Spanish Renaissance and Baroque Theater

Renaissance Theater

Renaissance Theater is divided into public and popular audiences.

Renaissance Public Audience

Predominantly featured didactic, moral, or religious intentions. This category included:

• Court Theater: For persons dealing with Court themes, preferably secular. Notable figures include Juan del Encina and Torres Naharro.
• Humanistic Comedy: Translations of classical works were read in small groups. These reading groups developed in universities and colleges.
• Religious Theater: Religious representations were performed. They coincided with festivities in courts and churches.

Renaissance Popular Audience

The popular theater emerged in the sixteenth century under the influence of Italian companies that influenced Spain and introduced the so-called Commedia dell'arte. A notable figure is Lope de Rueda, a highly successful and popular actor, director, and writer of works that appealed to the public. This author's most recognized works are called pasos. They are characterized by brevity and a popular comic tone.

Baroque Theater

Baroque Theater Features

Its great success was due to the innovations of Lope de Vega. The results of his innovations led to the New Comedy.

Features of the New Comedy

• Rupture of the dramatic unities: Did not respect the unities of action, place, or time.
• Mixture of tragic and comic: Works aimed to be an accurate portrayal of life.
• Composition in three acts: A beginning, middle, and end.
• Freedom of versification: Combined various meters and stanzas.
• Diversity of characters: Included numerous social types to better reflect life (e.g., Galán and Dama, Servant, Maid, Father of the Lady, The Villain, etc.).
• Adequacy of language to character: Language varied according to the social status of the characters.

Baroque Theater Themes

• Love and Honor: Honor was not inherited but earned, and had to be defended, even with one's life.
• Exaltation of the Monarchy: The king, as the highest social figure, represented authority and always intervened to restore order and justice.
• Defense of Religious Values: Theater became an instrument for defending the Roman Catholic religion.

Corrales de Comedias

These were inner courtyards of houses where a stage was set up, as dedicated theaters only began construction in the late 16th century. Rooms overlooking the courtyard (aposentos) were occupied by people of higher status, including the clergy and the educated. The more modest public stood in the courtyard, loud and boisterous (the mosqueteros). Women and men could not mix (women were in cazuelas).