictures of the body and understanding ourselves through our bodies

o   Cherrie Moraga (1952)

§  Born in Wittier, CA of both Anglo and Hispanic roots

§  Already from the start, dealing with issues of mixed identities

§  Identifies most strongly as a Chicana lesbian—specific identity

§  Founded Kitchen Table Press—first publishing company of Latina women

§  Taught writing at Stanford

§  Essayist and academic; wrote an anthology called A Bridge Called My Back

§  Heroes and Saints (1994)

·      A look at the farming practices that started things like the United Farm Working Union; about farmers who get paid pennies a day and work in fields heavily sprayed with pesticide and live in housing built on toxic waste; to protest the horrible conditions, workers put their children who have died of cancer on crosses and putting them outside their bosses house

§  Spanglish

§  She is not interested in writing for white audience; she is interested in Latin Americans/Hispanics understanding

African American Theatre and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

Ntozake Shnage (b.1948)

• ·      Born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey
• ·      Attended recently de-segregated school
• (start to see where issues of for colored girls bc she delt with them herself)
• ·      Parents exposed her to numerous black artists
• ·      Bachelor’s and Masters’ degrees in American Studies
• ·      Bouts of depression led to a suicide attempt
• ·      (for colored girls: coming to terms with pain)
• ·      Changed name in 1971
• ·      Moved to New York in 1975, won an OBIE for colored girls in 1977
• ·      Black feminist 

The Jazz Aesthetic

• ·      Joni Jones/ Omi Osun Olomo
• ·      New Way to describe “what is a black play/what is playing black”
• ·      Experimental Works
• ·      Emphasis on ensemble over protagonist
• ·      Process over product
• ·      “Polyrythmic”/musical language
• ·      Individualized sense of time and space
• ·      Exploration begins with the body in space

For colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf

• ·      First staged at Bacchanal, a women’s bar in Berkeley, CA.
• ·      “clarifying our lives”
• ·      A way of knowing “a woman’s mind and spirit”
• ·      The mechanics of “self-production”
• ·      “Smitten by my own language”
• ·      “The space we used was the space I knew”
• ·      Began with improvisation and exploration

Theatre and the Harlem Renaissance

• ·      Flowering of African American culture in the 1920s and 30s
• ·      Artistic and Intellectuals
• ·      “New Negro Movement”
• ·      Harlem as center of the African American community
• ·      1917: Ridgely Torrence’s Three Plays for the Negro Theatre (first piece of theatre to present sympathetic, well rounded, realistic black characters)

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

• ·      died at age 35
• ·      born in Chicago to a real estate broker and professor
• ·      lived in an all white neighborhood and faced lots of discrimination
• ·      pre-civil rights movement
• ·      Hansberry vs. Lee, 1940 (went all the way to the Supreme Court)
• ·      Left college for NY and worked for Freedom
• ·      A Raisin in the Sun (1959) first play by an African American author on Broadway
• ·      5^th woman to win

A Raisin in the Sun

• ·      An examination of black family home life in the face of segregation and racism
• ·      Differing constructions of blackness
• ·      Integration vs. segregation, aspirations vs. injustice

Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)

• ·      Born Everett leRoi Jones in Newark
• ·      Left college for the army, but discharged for “soviet” writings
• ·      Greenwich Village, Totem Press in 1958(started publishing Allen Ginsberg)
• ·      1966 founded Spirit House Theatre
• ·      Black Arts Movement and the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School
• (started after Malcolm X was assassinated)
• ·      Baraka said “We want plays that KILL”-the idea that violence made voice heard
• ·      Became a nationwide movement
• ·      Dutchman (1964)-takes place in a passenger car on a train
• (young innocent black man who is seduced by a white woman)

Carnival and Carnivalesque:

·      Public is huge

·      Idea of public performance of Holy week of Easter

·      Mystery Play production

Lent: the antithesis of Carnival

• ·      Christian preparation for Holy Week of Easter
• ·      generally 40 days of fasting
• ·      (fasting) Arose from practical concerns about food storage
• ·      modern tradition often includes giving things up
• ·      medieval fasting practices were more severe

Carnival and public celebration

• ·      pre-Lenten celebration
• ·      mock “battles” between Carnival and Lent
• ·      combines elements of circus, masquerade, and public street parades
• ·      overturning of social hierarchies, Lords of Misrule (flipping social rules in order notice that rules exist, and they will go right back to normal once Lent starts)
• ·      based in part on pre-Christian City Dionysia festivals

Brazilian Carnival and Sambadrome

• ·      “one of the biggest shows on earth”
• ·      spectacle
• ·      (series of parades) Samba schools construct elaborate floats with unique themes and intricate costumes
• ·      Sambadrome as expression of nation/civic identity
• ·      blends African traditions with European Catholicism
• ·      often involves cross dressing and racial drag

Other Carnival Forms

• ·      Mardi Gras
• ·      Arrived as French Catholic tradition in specific cities
• ·      relies on Creole culture
• ·      floats usually constructed by crews or “mystic societies”
• ·      now, state regulated equal access
• ·      Shrovetide
• ·      protestant version of carnival celebration
• ·      only the day before Lent
• ·      “Shrove”= past tense of “shrive” i.e. asking forgiveness
• ·      “Pancake Day”

Theorizing Carnival

• ·      Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975)
• ·      Turning social hierarchies upside down as a way of reaffirming them
• ·      “Safety Valve” theory-time of excess is a release of social pressure
• ·      Emphasis on the workings of the body and its functions
• ·      usually connected to notions of the Grotesque

-Edmund spencer john milton- contemp Shakespeare (probly went to see shakespeares’ plays)

dif btwn liturgical drama (done by priests, inside church) saints plays-done on church steps, also NOT dramatizing Biblical texts

-masterlist men- sponsor “these people are okay” in order to perform theatre

-maria cornez: precise stage pictures(latino identity), shange: (expressing through moving body)

shakespeare: history first, then comedy, then tragedy, then romance

Legacy of Minstrelsy

·      Performed well into the 1950s

·      STILL seen in

-Advertisements

-Cartoons

-Popular songs

-“Ghetto” Parties

Advantages/Drawbacks of Black Americans in Minstrelsy

·      Entryway into Theatre

• ·      Paid performances
• ·      Opportunities for subversion
•  
• ·      False authenticity (take things as fact, when really seing fiction)
• ·      Catered to white audiences
• ·      NOT theatre for social change

Stock Characters

• ·      Uncle Tom:really loyal to his master
• ·      Sambo: happy, and dancing, playing music, never wanted to work
• ·      Zip Coon: did the stump speech, added another stereotype, tries to intergrate himself into high white culture and looks like a fool
• ·      Mammy- (aunt jemimah) –large black woman, a nanny to the white children, very happy to take care of them, desexualized
• ·      Tragic Mulatto-light skinned hyper sexual woman, who usually died at the end
• ·      Pickanniny-whites portrayal of an African American child

Structure(Minstrelsy): Three Acts

·      Walkabout

-Song and dance procession

-Semi-Circle

·      Olio(second act)

-Variety show

-Stump Speech

·      Afterpiece

-Large one act

-Tom Show

Origins(Minstrelsy)

• ·      Blackface performance in Europe
• (Othello)
• ·      T.D. Rice: “Jump Jim Crow” (started in 1830)
• ·      Entr’e Acts: intermission performance
• ·      ***Distorted interpretation of black American culture
• ·      in the 1850s, black Americans started performing in minstrel shows
• ·      (STILL used Blackface)
• ·      William Henry Lane and Thomas Dilward
• -first Black minstrel performers
• ·      Bert Williams: vaudeville performer who used blackface (super famous)
• -light skinned, very wealthy

Why study Minstrelsy?

·      It was important part of theatre

·      Performance of Race: fiction as fact

·      A lot of people who saw this believed the stereotypes as fact because a lot of people were not usually exposed to African Americans

·      We have to come to terms with it

·      Continues to influence our culture

-Stereotypes

-Performance forms

-Songs