Author Question: The French and the English viewed theatrical production in very different ways during the ... (Read 83 times)

Destiiny22 · **on:** Aug 26, 2018

The French and the English viewed theatrical production in very different ways during the Renaissance. How would you distinguish between the two? What were the audience expectations for the English? What were the audience expectations for the French?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Based on your understanding of the transition between the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, what factors do you think most encouraged the incredible quantity and quality of playwrights writing during the time of Elizabeth I and James II?

What will be an ideal response?

debra928 · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 26, 2018

Answer to Question 1

A major difference in Renaissance English and French theatre is in the theatre itself-while by the late 1500s every Londoner was within two miles of a theatre of some kind, the second theatre in France was built in 1629. French dramas were commonly staged on tennis courts, speaking to the importance of theatre in each country. Further, unlike English dramas, which were marked by violence, conflict, and sometimes bawdy humor, French drama was marked by an artificial formality in which symmetry, balance, and decorum were the ideal. Students may also point out that unlike the French, English audiences did not expect to see women on the stage, as this was outlawed in England until 1661.

Answer to Question 2

A major factor in the growth of theatre was a more secular culture following the Protestant Reformation. Also, the theatre grew as more men attended universities, studying the Greek and Roman playwrights. Students moved from staging private performances of classical plays to writing new plays of their own.