{"id":2534,"date":"2021-06-06T22:14:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T22:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvkings.com\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2021-06-06T22:18:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T22:18:34","slug":"2-history-of-acting-16th-and-17th-centuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/06\/2-history-of-acting-16th-and-17th-centuries\/","title":{"rendered":"2. History of Acting – 16th and 17th Centuries"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 8<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

By the time the 1500’s and 1600’s came around, what was traditionally collectives of amateur actors entertaining crowds\nhad been gradually replaced by professional actors, that had started doing drama pieces in theater on topics of religion\nwith ones that were more secular in their composition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENGLAND<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Elizabethan Era<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year 1545, King Henry VIII designed the post of Master of the Revels, which was tasked with the organization and\nplanning of entertainment for his court. For awhile, the Master of the Revels organized plays which contained a diverse\nset of interludes as well as sophisticated alegorical dramas. Simultaneously, traveling caravans of actors had begun to\ngain fame and attracted many viewers, typically performing whilst their security was being guaranteed by noblemen,\nusing village fields as well as the yards of inns as their stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A span of some 40 years saw the popularity of two bands of actors skyrocket thanks to their better than average peformances,\nspanning from the years 1580 to 1620. The first band was the Admiral’s Men, which were headed by Philip Henshawe, with\nthe actor Edward Alleyn taking on the main roles in plays written by Christopher Marlowe, with the second band being the\nChamberlain’s Company (which when James I took over the throne, they were known as the King Majesty’s Servants), consisting\nof the distinguished actors William Kemp and Richard Burbage, and one poet and actor almost everyone is familiar with\nthat went by the name of William Shakespeare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward Alleyn was renowned for his ability to protray action in an exemplary manner, and is purported to have been sort\nof what we today call an overactor. Even though not many details have been documented about the acting of Richard Burbage,\nthe most possible scenario could be that he epitomized the equilibrium carrying style that Hamlet gave as advice to the\nPlayers. The speech that he acts out in Act 3, scene 2, is so famous that it need not be quoted in it’s entirety, but some\nof it’s sentences can be utilized as an example to signify what it takes to acquire a superior sense of style. ‘Nor do saw\nthe air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently’, ‘…beget temperance that may give it smoothness’, ‘Be not\ntoo tame neither; but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this\nspecial observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature…’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burbage’s acting contained a sense of equilibrium that became so distinguished it was portrayed in an elegy following\nhis death, the attribution of which can be given to the Earl of Pembroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘How to ye person hee did suit his face, how did speech become him, and his face suit with his speech, whilst not a\nword did fall, without just weight to balance it withall.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another prolific writer that went by the name of Richard Flecknoe, who supposedly never got to experience Burbage act,\nsaid that Burbage could completely become one with the character and deliver very believable performances, has been\nquoted saying ‘so wholly transforming himself into his part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never not\nso much in the tring house assum’d himself again until the play was done.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Webster, an actor and writer who died in 1634, is allegedly said to have been the author of an essay by the name of\n“Character of an Excellent Actor”. Webster insisted that the actor should be in tune with his natural surroundings,\nand should personify their very being in a way that is full of life and not just mirror moral concepts as some ought\nto imagine how human behavior should be, ‘for what we see him personate, we think truly done before us’ and ‘what he\ndoth feignedly that do others essentially.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a general rule, it seems that acting during the Elizabethan Era was meant to follow a standard sort of style as\nopposed to being realistic as what we now think of as realistic acting. The expectations even then maintained the actor\nneeded to control his voice well and not exhibit any displays of overacting in order to appease the audience of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Restoration and beyond<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the duration of the English Civil War of 1642, all of London’s theaters were closed. The Puritan government\nhad them closed and they continued like this until 1660 when Charles the 2nd restored the monarchy to England and took\nover the throne. This was also the year that the king granted patents to Sir William Davenant, whom was born in 1606\nand died in 1668, whom was a playwright, and William’s friend Thomas Killigrew, whom was born in 1612 and died in 1683,\nso they may set up two playhouses and recruit two companies of actors. These two companies were named the Duke of York’s\nCompany and the King’s Men, and they dominated theater in England until 1843. During the civil war, the English monarchy\nwas living in exile in France and had acquired a taste for the French school of theater, which resembled a more\nclassical style of acting. The playhouse used in the Elizabethan era that would include many varying elements in it’s\nscene was substituted for a proscenium-arch stage that used a curtain and scenery, but with elements of the apron stage\nheavily incorporated into it. The acting performances were marked by the personalities of the actors in leading roles,\nand the well liked plays of the time were written and coreographed to show off the talent of these actors. There were\nactors that made it nonetheless in their own style and led a revival for the audience taste in dramatic performances.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most famous actor from the period between 1660 until 1710 was Thomas Betterton, which not only took the leading roles\nin the plays of the times, such as those of Etherege, Congreve and Dryden, but also brought back into popularity\nthe famous Shakespearan classic called Hamlet. To those other actors famous in his time, Betterton’s acting style was\nmore modest and down to Earth. The admiration for him was particularly strong in that he was able to express emotions\nin his acting with vigor yet with a restrained utilization of his voice. He was able to provide smart and intuitive\ninterpretations and was very versatile when delivering a diverse set of characterisations. During these several decades,\nmany women also saw their rise to fame on the stage. The first woman playing the leading female roles in Shakespeare’s plays\nwas actually Betterton’s wife, Mary Saunders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time 1680 came around, the two leading companies of actors built brand new theaters, where the Duke of York’s\nCompany built theirs in Dorset Gardens, the King’s Men built theirs in Drury Lane. These two companies merged into\na single company in 1682 and were based out of the Drury Lane theater. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITALY<\/b>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The style of drama that came out of Italy influenced dramatic compositions and acting methods enormously in the rest of\nEurope, most notably when it came to comedy as a genre, one noteworthy play type being the Commedia dell’Arte. This type\nof play began in the 1560’s and was famous for using two main types of acting – the first being improvisation and the\nsecond being stock character archtypes. It was also characteristic in it somewhat being devoid of scenery, where only\na handful of critical props were used, together with no written scripts for the actors to follow, where they were told\nto follow outlines of scenarios or situations and come up with something on the spot. The tradeoff with the Italian\nschool of acting is where actors were limited in interpretative freedom due to the nature of playing stock characters with\nstandardized personalities and character traits, they were given the freedom to improvise the scenes as well as their\ndialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPAIN<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From around the 1550’s up until 1700, Spain went through an era considered by many to be the Golden Age of Spanish\nliterature. Three distinct types of drama were popularized during this era: the autos sacramentales, which consisted of\nreligious plays structured into a single act; comedias nuveas, which were full length secular plays; and the zarzuelas,\nwhich were plays that featured music. There is a perplexing history regarding women in the stage being banned by the\nCatholic Church during this era, where men and boys would play the roles of females, and after the year 1600, women being\nallowed on the stage but under rigorous supervision. The year 1653 saw a weird turnaround when a law was passed that\nif the script of a play required it, women would be allowed to crossdress as men, but only on the upper half of their\nbodies. All of this combined gives us the indication that the moral controls on actors performances was very rigorous \nduring this period, even though some sexually suggestive elements managed to sneak their way into some secular comedies.\nOne academic was documented as making the remark that it seemed as if Castilian Spanish acting groups gave performances\nthat were more animated in nature than that of their Italian contemporaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historians like to think that the more realistic style of acting came into fruition with the advent of the top \ndramatist in Spain’s plays being produced in the second half of the 16th century, whom went by the name of Lope de \nVega and lived from 1562 until his death in 1635. His plays deliberately strayed from the classical unities of time,\nplace and action, giving encouragement to actors to speak in vernacular and in ways that made them relate better to\ntheir audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His successor was considered by the majority of historians to be greatest Spanish dramatist of all time that went by the\nname of Pedro Calderon de la Barca. Pedro wrote 200 different plays – 80 of which were autos sacramentales and 120\ncomedias, in addition to dozens of short comic works. Comparing them both, if Lope de Vega wanted to present a more\nnaturalistic style, Calderon attemted to showcase a more formalized structure of drama and wealth im symbolism, and\na number of his plays, particularly La vida es sueno, known in English as “Life is a dream”, would become influential\nin Europe during the Romantic era. These plays were not reminiscent of a natural acting style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRANCE<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

France had developed a school of acting in which a large number of actors would use one stage name. One of the first\npioneers of the French dramatic school that was most noteworthy was known by the stage name Mondory, whose real name\nwas Guillaume Desgilberts, born in 1594 and passed away in 1651. He founded a company of actors known as Theatre du Marais.\nHistorical accounts suggest his effort was largely focused on a vocal and physical display, his acting having received\nmuch praise in the plays of Corneille. How he ended up is indeed a valuable lesson for actors who insist on going a little\noverboard in their performances. Playing King Herod in one of his performances, he overacted to such an extent that he\nsuffered an apoplectic fit in which his tongue became paralyzed. Many other known actors from Mondory’s era fortunately\ndid not suffer the same destiny, and the explosive and extravagant acting styles of actors such as Bellerose, whose\nreal name was Pierre Le Messier, and Montfleury, whose real name was Zacharie Jacob, became the standard for the French\nacting school at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actor and writer who stands out the most as probably the most famous actor of his era is without a doubt a man who\nwent by the name of Moliere, whose real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin. He was considered to be the best dramatist\nin France at the time. In the beginning of his career, with his company, L’Illustre Theatre, he derived much of his\ninspiration from the Italian school of comedy. By the time the 1660’s came around, his company became the most famous\nand prestigeous in France, receiving positive feedback particularly for it’s ensemble-style acting. When he would be\ndirecting, Moliere gave a persistent reminder to his actors that they shouldn’t attempt to act in ways that seemed unnatural\nor to over exert themselves, and gave them positive reinforcement when it came to their efforts in trying to act out\nroles that were not at all like their own personalities. His most renown prot\u00e9g\u00e9 was the distinguished tragedian\nMichel Baron, who retired officially in 1691 but came back to the stage as one of the main advocates of the natural style\nof acting in 1720. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year 1680, King Louis XIV ordered the establishment of the Theatre Francais, which was later renamed into the\nComedie Francais, which would then morph into what is now known as a national theater company with the longest history\nof any in the world so far. This company was run in a democratic fashion, with the main actors being the ones responsible\nfor the monetary flow and management of the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GERMANY<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 16th and 17th centuries, in contrast to England, France and Spain, there was no prosperous theater company on\na national scale. Despite traveling caravans of acting companies performing various types of widely known farces,\ndramatic performances were most often carried out by traveling companies of actors from England, France and Spain.\nThere was one German who is noteworthy for his efforts in improving the German school of acting at the time. He went\nby the name of Jonannes Velten, lived from 1640 to 1693 and unfortunately, not much was documented regarding the techniques\nhe pioneered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 8<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span> By the time the 1500’s and 1600’s came around, what was traditionally collectives of amateur actors entertaining crowds had been gradually replaced by professional actors, that had started doing drama pieces in theater on topics of religion with ones that were more secular in their composition. ENGLAND The Elizabethan Era In the year 1545, King […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-of-acting"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2539,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/2539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.improvkings.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}