Interesting
things students have done in the past on their Theatre History presentations
& scenes:
·
played period music
under parts of presentation
·
introduced themselves
and the characters they will be playing
·
presented equal parts of
presentation
·
explained why they were
serving the food they chose
·
briefly told us the plot
of the play and what has happened just before the scene begins
·
presented defining
elements on big, easy to read poster cards with definitions
·
showed us significant
clip from Changing Stages video and clarified the clip - telling us why
the clip is important
·
recap history of period
in terms of theatre events while other members pantomime the action of the
events - making the history interesting and engaging
·
welcomed all with
"bonjour!"
·
discussed how men copied
Louis 14th style of dress which was beyond compare in terms of frill
·
gave out chocolate
covered strawberries as prizes for correct answers to vocabulary game
·
had students sit in
Tennis Court Style Theatre
·
food: croissants,
crepes, baguettes
·
used French baroque
harpsichord music in background
·
used volunteers to role-play vocabulary scavenger hunt
·
explained costumes with
poster of pearls, lace, ribbons & great photos from period
·
discussed use of color
in costume
·
taught French phrases
·
spoke French phrases
then translated the phrases into English.
·
Male characters used
handkerchief as an extension of their arm to gesture and play with
·
Female characters used
fans as an extension of their arm to gesture and play with
·
figured out what a
"fop" is
·
knew what "comedy
of manners" is
·
knew that in 1629, we
had our first female actors
·
knew that English
Pantomime isn't mime at all
·
used music by Bach
·
showed us a corset and
told us about them and how they were used and why - asked for a volunteer to
try it on
·
used an effected quality
to the voice in the highly effeminate acting style
·
food: sorbet
French NOTES
·
Like England, France
began to feel the effects of the renaissance in the late fifteenth century.
·
Francis I (reigned
1515-1547) was especially interested in the new artistic and literary movements
and invited several Italian artists and scholars to his court.
·
Rebuild (Renaissance)
·
As in England medieval
influences in France continued throughout the sixteenth century.
·
Thus Medieval and
Renaissance elements existed side by side and were mutually inflluential.
·
Renaissance drama had
made an impact both on schools and at court. As in other countries, the trend began with imitations in
Latin of classical works, plays in French.
·
"Terence
Stage" depicted in that edition apparently provided the model for the
staging of plays in French schools and at court until after the mid sixteenth
century.
·
Around 1540, classical
plays and critical treatises began to be translated into French. Plays by Sophocles, Euripides,
Aristophanes, Seneca, Plautus, and Terence and critical works by Aristotle and
Horace were printed before 1550.
·
Renaissance influence
accelerated.
·
Seeking to develop
French as the mediumfor a literature modeled on classical works, they
formulated rules of grammar and prosody, enriched the language by inventing new
words, and illustrated their ideals in their own literary works.
·
The comedies, though
classical in form, resemble medieval farces in their subjects. They deal primarily with urban, amoral,
middle-class characters motivated primarily by sex and money. The tragedies treat classical or
biblical subjects. In most there
is little dramatic tension because the emphasis is on the suffering of the
characters who are the victims of fate and who describe their suffering in a
series of set rhetorical speeches.
These tragedies seem uninteresting, but they were much admired at the
time, probably because moral tone, displays of erudition, and dignity of
expression were considered more important than suspense or psychological
motivation.
·
Moved comedy away from
the mixture of medieval subject and classical form. He modeled his works on Italian Commedia Erudita but adapted
them to French locales and mannerds.
·
The neoclassical ideal
had been fully set forth in France.
·
Medieval influence was
still potent and because playwrights considered tit more important to please
audiences than to adhere to strictly to the rules.
·
Considerable variety of
form and style.
·
Most of the plays about which
informtion has survived were performed in colleges or at court.
·
The setting was
described as "antique," but is not clear whether this was a
"Terence Stage" or a perspective setting.
·
Most of the spectacles
at court used "dispersed decors," medieval-like scenic elements
scattered around a hall rather than concentrated in a single, unified setting.
·
Among the most
characteristics entertainments of this period were the court festivals.
·
Catherine was especially
fond of royal entries and festivals of various sorts, which she used to
illustrate France's power to encourage alliances or reconciliations.
·
An especially elaborate
festival was held at Bayonne. The
main attraction was a water pageant offered by Catherine.
·
Creators sought to unite
dramatic plot, song, dance, and spectacle in the "antique manner."
·
In the meantime,
however, further developments were to be delayed by civil war.
·
While court spectacles
and neoclassical plays were gaining in strength, the French public stage was at
a low ebb. It's status was owing
in part to the Confrerie de la Passion, a confraternity that has a monopoly on
theatrical productions in Paris, organized in 1402 to produce religious drama,
presented in occasional productions in a large hall at the Hopital de la
Trinite for many years.
·
Before the theatre was
completed, however, religious plays were banned. Nevertheless, the Confrerie's monopoly on all theatrical
production in Paris was reconfirmed.
·
The presentation of
devotional dramas- had been removed, the Confrerie now gained control over the
secular theatre.
·
By the 1570's, numerous
professional companies had deveoped outside of Paris, possibly as offshoots of
the confraternities formed to produce religious plays.
·
Outside of Paris,
however, where no monopolies existed, conditions were more favorable.
·
Thereafter the theatre
was used increasingly by temporary occupants.
·
All had to pay fees
where they performed within the city.
·
By the 1570's both the
public theatre and the court entertainments were being affected by the civil
disturbances growing out of the struggle between Catholics and Huguenots
(Protestants).
·
Court entertainments
were greatly curtailed, and public performances in Paris almost totally
ceased. As a result, French
theatre did not revive until the lare 1590's.
·
When public theatrical
performances resume around 1595, French drama was still of little
consequence. The neoclassical
dramatists had catered to aristocratic audiences but had failed to produce any
plays of lasting interest.
·
The usual popular fare
was farce, much of which was improvised under the influence of commedia
dell'arte troupes, which had played sporadically in Paris between 1571 and 1588
and were to return after 1599.
·
The Confrerie gave up
active participation in production and more skilled companies and playwrights
began to appear.
·
Antoine de Montchrestien
wrote 5 tragedies that are recognized as the best of their time. one of these ,
L'escossoise, about Mary of Scotland, created considerable friction between the
governments of France and England.
·
Alexandre Hardy-
France's 1st professional dramatist.
Although he usd such neoclassical devices as the five act form, poetic
dialogue, ghosts, messengers, and the corus, he did not permit reverence for
antiquity to interfere with his primary aim of telling aninteresting
story. He seldom observed the
unities of time and place, he put all important episodes onstage. He turned to tragicomedy and pastoral. Hardy's early work was done primarily
for Valeran LeComte, the first important French theatrical manager. Valleran was well established having
performed since 1952 in major provincial cities.
·
Throughout the
seventeenth century, the number of French companies outside of Paris was great.
·
Marie Vernier is one of
the few actresses known to us from this period. But if acting gained steadily in popularity between 1595 and
1629, the social and religious stigma attatched to it led most performers to
assume stage names when they went into the theatre.
·
Farce continued to be
the most popular dramatic form, and between 1610 and 1629 the most famous
actors in Paris were the players of the farcical types, who played as
Flechelles in serious drama, was a tall, thin, bowlegged creature who could
contort his body like a marrionette.
·
1680- Hotel dela
Bourgeone closed by parliament.
·
1697- King kicked out
all the Italians and their neoclassical ideals.
·
5 rules 1. anything
onstage must be able to happen in real life. 2. must preach moral lesson- good
conquers evil. 3. No mixing of dramatic styles. 4. Play must observe three
unities: Time-24hrs, Place- one location, Action- no subplots.
·
No soliloquies talking
to self not real.
COMEDY: Characters are lower
classes. All get married. Happy endings.
TRAGEDY: Characters are
nobility. All die.
DO
·
Moliere
·
remember vocab
·
Discuss public theater,
neoclassical ideal, etc.
·
Use colorful visuals
·
Food ex: Crepes, cheese
DON'T
·
Don't forget blocking.
Comedy of Manners
·
Tragedies delt only with
nobility
·
acting was very stoic -
actors stood in stately posture
·
Comedies delt with
middle & lower classes
·
used a more realistic
acting style
·
all plays should teach a
lesson in an enjoyable way
·
all plays were to have
decorum and formal beauty
·
violence was to be
avoided
·
Moliere: borrowed
extensively from commedia dell’arte
·
wigs and costumes were
as elaborate as could be afforded
·
Women: fans,
handkerchiefs, jewelry, parasols
·
Men: staffs, canes,
snuffboxes, rings, handkerchiefs
·
character names reveal
the type of people they are
·
Sir Fopling Flutter,
Mrs. Loveit, Lady Wishfort, Sir Clumsy
English Restoration
NOTES
·
Actors-members of
companies.
·
Thomas Killigren king's
Co.
·
William Davenaut Duke's
Co.
·
Apprenticeships.
·
Restoration Tragedy=
heroic plays.
·
Emphasis on love, value,
honor, hightened language, music, spectacle, and rhymed couplets.
·
Lady Wishfort= gold
digger.
·
Foible= flaw in
character, a fool. Tony Lumpkin= idiot, big dummy. Sir Oliver Surface= pimp,
ladies man.
·
Acting style is comic
acting based on artificiality.
·
Procenium style stages.
·
Emphasis on on sex and
cynical view of world.
·
Near end of period King
died.
·
Overdone acting style
huge ups and downs.
·
France was influenced in
art, but not strongly in government.
·
King Louis 16th (week
ruler)- Queen Marie Antoinette.
·
baroque period- heavy
used floral ad frilly patterns.
·
Rocco style- a release
from city life, a greek country life.
They were trying to be naturalistic w/unrealistic settings.
·
Theatre companies had to
show off actors in best ways possiblew/ elaborate costumes.
·
Sheridan-
"Rivals"
·
Goldsmith- "School
for Scandal"
·
David Garrick- 1st
famous actor, playwright.
·
John Gay- "The
Beggars Opera" and sequal "polly".
DO
·
use fans!!! & snuff
boxes
·
exaggerate every
movement
·
play the innuendo
DON'T
·
be normal!!!!
The 17th Century in France
Classical tragedy
was revived in France during the 1600's. The Unities of time, 24 hours or less;
of place, a single scene; of action, a single plot described by Aristotle were
obeyed. The works of two French tragic dramatists still live. Pierre Corneille
(1606–84) wrote 'The Cid', about a medieval Spanish hero, and 'Oedipe',
about legendary Greek characters (see below Corneille). Jean Baptiste Racine (1639–99) also wrote
of legendary ancients, but with more humanity than Corneille. Among his plays
are 'Andromaque' and 'Phèdre' (see below Racine).
Molière (1622–73), whose
real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, ranks second only to Shakespeare. His
specialty was comedy, and such plays as 'Tartuffe' and 'The Misanthrope' show
his comic genius. Molière aimed barbed shafts at snobbery. He hit his target
and made the whole French nation laugh (see below Molière).
Molière
(1622–73). What Shakespeare is to English literature, Molière is
to French literature. His works do not have the same breadth and depth that
Shakespeare's have in their view of human life, nor are they as full of poetry.
No modern dramatist has equaled him, however, in the comedy of manners that
form of comedy in which one laughs at the fashions and foibles of his time.
Although he portrays his own countrymen and his own age, Molière is like
Shakespeare in that he belongs to all lands and all ages. After more than three
centuries, his plays continue to delight their audiences as they did in the
days of the Grand Monarch Louis XIV, Molière's patron.
Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin,for that was his real name, and Molière was only an assumed
one,was born in January 1622 in Paris. He was the son of a prosperous furniture
maker who held the office of upholsterer to the king. Instead of following his
father's calling or taking up the practice of law for which he was educated,
the young man chose the uncertain life of a strolling player. It was at that
time that he took Molière as his stage name.
As an actor and
theatrical manager, Molière learned the art of the stage and gained that
perfect mastery of dramatic structure for which his plays are noted. He also
learned a great deal about human nature. He had a special skill for searching
out weaknesses, follies, vanities, and pretensions, all the ludicrous traits in
men and women. Characters in his plays are often made amusing by the way they
personify and exaggerate a single outstanding characteristic. Harpagon in 'The
Miser' and the hypocrite Tartuffe are immortal creations of his genius, and few
characters have aroused the world's laughter as does Monsieur Jourdain in 'Le
Bourgeois gentilhomme'.
The last play
Molière wrote was 'The Imaginary Invalid'. When the play was first
given, Molière himself played the leading part, that of the invalid
Argan. During a performance of the play in Paris on Feb. 17, 1673, he suffered
a violent fit of coughing. He died shortly after the performance.
Molière's
best-known plays include 'The School for Husbands', first performed in 1661,
'The School for Wives' (1662); 'Le Tartuffe' (1664), 'Le Misanthrope' (1666);
'The Miser' (1668), and 'The Imaginary Invalid'.
RACINE, Jean
(1639–99). Some French critics consider Jean Racine the greatest dramatic
poet of France. Born without rank or money, he died a courtier and a noble. He
and his contemporary Pierre Corneille are among France's greatest poets and
dramatists. Racine endowed his characters with human frailties, and his plays
seem more true to life than the austere dramas of Corneille. The emotions of
his characters, as much as their reason, govern their actions. In letting his
own taste and the story itself determine form, Racine helped free French drama
of the artificiality that came from following rigid rules.
Jean-Baptiste
Racine was born in La Ferté-Milon, northeast of Paris. His parents died
when he was young, and he moved with his grandmother to the Chevreuse Valley.
There an aunt arranged for him to study with Jansenist scholars at the Petites
Écoles associated with the convent of Port-Royal des Champs and at the
college of Beauvais. In this austere and enlightened setting he gained his
knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics.
Although
his Jansenist teachers disapproved of the stage, Racine decided to become a
playwright. He made the acquaintance of the poet Jean de La Fontaine and the
actor and playwright Molière. In 1664 Molière's acting company
staged Racine's 'The Thebaide'. It was not a great success, but in 1666 his
next effort, 'Alexandre', enjoyed a better reception. His other plays including
'Andromaque' (1667); 'The Litigants' (1668), his only comedy;
'Bérénice' (1670); 'Bajazet' (1672); 'Mithridate' (1673); and
'Iphigénie' (1674) followed in close order. In 1672 Racine was admitted
to the French Academy.
In
1677 'Phèdre', adapted from Euripides' classical Greek tragedy
'Hippolytus', appeared. After that Racine made an abrupt break with the
commercial theater. He and a friend, the poet Nicolas Boileau, were asked to
write the official history of the reign of King Louis XIV. Racine became a
courtier and a noble. His last two plays, 'Esther' (1689) and 'Athalie' (1691),
were written for the court. Racine died in Paris on April 21, 1699.
CORNEILLE, Pierre
(1606–84). The French playwright Pierre Corneille is known as the father
of French classical tragedy. In Corneille's time French dramatists were bound
by rules called Unités. All action had to be confined to 24 hours. Plays
had to have five acts. No violence could take place before the audience.
Restricted by these rules, other playwrights wrote second-rate plays. Corneille
followed the same rules and produced masterpieces.
Students
today still read Corneille's plays, but they are rarely produced on the stage.
His verses are powerful; his ideas are firm and clear-cut. His greatest work is
'The Cid', based on the life of an 11th-century Spanish hero.
Pierre
Corneille was born in Rouen, in Normandy, on June 6, 1606. His father was a
magistrate, and the boy was educated to be a lawyer. His first play was
produced when he was 23. He was married at 34 and had six children. He lived a
middle-class existence, very different from the grand lives portrayed in his
plays. After the family moved to Paris in 1647, he was finally admitted to the
French Academy. He died on Sept. 30, 1684, in Paris.
Corneille's
chief works are 'Médée' (performed in 1635); 'Le Cid' (1637);
'Horace' (1640); 'Cinna' (1641); 'Polyeucte' (1643); 'Le Menteur' (The Liar;
1643); 'Don Sanche d' Aragon' (1649); 'Andromede' (1650); and 'Oedipe' (1659).