ENGL 215 - Pre-modern Drama: Text and Performance before 1800

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2016/17b:  Medieval Drama and Performing.  The York Cycle.  The York Cycle of plays began after the plague in England devastated the population in 1349. York’s medieval streets and its civic guilds produced annual plays that were produced into the 1560s. Thus, they were staged during the time of Shakespeare. This class examines the documentary artifacts of the York Cycle (its manuscripts, accounts of viewings, production notes, etc.) to think about what it would require for an entire civic community to produce and perform this play on a yearly basis. We examine all of the York Cycle and think about it not just as a medieval artifact, but about how its dramatic shape can change depending on the historical, political, and religious pressures during the several centuries it was performed. The class considers the architecture, history, and space of York as a medieval city. We think about what it means to stage it in relation to civic architecture and space, the construction and use of pageant wagons, the questions of costuming, music, visual Catholic iconography in the British Isles, and how this cycle could be performed even into the Reformation. Dorothy Kim.

 

Two 75-minute periods.