Medieval Theatre Medieval Theatre v The Roman Catholic

Medieval Theatre

Medieval Theatre v The Roman Catholic Church banned secular theatre v. The Church thought theatre was barbaric and pagan (and a lot of Roman theatre actually was…)

Medieval Drama v The Roman Catholic Church helped bring back theatre in the 10 th century v They used it to teach illiterate new Christians

Medieval Drama v. The first short plays were called tropes vtropes were written in Latin vthe priests performed them during mass

Medieval Drama v Tropes began to change… v. Priests began writing tropes in the vernacular (so that people would understand) v. Tropes became more elaborate and moved outside to the church yard v. Common men became actors in the plays

The 3 M’s of Medieval Drama v Mystery plays: Biblical stories v. Miracle plays: saints’ lives v. Morality plays: allegories

Mystery Plays v. Mystery plays – also known as Cycle Plays v. Produced by town guilds (similar to today’s unions)

Miracle Plays v Dramatized the lives of Roman Catholic saints (in order to become a saint, a person had to perform 3 documented miracles)

Morality Plays v. Morality plays are allegories. v Allegory = A story told on two levels: the literal and the symbolic v. Protagonists are common men (not saints or Bible characters)

Morality Plays v. Probably most well-known surviving morality play = Everyman v. Morality plays were acted by professional acting companies

Staging the Plays Two main types of stages: v. Pageant wagons (processional) v. Mansions (stationary) https: //www. youtube. com/wa tch? v=G 8 a. Us. GVMH 6 g https: //www. youtube. com/wa tch? v=GAKzf 4 zndmc