Restauration Theatre

Restoration Theater

Isometric reconstruction of Drury Lane Theare, 1674, by Richard Leacroft

1. Where were the acting spaces located?

The main Restoration theaters were in London, England. They where Lincoln Inn Fields, Dorset Garden, and Drury Lane

2. What size were the acting spaces?

All theatres were indoors. They have a capacity for 600 aprox.

The area extending beyond the proscenium into the audience was equal to the size of the backstage area behind the arch, the acting took place on the Apron, while scenery filled the backstage. They have 2 proscenium doors on each side of the stage with balconies above them.

The theater was roofed, arterially lit with candles and it has movable scenery

Parts of the stage

Apron - The part of a stage in a theater extending in front of the curtain

Boxes - Seating sections located on the sides of the auditorium; upper-class

Gallery - The seating area located behind the pit; middle-class

Lighting - Chandeliers over forestage and possibly footlights

Pit - The seating area located right below the stage; low-class

Proscenium - the wall that separates the stage from the auditorium and provides the arch that frames it

Rake - A sloping stage that is raised at the back (upstage) end

Scenery - Painted in perspective

Stage - A raised and level floor or platform

Thrust - Downstage acting area extending into auditorium

Traps - Hidden openings in the stage used for the appearance and disappearance of characters.

3. When were the plays performed?

From 1660 to 1710.

4. Who attended the performances?

In the beginning of Restoration drama, the audience was almost exclusively upper-class. They would talk to one another, talk to the actors, eat, hire prostitutes; there wasn't much that was off-limits. Since the plays dealt with the upper-class the audiences were very familiar with the subjects of all the plays.

5. Who created the texts?

Playwrights were not member of the companies. The text were usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own social class, and they typically are concerned with social usage and the ability or inability of certain characters to meet social standards, which are often exacting but morally trivia.

6. What kinds of texts were created?

Drama included three main genres: heroic play, tragedy and comedy and turned to France (style) and Spain (plot) for inspiration; nevertheless it was able to preserve a national character

The best expression of the new spirit of the time, however, was comedy: people went to the theatre mainly to be amused; they wanted humour, sex, wit and elegance

Marriage was one of the main ingredients for creating intrigue, piquant situation or simply a conventional happy ending to the play

Fashions in the drama would change almost week by week rather than season by season, as each company responded to the offerings of the other and new plays were urgently sought.

- William Congreve (1670-1729) - The Way of the World (1700)

- William Wycherly (1640-1715) - The Country Wife (1675)

- George Etheridge (c. 1637-1691) - She Would If She Could (1668)

7. Who were the actors?

Restoration comedy was strongly influenced by the introduction of the first professional actresses. Before the closing of the theatres, all female roles had been played by boys, and the predominantly male audiences of the 1660s and 1670s were both curious, censorious, and delighted at the novelty of seeing real women engage in risqué repartee and take part in physical seduction scenes

Acting Companies:

* Included women

* Larger than Renaissance companies

* Worked under the contract system in London: being hired at a certain salary for a specified amount of time.

* Provincial companies continued to use sharing plan

* Actors got one benefit performance each year from which they received all the profits rare).

Acting:

* learned through apprenticeships

* Instead of acting as one stock character, they became experts at one type of character, for example the upper-class female.

* Breeches roles were