Art Music Theater F200

A Glimpse into Baroque Theatre Craft

Enjoy a re-creation of some of the marvelous technical feats of theater in this film excerpt.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ptSZQLZqnI&feature=related

Enjoy the virtual tour of this restoration Baroque Theatre at the Castle Cesky Krumlov.

• Auditorium
• Machinery under the stage
• Stage view 1
• Stage view 2

The Evolution of Set Design

[audio:setdesignintro.mp3]

Theatre moves to a more permanent indoor location

A permanent venue meant more realism could be developed through the set.
[audio:specialeffects.mp3]

• More special visual effects
  • Waves
  • Pop-ups from below the stage
  • Flying apparatus
• Painted sets and backdrops
• Moving sets
• Under the stage mechanisms
• Curtains

The development of the Proscenium Arch Stage

[audio:proscenium-arch.mp3]

• Most typical stage design, even today
• Frames the action

Scenery

[audio:scenery.mp3]

• Changes of scenery
• Illusionistic techniques of painting
• Ticks of the eye

Lighting

[audio:lighting.mp3]

• Footlights
• Colored lights
• Dimmable Lights
• All done by lamps, torches, candles

Costumes

[audio:costumes.mp3]

• Highly elaborate
• Costumed in the style of the day

Dance

[audio:aristocracy.mp3]

• The patronage of the wealthy
• Plays for an educated audience
• Private stages

Theatre in France

Overview

The Unities

• 3 Unities — inspired by classical Greek and Roman drama
  • Time
  • Place
  • Action
• Plays of elegance are limited to a 24 hour period for the storyline

Moliere

[audio:tartuffe.mp3]
About Moliere

Tartuffe

– Moliere’s most enduring work.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlBKmyGSP1A

Highly influenced by Comedia dell’ arte
Slapstick
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLbgdIuaJM

• Written in rhyming verse
• Poked fun at the religiously hypocritical
• Satire of the extreme gullibility of people
• Considered an attack on religion
• Tartuffe is censored and banned
• Work returned to the stage under the protection of the king.

Pierre Corneille — Playwright

Specialized in tragedy

Jean Racine — Playwright

Tragic and fatalistic

View trailer for “Phedra”.

Actresses — The Spanish Golden Age of Theatre

[audio:spanish.mp3]

Spanish Theatre — religious plays allowed women to play female roles

• This later eased into secular plays
• Late 1500’s laws ping-pong — Yes Women — No Women
• 1600 — Women are allowed! But no cross dressing below the waist.

English Theatre

[audio:england.mp3]
More about English theater  – preferred link – but it is temporarily offline

Alternate link

England had political turmoil during the first portion of the Baroque era

• The Rule of Charles I without Parliament
• Civil War — All theatres close
• Actors considered Rogues

Theatre’s reopen after Charles I is beheaded and Charles II instated

• Theatre become Royal property
• Only 2 London companies are giving permits

Theatre during Charles II was called “Restoration Theatre

• Women allowed to act