BELL RINGER 10/8 I know that I (Mrs. B) had told you that we would
start presentations today, but I have OCTI training that I… honestly… forgot about until last Friday.
Mrs. James will take you through Dance and Drama for the Renaissance (last page of notes.)
We will start presentations TOMORROW! BE READY!!!! We have a lot to get through before Fall Break!
EARLY RENAISSANCE DANCE
DANCE Theatre dance
The visual and geometric characteristics of dance as we know it today are firmly rooted in the developments of the early Renaissance
Dance moved from social to theatrical
The Italians began to create patterns in body movements
Increasing concern for “rules” and conventionalized vocabulary
DANCE Concern for perfection, for individual
expression, dignity, and grace, created a vocabulary for dance steps and a choreography of dance patterns and designs
Courtly surroundings added refinement and restraint
The dancing master assumed greater importance and control
DANCE Dance became something to watch rather
than something to do
Important milestone: Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro wrote one of the first compilations of dance description and theory
As he tried to record this complex and visually oriented activity, he stressed memory as the most essential ingredients of the dancer’s art
DANCE Guglielmo’s work was a clear record of
formal dance
Dance was an art of grace and beauty
Made dance fully acceptable from an aesthetic standpoint – dance became an art form
RENAISSANCE PERFORMANCE DANCE
DANCE European indoor court entertainments
often took the form of “dinner ballets”
Involved interludes between meal courses
Characters corresponded to the dishes served in the meal Poseidon, god of the sea, would accompany
the fish course
DANCE Courtly dancing became more and
more professional
Skilled professionals performed on a raised stage hall, joined by members of the court
Dancing technique improved, and more complicated rhythms were introduced
DANCE – CATHERINE DE’ MEDICI Great Granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent
Married to a Frenchman Captured to convince Pope Leo not to come back to Italy
Ignites Formal Ballet – Catherine de’ Medici More in the Baroque Period
Loved spectacle and presented lavish entertainments Some of which nearly bankrupted the French treasury
Le Ballet de Polonais (the “Polish Ballet”) Renaissance scenic devices overwhelmed the audience with fountains and
aquatic machines Over 10,000 spectators 3.5 million francs (A LOT!)
RENAISSANCE DRAMA
RENAISSANCE DRAMA Renaissance drama in Italy tended to not reflect the
discordant political cloak-and-dagger atmosphere of its surroundings
Italian playwrights chose mostly to write tender, sentimental, pastoral comedies, in a graceful, witty, and polished style
The drama was theatre of the aristocracy, produced with elaborate trappings and usually at court Sometimes in public squares under courtly sponsorship
RENAISSANCE DRAMA No permanent theatres existed at the
time
RENAISSANCE DRAMA Important development: painted scenery
The discovery of mechanical perspective found its way into the theatre in the sixteenth century
The visual effect of falsified perspective “tricks” is based on mechanical principles
From a point slightly upstage of the actual playing area, the scenery gets smaller and smaller to an imaginary vanishing point Induces a sense of great depth when, in reality, the set recedes
only a few feet
RENAISSANCE DRAMA
RENAISSANCE DRAMA The actors were restricted to a narrow playing
area adjacent to the full-size downstage wings
If the actors had moved upstage, they would have towered over the buildings
Stage settings became more and more elaborate, and a new “opening” usually brought an audience to see not a new play, but, rather, the new accomplishments of the set designer
RENAISSANCE DRAMA The most significant change in the theatre of
this era was a move to enclose the dramatic action within a “picture frame” or proscenium stage
The audience sat on only one side of the stage and watched the action through a rectangular or arched opening
“Picture frame stage”
RENAISSANCE DRAMA
COMMEDIA DELL-ARTE Developed parallel to the traditions of the regular
theatre, and enjoyed tremendous popular support
Featured the actor rather than the script
Identified by 4 characteristics: Improvisation Use of Stock Characters Use of mime and pantomime Traveled in companies
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Improvisation
Fully fledged productions had plots and subplots
However, dialogue was completely improvised within the plot outline or scenario
Mostly comic
Acting style appears to have been natural, though the actors needed good entrance and exit lines as well as repartee
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Whose Line is It Anyway Example
Improvisation
The scene: “The Millionaire Show as 1930s Gangsters”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfnDo6ijbk
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Use of stock characters:
Young lovers, old fathers, injured soldiers, and comic servants
All wore stock costumes
Actors portraying these roles required great skill, physical dexterity, and timing, since a large part of the humor was visual
Actors also had to dance, sing, and perform acrobatics
Somersaulting without spilling a glass of wine brought down the house
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Whose Line Is It Anyway Example
Characters News Anchor Game Show Host Drill Sergeant (Surprise!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfwfXXCV9XE
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Use of mime and pantomime
All characters, except the lovers and the serving maid wore masks
Attitudes were communicated through gestures
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Whose Line is it Anyway Example
Pantomime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx_oh6LM6zU
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Traveled in companies
Each member of the company played the same role over and over again – never changed parts
Practice was so pervasive that actors often lost their own identities
Many actors even changed their original names to those of the stage personages they portrayed
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE 1550-1650ish, troupes of commedia actors
traveled throughout Europe
Their influence and popularity were tremendous, but commedia remained an Italian form, although its characters and situations found their way into the theatre of other nations
By the end of the 1600s, commedia dell’arte had disappeared (for now)
COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE Commedia dell’arte introduced women
into the theatre as equals
Women’s roles were as important as, and often more important than, those of men
Women, no longer boys, played the female parts
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