Concetti Chiave
- The cheapest seating in Elizabethan theatres was for the "groundlings" in the yard, costing one penny.
- The most expensive seats were on the stage or in gallery boxes, costing sixpence, often attracting nobles and women.
- Elizabethan audiences were highly interactive, often shouting, crying, and requesting repeats during performances.
- The evolution of theatre during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods included influences from Seneca, Aristotle, and Italian Renaissance.
- Traditional English drama forms were transformed by Senecan drama and Classical rules, rather than being discarded.
Economics of Elizabethan Theatre
The chapest places for the audience in the public playhouse, costing one penny, were in the yard directly in front of end to the sides of the apron age.
These were standing spaces only and were called groundlings.
The best and most expensive places were in that galleries or actually on the stage itself.
These tickets cost sixpence and included a seen, while older nobles or women chose seats in the lords rooms or the galleries boxes nots, and there was a noticeable presence of pick pockets.
Audience Participation
Today we are used to silence in the theatre, but in the age of Shakespeare, the audience would actively participate in the drama, calling out to the actors, shouting, crying during sad moments, joining in with the songs and insisting on listening to their favourite parts a second or a third time.
As the physical structure of the theatre evolved, the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods witnessed and evolution in drama.
The two most important foreign influences on English Renaissance drama were Seneca and Aristotle, but the whole weight and meaning of Italian Renaissance and Cristian Humanism can be recognized in the nature of the changes and developments in style and subject.
Traditional English dramas, morality plays, interludes, fabliaux and farce, were trasformed rather than abandoned under the influence of Senecan drama and Classical rules.
Domande da interrogazione
- What were the seating options and costs for attending an Elizabethan theatre performance?
- What were the key influences on English Renaissance drama during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods?
In Elizabethan theatres, the cheapest option was standing in the yard as a "groundling" for one penny. The most expensive seats were in the galleries or on the stage itself, costing sixpence, with older nobles or women often choosing the lords' rooms or gallery boxes.
English Renaissance drama was influenced by Seneca and Aristotle, with significant impacts from Italian Renaissance and Christian Humanism, transforming traditional English dramas like morality plays and farces under these influences.
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