Processions, Progresses and Pageants
CYCLE PLAYS AND PUBLIC DISPLAYS IN ENGLAND IN THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD AND THE RENAISSANCE
In the beginning...
There once was a dramaturgy graduate student who decided to take a course on Tudor and Stuart Drama in the English Department at the University of Massachusetts. Every Tuesday evening for the Spring 2012 semester she would trek up to the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies (which was not even on campus!) to meet for three hours in the attic of the tiny stone cottage.
The eight graduate students taking the course (all of the others were English PhD students) and Professor Arthur Kinney - who really is Sir Arthur - hunkered down around the large solid wood table each evening to discuss and debate Elizabethan and Jacobean plays and scholarship surrounding them.
In addition to these lively conversations, each student was required to do two presentations: one on a primary source and one on a secondary source. The table of contents for two books were handed out and each contained sources and articles to choose from. The Dutton was the book to choose from for the secondary source presentations. Now, the theatre MFA student was intimidated by the PhD students and did not know what to pick, having never even heard of the acclaimed "Dutton". After a quick scan of the table of contents, she settled on an article entitled "London Street Theatre" by Anne Lancashire. It had theatre in the title, so there must be something in there that she could sink her teeth into.
As the weeks passed, she began working on the presentation for the class. This would be her second on. The first was on some primary source document that was just awful. A 182 page rant against theatre. (The author wrote about fifty times that by going to the theatre you were joining the devil.) She was much more invested in this presentation. She quickly found out that Anne Lancashire also happened to be Canadian and working at the University of Toronto in Victoria College - precisely where she had in fact studied for a summer during undergrad. Coincidence?
The article was fascinating and peaked her curiosity about street theatre during the Renaissance period. There was something about the structured and yet chaotic nature of the public performances that intrigued her. The discussion with Sir Arthur following the presentation was all about spectacle during the processions. Was narrative or spectacle more important? Did they work together or were they in competition with one another? Sir Arthur noted that this would be a great dissertation topic and after a chuckle, she politely reminded him that she was neither in his department nor in a PhD program. And so the class continued on.
The eight graduate students taking the course (all of the others were English PhD students) and Professor Arthur Kinney - who really is Sir Arthur - hunkered down around the large solid wood table each evening to discuss and debate Elizabethan and Jacobean plays and scholarship surrounding them.
In addition to these lively conversations, each student was required to do two presentations: one on a primary source and one on a secondary source. The table of contents for two books were handed out and each contained sources and articles to choose from. The Dutton was the book to choose from for the secondary source presentations. Now, the theatre MFA student was intimidated by the PhD students and did not know what to pick, having never even heard of the acclaimed "Dutton". After a quick scan of the table of contents, she settled on an article entitled "London Street Theatre" by Anne Lancashire. It had theatre in the title, so there must be something in there that she could sink her teeth into.
As the weeks passed, she began working on the presentation for the class. This would be her second on. The first was on some primary source document that was just awful. A 182 page rant against theatre. (The author wrote about fifty times that by going to the theatre you were joining the devil.) She was much more invested in this presentation. She quickly found out that Anne Lancashire also happened to be Canadian and working at the University of Toronto in Victoria College - precisely where she had in fact studied for a summer during undergrad. Coincidence?
The article was fascinating and peaked her curiosity about street theatre during the Renaissance period. There was something about the structured and yet chaotic nature of the public performances that intrigued her. The discussion with Sir Arthur following the presentation was all about spectacle during the processions. Was narrative or spectacle more important? Did they work together or were they in competition with one another? Sir Arthur noted that this would be a great dissertation topic and after a chuckle, she politely reminded him that she was neither in his department nor in a PhD program. And so the class continued on.
This is how my interest in this subject began. (The presentation I gave can be found on the main page of "Public Displays".) This research was put on the back burner. It was yet another interesting that I would read more about at some point. The summer passed by and then the first semester of my second year began. I had never lost interest in the subject and so when we were choosing research topics, I was of course drawn to public state-sponsored spectacle and performance. I was interested also in cycle plays because they too are sponsored by an authoritative body and have elements of spectacle. So how to combine the two?
I initially began this research thinking that I would be able to compare the spectacle in cycle plays to the spectacle in public processions and performances. But there is very little scholarship about this topic. So this scrapbook is more of a journey album, still in progress, rather than a completed project that has all of the answers.
The main question I was looking at throughout this project was whether or not the spectacle and function of cycles plays was the same or different from those in public processions and performances - including the Midsummer Watch, Lord Mayor's Shows and Royal Entries. I focussed my research on England, with special attention on London. This limited approach allowed me to look at the stagecraft involved in these different forms of public spectacle.
I initially began this research thinking that I would be able to compare the spectacle in cycle plays to the spectacle in public processions and performances. But there is very little scholarship about this topic. So this scrapbook is more of a journey album, still in progress, rather than a completed project that has all of the answers.
The main question I was looking at throughout this project was whether or not the spectacle and function of cycles plays was the same or different from those in public processions and performances - including the Midsummer Watch, Lord Mayor's Shows and Royal Entries. I focussed my research on England, with special attention on London. This limited approach allowed me to look at the stagecraft involved in these different forms of public spectacle.