Write down FIVE most important contribution of William Shakespeare in the development of English drama and theatre. Choose the five most important and write down from the most important to the least important Write down the chief/main characteristics/features of Jacobean revenge tragedies. You can add the contribution of the individual dramatists on how he has helped develop these revenge tragedy traditions. You should refer to some key revenge tragedies/plays and state why they are called revenge plays? What revenge were? they taking Study unit 5

UNIT 5

THE HISTORY OF STAGING AND PERFORMING SHAKESPEARE

THE HISTORY OF STAGING AND PEFORMING

William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

1800

During the 19th century, wooden stages were most common in theatres because they allowed for special effects like trap doors and elevators.

When electricity came about, the stage was able to be illuminated which turned theatre into an observation rather than just a social event. Both of these technological advances increased the complexity that was available for performances.

Many of the same requirements exist today but with the need to be more flexible and adapt to an ever changing audience. The new technologies, greater stage flexibility and changing tastes of today patrons are driving the need for new equipment and resources to meet the demands. Thinking through todays and tomorrows events and getting the correct gear will put your facility in the position to be written about in the next century.

As we look back on how we arrived here, its important to remember the origins of these theatres, and more importantly, the use of the spaces themselves. Theater venues and staged events have changed a lot along the way. They are much more audience-friendly, with improved seating risers and better sight line considerations.

Advances in technology allow for the creation of better equipment, especially when it comes to flexibility. This means that we are able to do more with less. It will also make life easier for crews, performers, and guests. As the basic principles of stage and theatre design and function remain the same, we need to remember to always keep on improving to meet the desires of the customers.

RENAISSANCE ENGLAND

The Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatres, i.e., plays were no longer performed outside. However, it was still an open-air theatre as the lack of artificial lighting made daylight necessary for performances. An exception was the Blackfriar's theatre which was indoors and lit by candlelight. Theatre groups were now professional and mainly sponsored by wealthy aristocrats. Groups which were not under anybody's patronage were considered disreputable vagabonds.

The most common stage form in Renaissance England was the apron stage which was surrounded by the audience on three sides and there was still a close vicinity between audience and actors. This meant that actors could not possibly ignore their viewers, and theatrical devices such as asides and monologues ad spectatores were an integral part of the communication system. The stage set was reasonably barren while costumes could be very elaborate. Since performances took place in broad daylight, the audience had to imagine scenes set at night, for example, and respective information had to be conveyed rhetorically in the characters speeches (word scenery). As there was barely any scenery, scenes could change very quickly with people entering and exiting. The three unities were thus frequently not strictly adhered to in Elizabethan drama. The Elizabethan theatre could hold up to 2,000 people, and the audience was rather heterogeneous, consisting of people from different social backgrounds. Plays of that period thus typically combine various subject matters and modes (e.g., tragic and comical) because they attempted to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

RESTORATION PERIOD

RESTORATION STAGE

Theatres of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were considerably smaller than the Elizabethan theatre (they held around 500 people), and performances took place in closed rooms with artificial lighting. In contrast to modern theatres where the audience sits in the dark, the audience in the Restoration period was seated in a fully illuminated room. One must bear in mind that people of the higher social class were also interested in presenting themselves in public, and attending a play offered just such an opportunity. Because of the lighting arrangements, the division between audience and actors was thus not as clear-cut as today. Plays had the status of a cultural event, and the audience was more homogeneous than in earlier periods, belonging primarily to higher social classes. While the stage was closed in by a decorative frame and the distance between audience and actors was thus enlarged, there was still room for interaction by means of a minor stage jutting out into the auditorium. Furthermore, there was no curtain so that changes of scene had to take place on stage in front of the audience. Restoration plays thus still did not aim at creating a sense of realism but they presented an idealised, highly stylised image of scenery, characters, language and subject matter.

HOW HAS THE DESIGN OF THEATRE BUILDINGS CHANGED OVER TIME?

EARLY THEATRES

The first buildings used for theatrical performances in Britain were amphitheatres introduced by the Romans, who copied theatres from ancient Greece. These were semi-circular structures, constructed of wood initially and later stone. They were open to the air with banked seating surrounding a raised stage.

Medieval theatre was presented on elaborate temporary stages inside great halls, barns, or in the open courtyards of galleried inns. It was from these that Elizabethan timber-framed open-air theatres took their form, such as the Globe in London. They were often multi-sided buildings, with a covered platform stage against one side. The audience sat or stood in covered galleries around the other sides or in the open courtyard. All the performances took place in daylight. Shakespeare's Globe Image showing Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of an Elizabethan theatre.

SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY THEATRES

Interest in theatre increased during the Stuart period. Many rich courtiers and aristocrats hosted touring theatrical productions in their homes. Masques too were a popular form of recreation for the royal court and the very rich, often commissioned for celebrations. They would involve music, dance and elaborate costumes and scenery. The architect Inigo Jones devised the sets for several royal masques, and later went on to design theatre buildings. He had toured Italy and France and was heavily influenced by their designs. He is also attributed with introducing the first proscenium arch a decorative architectural frame over a thrust stage.

After the execution of Charles I in 1642, theatrical performances were outlawed owing to the threat of civil unrest. Theatres closed and many were demolished.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY THEATRES

The Licensing Act of 1737 tightened censorship of drama, placing it under the control of the Lord Chamberlain. Only patent theatres were able to perform drama known as legitimate theatre. Non-patent theatres performed melodrama, pantomime, ballet, opera and music hall (burlesque). As these involved music or musical interludes they could not be classed as plays and were regarded as illegitimate theatre so were not subject to the Licensing Act.

Later, a series of royal patents were granted to cities outside London. These became known as Theatres Royal. Many still operate and were built in a restrained neo-classical style.Truro Theatre RoyalImage showing the faade of the former Theatre Royal, Truro.

Theatres had mainly wooden interiors which were always at risk of fire. In 1794 the Drury Lane Theatre, London introduced the first iron safety curtain, which would eventually become a statutory requirement in all large theatres. It also had a large water tank on its roof a feature that was adopted by other theatres to extinguish fire in the stage area. The theatre also began to make its scenery more fire-resistant.

By the end of the century the faades of many city theatres were built in the more imposing classical style. Some even had porticoes, similar to those seen on the front of large city homes or country houses. They were added mainly for show, but a few enabled the rich to descend from their carriages and enter the theatre without being exposed to any inclement weather.

NINETEENTH-CENTURY THEATRES

In the early 1800s, theatre attendance lessened, owing partly to economic decline and poor standards of acting and production. Patronage by the middle classes also fell as a result of theatres increasingly bad reputation and raucous nature. Consequently many theatres closed or were converted to other uses.

a specific type of theatre building was developed to cater for this new form of entertainment, called a music hall. They had fewer tables in front of the stage, using the space for benched seating to accommodate more people. Hundreds were built in working class areas as money-making concerns.Wiltons Music HallImage showing Wilton's Music Hall, London.

By the middle of the nineteenth century theatre building was becoming a specialist architectural discipline, led by architects such as J. T. Robinson and C. J. Phipps. They were tasked with building even bigger theatres, with grander front of house arrangements and more luxurious social areas.

Often, older theatres were demolished and rebuilt to accommodate larger audiences. In the auditorium, rectangular galleries began to be replaced by horseshoe-shaped balconies that enveloped the stage and provided better viewing.

Although theatre was enjoyed by much of the population, it was not always accessible throughout Britain. In rural areas of Wales the portable theatre was popular. These theatres toured the country and could be dismantled and moved easily. They were well supported in the small towns and villages which could not sustain permanent theatrical venues, and lasted until World War I.

VICTORIAN INVENTION AND LEGISLATION

The Victorian period saw a number of innovations that impacted upon theatre design. Lighting changed from candle to gas and then later to electricity as a result of stringent health and safety legislation. Both emitted a more brilliant light that enabled directors to use lighting for theatrical effect.

THEATRE-BUILDINGS HEYDAY

The period from the 1880s to World War I was the greatest era of theatre building. Over 1000 professional theatres were operating in Britain then, some built by syndicates, who created chains of touring houses. New architects such as W. G. R. Sprague and T. Verity became renowned for their work and could design theatres according to the changing stringent building regulations.

EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY THEATRES

The beginning of the twentieth century saw the introduction of a new component in variety bills that would eventually lead to the closure of hundreds of theatres and music halls. This was the bioscope, a forerunner of the cinema. It was so popular that new or refurbished theatres often included provision for screening films.

The films were silent, but accompanied by music, usually an organ. These theatres became known as cin-varieties, because of their mixture of variety theatre and cinema. Some foresighted architects included a separate projection room in their plans. This ensured the survival of some theatres as future fire safety legislation required any building showing a film to have a separate projection room. However theatres which relied on cinema for their commercial survival, soon closed if they failed to meet new regulations.

World War I suspended theatre building, but by then it had reached a peak and demand was satisfied. By then, large towns might have two or three theatres while cities could have up to a dozen. The Depression further affected theatre-going and theatre-building. However, it was the emerging popularity of film that concerned theatre owners. Super-cinemas were springing up rapidly, many designed in a radical new artistic style, known as art deco or the Hollywood style. This in turn influenced the refurbishing of some new theatres, which aspired to a more moderne appeal, that of glamour and glitz.Apollo VictoriaImage showing proposals for the New Victoria Theatre (now the Apollo Victoria) in London, 1928.