Introduction to Theatre

Medieval Theatre

Types of performers:

Traveling troops of players (later required to have a patron)

Bards

Jesters

Acrobats

Puppeteers

Types of performances:

Morality Plays,

Liturgical Dramas,

Miracle Plays,

Spectacle Plays (huge automated stage machinery)

Performance locations:

Fairs, Castle dining hall, Front of Church, Church Steps, Pageant Wagons, Jousting matches,

Weddings, Town Centers, Festivals, Church Holy Day Celebrations so at church grounds, church

interiors and Monastery public spaces.

Following the desolation of a central power (Rome) theatre practitioners became touring troops.

Many churches used these troops with and without approval of the heads of the church, to draw the public to religious festivals and to help deliver the messages in the bible.

This resulted in many important things:

Firstly Medieval Staging, which is loosely based on Greek and Roman staging with the idea of

three doors (to become Mansions), and then to come to represent social status. Also the placement of Heaven's Tower stage right and Hell's Gate stage left. The use of this lateral staging helped the audience to know right away the moral standing of the characters represented. The idea of stage right; being the truth, most holy, highest social standing and purest setting along with the idea of stage left being the total opposite still effects modern audiences initial reaction to a characters blocking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_theatre

Secondly the move from the church performances to rolling wagon (Pageant Wagons)

performances during holy processions (predecessor of parades). The creation (adaption of Gypsie wagons) of the Pageant Wagon has influenced Elizabethan staging, Parades, and Thrust staging.

Thirdly the sponsorship of Guilds for the cost of elaborate pageant wagons. This is the first

instance, since Roman times, of commercial support of theatre productions and presentations.

We have The Catholic church to thank for using theatre progressively to help share the stories of the bible to the common folk.  We have the custom of not claiming authorship for works written by monks (they were not allowed to take credit) and the inability to read and write by the common folk to blame for the fact that very few Medieval theatre scripts exist.   The play Everyman (by an anonymous monk) is one existing example of morality plays from the era. 

What we do have, oddly enough, little changed from the time period is dance.  The named dances and traditional pagan festival dances of the time period have been preserved through holiday celebrations and tradition. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Rothschild_miscellany_dancing.jpg

The 5 M’s of Medieval Theatre

Mumming -  Adapted from pagan ritual, plant costumes, a fool, death and

 rebirth, Yuletide , All Saints, Ostara, May Day.

Mystery – Bible Stories (Liturgical Drama sometimes translated from Latin into the vernacular.)

Miracle – Saint Stories (The stories of how holy men that later became sainted by the Roman Catholic Church, performed a miracle.)

Morality – Moral lessons  (To teach the difference between good and bad choices.)

Manners – Secular and in the Vernacular (A later addition to the Medieval genre, where class systems, moral standing and recognition of society standing were reinforced.)

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Origins of Modern Dance:

                Noble celebrations, Pagan rituals, Magic rituals, Worship, Festivals, Fairs and

                Saxon Gleemen – traveling entertainers / dancers / musicians / actors.

Types of Dances:

                The Carole – Circle Dance / Yule / Christmas

                Farandola – Mumming / May Day / Halloween / Easter / Christmas / Disguises

                Branles – Couples in two lines or every other in circle

                Heys – 2 lines, one boys, one girls

                Morris Dance – May Day / Maypole Dance / Character Costumes / Masks / Bells

                The Quadrille

                The Jig

                The Landler

                The Reel

                The Strathspey

                The Highland Fling

                Egg Dances

                Rope Dances

                Sword Dances

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Dance Moves:

The Whirl

The Clap

The Kick

The Promenade

The Palm Touch

The Walk Around

The Walk Through

The Hop

The Bow / Curtsy

The Double Left

The Double Right

The Step Up

The Step Back

The Hands in the Air

Vocabulary

Medieval Vocabulary

Visigoths – German tribes that conquered Rome.

Bards – Actor singers that found safety in following and singing the triumphs of the Roman Conquerors.

Gypsies – Travel bands of people that took in displaced Roman theater practitioners.

Monasteries – Where Catholic monks lived and fostered holy festival days and performances.

Vernacular Drama – Biblical drama in the common language.

Mystery Plays – Plays concerned with miracles.

Hell Mouth – Stage left in Medieval staging.

Heaven’s Gate – Stage right in Medieval staging.

Mansions – The three houses of man in Medieval staging.

Corpus Christi – A  highly religious festival involving a procession of the Holy Relics and reenactments of the books of the bible.

Pageant Wagon – A rolling stage that a book of the bible could be performed upon.

Processions – Parades of holy clergy that feature holy relics and high ranking officials.

Platform Stage – A stage that can be set up anywhere.

Proscenium – The rectangular arch of the stage.

Pageant Master – The production manager of medieval theatre events.

Links: 

 A good overview of staging and it's influence:

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/eyeappeal/u3/u3_2_d.asp

A time line overview with images:

http://library.calvin.edu/hda/node/1363

Everyman

Link to the Play Script Everyman, and selected Miracle Plays

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19481/19481-h/19481-h.htm