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I am reading "The Queen's Men and their Plays" by Scott McMillin and Sally-Beth MacLean. I got it Inter-Library Loan - it's referenced in the Walsingham book (Her Majesty's Spymaster) that I still haven't finished. The ILL book jumped to the top of the stack because you can't renew ILL material.
If anyone ever wonders why we're less excited by the theater now than we were in earlier times, this book has already given me some good answers (aside from "because there were no TVs or movie theaters then," of course).
A) Theatrical shows now do not have acrobats and trumpeters (well, usually, in serious plays they don't. I know there are exceptions).
B) The serious plays are now rarely shown in the convenience of your local beer-swilling location.
C) If people try to sneak in the back without paying, it is unlikely that three modern actors would jump off the stage, swords in hand, and go attack the miscreant. The death of the innocent bystander was unfortunate, of course, and led to charges. But let me repeat that: someone tried to get into their show without paying, and they jumped off the stage and charged him, swords in hand! w00t, as the geeklings say.
Heh. I am easily pleased by bizarre scholarly nonfiction. I really hated history class in school though, I suspect because they take out most of the random beer halls, assignations, and killings. Kinda like taking the air out of the balloon. You've still got something, but it's all shapeless and not much fun.
If anyone ever wonders why we're less excited by the theater now than we were in earlier times, this book has already given me some good answers (aside from "because there were no TVs or movie theaters then," of course).
A) Theatrical shows now do not have acrobats and trumpeters (well, usually, in serious plays they don't. I know there are exceptions).
B) The serious plays are now rarely shown in the convenience of your local beer-swilling location.
C) If people try to sneak in the back without paying, it is unlikely that three modern actors would jump off the stage, swords in hand, and go attack the miscreant. The death of the innocent bystander was unfortunate, of course, and led to charges. But let me repeat that: someone tried to get into their show without paying, and they jumped off the stage and charged him, swords in hand! w00t, as the geeklings say.
Heh. I am easily pleased by bizarre scholarly nonfiction. I really hated history class in school though, I suspect because they take out most of the random beer halls, assignations, and killings. Kinda like taking the air out of the balloon. You've still got something, but it's all shapeless and not much fun.
