UNIT 3: SHAKESPEAREAN THEATRE - ROMEO & JULIET

-historical context 

Commedia dell'arte was originated in Italy, while the Shakespearean theatre was originally from England. As the Renaissance ended and slipped into the Elizabethan era (Shakespeare's times) so a lot of the same features from commedia influenced Shakespeare's theatre. Shakespeare's plays were based on scripted serious stories, whereas commedia was based off of a general plot with the stock characters and very improvised with no language script since they used "gromalot". It was hard to recognize the main character in commedia because of all the stock characters and each one's colorful personality, but in Shakespeare's plays the play was based on a story about 1-2 characters that would mentioned at the beginning of every play in a prologue. Commedia was also more comedic with their exaggeration and most of Shakespeare's plays were tragic with a snippet of comedy but characters weren't exaggerating, they were rather dramatic. (

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-audiences 

Commedia dell'arte was performed for all the commoners and peasants, on the streets, in big houses or areas and it travelled throughout Europe and Italy. Whereas Shakespearean theatre stayed at its house, The Globe in England; although they would occasionally perform at the Palace or for any wealthy, powerful person as requests. (

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-script/text 

Shakespeare had made up 5000 words and phrases while writing  his plays and used English to write his scripts since the plays were based in England. Commedia was more global since they travelled through the continent so they're script was gibberish so it was based solely on actions. (

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-performers/performance styles 

Commedia was allowed to have vulgarity and paid female performers whereas Shakespearean plays did not allow female performers and joked about vulgar things in implication or hints because of religious influence on England at the time. So it was a downgrading thing for female performers. Shakespearean plays had critical audiences in the groundlings that had great interaction with performers but they would throw rotten vegetables or fruits if they didn't like the play. Commedia pulled up members of the audience to stage to improvise them into the performance and command and direct their actions.(

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-rehearsal process 

Commedia dell'arte was improvised and didn't seem to have any main characters among all their stock characters but they went about it with a certain hierarchy. Commedia plays would often portray unexpected deaths and such things throughout without the characters even knowing, so the whole thing was generally improvised. Shakespearean plays were rehearsed using a actual script inside The Globe during broad daylight, like commedia.(

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-performance space

Shakespeare's crew was housed at The Globe in England, which was like a ceiling-less theatre with "groudlings" seats and had more expensive seats on the levels around the top of the theatre. And as aforementioned, commedia was travelling all the time so they didn't have a predominant house, they just predominantly performed in Italy more. Since either of these groups couldn't afford enough candles to put on performance at night, both performed at daytime, even if it rained!(

Larque, Thomas. "Shakespeare and His Critics - Index." Shakespeare and His Critics - Index. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://shakespearean.org.uk/>.)

-production elements (lights, sound, costumes, etc.)

Since it was done in broad daylight there weren't anymore lights except for those for both. Shakespearean plays had props and they also had proper costumes for each character. At The Globe the stage had a place underneath which was referred to as hell where actors could disappear through a trapdoor. Commedia was done on streets and was based on mime since they didn't have props most of the time and actors would wear masks to represent their characters and made sound effects using their mouths along with gibberish.

("Commedia Dell'arte (Italian Theatre)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 18 April. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127742/commedia-dellarte>.)

A tour of The Globe