Plays: opere teatrali

To perform: mettere in scena

Didactic mean: mezzo didattico

Puns: giochi di parole

To turn something upside down: ribaltare qualcosa

Plays: tragedy, comedy, drama; they are written to be performed

When we speak about theatre, we mean a place, whether open or closed, where performances are given. Whenever we think about a text for theatre, we should think about a text which is written to be performed. Theatre, as buildings to host plays, were built in the Renaissance

Ritual: sort of celebration which implies somebody who sends a message and an audience receiving it.

Representation: something which presents something in a new way.

La rappresentazione delle cose è un bisogno dell'uomo. Un esempio è il teatro che ha la funzione di dare una nuova visione della realtà

What about drama in the Middle Ages?

Drama is a literary genre.

Drama also existed in the Middle Ages and it was used to teach the Christian principles. It can be considered as a didactic idea of theatre.

Liturgical drama is the result of liturgy.

At the beginning, drama was performed inside the church; it was concerned with religious topics and it was a means to instruct people who went to the church on religious mysteries and episodes. A further step was when performances moved out of the church, in the XIV century.

Religious and dramatic performances were offered during the main festivals like Corpus Christi in June, because of the nice season. They coincided within Corpus Christi procession which moved around the town or village.

Gradually an evolution was recorded: a new form of drama was organized and it took place outside the church where the most relevant events from the Old and New Testament were represented by the guilds. This kind of plays were called "Mystery plays".

In later times also morality plays developed, at the end of the XV century, more or less and they were performed by travelling companies; they represented the moral teachings in an open stage or stage in the open air. The main protagonists were abstract vices and virtues. It was only after the tradition of mystery, miracles and morality that plays moved indoors in the banquet halls of noble people or in common rooms of university.

Middle Ages:           Humanism:                     Renaissance:

      God                 human beings                      learning

From God( Middle Ages) to human beings( Renaissance)

To learn: la cultura è il mezzo che l'uomo utilizza per distinguersi dalla massa ed essa cambia in base al tempo e allo spazio