Work it Shakespeare!
Theater, art, music, and movement combined
The Shakespeare Workout routine
In Shakespeare's time, theaters did not have curtains or real backstage areas. There were no special effects like we have now. Actors had to make fighting look real without any assistance. Check out some techniques for stage combat and sword fighting.
Renaissance Martial Arts
Stage Combat
Basic cuts used in Bolognese swordsmanship
Stage Combat Techniques
Shakespeare's Jams
Many of the instruments available in Shakespeare's time were different from modern instruments. Pictured below is a woman playing a lute.
Use the following websites (and the videos embedded below) to learn about music during the Renaissance:
"Orazio Gentileschi" by Orazio Gentileschi - From sv: Wikipedia. Originally uploaded 9 maj 2005 kl.02.02 by Lamré. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
O Mistress Mine
O Mistress Mine
One of the most important composers of Shakespeare's time, Thomas Morley, set Shakespeare's lyrics to music. This song appears in Twelfth Night.
Kemps Jig - anon
Kemp's Jig
Songs like Kemp's Jig were associated with comic actors, like William Kemp, who performed the same types of comic dances in several different plays.
Renaissance Art
For art, the High Renaissance ended about 100 years before Shakespeare's time, but it affected Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Check out the following websites and figure out how theater might have been different in Shakespeare's time because of the Renaissance:
The School of Athens - Raphael
"Sanzio 01" by Raphael - Stitched together from vatican.va. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
This video from the Khan Academy shows how Raphael's School of Athens is representative of a shift in artistic subjects from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Take the quiz after watching the video.