Lecture compiled by Justin Eick - Theatrical Education Group

English Renaissance theatre is drama written and performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (15581603), known as Elizabethan theatre; King James I (16031625), known as Jacobean theatre; and King Charles I (1625 until the closure of the theatres in 1642), known as Caroline theatre. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare along with many other famous dramatists.

Overview English Renaissance Theatre

Origins
English Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays that formed as part of religious festivals in Europe during the Middle Ages, the morality plays that evolved out of the mysteries, and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy. Commedia dell'Arte also played a part in shaping public theatre. Companies of players attached to households of leading noblemen became the foundation for the professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances by local players, and a 1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labeling them vagabonds.

The City of London authorities were generally hostile to public performances, but its hostility was overmatched by the Queen's taste for plays and the Privy Council's support. The companies maintained the pretence that their public performances were mere rehearsals for the frequent performances before the Queen, but while the latter did grant prestige, the former were the real source of the income professional players required. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed toward the end of the period.

Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was

concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses.

With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades. In the end, the rising Puritan movement was hostile towards theatre, which the Puritans thought promoted immorality. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction gained control early in the English Civil War, and on September 2, 1642 ordered the closure of the London theatres. The theatres remained closed for most of the next eighteen years, re-opening after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

English Renaissance Theatre

The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle, produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent.

Players/Companies
Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead leaving the stage largely bare with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage was in

the costumes. Costumes were often bright in color and visually entrancing. Costumes were expensive, however, so usually players wore contemporary

Costumes
The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle, produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent. Although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 remain extant. The men who wrote these plays were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds. Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority do not seem to have been performers. Not all of the playwrights fit modern images of poets or intellectuals. Christopher Marlowe was killed in a tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from

Playwrights
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The acting companies functioned on a repertory system; unlike modern productions that can run for months or years, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row. For example, over the course of a 16 week season, a company would play six days a week, perform 23 different plays, (some only once, and the most popular clothing regardless of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear a conventionalized version of more historically accurate garb, but secondary characters would nonetheless remain in contemporary clothing. one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication. A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that spanned more than two decades; he was financially successful because he was an actor and, most importantly, a

shareholder in the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used. Playwrights often combined into teams of two, three, four, and even five to generate play texts; the majority of plays written in this era were collaborations, and the solo artists, like Jonson and Shakespeare, were the exceptions to the rule. up to 15 times), never play the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in one week. This was a tremendous workload for the performers. Furthermore, one distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Until the reign of Charles II, female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume.

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The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance dramaonce they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent rather than a transitory phenomenon. The crucial initiating development was the building of The Theatre by James Burbage, in 1576. The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604). The public theatres were three stories high, and built around an open space at the center. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, the three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open center, into which jutted the stageessentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet or Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar. With no curtain between the audience and the stage, the setting was far more intimate than the larger theatres of today despite the fact that 2,000 to 3,000 patrons could attend a production at one time. Indeed, audience participation was an integral factor in Elizabethan productions. Furthermore, sets

were kept to a minimum with the production relying primarily upon the inherent surroundings of the stage and courtyard.

Stage Characteristics
A 1596 sketch of a performance in progress on the thrust stage of The Swan, a typical circular Elizabethan open-roof playhouse.

A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use in 1599. The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky; it resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not. Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably the Whitefriars (1608), the Cockpit (1617), and the Salisbury Court Theatre (1629). Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half-century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well. Around 1580, when both The Theatre and The Curtain were full on summer days, the total theatre capacity of London was about 5000 spectators. With the building of new theatre facilities and the formation of new companies, the capital's total theatre capacity exceeded 10,000 after 1610. In 1580, the poorest citizens could purchase admittance to the Curtain or the Theatre for a penny; in 1640, their counterparts could gain admittance to the Globe, the Cockpit, or the Red Bullfor exactly the same price.

Significant Artists/Works
Player - the main actors, they were also "sharers" which meant they held shares in the theatre and were paid from the profits. Hired Men - other actors hired to fill parts, were paid a wage and did not receive profits. Young boys apprenticed with the company as "gophers" and played the roles of women. They were not paid much. Book Keeper - person hired to copy the play (by hand), and the parts for each actor (sides), and an outline which was pinned up backstage for actors as a guide. Tiremen - person responsible for all of the costumes. Costumes were worth a lot of money and were treated very carefully.