18TH CENTURY THEATER

THIS PERIOD IS CALLED THE RESTORATION

NEW TYPES OF PLAYS BEGIN TO APPEAR

• Drama- meaning serious work, not quite in the
• class of conventional tragedy.
• Drama dealt with with common place people.
• Comedies and Tragedies were being performed.
• Writers such as Voltuire wrote these plays.

THE ITALIANS

• Were well known for their innovations in scenery & design.
• This aided to the visual performance with backgrounds & lighting

ACTORS

• The most revolutionary change in theater- women on stage
• Up until this point only men acted in the theater.
• Vocal power and versatility were essential.
• Actors had to fight noise from the audience.
• Actors wore lavish costumes .

WHERE

• Companies began to travel between market towns.
• They set up their own theaters called playhouses.
• Music of the time was played to accompany the play.

AUDIENCE

• Coming to a play was a social event.
• Therefore, the audience were not sitting quietly in the dark.
• The whole theater was equally lit, and the play was more
• of a background thing.

BEFORE THIS PERIOD...

• Dramatists kept all of their activities to a minimum.
• Trends in theater were very secret and personal.
• As time went on, trends began to change.
• This leads into the "Restoration", or what we call
• 18th century theater.

BY SAVANNAH MCGRAW AND CARSON HINKLE