The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages and Elizabethan Theatres

The drama in the church was an outgrowth of religious ritual. These dramas were acted out to teach stories of the bible. The productions and music were being to focused on and less religious so the church evicted them. They now performed in the town squares and courtyards. These vernacular dramas were performed on movable platform stage better known as a pageant wagon. To accommodate the abrupt changes in location they used a neutral platform stage that could become what ever the script had written out. The actors had to state it in the play the change of location, and it was included in the play write. The platform would instantly become any playing scene that the script would indicate. If there was a field in the script then the platform would suddenly become a field and if there was a ship at sea then the platform would become a ship. The next genre to emerge near the end of the middle ages was comedy. An example of a comedy would be the Second Shepherds Play. The second shepherds play was about a thief named Matt who stole a sheep. He stole the sheep from the shepherds. In fear of there return to his house looking for the sheep, he put the sheep in a cradle all dressed up in a disguise as his newborn child. They eventually figure out its there stolen sheep. An angel speaks of the coming of christ and a star leads them to the birth of jesus from mother mary.
Shakespeare's stage was more like a medieval playing stage because it had a thrust stage. The stage was surrounded by three sides of standing audience and it was public so there were different   classes of people. Mostly the poor people where the ones who stood and the was an open roof so in times of rain they were the ones to get wet. Also in the shakespeare's plays language was the only tool, he had no stage effects. There were 2,000 to 3,000 people attending his plays and he often would draw you in to thinking it was actuality but yet still just a play.
The...