Upon reaching London, he issued two patents to leading playwrights of the time and performances began once again Bellinger. Under the supervision of the Puritans, the theater and creativity had been heavily suppressed. With the onset of the Restoration, however, drama and the arts began to flourish as playwrights and actors alike began taking to the public once again.
The latter half of the seventeenth century would see both a reinvigorated sense of bawdy humor as well as the emergence of professional female actresses for the first time in the history of the theater Victoria and Albert. Scripts and performances reflected on the aristocracy of King Charles II, depicting the members of the upper class as being promiscuous rakes and libertines.
Trends Before the Restoration period, dramatists had to keep all their activities to a minimum. This time period was known as the Commonwealth. During this time, trends in theatre were very secret and personal. William Davenant, Poet Laureate and accomplished playwright, was forced to present his theatrical activity inside of his own home to avoid the censorship of the public theatre.
In this fashion he was able to get around all of the restrictions and expectations that were placed on drama during that time. As time went on, trends began to change in theatre. Davenant was finally able to perform his drolls short plays in an actual theatre fully equipped with a proscenium arch and wing-and-shutter scenery. Although this was a seemingly minor change, it represented a great victory for the drama enthusiasts of the time.
With the start of the Restoration, the theatre and its presence with the public began to flourish. One of the most advanced additions to the stage that emerged during this time was the use of technology both structurally and visually. Another common trend in theatre during the Restoration period was the reinterpretation of older plays.
These were often turned into semi-operas, with singing, dancing, and special effects. Davenant in particular took the productions of the past and revitalized them with his newly established and patented theater in Performances such as Hamlet , Macbeth , and The Tempest were heavily revised and altered to appeal to the larger audience.
Women as well began to make an appearance in theatre with the advent of the Restoration. Playwrights such as Killigrew and Davenant began casting females for their productions, and the women would go on to meet with good reception from the public audiences.
This addition allowed for sexually suggestive scenarios on stage to become even more open and raunchy, a quality that greatly suited the public taste during this time. Types of Restoration Drama During the time of the Restoration, 18th century drama was very critical. These doors allowed for great flexibility in staging. It is enable the actors to exit and come out in different doors to indicate the change in place or time. The stage recessed behind the arch to provide the scenic stage, whose floor was grooved to allow for sliding scenery, shuts for changes of the scene and discoveries.
A curtain hung from proscenium arch was raised after the prologue and not drop until the epilogue, so all scene changes, usually accompanied by music to muffle the creaks, and providing an area for scene changes, including aerial descent, the space behind the proscenium arch allowed for perspective scenery creating illusion of depth.
The seats in were distributed between the pit, boxes, and galleries. Audience capacity was around and admission price varied somewhat according to the nature of performance, but always relatively high. The most expensive seats were in the private boxes which surrounded the first floor pit. The cheapest seats were in the two galleries. From the restoration on, however, there were always seats for spectators in the English pit.
Many scenic innovations developed during the Restoration. The new theatres were fully enclosed structures using artificial lighting and incorporating aspects of the private playhouses and court theatres.
The scenes were painted in perspective on wigs, borders and backdrops of the stage. In this period also introduced the first movable and changeable scenery typical performances at court in a professional theatre. During that time, the interest in setting and innovation gradually grew and emphasis on the reproduction of specific places and upon illusion of time of day or weather. One of the most innovative and influential designers of the 18th century was Philip Jacques de Loutherbourg He was the first designer to break up floor space with pieces of scenery, giving more depth and dimension to the stage.
He achieved more naturalness and the illusion of greater space and distance by adding ground rows such as profile pieces shaped and painted to represent rocks, mountains, grassy plots, fences and similar objects.
He also experimented with lighting by using candles and large chandeliers which hung over the floor of the stage to create a demand for specific illusion and to give effect of natural light at different seasons, times and weather.
After , from Restoration on, the theatre was under the control of businessmen. Thus, Restoration acting company was owned and controlled by one man: the manager. He usually was the leading actor of the company, and chose those plays which best exhibited his abilities. Most actors withdrew from the business aspects of the theatre. They become employee of the company. The actors were hired for a stated period at specific salary.
Usually the period is one or two years with the additional guarantee of one or more benefit performances each year. The English actors have high social status and consider as nobility of great national importance even though they did not have the financial security.
Actors got paid on how popular they were, and they usually played the same type of roles; for instance, tragic actors always played tragic roles. Playing the same role all the time until they retired enable the actors or actresses to develop their perfection in their specialty.
The actors learned his profession from experience rather than at a school. Women as well began to make an appearance in theatre with the advent of the Restoration. Playwrights such as Killigrew and Davenant began casting females for their productions, and the women would go on to meet with good reception from the public audiences. This addition allowed for sexually suggestive scenarios on stage to become even more open and raunchy, a quality that greatly suited the public taste during this time.
The introduction of women onto the stage in London brought with it a variety of changes to the theatre. The immediate impact was an increased interest by the public in all the playhouses operating in London. Women on stage aroused curiosity in the audience, and they were eager to see women on stage and the sensuality they brought with them.
This objectification of women induced an evolution in the writing of plays during this time that led female actors to be sexual props on the stage, as opposed to equals with their male peers. In such a scene, an attractive actress was placed at center stage on a bed or couch, with the scene calling for her to be asleep and in a state of undress. The monarchy was restored in The Drury Lane and Covent Gardens became the first theatres officially licensed during this period.
The type of theatre brought back resulted in a sort of protest against the Puritan ideal, and was designed primarily for the aristocracy. And then this form of theatre was in turn rebelled against. R estoration C omedy of M anners:. Use of "transparency" names: "Sparkish, Fidget, Squeamish" Mrs. P laywrights of the R estoration:. Read more. You may also like. We use cookies on this website. By using this site you agree that we may store and access cookies on your device.
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