They presented at various sites across the city before they set up permanent theatres in Drury Lane and Covent Garden. In reward for their loyalty to the Crown, Charles II issued patents to two theatre companies in London, Davenant and Killigrew, to stage drama. Theatres closed and many were demolished.įollowing the restoration of the monarchy twenty years later, interest in theatre resumed. He is also attributed with introducing the first proscenium arch – a decorative architectural frame over a thrust stage.Īfter the execution of Charles I in 1642, theatrical performances were outlawed owing to the threat of civil unrest. He had toured Italy and France and was heavily influenced by their designs. The architect Inigo Jones devised the sets for several royal masques, and later went on to design theatre buildings. They would involve music, dance and elaborate costumes and scenery. Masques too were a popular form of recreation for the royal court and the very rich, often commissioned for celebrations. Many rich courtiers and aristocrats hosted touring theatrical productions in their homes. Interest in theatre increased during the Stuart period. Shakespeare's Globe in London, a reconstruction of an Elizabethan theatre Seventeenth-century theatres All the performances took place in daylight. The audience sat or stood in covered galleries around the other sides or in the open courtyard. They were often multi-sided buildings, with a covered platform stage against one side. It was from these that Elizabethan timber-framed open-air theatres took their form, such as the Globe in London. Medieval theatre was presented on elaborate temporary stages inside great halls, barns, or in the open courtyards of galleried inns. They were open to the air with banked seating surrounding a raised stage. These were semi-circular structures, constructed of wood initially and later stone. The first buildings used for theatrical performances in Britain were amphitheatres introduced by the Romans, who copied theatres from ancient Greece.
0 kommentar(er)
