Eighteenth Century Europe: The Age of Enlightenment

A Study Guide
 Eighteenth Century Europe: The Age of Enlightenment
o Learning & philosophy
o Scientific method
o Observation & analysis
o Objective truths
o Universal standards
o Reason replaces faith
 Social & Political Background
o Global community
o Greater religious tolerance
o Wars territorial and economic
o Rising middle class
o Enlightened despots
o Hope & despair: revolutions
 Drama: Diderot & Lessing Break the Rules
 Domestic Tragedy & Comedy w/ Virtue
o Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
 Encyclopedie (ed.) 1748-1772 and plays
 The Paradox of Acting
 Illusion of reality
o Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
 Hamburg Dramaturgy & Miss Sara Sampson (1755)
 English over French models
 Lessing on Domestic Tragedy
o "The names of princes and heroes can lend pomp and majesty to a play but
they contibute nothing to our emotion. The misfortunes of those whose
circumstances most resemble our own must naturally penetrate most
deeply into our hearts, and if we pity kings, we pity them as human
beings, not as kings."
 Middle-Class or Domestic Tragedy
o George Lillo
 The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell (1713)
 Ballad Opera
o John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728)
 Comic Opera (Opera Comique)
 Sentimental Comedy & Comedie Larmoyante
o Middle class & Puritan values
o Restoration drama attacked
o Sentimental plays
o Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729)
 The Conscious Lovers (1722)
o Poetic justice and morals
o Progress & innate human goodness
o Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 - 1816)
 The Rivals (1775)
 The School for Scandal (1777)
 Eighteenth Century Europe: The Age of Enlightenment
A Study Guide
 Laughing Comedy
o Oliver Goldsmith (1730? - 1774)
 She Stoops to Conquor (1773) & critical essay (1772)
o Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763)
 The Game of Love and Chance (1730)
o Pierre-Augustin Caron 1732-1799 Beaumarchais
 The Barber of Seville 1775 & The Marriage of Figaro 1783
 Sentimentalism & Commedia dell' Arte:
o Carlo Goldoni (1707 - 1793)
 The Servant of Two Masters (1743)
o Carlo Gozzi (1720 - 1806)
 The King Stag (1762) & The Green Bird (1765)
 Melodrama
o Rene Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt (1773-1844)
o August Wilhelm Iffland (1750-1814)
o Friedrich von Kolzebue (1761-1819)
 The Stranger, or Misanthropy and Repentance (1787)
 Sturm und Drang / Storm and Stress
o Lessing inspired
 Miss Sara Sampson (1755)
o Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
 Rules for Actors
 Faust
o Friedrich Schiller
 The Robbers (1782)
o Variety & shock value
o Broke all Neoclassical rules
o Cannonized Shakespeare
o Precursor to Romanticism
 Drury Lane and Covent Garden history
 Regulation of Theatres in England
o 1737 Licensing Act
o Henry Giffard & Samuel Foote
o Burletta
 Government and Theatre in France
o Boulevard theatres
 Government and Theatre in Germany
o Hanswurst
o Caroline Neuber
 Audience Experience
o New play each day
o Increasing middle-class audience
o Early evening
o 3 to 5 hours
o Variety of plays, music and dance
o Old Price Riots
 Eighteenth Century Europe: The Age of Enlightenment
A Study Guide
 Drottningholm in Sweden (1766)
 Theatre Buildings 18th Century Changes: Size
o Drury Lane
o c 1700: 650 capacity
o c 1770: 2,000
o c 1800: 3,000
 Other Changes in Theatre
o Oval shaped auditorium
o Benches in pit
o Reduced apron
o Spectators gradually banned
o Increasingly ornate
 Theatre in America
o Virginia Players Comedians
o The Hallam Family (1740-1800)
 Lewis Hallam
 The American Company
o William Dunlap
o Royall Tyler
 The Contrast (1787)
 Scenery
 Wing and shutter
 Pole and chariot or grooves
o Bibienas
 Multiple vanishing point
 Scena per angolo
 Ground rows
o Giambattista Peranesi
 Chiaroscuro
o Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg
 Local color
 Eidophusikon
o Experiments w/ Early Box Set
o Increased Scenery
o More elaborate
 Costumes
o Part of actor interpretation
o Experiments with historical accuracy
 Acting
o Charles Macklin (1699-1797)
o Styles?
o Blocking
o Actor's role
o Dumesnil (1713-1803)
Clairon (1723-1803)
o Soubrette role
 Eighteenth Century Europe: The Age of Enlightenment
A Study Guide
o Acting companies (England vs continient)

 Producer
o Caroline Neuber (1697-1760)

 Shifts towards Direction: Garrick vs Goethe

 Garrick
o "Natural" style
o Study of character
o Study of life to inform character
o Garrick: Production Innovations
 Re-writing Shakespeare
 Rehearsal discipline
 Banished spectators from stage
 Experiments with historical accuracy
 Goethe
o Storm and Stress
o Shift to classical themes
o Intensive rehearsals
o Not natural style
o “Rule for Actors”