An Outline of Theatre History: Origins through English Restoration

The Origins of Theatre

storytelling                           

mimesis

ritual

   

   

            Egypt: Abydos Passion Play - Ikhernofret Stone 1868 B.C.

Greece: Festival of Dionysu: from dithyramb to tragedy

The Theatre of Ancient Greece

Social and Historical Background

            a “Golden Age” in Athens:

democratic government

philosophy

art & architecture

theatre

Thespis and the City Dionysia (534 B.C.E.)

Plays and Playwrights: Tragedy

            Aeschylus (c. 523 -- 456 B.C.)

       

Prometheus Bound

The Oresteia -- trilogy (458 B.C.) Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides

       

                        Aeschylus introduces 2nd actor

                        reduces size of chorus

                        incorporates spectacle (possibly introducing scene painting)

Sophocles (c. 496 -- 406 B.C.)

       

Oedipus Rex (c. 430 -- 425 B.C.)

Antigone (c. 441 B.C.)

Oedipus at Colonus (406 B.C.)

       

       

Sophocles introduces 3rd actor

       

focuses on individual plays

introduces psychologically complex characters

“introduces” scene painting, according to Aristotle)

            Euripides (c. 480 -- c. 406 B.C.)

       

Medea (431 B.C.)

The Bacchae (406 B.C.)

Euripides questions traditional values

       

includes elements of tragicomedy, melodrama

writes episodic plots

       

employs deus ex machina

The theory of tragedy

   

Aristotle (c 384 -- 322 B.C.) Poetics (c 335 -- 323 B.C.)

the elements of tragedy: plot, character, thought, diction, music, spectacle

   

the structure of tragedy

       

prologue

       

parados

       

episodes

choral odes (stasima)

       

exodos

Plays and Playwrights: Comedy:

   

Old Comedy Aristophanes (c 448 -- c. 380 B.C.)

           

Lysistrata (411 B.C.) 

          

The Birds (414 B.C.)

          

Aristophanes addresses & lampoons political issues, in a sexy, bawdy tone

   

structure of Old Comedy:

prologue

       

entrance of the chorus

                        the "happy idea"

       

agon

       

parabasis

                        loosely connected scenes

komos

            Middle Comedy (404 -- 336 B.C.) Aristophanes, Plutus (388 B.C.)

Aristophanes pulls back from political, satirical Old Comedy

   

New Comedy (after 336 B.C.): Menander (342 -- 291 B.C.)

           

The Grouch (Dyskolos)

Menander shifts subjects to domestic issues, family, love

Menander’s plays were models for Roman and later comedy

The Festivals, the Theatres, & the Players

                       

A possible calendar of the City Dionysia:

proagon

   

parade

   

dithyramb contest

   

tragedy contest

       

satyr play

comedy contest

   

prizes and celebration

The organization of the City Dionysia   

                        one full week in early spring

                        archon

choregos

Theatre spaces in 5^th Century B.C. Greece

   

major elements include

            orkestra

   

thymele

   

theatron

            skene

   

paradoi

Scenic machines and devices:

            ekkyklema

   

mechane

   

pinakes

   

periaktoi

Later Greek theatre spaces

first stone theatres built c. 325 B.C.

Hellenistic theatres

   

emphasis on stage

   

logeion

   

proskenion

   

episkenion

   

thyromata

Actors, the Chorus, and Mimes

author supervises and performs

three-actor limit

all actors wear masks

males only perform at City Dionysia and other festivals

"Artists of Dionysus"

the chorus

                                   

                    12-15 in the tragic chorus

   

24 in the comic chorus

sets mood, acts as character, sets ethical frame  

                                   

sets rhythm and provides spectacle

                       

music and dance integral to the theatrical event

Mimes

itinerant troupes

women perform along with men

phlyakes

   

vases, players, plays

   

found in Southern Italy

The Theatre of Ancient Rome

Social and historical background

753 B.C. marks legendary beginning (Romulus & Remus)

expands rapidly

moves from Republic (509 B.C.) to Empire (27 B.C.)

                       

Etruscan influence   

                       

festivals

                                   

variety entertainments

Plays and Playwrights: Roman Comedy

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 -- c. 184 B.C.)                                    

   

Miles Gloriosus

   

Pot of Gold

   

The Menaechmi

       

all plays written between 205 and 184 B.C.

                        farce, centered on tricky plot

   

"parasite"

Publius Terentius Afer, commonly called Terence (195 -- 159 B.C.)

   

Andria (166 B.C.)

   

The Mother-in-Law (165 B.C.)

   

Eunuch (161 B.C.)

   

sentimental comedy, character-based

Plays and Playwrights: Roman Tragedy

Seneca (5 B.C. -- 65 C.)

   

Thyestes (unclear as to date)

Oedipus (unclear as to date)

Characteristics include

   

lengthy soliloquies

   

violence and horror

   

ghosts

   

revenge

   

"closet drama"

Dramatic Theory:

Horace (65 -- 8 B.C.) Ars Poetica

   

five-act structure

genres of comedy and tragedy should not be mixed together

   

drama should "teach and delight"

Other Theatrical Forms:

   

Atellan farce - stock characters: Bucco, Pappus, Maccus, Dossenus

   

mime

similar to Greek mime troupes

       

women perform in this genre

Theodora (c. 500 B.C. – 548 B.C.) and the Emperor Justinian

pantomime

           

solo performer

spectacle

   

naumachia

Roman Theatre Spaces

   

Theatre of Pompey (55 B.C.)

   

Vitruvius (flourished 1^st century B.C.) De Architectura

Major elements of a Roman theatre include

cavea

            orchestra

   

vomitoria

   

pulpitum

   

scaena

            scaenae frons

periaktoi

   

curtains

       

auleum

       

siparium

Roman Actors

histriones   

Roscius (131 -- 63 A.D.)

The Fall of Rome and its theatre

   

rise of Christianity

       

Council of Carthage (398 A.D.)

   

“barbarians” - Rome sacked again & again, finally in 476 A.D.

The Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire

capital moved to east to Constantinople, 330 A.D.

   

division of eastern and western empires in 395 A.D.

   

preservation of classical Greek Manuscripts

The Medieval Theatre

Social and historical background

   

feudalism

           

            the Catholic Church

"mimi, histriones, ioculatores"

   

Charlemagne

Liturgical drama

   

            tropes

     

"Quem quaeritis?"

       

Regularis Concordia (966 – 975) - compiled by Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester 

visitatio plays  

            the staging of liturgical drama

mansion

platea

Two unique playwrights

Hroswitha (c. 935 -- 973) Dulcitius – modeled on Terence

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 -- 1179) Ordo Virtutum (The Play of Virtues)

Vernacular religious drama

   

The Play of Adam (c. 1150) - theatre moves outside the church

Cycle plays

   

the Feast of Corpus Christi (incorporated 1264 by Pope Urban IV)

English cycles

York, Chester, Wakefield, Coventry (Ludus Coventriae), many others

       

cycles throughout Europe

Lucerne, Valenciennes, Bourges, Rome, many others

the staging of cycle plays

   

mansion and platea as basis

   

movable staging - pageant wagons

   

fixed staging

ancient Roman amphitheatres

"rounds"

       

public squares

           

Lucerne Passion Play

           

Valenciennes Passion Play

   

                        the pageant master – an early director? "Martyrdom of St. Apollonia"

Kinds of religious plays

   

Mystery (maistrie, mastery) play, aka cycle play

presented by trade guilds and religious confraternities

       

The Second Shepherd's Play (Wakefield Cycle)

   

            Miracle plays - Miracles de Notre-Dame, St. Meriasek

   

Morality Plays - Everyman (c. 1500)

Secular drama in the Medieval Era

           

Farce – crude, physical, “low” comedy

       

Pierre Patelin (c. 1470) – the trickster tricked

Hans Sachs (1494 -- 1570) The Wandering Scholar and Exorcist

                                   

John Heywood (c. 1497 -- c. 1580) Johan, Johan (1533)

       

   

Folk Plays - pastoral themes, settings

           

Adam de la Halle (1240 -- 1288)

The Play of the Greenwood  (1276 -- 77)

                                 

The Play of Robin and Marion (c. 1283)

Staging and performing secular drama

trestle (booth) stage

interludes

rise of the professional player

rectangular shape of later theatres

The decline of medieval drama

   

the banning of religious plays

            the beginnings of theatre for profit

The Theatre of the Italian Renaissance

Social and historical background:

   

collapse of feudal system

   

emergence of a "middle" class

   

invention of the printing press

   

fall of Constantinople in 1453 -- ancient manuscripts brought west

   

new interest in the classical world

       

humanism

   

new discoveries

Italy is central

   

geography

   

the Church

Neoclassicism

   

theory has origins in

       

Horace: "to teach and delight"

       

Aristotle, somewhat misread

       

            Renaissance theorists include: Scaliger, Castelvetro, Minturno

primary rule: verisimilitude

           

three "unities" (time, place, action)

           

decorum

confidante

Plays and Playwrights: Neoclassical drama

            Ariosto (1474 -- 1533) La Cassaria (1508)

   

Machiavelli (1469 -- 1527) The Mandrake (1513 -- 1520)

   

Trissino (1478 -- 1550) Sofonisba (1515)

Cynthio (1504 -- 1574), The Orbecche (1541)  

   

the pastoral play

       

Tasso, Aminta (1573)

       

Guarini, The Faithful Shepherd (1590)

intermezzi

Buontalenti (1536 -- 1608) designs the first intermezzi, in Florence, for the Medici

emphasis on spectacle

       

Opera

born in courts of Florence, Mantua

Jacopo Peri & Ottavio Rinuccini, Dafne (1594)

           

Monteverdi (1567 -- 1643) Orfeo (1607)

Italian Scenic Spectacle, Stage Design, and Theatre Architecture

   

Vitruvius re-examined (1486)

   

perspective

Serlio (1475 -- 1554) Architettura (1545)

       

single vanishing point -- illusion of depth on stage

       

three scenes: comic, tragic, pastoral

   

changeable scenery

periaktoi

   

fixed wing

   

wing and groove

   

chariot and pole

       

                             devised by Giacomo Torelli (1608 -- 1678)

features a vista scene changes

            staging devices

Sabbattini (1574 -- 1654)  publishes manual (1638)

       

flying, trap doors, machinery, candles

Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza (1580 -- 84)

designed by Palladio (1518 -- 1580), then Scamozzi (1552 -- 1616)

Teatro Farnese, Parma (1618)

designed by Aleotti (1546 -- 1636)

       

first permanent proscenium arch

            Venetian public opera houses

       

San Cassiano, 1637

       

pit, box, and gallery

Commedia dell'Arte (approx. 1550 -- 1750)

   

Possible origins in Atellan Farce, plays of Plautus & Terence

   

Characteristics

       

improvisation

       

highly physical action

       

stock characters

   

soggetti -- scenarios

   

concetti -- stock speeches

   

lazzi -- comic physical business

   

zanni -- clowns

Commedia troupes

       

I Gelosi - Isabella (1562 -- 1604) and Francesco Andreini (1548 -- 1624)

I Fideli, I Confidenti, other troupes

           

Representative commedia characters:

lovers: Innamorata (-o)

blocking characters:

Pantalone

Dottore

Capitano

comic servants:

Arlecchino (Harlequin)

Columbina

Pulcinella

Brighella

Scapino

The Theatre of Elizabethan England

Social and Historical Background

   

creation of Church of England

   

defeat of Spanish Armada

   

Elizabeth I strengthens the central government

   

the concept of “Fortune

Restrictions on plays and players

Religious drama banned 1559

Master of Revels appointed 1574

legitimacy of professional actors, in recognized troupes

Plays and Playwrights

school plays

mix of medieval and neoclassical styles

Nicholas Udall (1505 -- 1566) Ralph Roister-Doister (1553 -- 54?)

   

Mr. S. (?) Gammer Gurton's Needle (acted between 1552 and 1563)

   

Thomas Preston (1537 -- 1598) Cambises (c. 1561)

   

Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, Gorboduc (1561)

the University Wits

   

Robert Greene (1560 -- 1592), Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (c. 1589)

       

uses blank verse in his writing

   

John Lyly (c. 1554 -- 1606), Endimion (1588)

writes English pastorals

Thomas Kyd (1558 -- 1594), The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587)

exploits Senecan-style revenge tragedy

   

Christopher Marlowe (1564 -- 1593)

       

Doctor Faustus (1588)

       

The Jew of Malta (1589)

       

Edward II (1592)

       

writes psychologically complex characters

       

perfects blank verse form

William Shakespeare (1564 -- 1616)

First Folio

   

History plays

                                   

Richard II (1595-96), Henry IV 1 & 2, Henry V (1597-99)

       

Henry VI 1, 2 & 3 (1590 -- 92), Richard III (1592 -- 93)

       

episodic, loose structure, largest casts

   

Tragedies

       

Hamlet (1599 -- 1601)

        

Othello (1604 -- 05)

       

Macbeth (1605 -- 06)

       

King Lear (1605 -- 06)

                        matters of public importance, love, inner conflict

Comedies

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-96)

       

Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99)

As You Like It (1599)

Twelfth Night (1600 -- 01)

                        private matters, love & obstacles to it

"problem plays"

           

All's Well That Ends Well (1602 -- 03)

           

Measure for Measure (1604 -- 05)

           

dark comedies, disturbingly modern

      

“romances”

           

A Winter's Tale (1610 -- 11)

           

The Tempest (1611 -- 12)

           

late plays, strangeness, adventure, magic

structure of the plays - strong plots AND strong characters

       

early point of attack

       

clever foreshadowing

       

at climax a "coup de theatre"

other Elizabethan playwrights

   

Ben Jonson (1572 -- 1637) Volpone (1606), The Alchemist (1610)

       

"humours" comedy -- Every Man in his Humour (1598)

       

publication

       

poet laureate

anonymous, The Revenger's Tragedy (c. 1606)

Thomas Middleton (1580 -- 1627) & William Rowley (c. 1558 -- 1625)

       

The Changeling (1622)

Jacobean and Caroline playwrights

   

Francis Beaumont (c. 1584 -- 1616) & John Fletcher (1579 -- 1625)

       

The Maid's Tragedy (between 1608 -- 1613)

       

A King and No King (between 1608 -- 1613)

John Webster (c. 1580 -- c.1630) The Duchess of Malfi (1613 -- 14)

   

John Ford (1586 -- c.1639) Tis Pity She's a Whore (1629 -- 33)

Philip Massinger (1583 -- 1639/40) A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1622)

            James Shirley (1596 -- 1666) The Lady of Pleasure (1635)

Elizabethan Public Theatres

       

beginnings in innyards, bull and bear-baiting arenas

attempt to recreate ancient Roman theatres

The Theatre, 1576 - foundations discovered 2008

   

The Rose, 1587 -- c. 1606

       

Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 1616) as producer 

foundations discovered 1989   

The Swan, 1595 -- c. 1632

       

only pictorial evidence of interior--DeWitt/Von Buchell sketch

   

The Globe, 1599 -- 1613, burned down, second Globe 1614 – 1644

Lord Chamberlain’s (later King’s) Men

Richard and Cuthbert Burbage

William Shakespeare 

   

The Fortune, 1600 -- 1621, 1621 -- 1661

   

another Henslowe theatre

                        only rectangular public theatre

The Hope 1613 – 1617 - removable stage for bear baiting on alternate nights     

others – The Red Lion, The Curtain, The Newington Butts, The Red Bull

   

Features of public theatres:

       

polygonal

       

three galleries

       

yard

       

roof (shadow, heavens)

       

raised wooden platform stage

           

trap door

           

two stage doors

                       

tiring house

           

2nd level

                                               

3rd level

       

“discovery” space

Elizabethan Private Theatres

   

more expensive ticket prices than in public theatres

       

indoors

           

stage seating

lit by candles

           

benches in pit

           

2 galleries

       

located in “liberties"

           

Blackfriars -- boy companies to 1608, then professional

Scenery and costumes in public and private theatres

   

evidence

       

Master of Revels' accounts

       

Henslowe's list

medieval influence--mansion & platea style staging

the text and “spoken décor”

costumes - contemporary Elizabethan clothes, except for:

           

ancient, fanciful, traditional, racial emblems

       

Peacham’s drawing of Titus Andronicus (1595?)

Elizabethan audiences – wide variety, from all classes

Elizabethan acting companies

   

Lord Chamberlain’s Men (after 1603, King’s Men)

Shakespeare and the Burbages

Structure - shareholders, hirelings, apprentices

           

Lord Admiral’s Men

       

Philip Henslowe as sole producer 

           

Edward Alleyn (1566 -- 1626) as lead actor

The Stuart Court Masque

intent: to show an ideal vision of the monarchy, bringing order from disorder

masquing dances as center of action

scenically splendid…and expensive

Ben Jonson, primary writer

Inigo Jones (1573 -- 1652), primary designer

   

introduces the Italian scenic ideal to England

   

Salmacida Spolia (1640)

Spanish Theatre of the Golden Age

Social and historical background

   

defeat of Moors

   

Spanish Inquisition (1480)

   

Spain as major world power

Religious drama

   

cofradias

   

autos sacramentales

   

carros

Plays and Playwrights

   

Fernando Rojas (c. 1465 – 1541, La Celestina (1492)

   

Juan del Encina (1469 -- 1529)

         

         Pastorals & religious drama, El triunfo del amor (The Triumph of Love, 1497)

   

Lope de Rueda (c. 1510 -- c 1565), early professional actor/manager

       

The Frauds (1552 -- 1558)

       

pasos -- The Olives

Miguel de Cervantes (1547 -- 1616)

       

Siege of Numancia (written between 1580 and 1587)

       

Entremese

Lope de Vega (1562 -- 1635) 

colorful biography

       

religious and secular plays

comedia nueva

capa y espada

       

Fuentovejuna (c. 1614)

       

Lope’s attitude towards rules

   

Guillen de Castro (1569 -- 1631)

       

Las Mocedades del Cid (1612 -- 1618)

   

Tirso de Molina (c. 1584 -- 1648)

       

El Burlador de Sevilla (1616 -- 30)

   

Calderon de la Barca (1600 -- 1681)

       

deep philosophical issues

       

religious and secular plays

      

Life is a Dream (c. 1636)

Spanish Theatre Spaces

   

Corrales: Corral de la Cruz (1579), Corral de Principe (1585)

auditorium

       

patio

           

taburetes

mosqueteros

alojero

       

gradas

       

aposentos

       

desvanes

        

cazuela

tertullia

   

stage

       

bare platform

       

2nd level

scenic and costuming practices similar to those in England

actors

   

shareholders

   

women on stage

Court Theatres

   

Alcazar

   

Buen Retiro, Madrid -- after 1633

   

Cosme Lotti (1571?  -- 1643)

       

The Greatest Enchantment is Love (1635)

Spanish theatre the first western theatre in the Americas, from 1567

            religious and secular plays presented

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651 -- 1695)

           

The Second Celestina (1675) co-author, Augustin Salazar y Torres

           

The Trials of a Noble House (1683)

The French Theatre in the Seventeenth Century

pre-17th century theatrical, social and political background

French Catholics and the Huguenots

St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre 1572

Henry IV of Navarre

   

Early Theatrical Efforts

the Pléiade: Cleopatre Captive, by Etienne Jodelle

mix of classical and medieval elements

ballet de cour

            French farce and commedia dell’arte

the early professional theatre in Paris

religious drama banned in 1548

Confrérie de la Passion

   

            Hôtel de Bourgogne

           

Plays and Playwrights

Alexandre Hardy (c. 1572 -- 1632)

Valleran le Comte (fl. 1592 -- 1613), Les Comédiens du Roi

                       

French Neoclassicism

Cardinal Richelieu (1586 -- 1642)

The French Academy

Pierre Corneille (1606 -- 1684)

   

Le Cid (1636-37)

   

Horace (1640)

   

simple characters, complex plots

                        L’Illusion Comique (The Theatrical Illusion) 1636

tragicomedy

Jean Racine (1639 -- 1699)

   

Andromaque (1667)

Bérénice (1670)

                        Phèdre (1677)

                        simple plots, complex characters

   

Alexandrine

       

                        caesura

Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) (1622 -- 1673)

   

The Illustrious Theatre

       

the Béjart family (Madeleine & Armande)

Molière as actor/manager

            Molière’s farces and comedies of manners

                        raissoneur

       

School for Wives (1662)

       

The Miser (1668)

       

Tartuffe (1664. 1667. 1669)

The Misanthrope (1666)

       

The Imaginary Invalid (1673)

           

comédies-ballets

           

Molière’s death

   

Comédie Française (founded 1680)

French Theatre Spaces and Spectacle

            Hôtel de Bourgogne

           

pit (parterre)

           

boxes (loges), galleries

           

paradis

           

simultaneous settings

Laurent Mahelot, Le Mémoire

       

jeu du paume

Théâtre du Marais

neutral settings

   

                        un chambre a quatre portes

                        palais a volonte

Palais Cardinal, later Palais Royal

   

Giacomo Torelli (1608 -- 1678)

       

converts Salle du Petit Bourbon (1645), Palais Royal (1646)

creates Italian style scene changes via chariot and pole

   

Gaspare Vigarani (1586 -- 1663)

       

creates the Salle des Machines

           

                        inaugural production: Ercole Amante (Hercules in Love) in 1662

Gaspare’s son Carlo Vigarani

Jean Berain the elder (1638 – 1711); Jean Berain the younger (1678 – 1726)

father and son team, first major French-born designers

Actors and Theatrical Troupes

frequent changes of venue for acting companies

           

after Molière’s death, several mergers of theatre troupes

   

Comédie Française, founded 1680 by decree of Louis XIV

                        sociétaire

       

pensionaire

Montdory (1594 -- 1654)

   

Madeleine Béjart (1618 -- 1672)

   

Armande Béjart (1642 -- 1700)

   

Mlle du Parc (1633 -- 1668)

   

Mlle Champmeslé (1642 -- 1698)

   

Michel Baron (1653 -- 1729)

Costumes

   

habit à la Romaine

The Theatre in Restoration England

Social and Historical Background

Civil War (1642 -- 1649)

theatres closed by Parliament, many torn down

Commonwealth (1642 -- 1649)

           

“drolls”

Origins of English opera

       

The Siege of Rhodes (1656)

           

produced by William Davenant  (1606 -- 1668)

           

designed by John Webb (1611 -- 1672)

                       

Charles II restored to the throne 1660

from Puritanism to pleasure

           

James II 1685

           

William of Orange 1688

The restoration of the theatre

            a new, largely upper-crust audience

French influence

   

Plays and Playwrights

Revivals of

       

Beaumont and Fletcher

       

Shakespeare "improved"

           

Nahum Tate’s King Lear (1681)

   

Samuel Pepys (1633 -- 1703) and the theatre

   

            Serious drama in the Restoration:

heroic tragedy - John Dryden (1631 -- 1700), The Indian Queen (1664)

   

Restoration tragedy

       

Dryden, All for Love (1677)

Neoclassical unities loosened

blank verse used

       

Thomas Otway (1652 -- 1685), Venice Preserv'd (1682)

Restoration comedy

comedy of intrigue - Aphra Behn (1640 -- 1689) The Rover (1677-80)

       

other women writers include

           

Catherine Trotter  (1679 -- 1749)

           

Delarivier Manley (c. 1672 -- 1724)

           

Mary Pix  (1666 -- 1706)

       

Susannah Centlivre (c. 1670 -- 1723) The Busybody (1709)

   

comedy of manners

       

the format:

all deal with the leisure class.

                                    sexual seduction is the goal.

playing the game is important

women are as good at the game as men

marriage is a joke!

Sir George Etherege (c.1634 -- 1691)

           

The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676)

       

William Wycherley (1640 -- 1715) The Country Wife (1675)

                                                           

William Congreve (1670 -- 1729) The Way of the World (1700)

decline of Restoration-style Comedy

Jeremy Collier, “A Short View on the Immorality and

Profaneness of the English Stage” (1698)

invokes Horace’s “teach & delight

Restoration Theatre Companies

Royal patents to

   

William Davenant (1606 -- 1668)  (Duke's Company)

   

Thomas Killigrew (1612 -- 1683) (King's Company)

   

the two companies merge in 1682

Christopher Rich as producer

   

Betterton rebels and forms company in 1695

   

 the “business” of the theatre

            profit motive

            three nights a week

            bill of fare

   

benefit

Restoration Theatre Spaces and Design

   

Davenant's co.:  from Lisle's Tennis Court to Lincoln's Inn Fields (1661)

to Dorset Garden (1671)

   

Killigrew's co.:  from Gibbon's Tennis Court to Theatre Royal, Bridges

Street (1663) to Drury Lane (1674)

theatre interiors

   

pit, box, gallery system

       

a raked pit with benches

proscenium arch stage

       

forestage

       

scenic stage

       

wing and groove retained

            candlelight

                        keepers of the candles

                        footlights

            costumes

                        habit à la Romaine

Restoration Actors…and Actresses

   

women take the stage

social and sexual side effects

Nell Gwynn (1650 -- 1687)

       

            Elizabeth Barry (1658 -- 1713)

            Ann Bracegirdle (c.1663 -- 1748)

   

            and a few famous men:

       

Charles Hart (c. 1630 -- 1683)

Edward Kynaston (1643 -- 1712)

Thomas Betterton (c. 1635 – 1710) first major actor/manager