Vision And Audience In Medieval Drama

The earliest complete morality play in English, The Castle of Perseverance depicts the culture of medieval East Anglia, a region once known for its production of artistic objects. Discussing the spectator experience of this famed play, Young argues that vision is the organizing principle that informs this play's staging, structure, and narrative.

The earliest complete morality play in English, The Castle of Perseverance depicts the culture of medieval East Anglia, a region once known for its production of artistic objects. Discussing the spectator experience of this famed play, Young argues that vision is the organizing principle that informs this play's staging, structure, and narrative.

The earliest complete morality play in English, The Castle of Perseverance depicts the culture of medieval East Anglia, a region once known for its production of artistic objects. Discussing the spectator experience of this famed play, Young argues that vision is the organizing principle that informs this play's staging, structure, and narrative.

There has been a marked revival of interest in medieval drama in recent years, much of it informed by an increasing understanding that drama is not just literature, but a social and indeed commercial event, essentially a communal effort, inextricably bound up with social structures. This collection of essays examines various aspects of the inter-relation between a number of different 'European communities' and the plays they performed, covering a range of theatres and play-types, and providing an international perspective on performance cultures across Europe. Contributors include Alan Hindley, Introduction; Lynette Muir, 'European communities and medieval drama'; Graham A. Runnalls, 'Drama and community in late medieval Paris'; Robert L.A. Clark, 'Community versus subject in late medieval French confraternity drama and ritual'; Frederick W. Langley, 'Community drama and community politics in thirteenth-century Arras: Adam de la Halle's Jeu de la Feuillee'; Alan Hindley, 'Acting companies in late medieval France: Triboulet and his troupe'; Alan E. Knight, 'Processional theatre and the rituals of social unity in Lille'; Wim Husken, 'Cornelis Everaert and the community of late medieval Bruges'; Elsa Strietman, 'A tale of two cities: drama and community in the Low Countries'; John Tailby, 'Drama and community in South Tyrol'; Konrad Schoell, 'Individual and social affiliation in the Nuremberg Shrovetide Plays'; Alan J. Fletcher, 'Performing medieval Irish communities'; Pamela M. King, 'Contemporary cultural models for the trial plays in the York Cycle'; Chris Humphrey, 'Festive drama and community politics in late medieval Coventry'; Philip Butterworth, 'Prompting in full view of the audience: a medieval staging convention'; Alexandra F. Johnston, 'English community drama in crisis: 1535-80'; Jane Oakshott, 'York Guilds' Mystery Plays 1998: the rebuilding of dramatic community'.

This is a thoroughly revised edition of Glynne Wickham's important history of the development of dramatic art in Christian Europe. Professor Wickham surveys the foundations on which this dramatic art was built: the architecture, costumes and ceremonial of the imperial court at Byzantium, the liturgies of countires in the Eastern and Western Empires and the triumph of the Roman rite and the Romanesque style in Western art. Within this context Professor Wickham describes three major influences upon the drama: religion, recreation and commerce. The first produced the liturgical music drama rooted in praise of Christ the King, vernacular Corpus Christi drama, Saint Plays and Moralities centred on the humanity of Christ. The second gave rise to the secular theatres of social recreation based on the games and dances of village communities ad the more sophisticated sex and war games of the nobility. The section on commerce shows how the development of the drama was intimately related to questions of funding and management which led, during the sixteenth century, to the substitution of a professional for an amateur theatre, and to a growing emphasis on stage spectacle. For this third edition the author has added a substantial section on monastic reform and its effect on Biblical translation and the use of allegory; a final chapter charts the transition in different European countries from this medieval Gothic theatre to the neoclassical methods of play construction and representation which flourished for the next two hundred years. The book gorges a coherent pattern through a very large and complicated subject. It is an excellent introduction to medieval theatre for undergraduates and to the growing number of theatregoers who enjoy contemporary revivals of medieval plays. A large plate section gives a pictorial version of the story, using photographs of contemporary manuscript illuminations, mosaics, frescoes, paintings and sculptures.

Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England is an annual volume committed to the publication of essays and reviews related to drama and theatre history to 1642. Volume 30, an anniversary issue, contains eight essays, three review essays, and 12 briefer reviews of important books in the field.

This work examines the role of the prompter who operated in full view of the audience and offered all the lines to the players. Such a role and its function is fascinating, not only in its own right, but also in relation to how it might inform us about the nature and purpose of presented theatre.

Medieval Drama is a textbook, designed to be used by A level and undergraduate students of theatre and drama. It is divided into two major areas, mystery cycles and morality plays, and it examines the plays from a performance perspective. The book makes special reference to those texts contained within selections of plays which can be readily obtained by students, including A.C.Cawley's Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays (Dent). The staging conventions of pageant waggon performance, place and scaffold playing and the drama of the Hall are explored in relation to the cultural context of the medieval period.