from stage to screen 2011. 2012 (1)

7/30/2019 From Stage to Screen 2011. 2012 (1)

1/10

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

FILM ADAPTATIONS OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARES PLAYS


2/10

Topics

Text in performance: An Introduction to Elizabethan Performance Studies: Elizabethan

Playhouses. The Players. Costumes, Scenery and Effects.Performance Techniques

A contrastive approach to Elizabethan theatrical conventions andmodern theatrical/ film performance conventions.

Introduction to the grammarof film: Camera techniques.Camera movements. Editing techniques. Narrative Style.Graphics. Sound. Filming modes.

Shakespeare in twentieth and twenty-first century films: Shakespeare and pop culture: Al Pacinos docu-drama

Looking for Richard A shrew for all times: Franco ZeffirellisThe Taming of the

Shrew Gazing on Hamletwith Kenneth Branagh Shakespeare, film and race: Oliver ParkersOthello


3/10

An Introduction to ElizabethanPerformance Studies

The first permanent theatres: old inns which had been used astemporary acting areas when the companies had been touring. E.g.The Cross Keys, The Bull, The Bel Savage, The Bell

The first purpose built theatre building: The Theatre

Categories of playhouses:

Public/ outdoor theatres: e.g.The Theatre(1576), The Curtain(1577), The Rose (1587), The Swan (1595), The Globe(1599).

Private/ indoor theatres: e.g. The Blackfriars; The Cockpit


4/10

Structure and Design of Public/Outdoor Theatres

the pit or yard

the roofed galleries

the Heavens

the Frons Scenae the discovery

space

the stage gallery

the Tiring House

the Hut


5/10

Structure and Design of Public/Outdoor Theatres


6/10

The Players

more parts than actors doubling or trebling ofroles an actor performed during the sameperformance.

only male actors (Female roles were performed

byboyactorsin disguise.) intense and demanding rehearsal and

performance schedule (e.g. In a typical season,a theatrical company could perform thirty-eight

different plays.) few formal rehearsals for each play and no

equivalent of the modern director


7/10

Costumes

a strange combination of what was (for the Elizabethans)modern dress, and costumes which - while not beinggenuinely historically or culturally accurate - had ahistorical or foreign flavour.

strict laws about types of clothes and colour codes (e.g.red blood; black gloom, evil; yellow sun; white purity; scarlet doctor; gray friar; blue serving men).

extensive make-up for the boys playing female parts andfor actors playingblackamoorsorTurks.

mad people (esp. women): loose hair and disorderedclothing.

night scenes signalled by characters wearing nightdresses


8/10

Scenery and Effects

no fixed scenery or painted backdrops (hence the playwrights hadto provide the actors with spoken descriptions of landscape).

yet, a wide variety of furniture and props: simple beds, tables,chairs and thrones to whole trees, grassy banks, prop dragons, anunpleasant looking cave to represent the mouth of hell, etc.

copious quantities of animal blood, fake heads and tables with holesin to stage decapitations; heads, hands, eyes, tongues and limbs cutoff onstage.

other simple special effects: real cannons and pistols (loaded withpowder but no bullet) for ceremonial salutes or battles ; rolling largemetal cannon balls backstage or drumming for thunder; fireworksset off in the heavensabove the stage for lightning or magical

effects. no lighting effects (except for the indoor theatres candlelight) torches used to indicate that a scene was taking place at night.


9/10

Performance Techniques

Performance lasting between two and two and a half hours with noact breaks the actors were continually moving forward andbackward into the midst of the surrounding audience through thedoors at the rear of the stage.

Clowns/ Fools: a great deal of improvised repartee and jokes in theperformance, especially responding to hecklers in the audience;dancing or performing a jig (anything from a simple ballad to aquite complicated musical play, normally a farce involving adulteryand other bawdy topics )

The spectators: The Groundlings standing in the pit, frequentlyshouting up at the actors or hissing the villains and cheering thegoodguys.

The Elizabethans did not speak of going to see a play, they went tohearone: the most expensive seats were not the ones with the bestviews, but those in the Lords box or the balcony behind the stage,looking at the action from behind; the higher the seats, the more anaudience member had to pay.


10/10

Specific Aspects of ElizabethanPerformances

bear-baiting: Bears were set upon by hounds in a fight to the death. fencing: Less gruesome, this civilized sport also took place before

plays. dumb-shows/processions: These parades or spectacles required

the use of the most ornate costumes the actors owned, includingcrowns and sceptres, torches and swords. Dumb-shows appeared atthe end of each act to summarize the events of the following act. By

the turn of the century, dumb-shows were considered old-fashioned.Processions were more solemn as actors moved mannequin-likeacross the stage.

jigs: At the conclusion of a play, the actors would dance around thestage. Separate from the plays, these were bawdy, knockabout song-and-dance farces. Frequently resembling popular ballads, jigs were

often commentaries on politics or religion. masques: Masques were plays put on strictly by the royals. These

were celebrations, i.e. royal weddings or winning a battle. Designed asbanquets of the senses, these celebrations spanned several daysduring which each member of the party played a part in the allegoricaltheme of the banquet. Masques were always held in privateplayhouses.

from stage to screen 2011. 2012 (1)

Documents