Renaissance Theatre in Italy The Italian Renaissance late

Renaissance Theatre in Italy

The Italian Renaissance (late 1300’s-1600’s ) • Cultural center of Europe was Italy. • Renaissance means rebirth – This theme reflected renewed interest in classics and Greece and Roman culture – Advancement in all Arts, Science and learning during this time • Theatre gets closer to our modern styles • Merchants sponsored artists – System of financial support was called patronage • Topics/subjects from the religious to human activity rather than divine. • A change in philosophy called humanism.

Renaissance = Rebirth • Historians in 1800’s believed learning had stopped during the Middle Ages and came back in the 1300 -1400’s and named the period the Renaissance. • Historians now disagree on this point and whethere was a rebirth or perhaps there were several rebirths.

Italian Theatre • Medieval Italian Theatre depended on portable stages • The Ten Books of Architecture, written c. 16 -13 BCE by Vitruvius, was rediscoverd in a monastery in Switzerland. Included plans for Greek inspired Roman Theatre • Led to the building of new theatres and eventually the Olympic Theatre in Vicenza.

Neo-classical ideas • Renaissance rules of writing drama influences drama for 200 years. • Rules came from a mistaken understanding of what was meant by the rediscovered Greek & Roman playwrights (Aristotle). • Renaissance writers created plays and copied stories and themes from the Greek and Roman plays.

Ideals • Renaissance philosophy demanded all characters be recognizable and verifiable from real life – Unity of time- action doesn’t over more than 24 hours of time. – Unity of place- all action takes place in one location. – Unity of action- plot has only one story line (no subplots). • This wasn’t followed universally. • Particularly and England Spain, these ideals were ignored

What changed in terms of space and styles of theatre decoration? • 1. Visual arts had developed during this time, having a major effect on imagery in theatre – Illusion of depth /perspective painting. – Images were no longer flat. – Architecture, theatre building changed.

Lorenzetti

Bonaventura Berlinghieri, St Francis of Assisi, 1235

• Van Eyke

Vanishing Point Perspective • Made it possible to draw buildings, trees, and figures on to backdrops with perspective and the correct proportions. • The illusion of reality was being developed.

What was the Proscenium arch? • Proscenium arches or picture from opening around stage spaces • Oldest example is in Vicenza, Italy the Teatro Olimpico completed 3000 people stage has a permanent facade • Doorways build into wall w/deep hallways giving the illusion of deep interior spaces.

Olympic Theatre

Permanent facades were not flexible. • Painted scenery could be shifted to reveal new sets behind them. • Painted flats/canvases allowed for changes. • 1 st theater with proscenium stage was Teatro Farnes in Parma, Italy in 1618.

Proscenium Arch Theatre • Completed in 1618, Teatro Farnese was the first theatre with a proscenium arch. • Horseshoe auditorium held about 3500 people

Teatro Farnes

What changed when scenery was introduced? • Multiple settings behind each other for changes requires that there be more backstage space for scenery and equipment. • Renaissance stages therefore became deeper.

What were the standard settings in these plays? – Tragedies (streets of a wealthy Reuse of standard styles of settings – neighborhood) – Comedies (streets of a lower-class homes) – Pastoral plays (Countryside cottages) • Intermezzi- short pieces depicting mythological tales presented between acts • Thematically related to main play

What is Commedia dell’arte? • A form of improvisational theater that began during the renaissance in Italy. • Troupes of actors toured the Italian country-sides. • They performed using stock characters. • Dialogue was improvised following a basic outline but there were no script.

Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • male characters members of this group are – – Pantalone, Il Dottore Il Capitano. Called vecchio - means "old one" or simply "old" in Italian. • They are overwhelmingly the antagonists, opposing the love of the innamorati

Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • Arlechinno /Harlequin was a clever prankster

Who were the stock characters in Commedia dell’arte? • Punchinello- was a malicious servant • Innamorato, Inamorata- Young hero/heroine • Fontesca-serving maid • Zanni- male servants • All were identified by their half masks or costumes

Why is this important? • The stock characters of the Commedia dell’arte influenced the archetypes used in other works. Taking Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as an example: – – – – Nurse = Fontesca Friar Lawrence, Balthazar, Benvolio = Zanni Mercutio= Archelinno/Harlequin Tybalt=Punchinello Capulet= Vecchio- Il Pantalone Paris= Vecchio- Il Capitano Romeo and Juliet= Inamorati

Lazzo (lazzi) • Improvised scenes in commedia – Arlecchino, a zanni (comic servant) and cherries

Women and Commedia • Evidence shows women were part of the troupe • May have been married into the troupe • May not have had equal status

Female stock characters – Wives – Innamoratas/lovers – Ingenues- young innocent, naïve young women – Servants – Mistresses – Wantons

Elizabethan England • Powerful English Ruler Queen Elizabeth I – ruled for 45 years, 1588 -1603 – language literature and the arts flourished due to her patronage. • Acting changed from amateur to professional status • Playwrights now had a stable experienced group of performers for whom to write more detailed and complicated plays. • Permanent theatres built • All classes could attend performances

What was theatre-going like in Elizabethan England? • Previous policy by church viewed all nonreligious theater as evil. • City of London didn’t permit theatre buildings to be erected inside the city limits. • Theatres were then built across the Thames river in a suburb of London.

Flags flying atop a theatre • Signified a play was being given – White= comedy – Black= tragedy – Red= History

The Globe theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were presented • Elizabethan theatres were circular or octagonal structures of three stories with an open roof • Theater had a raised platform stage that would be surrounded by the audience on the three sides

It was closer to a contemporary thrust stage than a proscenium arch stage being used in Italy at the same time

How did plays in England differ from those in Italy at the same time in history? • • • No neoclassical ideals. Dramas structured in a series of scene Changes of location. This influenced the use of stage space in England. Little use of scenery, – entrances and exits signified a change of scene – A piece of furniture suggested the location of the next scene – Characters would speak/announce the change of location called “spoken décor”

Noted feature of Elizabethan Drama • Use of poetry • William Shakespeare considered the most important playwright during this period

Iambic Pentameter • Iambic pentameter • 2 syllables to each beat, 5 beats per line • 10 syllables in each line, stress put on the 2 nd beat • Sonnets

Macbeth • Is this a dagger which I see before me, • The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. • I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

William Shakespeare • “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages” -As you like it -William Shakespeare http: //internetshakespeare. uvic. ca/Library/SLT/lifesubj+ 1. html • Awareness of human nature

Biographical Info • b. 1564 in Stratford upon Avon to John and Mary Shakespeare 1 of 8 children. • Married in 1582 to Anne Hathaway – Has three children Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. • 1587 - left to go to London, – member of Lord Chamberlain's men – became a shareholder in the company – helped finance/part owner of the Globe theatre • 1613 Globe theatre burned down – Shakespeare retired to Stratford • d. 1616 @ age 52

What was Shakespeare’s body of work? • • • 154 sonnets 38 plays ? (There is some argument here) – Tragedies/Comedies/Histories/Fantasies – Apocrypha – plays said to be written by Shakespeare but actually written by someone else; Thomas Middleton. – Lost Plays – Ex. Loves Labour Won

List of plays Comedies • All's Well That Ends Well • As You Like It • The Comedy of Errors • Love's Labour's Lost • Measure for Measure • The Merchant of Venice • The Merry Wives of Windsor • A Midsummer Night's Dream • Much Ado About Nothing • Pericles, Prince of Tyre • The Taming of the Shrew • The Tempest • Twelfth Night • The Two Gentlemen of Verona • The Two Noble Kinsmen • The Winter's Tale Tragedies • Romeo and Juliet • Coriolanus • Titus Andronicus • Timon of Athens • Julius Caesar • Macbeth • Hamlet • Troilus and Cressida • King Lear • Othello • Antony and Cleopatra • Cymbeline Histories • King John, Richard II, • Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, • Henry V, Henry VI part 1, Henry VI part 2, Henry VI part 3, • Richard III, Henry VIII

Other Works attributed to Shakespeare Poems • Shakespeare's Sonnets • Venus and Adonis • The Rape of Lucrece • The Passionate Pilgrim • The Phoenix and the Turtle • A Lover's Complaint Lost plays • Love's Labour's Won • Cardenio Apocrypha • Arden of Faversham • The Birth of Merlin • Locrine • The London Prodigal • The Puritan • The Second Maiden's Tragedy • Sir John Oldcastle • Thomas Lord Cromwell • A Yorkshire Tragedy • Edward III • Sir Thomas More

Controversies • Did Shakespeare really write all the plays attributed to him ? – It is accepted that he had borrowed stories from source history but made them his own/ • Shakespeare wrote sonnets to both a man, his patron, and a mysterious Dark Lady. • Was Shakespeare’s identity lifted by a group of collaborators? Or one person who’s status would be jeopardized?