1. Renaissance Theater 1485-1660 Preeminent period of English drama
Drama originated from religious ceremony
Early types of plays
Miracle or mystery plays – based on Bible
Moralities – taught people how to live
Interludes – a variety of one-act plays
Comedy was introduced during Renaissance

2. Renaissance Drama Two groups of dramatists
University graduates – known as high comedy – witty and sophisticated
Robert Greene
John Lyly
Those who were not formally educated – wrote a “lower comedy” – farcical in nature
Shakespeare
Ben Jonson
Tragicomedy – ends happily like a comedy, but characters endure life-threatening circumstances like a tragedy – developed by John Fletcher

3. Shakespeare Father was a mayor 1582 – married Anne Hathaway
had 3 children
1592 – became an actor and playwright
actors were not considered respectable
Theaters were constant target of officials
felt employees wasted their time at theaters
felt that disease was too easily spread
1594 – joined theater group known as Lord Chamberlain’s Men
1603 – became known as the King’s Men
their patron was King James
Acted and wrote for this group until he retired in 1612
In all, wrote 37 plays in 20 years – averaged 2-4 plays per year
known most for his comedies, histories, and tragedies
Characters are universal – true to life

4. The Globe
plays were not published after performances – didn’t want to give other theater groups material
makes it difficult to account for dates and accurate manuscripts
performed in the Globe theater – the wooden “O”
In 1576 James Burbage built a theater in the suburbs of London – “the Theater” was the first public theater.
Others were then built outside the city limits to avoid license requirements and closings imposed by London officials.
land was leased – owner raised rent
in 1599 decided to tear it down, take pieces to another property and rebuild it just south of the Thames River
then became known as the Globe
held crowds of 2 to 3 thousand people

5. The Globe Three parts of the Globe:
The building proper – 3 stories high – surrounded the inner yard
The stage – stuck out in the yard with spectators on 3 sides
The tiring house – 2 story back wall for the stage – also, a gallery above for musicians, certain scenes, etc.
The curtains at the back of the stage helped distinguish indoors from outside props.
Audience could sit on 3 sides of the stage – very close to stage
Limited the amount of sets they could use
audience relied on imagination
no artificial lighting/no curtain as we use it today
Atmosphere was more like a professional baseball game than Broadway today
audience openly expressed its reactions to the play
they ate, drank, and talked during performances
In 1613 the Globe burned down when cannons were fired and sparks landed on the thatched roof.

6. Macbeth
Tragedy – a play in which human actions have their inevitable consequences, in which a character’s bad deeds are never forgiven or corrected.
An ill-judged action will lead to a catastrophe
Tragic hero – usually the title character in a tragedy whose actions bring about his own downfall
Tragic flaw – the problem or character defect that causes the hero to do such destructive actions
Soliloquy – a long speech in which a character who is usually alone onstage expresses his private thoughts or feelings.
Aside – private words that a character in a play speaks to the audience or another character, which are not supposed to be overheard by others onstage.