Spanish Golden Age theatre

Spanish Golden Age theatre refers to theatre in Spain roughly between 1590 and 1681. Spain emerged as a European power after it was unified by the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 and then claimed for Christianity at the Siege of Granada in 1492. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a monumental increase in the production of live theatre as well as in the importance of the arts within Spanish society.
Theatre was an accessible art form for all participants in Renaissance Spain, being both highly sponsored by the aristocratic class and highly attended by the lower classes. The volume and variety of Spanish plays during the Golden Age was unprecedented in the history of world theatre, surpassing even the dramatic production of the English Renaissance by a factor of at least four. This volume has been as much a source of criticism as praise for Spanish Golden Age theatre, for emphasizing quantity before quality. A large number of the plays of this period (10,000 to 30,000) are still considered masterpieces today. This prolific production greatly contributed to the accessibility of theatre in Spain. For modern theatre historians, however, it has contributed to the difficulty of researching theatre from this period. The vast majority of plays have remained virtually untouched, in terms of both production and scholarly analysis, since the seventeenth century. Combined with the error prone printing techniques that plagued the publication of Spanish plays, this has vastly undercut the study of Spanish Golden Age theatre. Although a thorough inclusive analysis remains difficult or even impossible, Spanish Golden Age theatre represents an area of active and productive research for theatre historians.
Noted for its variety, the theatre of Renaissance Spain was the only in Europe to simultaneously include secular and religious dramas. Additionally, state sponsored drama existed harmoniously alongside popular for-profit theatre, with many theatre artists contributing significantly to both. Stylistically, plays ranged from straight plays to operas and from bawdy comedies to epic tragedies. Spain also introduced its own forms and genres of theatre with the development of the Comedia nueva and the zarzuela.
The most common religious plays in this era were about saints lives (comedias de santos). Playwrights often based the work on existing books although in Cervantes's El rufían dichoso the protagonist is never canonized. Another class of plays was based on the bible, a subset of which reflected some aspect of church teachings. Lope de Vega's La hermosa Ester and Tirso de Molina's La venganza de Tamar were examples of biblical themed works in the broader sense, and Antonio Mira de Amescua's El ejemplo mayor de la desdicha, Pedro Calderón de la Barca's El príncipe constante and Tirso's El condenado por desconfiado could be considered to reflect the narrower meaning of church teaching, although debate exists among scholars about how the religiously themed works should be subclassified. Some of the questions that arise is whether the plays are primarily religious or cross the line to didacticism, or whether a play about a Biblical monarch is a kingship play.
Honor is a major theme in Spanish Golden Age drama. Theatre was used as a metaphor for life, and honor was therefore represented in a number of ways on stage, for example, reputation, and juxtaposed against disillusionment and hypocrisy. Right versus wrong is a common theme in plays from this period and Lope de Vega himself believed that everyone reacts to honor. Honorable (Christian) conduct is enforced by the public and to lose your honor is to live in shame and despair. A large number of plots focus on the fear of lost reputation and on masculine honor based on women's chastity. While women seem to control their men's honor, gender roles are only very conservatively challenged. While poverty is everywhere, the plays are filled with picturesque scenes, glorious churches, and courts. Still, the playwrights of the time throw a bit of cynicism in their work. The stock character of the gracioso (disillusioned clown) survives the stories without even wondering about right and wrong.
After 1603 only licensed companies could work in Spain, and licenses were limited in availability. Unemployed actors joined the compañías de la legua (“companies of language”) and performed in the countryside. Companies could not perform in one place for more than two months annually, and only one company was permitted to perform at that location. In 1615, Madrid assumed control and hired companies made up of actor-managers (autores), actors, and apprentices, subject to government rules. These companies were licensed by the Royal Council and highly paid to perform Autos Sacramentales both in court and at public theatres. Actors generally worked for managers under a 1 to 2-year contract and a typical schedule had actors study their role from 2am to 9am, rehearse until noon, take a break to eat, then perform until 7pm. While women were licensed to perform starting in 1587, this practice remained controversial until 1599, when a royal decree stipulated that only women married to company members could perform. Important performers included Lope de Rueda and later Juan Rana.
Costumes during this time were very similar to Elizabethan or English Renaissance theatre costumes. Actors dressed as lavishly as finances permitted and contracts even had special allowances for costumes. Records show that actors paid anywhere from 1/5 to 1/2 of their salary for one costume and some even petitioned civic officials for extra funds for costumes. Towns gave awards for acting and costumes, showing that the quality of the costumes was quite important to the audience. The government made many rules dictating the specifications of costumes. For example, actors performing in Auto Sacramentales had to wear silk or velvet and women were forbidden to wear strange headdresses, décolleté necklines, or wide-hooped or non-floor length skirts. As well, actors were only allowed to wear one costume per play, unless it was specially stated in the text.
Three kinds of scenic background were utilized: the facade; the curtains concealing the facade, which were used when the location was not particularly important; and medieval-type mansions, which were sometimes erected on the main stage. As spectacle increased after 1650, painted flats with doors and windows were set into the facade in place of curtains. After a period of time, awnings were rigged over the seating, and, eventually, the addition of a permanent roof made it an indoor theatre. In the 1640s and 1650s set designs of new public and court theatres were supervised by Italian designers. Machines that simulated wind and the sounds of thunder (created with metal sheets or dropping planks of wood), rain (similar to a large rainstick, and a swelling ocean were quite common and delighted theatregoers of this time. Musicians were also commonly used to create moods and important sound effects.
Unlike the rest of Europe, Spain had unique theatre traditions. Religious plays continued to be produced and popular into the 1700s, religious and secular theatre thrived side by side, and actors were accepted in church and as worthwhile members of society. As well, Spain pioneered a three-act model for plays instead of the classic five acts, allowed women on stage, and had an organized and efficient system of actor contracts, travel stipends, licenses, and booking. Most importantly, Spanish Golden Age theatre produced wonderful politically and philosophically allegorical plays such as Calderon's Life is a Dream, and Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna, that spoke specifically to the audience of the time.
The sources of influence for the emerging national theatre of Spain were as diverse as the theatre that nation produced during the Golden Age. Storytelling traditions originating in Italian Commedia dell'arte and the uniquely Spanish expression of Western Europe's traveling minstrel entertainments contributed a populist influence on the narratives and the music, respectively, of early Spanish theatre. Neo-Aristotelian criticism and liturgical dramas, on the other hand, contributed literary and moralistic perspectives. In turn, Spanish Golden Age theatre has dramatically influenced the theatre of later generations in Europe and throughout the world. Spanish drama had an immediate and significant impact on the contemporary developments in English Renaissance theatre. It has also had a lasting impact on theatre throughout the Spanish speaking world. Currently, a growing number of works are being translated, increasing the reach of Spanish Golden Age theatre and strengthening its reputation among critics and theatre patrons.