...The era of Elizabethan times was quite the historical mark on entertainment arts, because of the vast popularity that it began growing. The arts were specifically used for entertainment and fun, as well as jobs and a way of life for some entertainers. Some entertainers used drama and theatre as a way of art and expression, but also to make others just as happy. The importance of the era, drama, theatre, and politics have greatly affected today’s outlook on the arts of entertainment. Elizabethan drama and theatre has influenced the history of not only literature, but also how they are both used today. The Elizabethan era was predominately one of the most historical eras to this day. Historians believe it is one of the most historical eras because...
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...The History of Theatre Alanna Leon Effective Essay Writing/COM/150 May 27, 2012 Michael Macbride The History of Theatre Theatre is a fantastic, entertaining, and very old art form. An evolution of storytelling, theatre is an expression of life. The history of theatre can be traced all the way back to the time of Ancient Greece. The art of theatre has survived many years and has evolved greatly during those years. A performance you would have seen in Ancient Greece is not at all what you would see in a performance today. Many things in theatre have changed, from the dialogue and costumes, to the sets, themes, and the playwrights themselves. Just as the human race has had to adapt to changes in order to survive over the years, theatre has done the same. There is one thing that has not changed all that much and that is that people still use theatre as an escape. While theatre was originally used as a form of worship to the Greek god Dionysus, the art of theatre has greatly evolved over the years and is now mainly used as a source of entertainment. There is not much history pertaining to the origin of theatre. Most research comes from wall paintings and hieroglyphics. One of the first dramas was performed in Egypt and is said to be the beginning of theatre. This drama was the Abydos passion play, involving the story of Osiris (Robinson, 2002). Most of the first recorded examples of theatre come to us from Ancient Greece. Ancient Grecians had four festivals honoring...
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...3rd period Elizabethan Theatre The Elizabethan World This theory, based on the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s concept of the universe, was of great importance to Shakespeare’s contemporaries and was used by him in developing events in his plays. According to this idea, everything in the world had its position fixed by God. The Earth was the center of the universe and the stars moved around it in fixed routes. In heaven god ruled over the archangels and angels. On there was order everywhere. Society reflected this order with its fixed classes from the highest to the lowest- kings, churchmen, nobles, merchants, and peasants. The animals had their own degrees too, the lion being the “king”. Plant life and minerals also reflected this order. Among the trees, the most superior was the oak; among flowers, it was the rose. The Elizabethans called this hierarchical structure The Great Chain of Being. There are two major religions in Elizabethan Englan were the Catholic and Protestant religions. The convictions and beliefs in these different religions were so strong that they led to the executiong of many adherents to both of these Elizabethan religions. Elizabethan Court was wherever the Queen happened to be and was made up of all those who surrounded the Queen from servants to the courtiers themselves. Once a year the Queen would go on a progress to the southern counties, but most of the time she resided...
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...METATHEATRE in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Course : Approfondissement Shakespeare ; theatre, meta-theatre and pact of performance Professor : F. MARCH Student: Louize Zara Dierickx (Erasmus Belgium) Course : Approfondissement Shakespeare ; theatre, meta-theatre and pact of performance Professor : F. MARCH Student: Louize Zara Dierickx (Erasmus Belgium) INTRODUCTION During the Elizabethan era meta-theatre was often used in plays to obtain the interest and participation (imagination) from the audience. Also Shakespeare used a lot of metaphors and references to theatre in his plays. In this research paper we will study the use of meta-theatre in Shakespeare’s famous play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. First, the term ‘meta-theatre’ will be explained. Then, the period in which meta-theatre was an important aspect of theatre, also Shakespeare’s period, namely the Elizabethan Era, will be discussed. Finally, a number of specific scenes in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be analysed. Midsummer night’s dream is a romantic comedy. The play has 2 levels: the human world, which takes place during the day, and the fairy world, which takes place at night. In the human world the story is about 4 young people, searching their way to true love, as well as about a theatre company, preparing a play for the coming wedding of the king and queen. At the fairy level, the fairy king and queen quarrel about their marriage. These two levels are combined by a love potion, which...
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...Renaissance Theatre. The Protestant Reformation in northern Europe put an end to most religious drama by the mid-16th century, and a new, dynamic secular drama developed in its place. The Renaissance began at different times in different areas of Europe and was a slow process of change rather than a sudden shift in ideas and values. England The English drama of the 16th cent. showed from the beginning that it would not be bound by classical rules. Many themes and ideas can be seen in the components of the Elizabethan drama. For example, many works were influenced by other works. Themes on revenge were seen and blood and killing was evidenced in many works by, for instance, Thomas Kyd 's Spanish Tragedy (c.1586). Marlowe’s works presented deeper meanings of questioning life. Shakespeare, of course, stands as the supreme dramatist of the Renaissance period, equally skilful at writing tragedies, comedies, or chronicle plays. His great achievements include the perfection of a verse form and language that captures the spirit of ordinary speech and yet stand above it to give a special dignity to his characters and situations; a marvellous ability to unify plot, character, imagery, and verse movement. With the reign of James I the English drama began to decline until the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1642. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_drama Comedy in Elizabethan Drama: The term "comedy" as applied to a division of the drama was not...
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...Click here http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-clothing.htm to answer this question 1. How was Elizabethan class structure maintained? Girls needed to learn household chores and manners to be an eligible bride and then she would marry someone and depending on who she married would decide her social life and status. 2. What was the Chain of Being and what did it uphold? It is a concept that says that everything in the world has its own place and no matter what you do, you cannot change your place by going up the chain. here http://schoolworkhelper.net/2010/08/the-chain-of-being-shakespeare/ 3. What is the Rotae Fortuna? It´s a concept that first appeared in medieval and ancient philosophies, and...
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...overcome throughout the play. Mistaken identities are often used in both intentional and unintentional ways for comic relief. Ex. The Merchant of Venice III. History The central theme is the gain and loss of power, and the theme of divine right. These plays also help to view the class system of the time period. Ex. King John IV. Romance They contain a redemptive plotline with a happy ending involving the re-uniting of separated family members and a mixture of civilized and pastoral scenes. Ex. The Winter’s Tale A TYPICAL ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER: A. What time did the performance of plays begin at the Globe? The times of plays at the Globe Theatre generally started at 3:00 pm. B. What did the flying flag mean? Red, White or Black Flags flying form the flag mast at the top of the Globe Theatre indicated whether the play to be performed was a history, comedy or a tragedy. C. Why weather could affect the performance of a play? Weather could affect the performance of a play, it only have thatched roof and if there was a bad weather, it will spoil the performance D. The shape of the Globe Globe Theater had been an octagonal shaped building. E. Who were the groundlings? They were who frequented the Globe Theatre in the early 17th century and was too poor to pay to be able to...
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...THEATRE HISTORY INSTRUCTOR: THAR 281 Fall 2013 Exam #1 Review What is Theatre/ The Origins of Theatre: 1. Define “theatron” the seeking place 2. List the specific areas of theatre: Performer, spectator, text, visual elements, spectators 3. What are the three types of playing spaces discussed in class? a. Proscenium b. Arena c. Thrust 4. What are the three areas of design discussed in class? What are the purposes of each? 5. What are the two most ESSENTIAL elements of theatre? Audience and performers 6. Performances developed in the moment of performance (without a formal written text) are known as 7. Define and cite examples of ritual. Ritual - the acting out of an established prescribed procedure. Example: aggie ring dunk, midnight yell, Thanksgiving 8. Define and cite examples of ceremony. -Ceremony- formal religious or social occasion, usually led by a designated authority figure -Examples: Wedding, funerals, church ( pastor has to keep the audience engaged), music 9. What is the primary distinction between ritual and ceremony? Ceremony is led by an authoritative figure 10. Define efficacious: done with expecting results 11. Define methexis: Group sharing 12. It is commonly accepted that theatre developed through: myth, ceremony, and ritual 13. Examples of theatrical performance can be seen in everyday life through People telling crazy stories about what happened to them and acting them out with hand signals etc. -Imitation, role...
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...Western Theatre Greek Theatre Greek theatre initially began with religious festivals, with songs, chants, and dances that in time started the revolution of drama. Greek theatre helped develop and influence theatre and drama throughout the world particularly within western society and has helped create one of the greatest play writes in history William Shakespeare. Some important playwrights are Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophes. Ancinet Greek Costumes The costumes in the ancient Greek theatre also have a symbolic significance in the way the production is understood. Since the hypocrits were all male, it was necessary to make them look female for female roles. "In order to have a female appearance, they were playing wearing the ‘prosterniad’ before the chest and the ‘progastrida’ before the belly. In order to look taller and more impressive they were wearing ‘cothornous’ (wooden shoes with tall heels)".The shoes that they wore had no left and right, but were the same for both sides. They also wore long robes with vertical stripes. The female masks had bigger mouths and eyes. The Chorus The chorus was one of the most important components of the play. It narrates and reflects on the action. Without them, the audience would have no background information, and the play would be more confusing. Originally the chorus had twelve members. Sophocles added three more to make it fifteen. The chorus entered from the two paradoi in three rows of five people. They formed little squares...
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...Globe Theatre In Elizabethan England, plays were extremely important to culture. Many theaters were built to present plays. No theater around was more important than the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was an important part of society. The history of the Globe Theatre is very rich. It was originally built in 1598 by Cuthbert Burbage, who was very involved in the acting scene in his time. In 1613 it was accidentally burned down by a canon in a show there. The next year it was reconstructed only to be destroyed by puritans, who believed plays were evil, 30 years later in 1647. In 1997 a working replica was opened. The Globe Theatre’s structure was unlike any other of its day. Its wood was taken from another theater because Cuthbert Burbage owned that but not the land. “He therefore had the theatre, a timber building, taken down and reassembled at a new site (Boyce 218). It was roughly cylindrical and three stories high. Each floor had seats that looked into open galleries. It held 2,000-3,000 people at a time. Shakespeare was a paramount figure not only in playwriting, but in the Globe Theatre as well. It was built specifically for the great acting troupe, Chamberlain’s Men, which Shakespeare was a part of. Some of Shakespeare’s most magnificent works of art were performed originally at the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare himself was also a part owner of the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was a place where many different types of social classes went...
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...Players in Hamlet: New Historicist Issues In Hamlet, Shakespeare makes use of a play within a play, as the device through which Prince Hamlet hopes to prove King Claudius’s guilt in the murder of the old King Hamlet. This idea suggests itself to Hamlet in Act 2, Scene 2, when Rosencrantz tells him that a group of actors will soon be arriving at Elsinore, at which point their conversation digresses briefly to the circumstances surrounding these itinerant players. In the space of the next 45 lines, Shakespeare informs his audience of several important issues affecting the real actors of his time. This is of particular interest from the viewpoint of New Historicism, which treats literature as a part of history, and as an expression or representation of forces on history (Holman and Harmon, 318). New Historicism emerged as a theoretical movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s with one of the earliest proponents being Louis A. Montrose. In his essay “Professing the Renaissance: The Poetics and Politics of Culture,” Montrose says that the focus of New Historicism “…has been upon a refiguring of the socio-cultural field within which canonical Renaissance literary and dramatic works were originally produced; upon resituating them not only in relationship to other genres and modes of discourse but also in relationship to contemporaneous social institutions and non-discursive practices” (17). A Handbook to Literature points out that New Historicism “…views literary works (particularly...
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...Romeo and Juliet Paper Imagine this; a Shakespeare movie, set in a modern day, run-down city. The city seems to have absolutely no shortage of gangs and mobs that are running the streets. Hotrod cars along with pistols and assault rifles make their presence ever so evident. With a wrong slip of the tongue, gun fire erupts in the streets of Verona. This was the context for one of my favorite movies, Romeo + Juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann back in 1996. William Shakespeare has written poetry and play-scripts that will continue to inspire people for centuries to come. Whether it be on a stage in your local high school or in the Broadway/Hollywood spot light on the big screen. William Shakespeare is known as possibly the greatest writer of the English language and deservingly so. Unfortunately Shakespeare’s plays have been subject to change and scrutiny throughout the years. When the play was first being performed the representations were different than they are today as males played both parts of Romeo & Juliet. The plays representation was changed when women were finally allowed on stage after some changes to the culture and society. Even Hollywood filmmakers have done a remake of Romeo & Juliet in which the movie isn’t even set in old English times but rather in modern day. William Shakespeare’s play Romeo & Juliet has remained the same as its message transcends time, yet its representation has changed as English society has changed. The play Romeo & Juliet...
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...Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love Title page of the first quarto of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream (1600) "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays.[13] Comedy (from the Greek: κωμῳδία, kōmōidía), in the contemporary meaning of the term, is any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy. This sense of the term must be carefully distinguished from its academic one, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.[1] The theatrical genre can be simply described as a dramatic performance which pits two societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye famously depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old",[2] but this dichotomy is seldom described as an entirely satisfactory explanation. A later view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth...
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...in history: - our heroes… our role models…. Politicians: Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, Mahatma Gandhi, Kenneth Kaunda Community Service: Mother Teresa, George Muller, David Livingstone Religious: Apostle Paul, the other apostles, Ellen G White, Anderson, The pope, Martin Luther, Sports: Neymar, Messi, Ronaldo, Benzema - Michael Jordan, Pele, Maradona Music: Lady Gaga, jZ, Tupak, Michael Jackson, Jim Reeves, Jimmy Hendricks, Literary Circles: Before Shakespeare the great names in literature were: o Homer – Ancient times - well known for his great epics o Dante – Middle Ages – wrote brilliantly on circumstances of human existence o Aristotle – the great philosopher ENTER SHAKESPEARE – THE LITERARY GIANT Spelling of Shakespeare: Spelling not yet standardized, thus name spelled in different ways • Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shackspere, Shaxper, Shagspere, Shaxberd, etc. Shakespeare: The most well known playwright of Elizabethan times is Shakespeare. But there were also other writers who in their time were just as, or even more famous than him. WHAT MAKES SHAKESPEARE STAND OUT? – The volume of his works Plays firmly attributed to Shakespeare ■ 14 COMEDIES – funny play – with amusing events – ended in marriage / or happily o Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing… ■ 10 HISTORIES – Richard...
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...Shakespeare has written some of the most memorable plays in history. It was probably the most important structure in Shakespeare’s career. Throughout its history the Globe Theatre has hosted the very best of Shakespeare’s productions or works of art such as Hamlet, and the Twelfth Night were written to be performed on the stage of the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was a theatre located in London, England. The Globe Theatre is commonly associated with William Shakespeare. The theatre was built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which happened to be William Shakespeare’s playing company (Linda Alchin). The land that the theatre was built on was owned by Thomas Brend and was later inherited by his son Nicholas Brend and then later on his grandson Sir Matthew Brend. On the 29th of June 1613 the theatre was destroyed by a fire during a performance of Henry the Eighth (Linda Alchin). The Globe Theatre was rebuilt in June of 1614 and was closed in 1642. There is a modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre in London called Shakespeare’s Globe and it opened in 1997 (J.M Presley). The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were actors who were shareholders in the Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre was divided into shares of ten percent each with two brothers, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage having a double share or twenty-five percent each (Linda Alchin). Originally there was supposed to be a seventh shareholder, William Kempe but he sold his share to the four minority shareholders...
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