William ShakespeareAn introduction to A Midsummer Night's Dream

Entertain Yourself...

What forms of entertainment and distraction are available to us today?

What would you do with 5 free hours?

Elizabethan Theatre"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII

Elizabethan TheatreTheaters were open air buildings

Buildings were "O" shaped, and three stories high

Most spectators were "groundlings" and stood in front of the stage

Most audience members were poor, uneducated peasants (consider our cheapest "escapes" today)

Some stages had trapdoors, balconies, and second curtains for effect

Elizabethan TheatreSome playwrights (Christopher Marlowe) used dangerous "visual effects" like fire or live animals

Shakespeare's plays required the audience to pay close attention-the actors usually painted a picture of the setting and the staging with lines of dialogue

Plays were performed in the afternoon, so there was no need for lighting

Elizabethan TheatreThe audiences wanted to be entertained and distracted from their miserable, stinking lives

Fight scenes were elaborate, dances had live music, and puns and word games were cheered

Theatre was not a respectable profession, and therefore not at all appropriate for women

All actors were men; the female roles were played by men who had not yet gone through puberty's deepening of voice

The BardWilliam Shakespeare

The Man: Shakespeare

1564: born in Stratford-on-Avon

Studied Latin, Greek, The Bible, Rhetoric, and Roman dramatists

1582: married Anne Hathaway (he was 18, she was 27)

Had a daughter (Susanna), and twins (Hamnet, who died young, and Judith)

Left his family in Stratford and moved to London

By 1592 (28 years old): was a successful actor and playwright

1594: Joined the acting troupe "The Lord Chamberlain's Men"

1603: Acting group becomes "The King's Men" when King James ascends to the throne

Wrote about 2 plays a year for the acting troupes

1599: financed The Globe

1612: retired with 37 plays and more than 150 sonnets written

1616: died

The Man: Shakespeare

His Plays: What does it mean to be human?

Comedies

Romances

Histories

Tragedies

A Midsummer Night's Dream

mid 1590's

A Midsummer Night's Dream

What's in a title?

Word for Word Title:Midsummer-June 23, the summer solstice. Longest day of the year. Time to PARTY, drink, and celebrate fertility

Night's-Evening, dark, mysterious; shortest night of the year

Dream-Think Plato, Inception, and everything mystical and magical. Reality is in question...

Setting: Time, Place, and Circumstances

Ancient Athens, Greece

A time and place where law and order ruled

A Father could demand a death sentence for a disobedient daughter

Palace of Theseus

Near a magical forest

(Written when Elizabeth was Queen...gutsy)

Complex Story Lines:Four Stories in One

The Marriage

The Lovers

The Actors

The Fairies