Aspects of Theatre and Performance
Renaissance Festivals
Essay Questions (Spring Term 2012)
1) Write an introductory essay and suggest annotations and
commentary that would help a twenty-first-century reader to
understand the context and significance of one of the festival books
digitised on the British Library’s ‘Treasures in Full: Renaissance
Festival Books’ site.
2) With detailed reference to reports, festival books and/or
scripts/scenarios for entertainments, discuss the context for, and
significance of one festival occasion that took place between the
late-fifteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries.
3) Discuss one festival occasion in performance in the Renaissance
taking into account the challenges posed by the occasion for the
patron(s), deviser(s), designer(s), choreographer(s), musicians and
performers.