Introduction to Theater

Darla Jones, Instructor

The Middle Ages

Middle Ages
Theater of the Middle Ages profoundly religious
Parallels with Greek theater
Began as a springtime religious observance Easter
Ritualized resurrection of Jesus
Public and communal attracted mass audience
Celebrated, illustrated stories of the Bible

Middle Ages
Medieval Times from 476 AD till the 15th century
Secular theatre died in Western Europe with the fall of Rome
No culture, no advancements
Time period is known as Dark Ages
Not well documented due to lack of surviving records and
texts

Middle Ages
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church
banned theatrical performances as barbaric and pagan
There were many church edicts againstsecular performers minstrels, jugglers, acrobats, bards, mimes, puppeteers and
mummers
Small groups of traveling performers went from town to town
entertaining
The only entertainment for the time
Precursors of Commedia dellArte in France and Italy and

Middle Ages
Much political turmoil no reliable political structure
The Catholic church was the only stable leadership/government
The church exerted increasing influence
In the 4thCentury, the Bishop of Rome, claimed to be the
successor to St. Peter, the original Pope
Established supremacy in church matters and secular concerns

Drama in the 10th century

Catholic Church who shut down classical theatre also took part in
the rebirth of the theatre in the 10th century
Had little choice; Couldn't stop the pagan rites too popular
Many aspects of pagan rites found their way into Christian
ceremonies.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Earliest-known woman poet in Germany

Scholars consider her the first dramatist, or
playwright, since ancient times
Spellings of her name include Hroswitha,
Hrosvit, Hroswitha, Roswitha, and Hrotsvit
Wrote stories about Christianity and its
saints.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

b. 935 d. 1000
Lower Saxony Gandersheim
Germany

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Divided her own works into three manuscripts:

Book of Legends
Book of Drama
Epics
The legends and plays still exist, but the two works
included in Epics are lost.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Very few details are known about Hrosvitha's life

Assumed that Hrosvitha was of noble Saxon birth
She was a nun, or canoness
Benedictine monastery of Gandersheim in Saxony
(modern-day Germany).
Gandersheim was founded in 852 as a monastery for
the nobility

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Most of Hrosvitha's writings recounted the lives of

martyrs
Praised those who led ascetic lives- forgoing
sumptuous meals, material possessions, and sexual
pleasure in the pursuit of spiritual goals.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Her six plays are considered the first known

Christian dramas:
Three portray martyrdoms under Roman emperors;
Two, the rehabilitation of harlots by ascetics
One, the repentance and conversion of a young
Roman man in love with a married Christian woman.

Types of Medieval Drama

Liturgical tropes: gospel dramatizations
Mystery plays: Biblical plays
Miracle plays: saints lives
Morality plays: allegories
Interludes and farces: secular plays
Folk plays: pagan and folklore elements

Liturgical Drama
925-975 AD
The content was from the church liturgy and it was
performed by clergy during the church services.
These contained some theatrical elements and the first
short plays were called tropes.
The dramas were written in Latin.

Liturgical Drama
Earliest surviving drama from the middle ages:
A four-line dramatization of the resurrection, with direction for its
performance
Comes from an Easter trope; sung by a choir at first
Celebrates in responsive chanting, the visit of the three Marys to
the tomb of the crucified Christ
They are met by an angel who tells them that Christ has risen and
their grief turns to joy.

Liturgical Drama
"Quem Quaeritis"

"Whom seek ye in the tomb, O Christians?

Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, O heavenly beings,
He is not here, he is risen as he foretold;
Go and announce that he is risen from the tomb."

Religious Vernacular Drama

Vernacular: everyday speech
Catholic clergy switched from Latin to the
languages of the masses language was
considered to have become vulgar
As these plays became more elaborate, they were
performed outside the church

Religious Vernacular Plays

Performed in cycles sometimes as many as 40
days of performances!
Aimed to reinforce Church doctrine
Melodramatic
Good-rewarded; evil-punished
God and his plan were the driving forces

Mystery Play
Stories taken from the Bible
Dealt with the mysteries of the Divine
Each play had four or five different scenes or acts
Priests and monks were the actors

Mystery Play
Each scene or act was performed at a different place
in town
People moved from one stage to the next to watch
the play
The play usually ended outside the church so that
the people would go to church and hear a sermon
after watching the play
Cycles were usually performed at the religious festival
of Corpus Christi -- in the spring or early summer

Mystery Plays
Craft guilds were responsible for producing the plays
Productions were considered a religious duty, and each guild invested
considerable resources into productions.
Plays were often assigned to guilds associated with the subject matter
of the play and became a kind of advertisement
The Flood: ship builders or barrel makers
The Last Supper: bakers
The Magi: goldsmiths

Mystery Plays
Stationary stage
Mansions set up in row, side by side
Heaven is stage right
Hell is stage left
Platforms covered with cotton (the "glories") held
angels
Hellmouth - a fire-breathing monster
representing hell

Miracle Plays
Miracle plays were similar to mystery plays in dramatic
techniques
Most popular subjects were
the Virgin Mary (plays usually written in Latin)
St. George (dragon slayer and patron saint of
England)
St. Nicholas ( associated with Christmas festivities)

Miracle Play
The Miracle playwas about the life or actions of a saint,
usually about the actions that made that person a saint
Dramatized the lives of Catholic saints
In order to become a saint, a person had to perform 3
documented miracles, hence, St. George & St. Nicholas

Morality Plays
Theme: how to live a Christian life and be saved.
Allegory:
A story told on two levels: the literal and the the
symbolic
Plot: a journey through life or to death
Emphasis switches from Biblical and saintly protagonists
to the common man: Everyman, Mankind
Focus on free will
First major use of professional acting companies

Dramatic Techniques
English mystery plays incorporate a combination of high seriousness and low
comedy:
High seriousness: the Biblical stories of the Old Testament and Jesus life
and mission
Low comedy: the plays incorporate almost slapstick sketches of
contemporary medieval daily life.
The plays are set in contemporary settings with recognizable contemporary
characters: the truth of the Biblical stories is timeless -- the divine truths
revealed in the Bible are still true today

Dramatic Techniques
Theatre was performed in found spaces: town squares, taverns,
churches, banquet halls -- no specifically designated theatres
Theatre was intimate -- audience interacted with performers
Elaborate special effects
Characterization was often dependent upon costume and
makeup
In France even women were allowed to perform

English Cycle Plays

Each cathedral town had its own cycle
York
Chester
Wakefield
N-town, also known as Coventry
The cycles were very popular amongst commoners and
nobility: records show that both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I
attended performances

English Cycle Plays

The Protestant Reformation brought a halt to the
presentation of cycle plays as they incorporated Roman
Catholic theology
Cycles were performed every 2-10 years
Some became huge spectacles
The Acts of the Apostles performed at Bourges, France
in 1536 lasted 40 days and involved over 300 performers

Staging
Mansions - small scenic structures for indicating location.
In more complex plays, there were many mansions
Plateau open acting space, adjacent to the mansion
The church structure usually served as the mansions (the
choir loft, for instance, could serve as heaven; the altar
might be the tomb of Christ)

Staging
Machinery was also used: to fly Christ up to heaven, have
angels come down, etc.
Costumes were probably ordinary church vestments

Staging
Processional
Pageant wagons would travel a set route and perform at
several locations like a parade
Would have been set up around a town square
Audience would travel from one wagon to the next to see
the performances

Staging the Plays

Stationary
Mansions or a series of stages would be set up
around the town square
Anchored at either end by Heaven and Hell
Elaborate special effects such as floods, flying
and fiery pits were very popular

Pageant Wagons

The term "pageant" is used to refer to the stage, the

play itself, and the spectacle.
Platform on wheels
Pulled by men
Small enough to fit down narrow streets
May have had second platform, pulled behind

Interludes and Farces

Combined elements of allegory, classical myth, and
courtly entertainment: music, dance, spectacle.
Interludes were short plays performed between courses at
court banquets.
Farces were longer plays ridiculing such human follies as
greed and dishonesty (Everyman)
As the mysteries, miracle and moralities were censored by
Protestant authorities, secular drama became more
important to all levels of society

Decline of Medieval Theatre

Increased interest in classical learning affected staging
and playwriting
Social structure was changing destroyed feudalism and
"corporate" nature of communities

Decline of Medieval Theatre

Dissension within the church led to prohibition of religious
plays in Europe (Queen Elizabeth, the Council of Trent,
1545-1563 religious plays outlawed)
By late 16th century, drama of medieval period lost its
force.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/470304
http://mseffie.com/assignments/everyman/everymansg.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1qxdAlHd1Q7aHFKV1JaSDR3NVE/view?usp=sharing Everyman