Classical & Renaissance Foundations
The rowdy Elizabethan theatergoers who paid one penny to stand right in front of the stage.
Who are the groundlings?
The open, unroofed area in the middle of the Globe Theater where standing audience members were exposed to the weather.
What is the Yard?
The wooden prop carried by servants to hit other characters, creating a loud cracking noise that named physical comedy.
What is a slapstick?
The most famous servant character, easily recognized by his colorful diamond-checked outfit, slapstick, and perpetual hunger.
Who is Arlecchino (Harlequin)?
Fast-paced 19th-century variety entertainment consisting of short, unrelated acts grouped together on one bill.
What is Vaudeville?
The massive Athenian civic festival dedicated to Dionysus where Greek tragedies were performed as acts of religious worship.
What is the City Dionysia (or Great Dionysia)?
The Elizabethan playwright who revolutionized theater with powerful blank verse before his early death.
Who is Christopher Marlowe?
Instead of full scripts, troupes acted from this basic, one-page plot outline pinned backstage.
What is a canovaccio (or scenario)?
The greedy, lustful Venetian merchant who wears red tights, a dark cloak, and is obsessed with money.
Who is Pantalone?
Literally meaning "drama with music," this popular genre used background tracks to guide audience emotions in every scene.
What is Melodrama?
The official government officer who strictly monitored political commentary and censored plays in Elizabethan England.
Who is the Master of the Revels?
The three-story backstage structure in the Globe used for costume changes that also housed the musician's gallery.
What is the Tiring House?
Highly rehearsed, repeatable comedic physical gags integrated seamlessly into the actors' improvisation.
What are lazzi?
A bombastic military man who boasts of grand battlefield victories but is an absolute coward in actual fights.
Who is Il Capitano (The Captain)?
Created in 1866 when a stranded European ballet troupe joined a melodrama production in NYC, it is considered America's first book musical.
What is The Black Crook?
In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche argued that Greek tragedy balanced raw Dionysian suffering with this ordered artistic force.
What is the Apollonian art/force?
The "Big Three" Greek tragic playwright known as a psychological free-thinker.
Who is Euripides?
Unlike most characters in Commedia dell'arte, this specific group never wore masks so audiences could see their facial expressions.
Who are The Lovers (Innamorati)?
A pompous, snobbish intellectual or lawyer from Bologna who speaks in rambling, confusing fake Latin.
Who is Il Dottore?
The American producer who cleaned up raunchy saloon variety shows to make vaudeville a respectable, middle-class family pastime.
Who is Tony Pastor?
Public playhouses were built outside London's city limits primarily to dodge strict opposition from this religious group.
Who are the Puritans?
The Jacobean playwright known for crafting deeply macabre, psychological thrillers.
Who is John Webster?
Formed in 1545, Commedia dell'arte troupes made European history by legally permitting these people to act professionally on stage.
Who are women?
A witty, fiercely intelligent maidservant who coordinates schemes, solves problems, and remains one of the few unmasked servants.
Who is Colombina?
This groundbreaking 1927 musical dropped melodrama's cheesy stock characters while keeping a serious, dramatic plot to pioneer the modern musical.
What is Show Boat?