Medieval theatre is an introduction.
The period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the beginning of Renaissance was referred to as the Medieval Theatre.Medieval theatre covers dramatic performance in Europe over a thousand-year period.Mystery plays, morality plays and farces are just some of the genres that need to be considered.The themes were usually religious.The English cycle dramas, York Mystery Plays, Chester Mystery plays, the N-Town plays and the morality play known as Everyman are some of the most famous examples.The Interlude of the Student and the Girl is a secular play.
There are few surviving sources from the Early and High Medieval periods due to a lack of records and texts.By the late period, performances became more secularized and larger number of records survive.
It is difficult to find appropriate terms for contemporary conceptions of theatre because they are different from the pre-modern world."medieval" is a time period that is too large and complex to comprehend in short descriptions.There was a wide range of performances: ludus, ordo, representatio, officium, pagina, miraculum, mystre, processus, interlude, morality, mumming, and,They had nothing to do with stage performance in the 21st century.
The seat of Roman power in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. shifted to Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire, later called the Byzantine Empire.Existing records show that Byzantine theatre was very popular and that there were many mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies.As late as the 5th century A.D., Constantinople had two theatres.A large amount of contemporary information on Greek theatre is derived from the preservation of many classical Greek texts by the Byzantines.The theatres were closed permanently in the 6th century.
Theatres were thought to be a threat to Christianity because new converts continued to attend.The stage was seen as an instrument of corruption and acting as a mockery of God's creation, according to the fathers of the church.Roman actors were not allowed to have contact with Christian women, own slaves, or wear gold.They were defaming throughout Europe and were excommunicated.For many centuries, clerics were warned not to allow travelling actors to perform in their jurisdiction.[4]
In the 10th century, a canoness and historian in northern Germany wrote six plays that used religious subjects.The first known plays composed by a female dramatist and the first identifiable Western dramatic works of the post-Classical era can be found in these six plays.The Church criticized Hrosvitha for trying to imitate the "laudable" actions of women in Terence's plays.They had a lot of influence in the 16th century.Hildegard of Bingen was a nun who wrote plays.
Faced with the problem of explaining a new religion to a largely uneducated population, churches in the Early Middle Ages began staging dramatized versions of certain biblical events on specific days of the year.Annual celebrations were ruined by the dramatizations.The events which Christian ritual celebrates are recalled in symbolic objects and actions.The Whom do you Seek is an Easter trope.There are events surrounding Christ's empty grave.The text was sung by two groups and was not considered to be acting.The Regularis Concordia (Monastic Agreement) was composed sometime between 965 and 975 by thelwold of Winchester.[5]
Vitalis of Blois adapted the pagan play Querolus in the 12th century.In France and England, secular Latin plays such as Babio were written in the 12th century.It is known that storytellers and mimes travel in search of new audiences and financial support.Not much is known about these performers.The musical Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, written by Adam de la Halle in the 13th century, is one of the most famous secular plays.Other plays were written by Adam.
Performance of religious plays outside of the church began sometime in the 12th century through a traditionally accepted process of merging shorter dramas into longer plays which were then translated into vernacular and performed by laymen and thus accessible to a wider segment of society.It was possible for drama to be understood and enjoyed by a larger audience.The stage direction of The Mystery of Adam suggests that it was staged outdoors.There are a number of plays from the period, including La Seinte Resurrection, The Play of the Magi Kings, and Sponsus.
The development of comedy was influenced by the Feast of Fools.The status of the lesser clergy was inverted by the festival and they were able to ridicule their superiors.Sometimes plays were staged as part of the occasion and a certain amount of comedy may have entered the drama as a result.[7]
Economic and political changes in the High Middle Ages led to the formation of guilds and the growth of towns, and this would lead to significant changes for theatre.Trade guilds began to perform plays, usually religiously based, and often dealing with a biblical story that referenced their profession.A reenactment of the Last Supper would be performed by a baker's guild.Some 127 different towns in the British Isles produced plays during the Middle Ages.York is one of the plays that were written in cycles.In the Late Middle Ages, plays and religious dramas were performed in nearly every European country and a larger number of plays survive from France and Germany.There were many plays with comedy, devils, villains and clowns.[9]
Most of the actors in these plays are from the local area.More than 100 roles were assigned to 72 actors at Valenciennes.There were platforms mounted on wheels that were used to move scenery during plays.They allowed for rapid changes in location.In England, amateur performers provided their own costumes, but other countries had female performers.
Around 1400, morality plays emerged as a dramatic form.The Castle of Perseverance depicts mankind's progress from birth to death.It is atypical that Everyman is the best known of this genre.Every man gets Death's summons, struggles to escape, and finally resigns himself to necessity.Good Deeds goes with him to the grave as he is deserted by the other groups.
Adam de la Halle wrote The Play of the Greenwood in 1276.There are satirical scenes and folk material.Farces rose in popularity after the 13th century.Sex and bodily excretions are emphasized in most of the plays from France and Germany.Hans Sachs is the best known playwright of farces.The Second Shepherds' play is the best known early farce in England.farce did not appear on its own in England until the 16th century.
The Chambers of Rhetoric in the Low Countries were an important part of the development of Elizabethan drama.These societies held contests to see which society could come up with the best drama in relation to a question.
Professional actors began to appear in England and Europe at the end of the Late Middle Ages.Small companies of professional actors were maintained by Richard III and Henry VII.Their plays were often performed in the great hall of a nobleman's residence, with a raised platform at one end for the audience and a screen at the other.The Christmas season and court masques were important.During the reign of Henry VIII, a house of revels was built and an office was established.It was [13].
Theatre was affected by political and economic factors at the end of the Middle Ages.The theatre in England was targeted by the Protestant Reformation.There are signs of Protestant editing in the local mystery cycle text in Wakefield.The Council of Trent banned religious plays in an attempt to rein in the extrabiblical material.
The tastes of the learned classes in the performing arts were changed by a revival of interest in ancient Roman and Greek culture.New plays were written that were influenced by the classical style.The creation of Commedia dell'arte was influenced by this.
Changes to the theatre were caused by a change of patronage.The nobility and monarch of England started to support professional theatre troupes, which cater to their upper class patrons' tastes.
The construction of permanent theaters signaled a turning point.More sophisticated staging and stories can be achieved in permanent theaters.
Philadelphia Pennsylvania is home to the annual Mummers Parade, as well as other places in the United Kingdom and the USA.They don't know what relation they may have to their medieval predecessors.At a time when the industrial revolution began to break up the rural communities in which the plays were performed, the oral tradition was recorded in the 18th century.
There are mystery plays produced in the United Kingdom.The local cycles were revived in York and Chester in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain.The N-Town cycle was revived in 1978 as the Lincoln mystery plays, and in 1994 the Lichfield Mysteries were inaugurated, making them the biggest community theatre event in the United Kingdom.[17]