DRAMA: Context pag 36-37-38

•ü  Drama flourished from 1558 to 1642 when Elizabeth I ascended the throne à Elizabethan drama presented heroes and heroines. The language expressed strong emotions and disruptive passion, and sometimes it is vulgar.

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Drama became important thanks to travelling companies of actors à in these companies there were no woman because acting was considered immoral and inappropriate for a woman.

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The Elizabethan playhouse was circular or polygonal in shape à this area had no roof and no seats and was occupied by people (groundlings or stinkards) who could pay only one penny. Around the theatre walls, there were three tiers of galleries provided by more expensive seats and boxes for the higher social classes. Elizabethan audiences ate, smoked, drank, and sometimes quarreled.

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The setting was usually indicated or described in the character's speeches, and it was up to the audience to use their imagination to visualize it.

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Elizabethan playwrights wrote plays, to provide entertainment: once written plays were sold to a company of players and became the property of that company.

•ü  Shakespeare was the most extraordinary and prolific playwright of the Renaissance.

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Shakespeare wrote 37 plays; they can be classified as histories, comedies and tragedies. The historical plays deal with English kings, from King John to Henry VII:

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The revolve around characters torn between private feelings and public duty. à Shakespeare's comedies generally present a group of contrasting characters who are brought through adverse circumstances to a closer and more lasting relationship with one other.

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Except for Romeo and Juliet, in Shakespeare's great tragedies the action is usually concentrated on a single, isolated individual who finds himself in opposition to a social group or the universe. (ex. Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello)

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Shakespeare was the most creative Elizabethan writer à he created an unequalled range of characters.

à he was able to write comedy and tragedy, showing outstanding control of organization around a central theme, technical command of dramatic conventions and great skill in use of rhyme, blank verse and poetic imagery.

•ü The Greek and Latin writes who were most influential on Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights were Plutarch and Seneca.

    ELIZABETHAN THEATRES: pag 98-99

Medieval English drama was based on the Bible and religious story: its allegorical character were didactic.

à Queen Elizabeth herself enjoyed going to plays and had her own group of art, called "The Queen's Players".

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The first Elizabethan Playhouse was open in 1576 by James Burbage, and called "The Theatre" à other theatres followed: built on the south bank of the river.

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In 1599 Shakespeare and his company the "Lord Chamberlain's Men" transported The Theatre structure and  rebuilt in Southwark, as "The Globe". But in the 1613 there was a fire at The Globe during a performance. à the destroyed playhouse was immediately rebuilt, but in 1644 the puritan Cromwell demolished it to built homes.

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The main season of The Globe was the winter : that because of the plague which spread more in summer. In 1642 Parliament closed all the theatres.

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Performances took part in the afternoon and were acted only by man and boys (comical effects). Groundlings interacted with the performance.

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The stage was very high. There was no scenery. There were no intervals.

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In Shakespeare's day the director was not considered as important as the principal actor (often Richard Burbage in Shakespeare's plays).Even the clown is very important; he provided the audience with jokes after dramatic actions and explained some actions.