The Renaissance
Theater
William Shakespeare
Drama as Teachers: The
Forerunners
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Some scholars believe that medieval drama evolved from
church ceremonies such as the dialogue songs
performed at Easter Eve services.
From this obscure beginning, drama moved out of the
churches and into the marketplaces of towns. There, in
the 1300s and 1400s various workers’ guilds cooperated
in staging cycles of plays that dramatized the whole
history of the human race as then understood: its
creations by God, its fall through the wiles of Satan, its
life in Old Testament times, its redemption of Christ, and
its final judgment at the end of the world.
The Forerunners
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Gradually the plays became less religious, often relying
on deus ex machina (an artificial device arbitrarily used
to resolve a plot), and comedy was incorporated into
them.
The most notable play of the period just before the
Renaissance is Everyman, based on a Dutch original.
Miracle and Mystery plays taught people stories from the
Bible and saint’s legends. Moralities taught people how
to live and die.
1500’s the Interlude which was a one-act play some
similar to moralities, but others rowdy and farcical
Playwrights stopped being anonymous
Old Traditions, New Theaters
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1576, James Burbage, the father of
Shakespeare’s partner and fellow actor
Richard Burbage, built the first public
theater and called it, the Theater
Second playhouse was called the Curtain
then came the Rose, Swan, Fortune,
Globe, Red Bull, and the Hope
The Globe: “This Wooden O”
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It is the most famous of the public theaters because the company
that Shakespeare belonged to owned it. Many of his plays received
their first performances there.
The theater has three main parts: the building proper, the stage,
and the tiring house, or backstage area, with the flag flying from its
peak to indicate that there will be a performance that day.
It was probably a sixteen sided polygon.
General admission to the theater cost one penny; this entitled a
spectator to be a groundling, which meant he or she could stand in
the yard. Patrons paid a little more to mount up into the galleries,
where there were seats and a better view of the stage. The most
expensive seats were chairs set right on the stage along its two
sides.
Since the spectators must have been squeezed together, it is no
wonder that the authorities always closed the theaters during
plague epidemics.
Up Close and Personal
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The stage jutted halfway out into the
yard, so that the actors were in much
closer contact with the audience than
actors are in modern theaters. Thus,
every tiny nuance of the actor’s
performance could affect the audience.
The trapdoor in the stage led down to
what was called “Hell” and the ceiling over
part of the stage was the “Heavens”
Behind the Scenes
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The third part of the theater was the tiring
house, a tall building that contained
machinery and dressing rooms and that
provided a two-story back wall for the
stage.
The Power of Make-Believe
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Renaissance audiences took for granted that the
theater cannot show “reality”: Whatever
happens on the stage is make-believe. When
the people in the audience saw actors carrying
lanterns, they knew it was night, even though
the sun was shining brightly overhead.
As the theatrical historian Gerald Bentley put it,
Renaissance drama was “a drama of persons,
not a drama of places.”
Pomp and Pageantry
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The scenery may have been kept to a
minimum, but the theaters themselves
were ornate. The interiors were painted
brightly, with many decorations, and the
space at the rear of the stage could be
covered with colorful tapestries, or
hangings.
Costumes were rich, elaborate, and
expensive.
The Globe
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The Globe Again
The Globe Again