Исследовательская работа по теме "The History of British Theatre".

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The History of British Theatres.

Козменко Ольги

                                                  МОУ «Средняя общеобразовательная школа»

                                                                                                   ЗАТО Звёздный

                                                                                                            9 «Г» класс

Кирьянова О. В.                                                                                                            

                                                 МОУ «Средняя общеобразовательная школа»

                                                                                                   ЗАТО Звёздный

                                                                                 Педагог первой категории

г. Пермь – 2012г.

The history of English theatres

I. Introduction.

II. The history of theatres.  

3. The history of British theatres.

        1. The Red Lion theatre.

        2. The Globe theatre.

        3. The Elizabethan theatre.

1. Tips for theatre-goers.
2. Conclusion.

1. Literature.

A Theatre.

Introduction.

   Hallo ladies and gentleman I would like to speak about theatres. I have chosen this theme because a theatre is an essential part of people’s life. Besides, the history of theatres is very interesting. There are many people whom the theatre fills with an excitement no familiarity can stale. It is to them a world of mystery and delight, it gives them entry into a realm of the imagination which increases their joy in life and its illusion colours the ordinariness of their daily round with the golden shimmer of romance. (W.S.Maugham)

 If we look up the world theatre into the dictionary, it gives us such definition: Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, songs, music or dance. Theatre includes performances of plays and musicals, opera or ballet. Easily you can say theatre is a place where you can see a performance or a play.

        The aim of my work is to trace the history of the rebirth of theatres.

One more aim is to have some practise in translation from Russian into English.

         Our work is addressed to everybody who is interested in theatres and to one who studies English.

         First of all, I’d like to acquaint you with the terms we use speaking about theatre. 

Auditorium or house (theatre house) is the part of the theatre which has a stage and sits for audience.

         The long roes of chairs situated on the ground floor of the auditorium in front of the stage are called the stalls (front rows) and the pit (back rows). They are surrounded by boxes. There are also some balconies encircling the auditorium of three sides. The lowest of them is called the dress-circle and the highest one is the gallery.  

          In most theatres the sits for audience are separated from the stage by the orchestra-pit. But in some theatres there are no orchestra-pit and the musicians are placed behind the scenes (back stage). The sides of the stage are called wings. The actors taking part in the play are called the cast.As a W. Shakespeare said: “The theatre begins with a hanger”.

II. The history of theatres

What is it that is special about the theatre? A famous playwright Priestly compares theatre with the restaurant. In a very good restaurant we have a dinner that is specially cooked for us; in a canteen we are merely served with standard portions of a standard meal. And this is the difference between the living. Theatre is ancient but ever-youthful parent of all entertainment in dramatic form.

It has existed on and off for two-and-a-half thousand years because there is something special to itself that it offers us.

 Theater probably arose as a performance of ritual activities that did not require initiation on the part of the spectator. This similarity of early theater to ritual is negatively attested by Aristotle, who in his Poetics defined theater in contrast to the performances of sacred mysteries: theater did not require the spectator to fast, drink the kykeon, or march in a procession; however theater did resemble the sacred mysteries in the sense that it brought purification and healing to the spectator by means of a vision, the theama. The physical location of such performances was accordingly named theatron. Let us consider that the history of the development of dramatic theatre began in the society of Ancient Greece. The original art form emerged then, and remains essentially unchanged today.

Greek Theatre

          If theatre is to be defined as involving the art of acting a part on stage, that is the dramatic impersonation of another character than you, I begin with Thespis. A figure of whom we know very little, he won the play competition in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, in 534 B.C. His name with which the dramatic arts are associated in our word "Thespian". 

Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides Aristophanes

The above-mentioned playwrights are regarded as the most influential by critics of subsequent eras including Aristotle. The tragic and satyr plays were always performed at the festival .

Greek theatre took place in large (the largest ultimately held twenty thousand people) hillside ampitheatres. The players included a chorus and their leader, and the "lines" were more chanted than spoken. The chorus performed in the "orchestra", not on a raised stage. The use of masks to represent characters and high-soled boots worn to add height to the players limited the movement of the actors. Indeed, the concept of "actors" themselves was not originally a part of Greek theatre, but was developed as a consequence of certain playwrights of particular genius.
Greek drama was dominated by the works and innovations of five playwrights over the 200 years following Thespis. Tragedy was at its height in Greek society when that society was at its height, while comedy -- an outlet for the frustrations of society as well as a diversion for the masses -- was most popular during the decline of Greek government.

Roman Theatre

         The theatre of ancient Rome was heavily influenced by the Greek tradition, and as with many other literary genres Roman dramatists tended to adapt and translate from the Greek. For example, Seneca's Phaedra was based on the Hippolytus of Euripides, and many of the comedies of Plautus and Terence, the most famous Roman comic playwrights, were direct re-elaborations of works by Menander. When comparing and contrasting ancient Roman theatre to that of Greece it can easily be said that Roman theatre was less influenced by religion. Also, Roman theatre was more for aesthetic appeal. In Roman theatre war was a more common thing to appear on stage as opposed to the Greek theatre where wars were more commonly spoken about. The audience was often loud and rude, rarely applauding the actors, but always shouting insults and booing. Because the audience was so loud, much of the plays were mimed and repetitive. The actors developed a kind of code that would tell the audience about the characters just by looking at them.

• A black wig meant the character was a young man.
• A gray wig meant the character was an old man.
• A red wig meant the character was a slave.
• A white robe meant the character was an old man.
• A purple robe meant the character was a young man.
• A yellow robe meant the character was a woman. (Needed in early Roman theatre, as originally female characters were played by men, however as the Roman theatre progressed, women slaves took the roles of women in plays.)
• A yellow tassel meant the character was a god.

Plays lasted for two hours, and were usually comedies. Most comedies involved mistaken identity (such as gods disguised as humans).

Medieval Theatre

Some have written that theatre died following the fall of the Roman Empire, and its memory was kept alive only in the performances of roving bands of jongleurs: itinerant street players, jugglers, acrobats and animal trainers. However, while such troupes did help to maintain certain aspects of theatrical art, particularly that involving stock characters, the Church itself contributed to the preservation of theatre.
It is ironic that the Church, which caused theatres to be outlawed as the Roman Empire declined and then fell, was one of the primary means of keeping theatre alive through the Middle Ages. This resulted from the Church's need to establish itself in the community - a community still steeped in pagan ritual and superstition which manifested itself in seasonal festivals. The Church ultimately linked its own religious holidays with these seasonal festivals and began to use dramatic form to illustrate the stories underlying these holidays so as to reinforce their religious connotation and to better communicate the stories to an illiterate congregation.
At first the parts played in these simple religious re-enactments of the nativity and adoration of the Magi were played by priests in the sanctuary of the church. However, as the repertoire of the Church grew to include the passion and crucifixion of Christ, the Church was confronted with the dilemma of how a priest should portray Herod. While division of opinion in the Church continued as to the worth of dramatic interpretations, the members of the congregation clearly enjoyed and were moved by them. The dramas continued to grow, moving out of the sanctuary and into the open air in front of the Church. Ultimately, the members of town guilds began to contribute to these dramas, which continued to grow more elaborate with time. Known as passion plays, miracle plays and morality plays, they continued their close connection with the Church and church holidays, but began to introduce elements of stock characters that were more contemporary in nature. With the growth of towns and the introduction of stable governments in Europe, the stage was set for the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Counter-Reformation and the secularization of theatre as it emerged from the influence of the Medieval Church.

III. The history of British theatres

The Red Lion 

     The Red Lion was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Whitechapel (part of the modern Borough of Tower Hamlets), just outside the City of London. Built in 1567, by John Brayne, formerly a grocer, this theatre was a short-lived attempt to provide a purpose-built playhouse, the first known in London,[1] for the many Tudor touring theatrical companies.

The Red Lion had been a farm, but a single gallery multi-sided theatre (constructed by John Williams), with a fixed stage 40 feet (12.2 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m), standing 5 feet (1.5 m) above the audience, was built by John Reynolds, in the garden of the farmhouse. The stage was equipped with trapdoors, and an attached 30 feet (9.1 m) turret, or fly tower - for aerial stunts and to advertise its presence The only play known to have been presented here was The Story of Sampson, after some corrections had been made to the structure and there is little documentary evidence that the theatre survived beyond the summer season of 1567. The first permanent theatre in London was built by a carpenter James Burbage, (1531–1597),  who was also a part-time actor .Of his 2 sons the younger -Richard was the first leading English actor. He created the roles of Hamlet Lear Othello and Richard III while the elder Cuthbert acted as his brother’s manager. The building which the elder in 1576 was known simply as «The theatre». It was built outside the city in Fincbury Fields.

The Globe Theater

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997 approximately 750 feet (230 m) from the site of the original theatre.

Examination of old property records has identified the plot of land occupied by the Globe as extending from the west side of modern-day Southwark Bridge Road eastwards as far as Porter Street and from Park Street southwards as far as the back of Gatehouse Square. The precise location of the building however, remained unknown until a small part of the foundations, including one original pier base, was discovered in 1989 beneath the car park at the rear of Anchor Terrace on Park Street. The shape of the foundations is now replicated on the surface. As the majority of the foundations lie beneath 67—70 Anchor Terrace, a listed building, no further excavations have been permitted.

The Globe was owned by actors who were also shareholders in Lord Chamberlain's Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, owned a single share, or 12.5%. (Originally William Kempe was intended to be the seventh partner, but he sold out his share to the four minority sharers, leaving them with more than the originally planned 10%). These initial proportions changed over time as new sharers were added. Shakespeare's share diminished from 1/8 to 1/14, or roughly 7%, over the course of his career.

The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. The Burbages originally had a 21-year lease of the site on which The Theatre was built but owned the building outright. However, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed that the building had become his with the expiry of the lease. On 28 December 1598, while Allen was celebrating Christmas at his country home, carpenter Peter Street, supported by the players and their friends, dismantled The Theatre beam by beam and transported it to Street's waterfront warehouse near Bridewell. With the onset of more favourable weather in the following spring, the material was ferried over the Thames to reconstruct it as The Globe on some marshy gardens to the south of Maiden Lane, Southwark. The new theatre was larger than the building it replaced, with the older timbers being reused as part of the new structure; the Globe was not merely the old Theatre newly set up at Bankside. It was probably completed by the summer of 1599, possibly in time for the first production of Henry V and its famous reference to the performance crammed within a "wooden O". The first performance for which a firm record remains was Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour—with its first scene welcoming the "gracious and kind spectators"—at the end of the year.

On 29 June 1613 the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.

Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled down in 1644, or slightly later—the commonly cited document dating the act to 15 April 1644 has been identified as a probable forgery—to make room for tenements

English Renaissance theatre

      English Renaissance theatre "Elizabethan theatre."  is English drama written between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. It may also be called early modern English theatre. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare along with many other famous dramatists.It covers only the plays written and performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Background 

        Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as the mystery plays that formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. The mystery plays were complex retellings of legends based on biblical themes, originally performed in churches but later becoming more linked to the secular celebrations that grew up around religious festivals. Other sources include the morality plays that evolved out of the mysteries, and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy. The Italian tradition of Commedia dell'arte as well as the elaborate masques frequently presented at court came to play roles in the shaping of public theatre.

 Companies of players attached to households of leading noblemen and performing seasonally in various locations existed before the reign of Elizabeth I. These became the foundation for the professional players that performed on the Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of the mystery and morality plays by local players, and a 1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal patronage by labelling them vagabonds. At court as well, the performance of masques by courtiers and other amateurs, apparently common in the early years of Elizabeth, was replaced by the professional companies with noble patrons, who grew in number and quality during her reign.

     The City of London authorities were generally hostile to public performances, but its hostility was overmatched by the Queen's taste for plays and the Privy Council's support. Theatres sprang up in suburbs, especially in the liberty of Southwark, accessible across the Thames to city dwellers, but beyond the authority's control. The companies maintained the pretence that their public performances were mere rehearsals for the frequent performances before the Queen, but while the latter did grant prestige, the former were the real source of the income professional players required.

     Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed toward the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades.

     Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead leaving the stage largely bare with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage was in the costumes. Costumes were often bright in color and visually entrancing. Costumes were expensive, however, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear a conventionalized version of more historically accurate garb, but secondary characters would nonetheless remain in contemporary clothing.

V.Tips for theatre-goers

Most theatres are closed on Sundays. The few exceptions are the Barbican Hall, the Royal Opera House (on special occasion) and a couple of others concert halls.

Prices vary from £8 for a seat in the upper balcony to £30-35 for a good one in the stalls in a drama or musical theatre. The range of the ticket prices in the Royal Opera House is wider from 2 for a restricted view seat to £600 for a seat in the boxes. The prices here depend on the performance you are going to see.

The ticket prices to classical music concerts are much lower usually ranging from £5 to £15. If you can’t book in advance, then arrive at a hall an hour before the performance for a chance at returns.

Half-price tickets might be available for some performances at the Society of London Theatre ticket kiosk on the day of performance you are going to see. It is open Monday-Saturday 1-6.30 p.m, and from noon on Sundays and matinee days; there is a 1.50 service charge and only cash is accepted. As a rule, theatre programmes are free.

Parking might be difficult at the Theatreland from 7.15 to 8.00 p.m., when there is a kind of a rush-hour as normally the performances begin either at 7.30 or 8.00 in the evening. There is another minor rush-hour when the performances are over.

“What to wear?” is another question bothering theatre-goers, especially women.

At present very few people “dress up” for the theatre (that is wearing a formal evening dress) except for a first night, an important “gala” performance, or a classical music concert. What to wear also depends on who you go with and, perhaps, how much you paid for your tickets. At the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden,for example,spectators in the stalls, the circle and the boxes are usually dressed formally, while those sitting in the amphitheatre may well be in jeans.Mind that most of old London theatres do not have cloakrooms. Visitors can enter a theatre hall with their coast on. If you like, you can put your coat on the back of your chair or elsewhere.

Arriving. Plan to arrive in good time, especially if meeting people. When you take your seat in the auditorium you should thank those who have to move or stand to let you pass. If someone needs to squeeze past you to get to his or her seat, stand out of the narrow gangway. If someone else appears to be in your seat, ask politely if you can see his or her ticket. If the other person refuses to move or if you need any further help, refer the problem to an usher or usherette.

Dining on the day of the performance will not cause you any trouble if you choose to have an early dinner before the performance at one of many restaurants in the “Theatreland. The service is quick and the food is delicious. In case you prefer late supper after the performance, the “Theatreland” restaurants are at your service, too.

                                                VI. Conclusion

The role of theatre in our life

So, from my work you can see that theatres have really a very interesting history ,especially English .Now I’d like to speak about the role of theatre in our life.

A famous playwright Priestly compares theatre with the restaurant. In a very good restaurant we have a dinner that is specially cooked for us; in a canteen we are merely served with standard portions of a standard meal. And this is the difference between the living. Theatre and the mass entertainment of films, radio and television. In the theatre the play is specially cooked for us.

The production never takes its final shape, until it has an audience. The actors are not playing to microphones and cameras but to warmly responsive fellow-creatures. And they are never giving exactly the same performance. If the audience tends to be heavy unresponsive-the company slightly sharpens and heightens its performance to bring the audience to life and vice versa if the audience is too enthusiastic. One more thing when we see a play we form part of an audience. This is important because we behave differently when are part of an audience. If the play is funny we laugh a great deal more than we should if we were by ourselves.

If it is pathetic we are more deeply moved just because a lot of other people are being moved too .We have to share the feelings of a great many other people to enjoy a play properly and this in itself is a good thing particularly this days when too many people usually living in a large cities feel cut off and separate. In conclusion I’d like to say that say“The theatre is our life, and we all actors in it” (W. Shakespeare). 

                                                       Literature.

1. Гражданская З. Т.От Шекспира до Шоу; английские писатели XVI-XX вв.- Москва, Просвещение, 1992 г.  

2. История зарубежного театра/Под редакцией Г.Н. Бояджиева и  Образцовой А.Г. Изд.Просвещение, -М.,1981 .  

Интернет – ресурс:

www.tctwebstage.com/ancient.htm‎

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting‎

www.luminarium.org/renlit/dramavenues.htm‎

novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/medi2eliz.htm‎

www.usq.edu.au/artsworx/.../renaissance‎

www.playshakespeare.com/.../2189-the-globe-t...‎

www.shakespeare-online.com/theatre/globe.html‎

www.ask.com/.../elizabethan-playhouse-theatre‎