• medieval theatre practices
• religious narratives
• no proscenium arch
• no scenic effets

• Catherine Medici. Court festivals known for their spectacle, pagentry, and lack of characters/plot
• Cardinal Richelieu. Italian shifting machinery, proscenium arch
• Gaspare Vigarini. Salles des Machines--most technologically advanced theater in Europe. However, was too large and had poor sound quality.

religious group who performed religious plays for over a century

1548, their playhouse, the Hotel du Bourgogne was built. However, they couldn't use it, because religious theater was banned from Paris in 1547.

• first permanent indoor theatre in France
• built by the Confrarie de la passion
• long narrow building, platform at one end, pit, boxes, galleries

known for their spectacle, pagentry, and lack of characters/plot

Similar to Intermezzi and Masques

built by Cardinal Richelieu--later named Palais Royal

first proscenium arch theatre in France

featured Italian scene shifting machinery

commissioned by Cardinal Mazarin for King Louis XIV's  wedding

Largest theatre in Europe

Most up to date technology for the time

52*232

First National Theater in the World

World's Longest surviving national theater

King Louis XIV

• 40 writers
• settled debates over dramatic theory and criticism
• Cardinal Richelieu, 1636

best known for tragedies

his characters sought to reconcile passions in an honorable way, dramatic tension

stricty adhered to neoclassical form so plays generally started just a bit before the climax.

Most famous work: Phaedra

Actually named Jean Baptise Poquelin

best known for his farces written in rhyming couplets

audiences were shocked by his truthfulness

followed neoclassical rules with the exception of deus ex machina

• poor theater manners
• players of the rival theater company at the Hotel de Bourgogone
• Aristocracy

25 meters (members, including women)

provided own costumes

short rehearsal periods

run by playwright or lead actor

Societaries--20 year tenure & pension

Pensionnaires--contracted performer

Mdm. Pernelle

Orgon

Elmire

Damis

Mariane

Valere

Cleante

Tartuffe

Dorine

M. Loyal

Flipote

Duke's Company & Men's Company

they were playwrights granted the right to start a theater in 1662

First well known early English female playwright.

novelist of Oroonoko

part of the upperclass, wrote comedies poking fun of the upperclass

The Country Wife--the double entendre is China

group of female writers, worked together and advanced writing.

Katherine Trotter, Mary Pix, Delariviere Manley

Celebrated actress and mistress of King Charles

"out there" and flirtatious

most well known for her Breeches Roles

celebrated for her ACTING not for her body. Known as the "celebrated virgin"

1663 built by Killagrew

stock scenery

flats/groove system

Used contemporary costume.

stock scenery

candles

French philosopher, wrote theories on acting

Paradox of acting--discusses how actors could convey emotions through carefully calculated movements and tones.

English

spoken dialogue between songs

songs set to contemporary tunes

middle and lower class characters

France

action mimed by performers, songs sung by audience

characters inspired by comedia dell'arte

Best known 18th century English comic playwright

The School for Scandal

french dramatist

battle of wits & class tension, comedy of intrigue

developed new stock character, Figaro

"Barber of Seville"

Licensing Act--restricted presentation of drama to the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theaters and made the lord chamberlain responsible for licensing plays

multiple point perspective

more realistic

made stage look bigger

Italian family of scenic designers and artists

baroque art

massive sets

angle perspectives

set came past the proscenium

rooms

silk screens

oil lamps

auditorium still lit

ground row

bombastic

standardized stage movements

address the audience

first director,

banished spectators from the stage

strict rehearsal period

wanted more natural styles of acting

Age of Independance

industrial revollution

rise of the middle class

nationalism

Charles Darwin, origin of species

carefully dramatic structure

opening includes all necessary exposition

each act builds on previous one

resolution leaves no unanswered questions

Originated in Germany after the Storm & Stress movement

Principles: There is a higher truth, creation from an absolute being
If everything is created from same absolute being, everything has a common origin. Study of one reveals truths about the whole

duality of all things

embraced idea of individual

no purity of genre

violence

supernatural

all subject matter is appropriate for stage

appeal to emotions above instinct

hero is usually a social outcast

France.

used music to build tension/emotion

stock characters, suspensful plot, hero always triumphs, moral

domestic:average/everyday

frontier: cowboys vs. indians/ settlers, etc.

crime:CSI

Nautical: swashbuckler movies

equestrian: animals

author Harriett Beecher Stowe

adapted for stage by George Aiken

ran for 300 performances

49 touring co. by 1879

500 touring companies by 1899.

First play to run for so long--influenced Broadway

Francois Delsarte

acting theorist and teacher

convey emotions with pre-established gestures, body movements and vocal inflections