Full Answer
When did liturgical drama become popular in the Catholic Church?
The liturgical drama gradually increased in both length and sophistication and flourished particularly during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Did theatre originate out of the liturgy?
In his 1955 book on the origins of theater, Benjamin Hunningher refuted the notion that plays developed out of the liturgy. He noted that the church setting of the mass does not allow for entertainment, and Christian theologians had severely criticized theater artists for centuries. As McCall wrote in 2007:
Is the term liturgical drama problematic?
By examining factors such as "historiography, etymology, source study, and analysis" of the texts themselves, Clifford Flanagan and, most recently, Michael Norton, have shown that the term liturgical drama is problematic. Flanagan wrote in 1974:
How were liturgical plays performed in the Catholic Church?
Although they had their roots in the Christian liturgy, such plays were not performed as essential parts of a standard church service. The language of the liturgical drama was Latin, and the dialoguewas frequently chanted to simple monophonic melodies. Music was also used in the form of incidental dance and processional tunes.
When did liturgical drama move away from the life of Jesus?
Dramatic performances were prohibited or limited in many areas, and they ceased altogether in 1773, when the Society of Jesus was temporarily suppressed.
When did church take over drama?
The church begins to introduce drama between 925 and 975. A tragic decision led to the reestablishment of theatre within an institution which had helped to destroy it.
Why were liturgical plays performed outside?
As these plays became longer and more popular, they started to be performed outdoors with purpose built temporary staging and costumes to attract a larger audience. Some plays even included detailed stage directions.
When did the Catholic church ban theater?
Theatre did continue for a while in the Eastern Roman Empire, the capital of which was Constantinople, but by 692 the Quinisext Council of the church passed a resolution forbidding all mimes, theatres, and other spectacles.
Why did the Catholic Church ban theater?
The Roman Catholic Church believed theatre caused people to "indulge themselves in amusements which its fascinations interfere with the prosecution of the serious work of daily life.
When did liturgical drama begin?
Introduction. The term liturgical drama was first used in the mid-19th century to denote religious dramas that were part of, or closely tied to, medieval church services, whether before Mass, during the divine office, or liturgical processions.
When drama moved outside the church in the Middle Ages it allowed for?
Once the theatre had been moved outside the church, production of the plays was gradually taken over by the laity, and performances were given entirely in the vernacular. (Some liturgical dramas, however, continued to be presented inside the church until the 16th century.)
When did medieval theatre start and end?
Medieval theatre encompasses theatrical performance in the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century.
What is liturgy drama?
Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography. The term was widely disseminated by well-known theater historians like Heinrich Alt (Theater und Kirche, 1846), E.K. Chambers (The Mediaeval Stage, 1903) and Karl Young.
When did Roman Theatre start and end?
When Did Roman Theatre Start And End? In contrast, most Roman theatre is from the mid-4th century to the mid-st. -e. 3rd century CE and spans all of present-day Roman civilization.
Why was theater banned in the Middle Ages?
The Catholic Church decreed that all Acting performances would henceforth, banned. This was due to the extremity of the Roman Theatre, as the Romans decreed that their Comedies, Circuses, Horse Races, and of course, Gladitorial Combat that would take place in the Roman Ampitheatres.
What led to the decline of medieval Theatre?
By late 16th century, drama of medieval period lost its force. Results of the decline: Professional actors still needed, but not amateurs. Professional theatre rose, became commercial (no longer a community venture).
What is liturgical drama?
Liturgy and drama are, for today's standards, subcategories of a greater phenomenon which the 21st century terms performance or enactment. The example of Cistercian nuns crowning Marian statues in their monastic enclosure at Wienhausen shows the limits of "liturgical drama".
When was the liturgical drama first published?
It was published in 1933 and is still read today, even though his theories have been rejected for more than 40 years. Many college textbooks, among them the popular books by Oscar Brockett, propagated the theory of "liturgical drama" even into the 21st century.
Who refuted the idea that plays developed out of the liturgy?
In his 1955 book on the origins of theater, Benjamin Hunningher refuted the notion that plays developed out of the liturgy. He noted that the church setting of the mass does not allow for entertainment, and Christian theologians had severely critized theater artists for centuries. As McCall wrote in 2007:
Is liturgical drama problematic?
By examining factors such as "historiography, etymology, source study, and analysis" of the texts themselves, Clifford Flanagan and, most recently, Michael Norton, have shown that the term liturgical drama is problematic.
What was the liturgy of the medieval church?
The liturgy of the medieval church was essentially theatrical, as was the festive cycle of the Christian year. But at certain times during that year, this theatricality took on a special character. At Easter, and on the days leading up to its celebration of Christ's Passion ("suffering") and Resurrection, and again at the Christmas season, churches throughout Europe provided the settings for musical dramatizations of scenes from the gospels. It is hard to know when these liturgical plays were first performed, because the oldest manuscripts that record them were copied after the Carolingian Renaissance had made the preservation of texts a high priority. Often, the late dates of manuscripts have been taken to indicate that medieval drama itself was a late invention—that in order for there to be a play, there must be a script. But this is obviously not the case: all that a play requires is a story, some performers, and an audience. And medieval people had a wealth of stories at their disposal, thanks to St. Jerome's translation of the Bible, which was supplemented by a series of popular tales from the Apocrypha or "hidden" books of Hebrew scripture, among them the stories of Judith, Susannah, and Daniel. Surviving manuscripts, therefore, allow scholars to view only the skeletal remains of liturgical drama, giving some indication of how these stories were performed. Most of these plays are undetailed and would have existed long before the time of Charlemagne. For example, it is evident that elaborate processions commemorating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday had been staged in that holy city for years, but the earliest record of them comes from the Itinerarium or travel journal of Egeria, a high-born lady or perhaps a nun from the Roman province of Galicia (Spain), written about 384. By the same token, the ceremony for the consecration of churches is surely older than its first ninth-century manuscripts, which show that it was loosely based on the story of the Harrowing of Hell presented in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, when Jesus, on the Saturday between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, descended to the underworld and led out from it the souls of Adam and Eve and other Old Testament heroes and prophets, taking them with him to glory.
What was the setting of the medieval church for Christmas?
The geography of the medieval church was vitally important to the staging of Christmas drama. At Easter, the sole stage setting could be "the place of the sepulchre," which was usually located at or near the altar. At Christmastime, the entire church became a theater, if only because so much of the action of these plays involved traveling: Mary and Joseph journey to Bethlehem, the Magi come "from the East" to Herod's court and from there to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt, the Magi return to their homes. Each of these trips provided an opportunity for the actors to process around the church and through the audience, who would be standing in the nave (the central hall). Since all medieval churches were oriented on an East-West axis, with the altar in the apse at the eastern end, it would be from this part of the church that the Magi would "come together, each one from his own corner as though from his own region," according to the rubrics of the play from Saint-Benoît. The star that guides them rises from behind the altar, also in the east, and then leads their procession around the church. The citizens of Jerusalem are the members of the choir, while the members of the congregation are the people of Bethlehem. When the shepherds find the baby Jesus in the manger, they worship him and then "they invite the people standing all around to worship the child." Through such simple, effective techniques, the staging of liturgical drama allowed the events of the Bible to be mapped onto the church space, collapsing the distance between actors and audience, the past and the present, the local and the universal.
The Tradition of Theatricality.
Basic Components.
In his 1955 book on the origins of theater, Benjamin Hunningher refuted the notion that plays developed out of the liturgy. He noted that the church setting of the Mass does not allow for entertainment, and Christian theologians had severely criticized theater artists for centuries. As McCall wrote in 2007:
Western Europe was effectively without mainstream drama from the moment that Christianity g…
The Integration of Drama and Worship.
The Visit to The Sepulchre
The Expansion of Christmas Theatricals.
- The liturgy of the medieval church was essentially theatrical, as was the festive cycle of the Christian year. But at certain times during that year, this theatricality took on a special character. At Easter, and on the days leading up to its celebration of Christ's Passion ("suffering") and Resurrection, and again at the Christmas season, churches...
The Long Reign of King Herod.
- The many manuscripts which provide us with different versions of important Christmas and Easter plays are all of more recent date than the dramatic traditions to which they refer. These plays demonstrate that there were many ways to perform the story of Christ's Birth and Resurrection, some highly creative. But all shared certain essential components. At Easter, the …
The Church as Performance space.
- It is worth noting that what made these musical dramatizations effective was not their separation from the theater of worship, but their participation in it. One of the earliest manuscripts of the Easter play, the Visitatio sepulchrifrom Winchester in England, demonstrates this beautifully. Four members of the religious community are instructed to disguise themselves by dressing up in co…
Sources
- introduction: Between the years 965 and 975, Bishop Ethelwold of Winchester promulgated a series of liturgical reforms which were crystallized in a collection called the Regularis Concordia, a "Concordance of the Rules" for worship and religious life among the monastic communities of England during the reign of King Edgar (959–975). These guidelines, similar in many respects to …