Term
| What happened in Britain to the audience of theatre? How did this effect theatre? |
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Definition
The royalties did not care for the theatre anymore. Audience in England increasingly tended toward well to do middle-class trades people.
One effect of this shifted the emphasis of comedy toward sentiment. |
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Term
| What was the most popular theatre form in early 18th century London? |
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Definition
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Term
| Who wrote Beggar's Opera? |
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Definition
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Term
What was Beggar's Opera about?
How did if effect theatre law? |
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Definition
It caricatured a bribery scandal involving the British Prime minister Sir Robert Walpole.
After this, Walpole successfully convinced parliament to institute the licensing Act of 1737. This act limited legal theatrical production to 3 theatres, and gave Lord Chamberlain the right to censor any play. |
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Term
| In contrast to the mammoth opera houses that flourished elsewhere, what were the characteristics of the Theatre in London? |
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Definition
| It retained its elegant but intimate physical size and scale. |
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Term
| The playing area in London theatre's contained what? |
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Definition
| A forestage, the sides of which contained doorways for entrances and exits for actors. |
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Term
| What happened to American theatre in the beginning? Who changed this and how? Then what happened in the end? |
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Definition
It came up squarely against unbending Puritan austerity.
However, Richard Hunter gained permission from the acting governor of the province of New York to present plays in the city of New York.
The Province ended up forbiding "play acting and other forms of disreputable entertainment" in 1709 |
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Term
| Where were there lively theatres in America? |
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Definition
| Williamsburg Virginia, Philadelphia, and New York. |
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Term
| Explain American touring companies. |
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Definition
| Most of them were actually English touring companies |
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Term
| Explain set changes and the role of curtains in American theatre. |
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Definition
| The front curtain rose and fell at the beginning and end of each act, but the numerous scene changes within the acts took place in full view of the audience. |
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Term
| What was the first play written by an American to receive a professional production, and who wrote it? |
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Definition
| Thomas Godfrey's The Prince of Parthia. |
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Term
| French drama had one final blaze of brilliance before the Revolution, in the plays of who? |
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Definition
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Term
What were Pierre de Beaumarchais' two most famous works?
What did the plays presage and how did the audience change during the nine years between the plays? |
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Definition
The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro (5 acts v 4 acts - neoclassicism)
They presaged the coming Revolution, and the nine years between the works saw a dramatically changed audience perception of the message. The audience saw the criticisms directed against society as a while. When the Revolution came, its horrors left the French stage bare during the final ten years of the eighteenth century. (The theatre was too much like real life). |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| A forestage, the sides of which contained doorways for entrances and exits for actors existed in what countries theatre? |
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Definition
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Term
| Explain the importance of Thomas Godfrey's The Prince of Parthia. |
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Definition
| It was the first American play to receive a professional production. |
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Term
| Who wrote The Prince of Parthia. |
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Definition
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Term
| What did Thomas Godfrey write? |
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Definition
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Term
| Explain the importance of Pierre de Beaumarchais. |
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Definition
| French drama had one final blaze of brilliance before the Revolution in his plays. |
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