Theatre Chapter 14 – Flashcards
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commedia dell'arte
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Originating in sixteenth century Italy, traveling acting companies that presented broad, improvisationa comedy and were popular throughout Europe between 1550 and 1750
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Arlecchino/Harlequin
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A figure in commedia dell'arte; the crafty servant of Patalone. His costume is covered with multicolored lozenges that represent the patches he used to repair his threadbare clothing.
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Pantalone
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A stock character of comedia dell'arte; a stingy, retired Venetian merchant who often makes a fool of himself by courting young women
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Scapino
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A stock character of commedia dell'arte; a servant who is smarter than his master; usually played by an acrobat
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Innamorata
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A stock character in commedia dell'arte; leading lady who is in love with Innamorto
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Innamorato
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A stock character in commedia dell'arte; leading man who is in love with innamorata
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La Ruffiana
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A stock character of commedia dell'arte; a gossipy old woman who meddles in the affairs of the lovers
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three unities
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Rules for writing a play requiring (1) the action to take place within a 24 hour period, (2) settings that can all be reached within 24 hours, and (3) no commingling of comedy and tragedy. These rules for unity of time, place, and action were a misinterpretation of Aristotle's writings by Renaissance scholars
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declamatory acting
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A style of acting popular from the Renaissance through the early twentieth century that features grand gestures and an exaggerated elocutionary style. The actors deliver their lines directly to the audience in a rhetorical manner typified by order, harmony, and decorum
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perspective scenery
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A technique of set design and scene painting that gives the illusion of depth
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dowstage
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the area of the stage closest to the audience
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upstage
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the area of the stage farthest from the audience
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autos sacramentalles
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Religious dramas in spain during the Middle Ages and Renaissance
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corrales
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Crude platform stages built in courtyards of inns in Spain for performances of autos sacramentales and other plays
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University Wits
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In Elizabethan England, one of the groups of student actors writing and performing plays in the style of Ancient Greeks and Romans; included Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlow
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Boy companies
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Professional theatre companies of boys who competed with adult acting troupes in Eliza-bethan London
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Puritans
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A strict religious group in Elizabethan England who hated the theatre and lobbied to shut it down
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Blackfriars
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A famous indoor theatre that catered to wealthy clientele in late sixteenth century London. James Burbage, who built the theatre in 1576, skirted London's anti-theatre laws by locating the theatre in the old Dominican friary called Blackfriars, which was legally church-owned land, not part of the city
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Box Office
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Ticket office of a theatre; named for the entry room in Elizabethan theatres where theatregoers dropped payment into a box
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Groundlings
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audience members who stood on the main floor (and therefore paid the least for their tickets) in Elizabethan theatre
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Verbal Scene Painting
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a technique used by English and Spanish playwrights to set the mood or place of a scene. Because the words paint pictures, the audiences "dresses" the stage in their imagination
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Masques
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Originating in the early 1500s, a form of entertainment for monarchs and their invited audiences; characterized by grand dances, extravagent costumes with masks, lavish spectacle, poetry, and florid speeches all hung on a thin story line praising the monarch and demonstrating the need for loyalty
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Alexandrine Verse
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A common style of French tragic playwrights that had twelve syllables to a line. An actor would raise his voice for the first six syllables and lower it for the last six; each line was then followed by a slight pause
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Popular Theatre
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consisted of simple comedies and dramas for the common people, performed on the streets of in makeshift theatres, temporary structures, or found spaces such as arenas and courtyards
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Shakespeare in Love-women on stage
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Mary Frith charged with appearing in a play called "The Roaring Girl" at the Fortune Theatre. Word "Roaring" used to mean any person who was noisy, showy, or antisocial. She appeared on stage and played the role of a man for several months until she was discovered. She was sentenced to six months in the notorious Bridewell Prison where she was urged to contemplate her sins. One hundred years later after women were allowed to appear on stage they were still condemned often for performing
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The Most Famous Whodunit in Theatre
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anti-stratfordians are people who question whether Shakespeare really wrote all of his plays- thought he wasn't literate because he spelled his name so many different ways and there's no record of him ever attending college
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Multiculturalism Gets Off to a Rocky Start: The Masque of Blackness
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Most explorers were motivated only by "gold, glory, and the gospel." In 1596 and 1601, Queen Elizabeth I issued edicts blaming Africans for social evils because they were not Christians and calling for their expulsion from Britian. White actors played other races through the use of white makeup. The Masque of Blackness, written by Ben Jonson at the request of Britan's Queen Anne. The queen expressed a desire to appear onstage with her ladies disguised as "Blackmoors"
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Pierre Corneille
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Wrote Le Cid(1637)-the story of young lovers Chimene and Rodrigue. Play was denounced by many critics and playwrights but loved by general audiences. Controversy became so big that soon the French Academy, an exclusive club of writers founded in 1634 to maintain standards of literature and language, made an official ruling. Praised the playwright for following so many neoclassical doctrines but criticized him for slight deviations from the classical unities
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Jean Racine: The Rule Advocate
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"Here you can burn this one too" Fascinated by the plays of Sophocles and Euripidies and went on to write many plays that were adaptations of Greek Tragedies. His most famous work was Phaedra and it was based on Hippolytus by Euripides (1639-1699)
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Moliere: The Risk Taker
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France's comic writer--wrote highly political farces, comedies and comic ballets that satirized French life. Moliere wrote a number of satires about medical profession after his son was killed by a doctor-The Doctor in Spite of Himself and The Imaginary Invalid. Tartuffe is about a religious hypocrite
