Second Semester Changes• Seating Charts – will last for the semester• Bring a pencil or borrow from someone else; I’m not

buying any this semester1• Hall Passes – 4 per semester – sign out to go.• Dear on Friday– Bring a book/magazine/newspaper

• Notebooks– Will be checked each Friday – 50 points each check– Three sections

• Notes and Handouts• Openers• Homework

Opening Agenda•Things to Get: •One piece of notebook paper•The article and the note sheet

•Things to Do: •Opener • on your own paper• return reading

•Class work:•Commedia dell’Arte notes

OpenerRead the article entitled “The Italian Renaissance” and answer

the following questions on your own notebook paper.

1) What were the Neoclassical ideals and why were they very important?

2) What is verisimilitude and how did it influence Renaissance playwrights?

3) How did innovations in visual art influence the Renaissance theatre?

4) Who were the most important individuals in Renaissance theatre innovations?

5) List five examples of things these individuals developed. 6) What was the proscenium arch’s purpose in Renaissance

theatre?7) Why were Renaissance theaters larger and larger and deeper

and deeper8) Was new scenery created for each play?

Commedia dell’Arte

Commedia dell’ Arte

• improvisational comedy• Traveling actors • invented dialogue for bare plot outline• Used novels, gossip, and current events• cast of 12 stock characters (stereotyped

personalities)• 9 men/3 women – all played by men

History and Background

• 1500-1700’s• Italy• Manager led troupe/wrote scripts• 2 Stock character types:

upper class and servant class• Characters identified by costumes/masks• Mobile stage

Scenarios-plot outlines posted backstage before each performance

Lazzi-memorized lines/humorous scenes-apart from main action-ignored by main characters

Stock CharactersPulcinella

hunchbackchases womenzanni

La Ruffiana (Old Woman) mother or gossipy townswomanintrudes into the lives of the Lovers.

Zanni poor servants from Bergamo, Italymove to Venice for better jobs

Arlecchino • Servant• zanni• poor peasant • Illiterate, pretends to read• Acrobat/clown• hits other characters with a baton

or stick-slapstick(homey the clown)

• patchworked clothing shows poor status/resourcefulness

Brighella• fat and slow • always the butt of a joke• simpelton • told not to do things

but desires get the better of him or her

Columbina • maidservant to the lovers• lover of Arlecchino• intelligent

Dottore • local aristocrat• Doctor• snobbish• rich• adores food and good wine, fat

Capitano• Boastful but cowardly Spainard• Brags of battles never fought and romances

never experienced(who does he look like?)

Pantalone • rich and miserly merchant• father of one of the lovers• employs Arlecchino and

treats him cruelly

Pedrolino • Overly kind zanni• Gets blamed for everything and he agrees that

it is always his fault

Commedia dell-arteOn the bottom of your notes:

• While watching the following clip, identify similarities between the Commedia dell-arte characteristics and Whose Line is it anyways.

Opening Agenda•Things to Get: •One piece of notebook paper•The article and the note sheet

•Things to Do: •Opener Review Questions 5 minutes•Reading with questions• do both on the same piece of paper• return reading

•Class work:Elizabethan Theatre notes

Opener Review1. Define Commedia Dell Arte.2. What modern character was modeled after

Arrlecchino?3. True or False: Commedia Dell Arte was

improvisational comedy with fully written scripts.4. True or False: Women acted in Commedia Dell

Arte.5. True or False: Lazzi were memorized lines used if

improv was not working.

From Italy to England

The Elizabethan Theatre The Elizabethan Age

1. Where is the Renaissance known as “The Elizabethan Age”?

2. What allowed for the theatre to develop during this time period?

3. Why were Elizabethan Theatres outside of city limits?

4. Describe what a typical Elizabethan theater looked like:

5. How did plays written in England differ from plays written in Italy and on the European continent?

6. Who was Christopher Marlowe?

7. What type of dramatic poetry did he use? Describe this form of poetry:

The Elizabethan Age

• England’s Renaissance– named after Queen Elizabeth

1st – love of language and the art

of theater

Developments to Theater

• Went from amateur status to professional status– Effect: Companies of

professional actors gave playwrights a more stable and experienced group of performers

• Building of permanent theaters– Spaces were now

specifically designed to present plays

Theater Hating

• The church thought that “all theatre that was not religious in nature was evil”– No theaters in

London• White Flag flying=

play today

The Globe Theater

Theater Construction

• Circular or octagonal• Three stories• Open roof• Open platform with little or

no scenery placed on it• Plat form stage surrounded

on three sides by an audience (closer to a proscenium arch stage)– Tiring house: stage house; backdrop for the

action– Inner Stage: roofed area that was used to

suggest an inside setting (back of the platform)

– Musicians’ gallery: where a small group of musicians would play music

Form of English Plays• Series of brief scenes that

frequently changed location from place to place– one group of characters left the

stage and another group entered, the audience knew that the scene was changing

– spoken décor: when a character signals a scene change by announcing it

• freer use of stage space• Iambic pentameter: words have 2

syllables to each beat and when spoken, stress is place on the second beat

Spectators• Wealthy got benches• “Groundlings”>poorer

people stood and watched from the courtyard (“pit”)

• All but wealthy were uneducated/illiterate

• Much more interaction than today

Actors• Only men and boys• Young boys whose voices

had not changed play women’s roles

• Would have been considered indecent for a woman to appear on stage

William ShakespeareWidely regarded as the

greatest writer in English Literature

Shakespeare• 1563-1616• Stratford-on-Avon, England• wrote 37 plays• about 154 sonnets• started out as an actor

Stage Celebrity• Actor for Lord

Chamberlain’s Men (London theater co.)

• Also > principal playwright for them

• 1599> Lord Ch. Co. built Globe Theater where most of Sh. Play’s were performed

Shakespeare wrote:•Comedies•Histories• Tragedies

Romeo and Juliet• Written about 1595• Considered a tragedy• West Side Story

(Movie) based on R&J

Film Activity – 20 Points

• After watching the following clip, describe the way in which the Elizabethan stage influences the play.

– Four sentences minimum…. well developed thoughts only.

Exit Slip

1. In what country was Elizabethan Theatre?2. Did they have professionals with permanent

buildings or traveling amateurs? 3. Did the Church support plays during this time

as positive influences on society?4. True or False: The most expensive seats were

closest to the stage.5. True or False: Women traditionally acted in

Elizabethan Theatre.