Bell Ringer 10/8 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Bell Ringer 10/8

I know that I (

M

rs. 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!Slide2

Early Renaissance DanceSlide3

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 vocabularySlide4

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 controlSlide5

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 artSlide6

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 formSlide7

Renaissance Performance DanceSlide8

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 courseSlide9

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 introducedSlide10

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!)Slide11

Renaissance DramaSlide12

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 sponsorshipSlide13

Renaissance Drama

No

permanent theatres existed at the timeSlide14

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 feetSlide15

Renaissance DramaSlide16

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 designerSlide17

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”Slide18

Renaissance DramaSlide19

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

companiesSlide20

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 reparteeSlide21

Commedia dell’arte

Whose Line is It Anyway Example

Improvisation

The scene:

“The Millionaire Show as 1930s Gangsters”

http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJfnDo6ijbkSlide22

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 houseSlide23

Commedia dell’arte

Whose Line Is It Anyway Example

Characters

News Anchor

Game Show Host

Drill Sergeant

(Surprise!)

http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfwfXXCV9XESlide24

Commedia dell’arte

Use of mime and pantomime

All characters, except the lovers and the serving maid wore masks

Attitudes were communicated through gesturesSlide25

Commedia dell’arte

Whose Line is it Anyway Example

Pantomime

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx_oh6LM6zUSlide26

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 portrayedSlide27

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)Slide28

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