Mixing of Tones and Subjects

Theater of Imagination

Compared to some of the theatrical performances of the 21st century, Elizabethan theater had little in the way of sets or props, or even artificial lighting. This was a disadvantage in that performers had to rely on natural light, but also contributed to the style of Elizabethan drama. For a start, since there was little need to change sets between scenes, plays proceeded in a very fluid fashion, with each scene directly following another. Playwrights had to utilize evocative language to create the mood and present the action rather than relying on props and stage backgrounds.

Costumes

Elizabethan drama didn’t use expensive costumes for its performers, and many wore contemporary dress. When it came to representing characters from historical periods or other countries, actors would don easily recognized costumes to convey who they were. For instance, an actor playing a Roman would wear a sash to represent a toga.

Contact with Audience

Although Elizabethan drama was scripted and the lines learnt by the company performing the piece, the period’s theater was not acted in a vacuum. Since the audience, even in a specially built theater, would surround the stage or performance space, the acting company would interact with those watching. Sometimes the audience would loudly comment on the action while some scripts contained allusions to contemporary politics that the audience would understand. The characters in Shakespeare’s plays that speak in soliloquies -- directly to those watching -- are another result of this relationship with the audience.

Forms

Two of the more well known dramatic forms from the Elizabethan age are comedy and tragedy. Traditionally, comedy dealt with bawdy language and low-class characters, while tragedy was concerned with questions about humanity and noble characters, but playwrights such as Shakespeare and his contemporaries didn’t always separate the two genres in their work. Meanwhile, in the early Elizabethan period, many plays were of the mystery genre and concentrated on retelling Biblical stories or tales of saints. These mystery plays were often performed by travelling companies of actors and would coincide with religious festivals.

Mixing of Tones and Subjects

The mixing of genres that Shakespeare and his contemporaries introduced is accompanied in Elizabethan drama by a collision of tone and subjects. For example, many dramatists, including Shakespeare, used both elegant and poetic language as well as more ribald lines in the same play, as opposed to reserving different kinds of language for separate genres. Subjects were also diverse during Elizabethan drama. The same playwrights produced work based on myths as well as plays concerning historical events.

TYPES OF ELIZABETHAN LONDON THEATERS AND PLAYHOUSES
There were three different types of venues for Elizabethan plays: Inn-yards, Open air Amphitheatres and Playhouses. The Inn-yards were the original venues of plays and many were converted into Playhouses. The Amphitheatres were generally used during the Summer months and then the Acting Troupes moved to the indoor playhouses during the Winter Season.

Inn-yards	The early days of Elizabethan commercial theatre. Performances held in private London Inns. Inexpensive. Held indoors or the yard. Audience capacity up to 500
Open Air Amphitheaters	Think of a public outdoor structure like the Coliseum or a small football stadium with a capacity of between 1500 and 3000 people
Indoor Playhouses	A small, private indoor hall. Open to anyone who would pay but more expensive with more select audiences. Audience capacity up to 500

THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA AFTER SHAKESPEARE

The drama began to decline during Shakespeare's lifetime. Even before his
retirement to Stratford other popular dramatists appeared who pleased a
vulgar taste by introducing more sensational elements into the stage
spectacle. In consequence the drama declined so rapidly that in 1642,
only twenty-six years after the master dramatist had passed away,
Parliament closed the theaters as evil and degrading places.

Theaters were not only used to show plays. There was gambling and in some there was even bear baiting. Not only were there objections about the bawdy nature of some of the plays, the rise in crime but there was also the real risk of the crowded theatres encouraging the spread of the plague. The outcry was such that in 1596London's authorities banned the public presentation of plays within the city limits of London. The theaters were forced to move to the South side of the River Thames.

Among those who played their parts in the rise and fall of the drama, the
chief names are Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Middleton, Webster, Heywood,
Dekker, Massinger, Ford and Shirley.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16