The Evolution of Drama and Theatre Essay Example For Students

The Evolution of Drama and Theatre Essay In the following essay, I am going to write about the development of drama and theatre from the English to the French Renaissance. There is a few important aspects that I am going to focus on: The influence that the English playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare had on Elizabethan drama, the public outdoor theatres of the English Renaissance, a short summary on Commedia DellArte, the different neo-classical ideals that developed during the Italian Renaissance, the major innovations of scenic design and scenic practices, also about Moliere as French Neo-classical comedy dramatist and the Cardinal Richelieus theatre: the Palace Cardinal. Christopher Marlowe was the first significant dramatist to emerge in the Elizabethan period. A history play that emphasizes important public issues, the chronicle play, was perfected by Marlowe. Marlowe did not write for publication, but rather for production. Christopher Marlowe was the most famous of the university wits. A dramatic structure standard was set by him and a number of interesting characters to English theatre was contributed by him. Marlowe developed another element that originated in medieval morality plays. A fight will occur between a good and bad angel for the main characters soul. Marlowe used this theme in many of his plays and so it became an acceptable theme in English drama. Basically a full-length drama would be incorporated by an abstract notion from the morality plays. Marlowe also focused on dramatic poetry, the power of a dramatic verse. The critics and people spoke off it as Marlowes mighty line, an element that became central in the later Elizabethan plays. This verse had five beats to a line, with two syllables to each beat and accent on the second beat. It was called iambic pentameter, which developed powerful elements such as strength, suppleness, lyric beauty and subtlety (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:189-191). William Shakespeare was an actor and also a member of a dramatic company and therefor he excelled in many aspects of theatre such as technical elements. He was noticed for his excellent use of the episodic plot, also for the powers of his metaphors and the use of music in his language. Another noticeable element of Shakespeares plays was the fact that his characters were well-rounded and carefully detailed which created an atmosphere of living people. Shakespeare wrote comedies, tragedies, histories and sometimes categories that could not be labelled, that made him diverse in his work. Influences from earlier drama is illustrated in his plays and how it comes together during the English renaissance. Shakespeare did not follow the structure rules of Italian neo-classicists and instead used episodic devices that emerged in the medieval period. The use of more than one locale, he also used more than one plot and he mixed tragedy with comedy. A remarkable achievement of Shakespeare is his use of language. Quotations and phrases that we use in everyday speech, originated from his plays. What makes them impressive is not only the rhythm and its imagery, but the sound of it. Scenes got alternated so that each episode illuminates or forms a counterpoint to the one before and after it (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:193-195). Enclosed inn-yards were adapted for performance space. A stage would be set up at the end opposite the entrance and while some spectators will stand in the yard, others will use rooms that overlook the yard as viewing spaces. Public theatres that were designed for performances became a primary space for adult acting companies whatever their origin. Just outside London, between the 1560s and 1642s, nine open-air public theatres were built. The reason why it was built outside London is because the city fathers of London forbade it on their moral grounds. But Queen Elizabeth and later King James offered protections that ultimately allowed the theatre to survive, because they enjoyed it. The theatres outside London were called the Theatre, the Globe, the Curtain, the Red Bull, the Swan, the Rose and the Hope. The number of spectators that the public theatre could accommodate, ranged from 1 500 to 3 000. The buildings were in different shapes, most of them were circular, some were polygonal and the Fortune theatre was in a square shape. The Rose theatre was discovered to have had thirteen or fourteen sides (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:200-201). In the public outdoor theatres the pit, galleries and boxes were used to accommodate the spectators and usually it was three tiers of seating all around the sides. The first tier was approximately 12 feet of the second one and it would be divided into boxes and it accommodated the wealthy people and therefore it was called the lords room. The second tier was about 11 feet and it had bench seating along with the third tier that was 9 feet and also had bench seating that was undivided. Then there were a yard, which were standing space for the spectators on the ground in front of the stage and on the sides. It was usually for the lower class spectators that were known as groundlings and then before or during the show food and drinks would be sold to them (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:202-203). The stage was a raised platform thrust stage that was surrounded by the audience from all three sides. The space from the back towards the stage was sloped for the groundlings to stood and watch and they had trapdoors that was used in some plays such as Hamlet. The tiring house was a stage house that was a three-story building right behind the raised platform. It was used as a space to store set pieces, properties and as a changing area for the actors to change their costumes. The entrances and exits introduced the scene changes and the faade was a basic scenic element in the Elizabethan public theatres. A Christmas Carol EssayAdvances in art like perspective paintings and drawings made it possible to develop the flat win in the seventeenth century. These painting and drawing techniques that developed in 1600 created the illusion of depth and also three dimensional space. Flat wings were individual wings placed parallel to the audience on each side of the stage in a series. For the flat wing scene shifting new methods had to be released. The two flat wing scene changing methods were called the groove system and the pole-and-chariot system. The groove system was the earliest method, above the stage floor the wings and shutters would be placed in grooves and allowed it to slide offstage easily and quickly so that the new wings and shutters can immediately be revealed. It did not last, because the scene shifters had a problem with the coordination with the wings and shutters when they were moved. The pole-and-chariot method was developed by Torelli. Scene flats would be attached to poles and these poles went below the stage floor and there they would be connected to wheel that ran on a track. This made the flats move smoothly off the stage (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:171-174). Special effects developed even further in the Italian Renaissance. They started to made use of flying machines, trapdoors and devices that would create sound effects like thunder, rain and wind. They also had to use devices that would create light, because the plays would take place at an indoor theatre and it would minimize the light. They used candles and oil lamps and if they wanted to control the intensity of the light, they would use open canisters and cover the candle with it (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:174). Molire was a French neo-classical dramatist who specialised in comedies and also had the most influence on modern theatre. He was born in 1622 as Jean Baptiste Poquelin. He was famous for a particular quote, If it be the aim of comedy to correct mans vices, then I do not see for what reason there should be a privileged class. He depicted the vices (an immoral or wicked habit of characters) and follies (a lack of good sense or understanding) truthfully and therefor the audience members were shocked, but he still succeeded in earning the respect of theatregoers and he remains one of the most popular dramatists. His dialogue consisted of witty dialogue mixed with farcical humour and human foibles. He also made use of rhyming couplets in the dialogues of his plays. Molires plots would be solved by a deus ex machine and one of his lead influences were commedia dellarte, where stock characters were resembled (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:257-258). Molire had an option of two career choices if he wanted to be wealthy. He could have fallowed his fathers footsteps and become an upholsterer in the service of the king or he could have become a lawyer. But he left school in 1643 and decided to change his name to Molire. He was imprisoned for dept in 1645 because his theatre went bankrupt. While his troupe was performing in the provinces till 1658, he was able to coach the performers with his methods. Molires plays were very successful but some of his plays like Tartuffe were banned. He did not only write one third of the troupes plays, but he was also the company manager and an actor. Molire lived an unhappy life, because he had to work harder for financial stability and his wife was also notorious for her flirtations. In 1673 Molire died when he fainted at one of the performances, because he suffered from a lung ailment (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:258-260). Cardinal Richelieu erected the Palais Cardinal and after his death it was called the Palais-Royal. The Palais Cardinal was a theatre in France that was a rectangular form and had a stage at the one end and sitting space on three sides around it where it accommodated 1 500 spectators. The area in front was called the pit and it accommodated 300 people, the raised amphitheatre behind the pit accommodated 700 sitting spaces, another 330 sitting spaces was accommodated in the galleries, 50 wealthy nobles were seated on the sides of the stage and 70 people could have stand at the very back. The theatre made use of Italianate scene-shifting machinery and was also the first proscenium-arch theatre in France. An Italian scenic wizard called Giacomo Torelli installed scene-changing equipment in France and also designed the scenery. He installed a pole-and-chariot system in the Palais-Royal which included him to build a platform stage 6 feet high, 49 feet wide, and 48 feet deep. French proscenium-arch theater buildings consisted of an amphitheatre in the back, opposite the stage that was bleacher-like seating and that made it differed from the ordinary Italian proscenium-arch theater buildings (Wilson Goldfarb 2010:261-262). As seen above, the theatre of art has been developed in every aspect from the English renaissance, through the Italian- till the French renaissance. From the greatest dramatists to the most amazing methods to change scenes on set. The renaissance period was not only a period of rebirth, but a period where spectacular theatre elements have been developed and improved. Bibliography: Wilson, E. Goldfarb, A. 2010. Living Theatre: A History, 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill. Wilson, E. Goldfarb, A. 2010. Living Theatre: A History, pp 26-271, in University of the Free State 2014, DRAH1504 History of the Performance, Grov, M., Bloemfontein.