The Golden Age
of Spain
The Renaissance
1472-1650

. . . when Spain became a
unified country under one law.

No longer a collection of loosely
connected municipalities.

This rise in nationalism helped to
galvanize national theatre efforts.

Spanish rule, at
this time, was
intolerant to
other races and
religions.

While most of Europe was
undergoing the Reformation,
Spain tenaciously held on to
Catholicism.

In Spain
there was the
infamous
Spanish
Inquisition,
which
punished all
acts of heresy.

The Plays

Auto Sacramentales: religious plays that
evolved from Medieval Miracle plays

Entremeses: satirical, farcical
interludes

Comedias: comedic or melodramatic
plays about nobility, clergy, and their
servants.

Cape and Sword Plays: adventure,
romance and melodrama

There were some neo-classical experiments
early on, but the intense nationalism and
imperialism of the times promoted new
forms.

Juan de la Cueva
(1550 – 1610), a playwright
of the Spanish
Renaissance, took for his
themes matters of
national legend, historic
tradition, and stories of
Spain’s then-recent
military victories.

The Corral Theatres

Rectangular open-air theatre space

Raised platform stage with little
scenery and no curtains for ease
of scene transitions

Two-story
façade on
upstage
wall usually
featuring a
balcony

Sections for audience included
pit, box, and gallery

pit (like contemporary orchestra
section but usually with no seats)

box seats

gallery (several stories of
tiered seating)

Cazuela (a separate audience
section for the women)

Acting Companies

16 - 20 members to the average
acting troupe

Women were permitted to perform if they
were related or married to one of the other
troupe members .

Most troupes had a $hareholder
system in which each troupe member
owned a part of the company.

Miguel Cervantes
1547-1616

Cervantes
attempted
playwriting but
ultimately was a
failure; however,
he “invented” the
novel, with his
book Don
Quixote.

Centuries later the novel would
ironically be adapted into a very
successful musical called Man of
La Mancha.

Lope de Vega
(1562 – 1635)

Lope de Vega
(1562 – 1635)
Hola!

At the age of
Born of peasants, five, he was
Lope de Vega was extremely literate,
recognized as a fluent in Latin and
child prodigy. composing verse.
At the age of
fourteen, he was a
college student.

but after a few
adventures, he
He briefly returned, and
ran away on the brink of
from college being ordained
a priest, he
to become a opted to
soldier, pursue women.

He began
writing
plays
around this
time.

He fell in love Lope then wrote
with his a series of vicious
producer’s comic satires
daughter, but about the
when their love producer; this
turned sour, the resulted in a libel
producer suit landing
ceased to Lope in jail
produce his briefly and then
plays. exiled from
Madrid.

At risk of long enough
death, he to elope with
another
stealthily
woman he
returned to
loved, Isabel
Madrid,
de Urbina.

However,
after the
wedding, he
abandoned
her in Madrid
and ran off to
join Spanish
Armada.

He sets
He survived himself up in
several fierce Valencia and
battles and now dedicates
then returns all efforts to
to civilian life playwriting.
Here, he is
and his wife.
quite prolific .

His first wife marries wealthy
dies, and soon daughter of pork
after he begins a merchant with
relationship with whom he also
actress Micaela bears children.
de Luxon. They When his
have four second wife dies,
children but he consolidates
never marry. his offspring in
Still involved one home.
with Micaela, he

Without any
interruption to
his writing and
amatory
pursuits, he
becomes a
Catholic priest
and a “familiar”
of the
Inquisition.

He takes up
He acquires and
looses two new self-flagellation
lovers; a favorite (whipping
son dies, and a himself) for the
favorite daughter good of his
elopes. These soul. He dies at
events drive him
the age of 73.
into depression in
his later years.

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“Lope’s forte lies in a
bustling vista of men
grasping eagerly at
physical
gratifications.”
John Gassner,
Drama Historian

Gracias!
John Gassner,
Drama Historian

N#$%&#'$() P*+),:
The King, the Greatest
Alcalde
A Certainty for a
Doubt
El Testimonio
Vengado
The Sheep Well

There is no
greater glory
than love, nor
any greater
punishment than
jealously.

Profits on the
exchange are the
treasures of
goblins. At one
time they may be
carbuncle stones,
then coals, then
diamonds, then
flint stones, then
morning dew, then
tears.

Pedro Calderon de la Barca
1600-1681

A more philosophical
playwright with a greater
poetic competence

He wrote largely religious
plays bearing some
resemblance to Medieval
drama.

M#,$ N#$%&#'$() P*+):
Life is a Dream , a social
drama about good governing

FIN