Acting Questions: A Beginning to Georgian Theatre

Alex Spieth

What were the Major Theatres?

• Drury Lane Theatre• Little Theatre in Haymarket• King’s Theatre• Covent Garden• Lord Barrymore’s theatre at Wargrove

Theatres in Georgian Theatre

• No new theatres build for half a century after the Licensing Act in Britain

• Basic Layout was Forestage flanked by stage box and proscenium gave onto scenic stage – Dressing Rooms, Green Rooms small but were

considered essential– Basic Lighting began as Candles became wing

lighting and footlights

Drury Lane Theatre

• Drury Lane Theatre, opened in 1674, after being destroyed by a fire in 1672

• David Garrick, well known actor, and RB Sheridan were managers of the Drury Lane

Drury Lane Theatre

• First Garrick Significant Achievement: Under Garrick, the theatre ENDED the practice of the audience being able to occupy special sections of the stage (1762) and enlarged seating capacity– In Dublin, the law was supported due to an incident

concerning Thomas Sheridan where one of the drunken patrons tried to rape an actress

– According to Tate Wilkenson, the audience on stage was a real problem: “Mr Quin, age sixty-five, with the heavy dress of Falstaff…was several minutes before he could pass through the numbers that wedged and hemmed him in”

Drury Lane Theatre

• 2nd Garrick Achievement: extensive Reconstruction in 1775

• In 1791, Sheridan tore down the Drury Lane for a bigger theatre which was opened in 1794, but it too burnt to the ground in 1809;

Drury Lane

Theatre in 1808

What were Theatres like?

• In Sheridan’s day, there was no moment of change from “crowd” to “audience” because the lights all stayed LIGHT—brighter than any other place at light

• LOTS of people went: 12,000 people went weekly to the theatre in London—2,300 people fought to get in each night

What were Theatres Like?

• Line between performers and audience was thin and could be broken– SO MANY RIOTS, riots in 1743, 1750, 1755, 1770,

1776 in the Drury Lane alone• Night’s entertainment made up of a main play

(5 acts) and an afterpiece (about 2 acts)• 2/3rds of the way through the unsold seats were

knocked to half price, so another influx came in IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLAY

What were Theatres Like?

• POLITICAL: The Drury Lane and the near-by Covent garden took two sides of the political arena– Drury Lane: Opposition’s theatre, Whig Factions,

King rarely visited– Covent: Government’s theatre, King visited often

What was (Sheridan’s) Theatre like?

• Sheridan saw the theatre as a vehicle to the center of network connections, theatre worked as a weather vane of public mood and ideas, it connected him to the past and future

Changes in Theatre: Scenic/ Lighting

• Due to the new freedom from audience onstage, the players had to move into the scenic stage rather than playing on just the front of the stage– Philip de Loutherberg (Drury Lane) experimented

with asymmetrical flats and free standing peices – John Inigo Richards (Covent)

• This required better lighting, apart from candles– Garrick visited Paris in 1763 and brought back new

lighting activities

Lighting

Scene from School for Scandal, shows directional lighting, oil painting by James Roberts

Lighting

School for Scandal, Engraving by James Roberts. Note directional Lighting

“Growing Theatre”: Costumes

• Costumes: Players in comedies mostly wore modern dress, usually found or provided out of stock.– Little real knowledge of what people wore

historically– There was some movement to set various famous

plays in their respective homes (Macbeth wearing Scottish garb in Macklin’s production)

Responses to Costumes

• There was some backlash to costumes being predominantly the dress of the day

• John Hill pleads for greater naturalism in costumes, “The first time Mr. Garrick played Macbeth, he took occasion in one of his scenes of greatest confusion to enter with his coat and waistcoat both unbuttoned…he did this, however, only the first night, and lost, by omitting it afterwards all merit of having done it at all…”

• He also when speaking on Mrs. Pritchard’s performance as Jane Shore, “And in conclusion, nothing could be so unnatural as to see that plump and rosy figure endeavoring to present us with a view of the utmost want and starving”

Costumes

Sarah Siddons and Garrick as Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth

Garrick as Macbeth

Costumes

Charles Macklin, looking a bit cartoonish, as Macbeth

Acting Style

• Older Tradition (one way to play a character, that way handed down from master to apprentice) was going out of style

• Opposition to studied gestures and voices of old

• Booth and Wilkes (older school) vs. Macklin and Garrick (younger school)

• New Naturalism (under Garrick and Macklin) was emerging

Acting Style

• Grace (Rao) was considered a very important attribute on stage; many actors were encouraged to study painting (especially historical painting) to gain a grasp on the world

• John Hill wrote on how a). Emotional involvement was needed for playing b). The importance of varying pace and tone (and also not going hoarse)

Acting Style

• From Dramatic Essays by Leigh Hunt, “Mrs. Siddons never has the air of being an actress…This always marks one of the great actor. The player who amuses himself by looking in the audience for admiration may be assured never gets any…”

Major Players

• Charles Macklin: natural style of acting, creating a school for vocal training

• David Garrick: see later• Sarah Siddons• Mrs. Margaret Woffington: so good humored,

gay, and good that no man matched her/ society women and “breeches parts”

• Dorothy Jordan: famous for “breeches parts”

Who were the Major Players?

• David Garrick: manager of the Drury Lane from 1747 to 1766,advanced a lot of the Shakespearian theatre (put on 23 of Shakespeare’s plays while at the Drury Lane)

• Promoted “realism” acting over the previous bombastic style/ sought to reform audience behavior

• REVOLUTIONAIZED ACTING in the 18th century

Who were the Major Players?

• The Pope saw Garrick three times in performance and said, “That young man has never had his equal as an actor, and he shall never have a rival”

Garrick

By Joshua Reynolds By Angelica Kaufman

Dorothy JordanJordan as Viola, by John Hopper

Jordan as Hippolyta, by John Jones

Audiences• Not just upper or

middle class, but all people went to the theatre

A Rowlandson print, contrasting London Audiences and the Country Audiences