Lopez, Ma. Shanaine M.

2019-20143 Theatre 101 History of Western Theatre

Pagcaliwagan, Charisse L. 2019 - 20132 Asst. Prof. Olivia Kristine D. Nieto

Mandigal, Joanna Marie C. 2019-20176

Thesis Statement No. 5

When the authority of the Christian (later Catholic) Church began collapsing, modernity
emerged as a new way of thinking. This is the birth of humanism or the interest to go
back to human experience and condition as starting point in discourse and creative
activities including theatre. In history, this is the Renaissance. Another way of looking at
the development of theatre, at least in Europe, is the secularization of theatre, which
paved the way for the early professional and commercial theatre houses in the Western
World. Coincidentally, in East Asia (China and Japan), traditional theatre artists of
theatre forms such as kunqu or xixu in China and kabuki, noh and bunraku in Japan have
began professionalizing these forms.

KEYWORDS: revival of the classics, commedia dell’arte, secularization of theatre,

Petrarch, Humanism, professionalizing theatre, permanent theatre houses, kunqu,
bunraku, kabuki, noh, printing press, Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation

Renaissance Period has been brought up from Medieval Period by two reformations:
Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation and Petrarch’s Renaissance Humanism. The ideologies
of these two reformations were proposed through literary text that was produced through the
printing press. In the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther created the 95 theses or Disputation
on the Power of Indulgences and highlights and his opposition in the centralization of these two
beliefs: the dependency of people to the religious authority as they believed that humans gain
their salvation through faith and not by their deeds.

As time progressed, focal point of human experience rose: humanism. The humanity’s
actions matter more than any other being in the existing world. Petrarch, the Father of humanism,
proposed that God had given us knowledge and potential to fully use them. He motivated the
philosophy of being a humanist towards the flourishing of the Renaissance; his works are in a
Humanistic approach. Furthermore, he inspired poets to express themselves and evaluate their
inner life and emotions.

Also, Petrarch’s influence became a factor for the other humanists to emerge and turn
into advocates of the revival the classics (a chief project to revive the classical art forms such as
manuscript from Greek and Roman) and the belief of secularization (a process disassociating or
separating religious from social practices) is a tool for people to attain wisdom, intellectual
freedom and individual expression.

These reformation movements had shaken the people’s beliefs and challenged the
traditions of the Church. Since the Catholic Church considered it as an atheistic idea, they
implemented a Counter-Reformation to contradict Martin Luther; it was their action to solve this
conflict. This was headed by the council of Trent as they produced artworks such as designed
stained glasses, sculptures and other forms of art inside the worshipping place. In this way, the
people would have the will to still visit and honor the church.

When the authority of the Christian (later Catholic) Church began collapsing, modernity
emerged as a new way of thinking. This is the birth of humanism or the interest to go back to
human experience and condition as starting point in discourse and creative activities including
theatre. In history, this is the Renaissance.

In the field of theatre during Renaissance, there is an existence of hegemonic idea

particularly with the playwright and the director that were subjected to the innovation of printing
press as a medium in producing literary texts that are called “source of knowledge”, and the rise
of the concepts literacy and illiteracy in a form of theatre break these concepts such the
commedia dell’arte. It had a personal conviction towards re-empowering of the performer rather
than the playwright and director. It also became a medium in reaching the masses by providing
one of the base languages of a theatrical lingua franca.

Conventions were developed in Commedia Dell’arte actors who took pre-existing folk
forms, improvised masking, music and dance and developed them into a theatrical medium. Over
the next two centuries, the performance techniques that they developed were passed on to their
siblings and other younger members of their troupes by selecting them as virtually, professional
secrets. There is a marked similarity with Japanese Noh theatre in this respect: the symbol or
kana for Noh means ‘accomplishment’ or ‘professional ability’; the word arte should properly be
translated as a combination of ‘tradesmanship’ and ‘artistic know-how’; they determine the
opposites and similarities of each other.

Commedia had progressively been monopolized by well-to-do ‘society’, permanent

theatre houses and professionalizing theatre in the Western as well as in Southeast Asia where
China and Japan had developed theatre with the help of the dramatists/actors. This was the
opposite for the Western theatre since their playwrights were the ones who became well-known
personalities because the scripts were printed on metals making them easier to spread and
preserve. On the other hand, written documents from the Southeastern portion were printed on
woods which faded as time passed by.

Another way of looking at the development of theatre, in Europe, is the secularization of

theatre, which paved the way for the early professional and commercial theatre houses in the
Western World. Coincidentally, in Southeast Asia, traditional theatre artists of theatre forms such
as Kunqu or Xixu in China and Kabuki, Noh and Bunraku in Japan have begun professionalizing
these forms. They depict their culture and traditions, may they be for the elite, middle-class or
the low-class people. One of the many Chinese dramas (16th century) was named as Kunqu
(elegant drama) derived from Kunshan Qiang.

The next theatre play came from the Japanese traditional theatre named as Bunraku
which uses half-size-life dolls. The master puppeteer (head and right arm) has a passive face
during the performance to let the audience focus on the puppets and the assistants (left arm and
feet) wear black masks on their faces. It was developed from accompanied narrative’s music that
has several genres that were collectively called as jōruri.

In addition, Kabuki theatre, which rose from the Edo Period, was recognized as a
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. At first, it was only played and acted by women;
however, when Tokugawa became the leader, he restricted women to take part in the play. This
was the beginning of men’s exclusive participation in this theatre form.
 Lastly, Noh was originated in the 14th century and involves music, dance and drama. This
is the oldest surviving form of Japanese theatre. The roles or performers are all males: shite and
supporting characters.

The Renaissance Period is evidently a prevalence of Modernity Framework where in the

Political and Economic situation has an influence of Liberal Capitalism which is an abstract idea
that decentralizes the power of neither government nor public sector in handling the economic
transactions. Therefore, there is no more institutional dependency but only the individual itself as
the doer of his/her decisions and governs the formation of policies for their well-being. It also
promotes equality through acknowledging the capacity of an individual to grow and sustain the
society. This idea also led the people to cultivate their culture and develop values such as
humanism, individualism, skepticism, well-roundedness, secularism, classicism, naturalism and
realism. These were reflected in the fields of architecture, literature, visual arts, science, and
theatre. In this period, the widespread of various ideas, knowledge and values were attained
through the existence of printing press in creating literary text as means of communication.