Elizabethan Theatre

Playwrights
1. Wiliam Shakespeare
2. Cristopher Marlowe
3. Ben Jonson
4. Thomas Dekker
5. Thomas Kyd
6. Thomas Heywood
7. Robert Greene
Acting & Staging Conventions
1. soliloquy
  1. literary or dramatic technique in which a single character talks aloud inner thoughts to himself (or herself), but not within earshot of another character.
2. aside
  1. one character addressing the audience “on the side”, offering them valuable information in relation to the plot or characters that only the audience is privy to.
3. eavesdropping
  1. characters strategically overhearing others on stage, informing both themselves and the audience of the details, while the characters being overheard have no idea of what is happening.
4. boys performing female roles
  1. Women were not legally permitted to act on the English stage until King Charles II was crowned in the year 1660. Shakespeare and his contemporaries therefore had no choice but to cast young boys in the roles of women, while the men played all the male roles on stage.
5. presentational acting style
  1. direct address to the audience
    1. soliloquy
    2. aside
    3. prologue
    4. epilogue
  2. actors were aware of the presence of the audience
  3. movements were stylised and dramatic
  4. speech patterns were heightened for dramatic effect
6. dialogue
  1. generally poetic, dramatic, heightened when spoken by upper class characters
  2. Shakespeare's plays
    1. blank verse (unrhymed)
    2. rhyming couplets (often iambic pentameter)
  3. in prose, more colloquial, when spoken by lower class characters
7. play within a play
  1. involves the staging of a play within the play itself, as in Hamlet.
Types of plays
1. Masque
  1. It was an allegorical story about an event or person involving singing, acting and dancing. Characters wore elaborate masks to hide their faces.
2. Comedy
  1. at the beginning of the play there is always an element of discord, which is resolved before the close
3. Tragedy
  1. tragedy of circumstance
    1. people are born into their situations, and do not choose them; such tragedies explore the consequences of birthrights, particularly for monarchs
  2. tragedy of miscalculation
    1. the protagonist's error of judgement has tragic consequences
  3. revenge play
    1. the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury
  4. usually involved sufferings and the death of the main character
4. History play
  1. depicted English or European history
5. Tragicomedy
  1. romantic play that violated the unities of time, place, and action, that mixed high- and low-born characters, and that presented fantastic actions
Stagecraft
1. elaborate, rich and colourful costumes
2. bare stage
3. minimal use of props
4. no stage lights

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Elizabethan Theatre

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	Created by Maria Rita Pepe over 7 years ago