The Restoration theater. From tennis court to playhouse
Description
During the English Civil War, London's theaters were closed by Parliament, and many were destroyed by Cromwell. During the Restoration, new playhouses, built to stage the probing social comedies of the era, were shaped by changes in English drama, politics, and society. We learn how the Parisian tennis court theaters, attended by the court in exile of Charles II, influenced the new London theaters, particularly Christopher Wren's Theatre Royal. Other Restoration design solutions, some baroque and some neoclassical, were responses to changes in British drama and society. Advanced computer graphics illustrate important theater features throughout the documentary. The program shows how Wren's work influenced Georgian playhouses and is once again inspiring modern theater design.
Runtime
45 min
Subjects
Genre
Date of Publication
[2005], c1996
Database
Films on Demand
Direct Link
Similar Films
Glass Menagerie
Harold Pinter. Landscape
Young Ahmed
The Design of modern theatre. Adolphe Appia's innovations
Freeman
Olivier's As You Like It
Awake and Sing!
This Is Kyogen
John Osborne. Look Back in Anger
This is Macbeth
Boost your teaching
Pericles. Young Actors in Training
Talk fast. Pitching a screenplay in two minutes
Blocking a Scene. Basic Staging With Actors
Henry VI. House of York