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Interesting things students have done in the past on their Theatre History presentations & scenes:

 

 

All Periods

·      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

 

 

French

·      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.

 

 

Restoration

·      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).