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Crash Course Theater

Pee Jokes, the Italian Renaissance, Commedia Dell'Arte

Season 1 Episode 12

This week, we're going to Italy for a Renaissance. The Middle Ages are over, and it's time to talk about the flourishing of art and humanism across Europe. Painting, sculpture, music, architecture, and plays with fart jokes were all thriving between from 1300 - 1500, and we're going to teach you about the theatrical aspects of that flourishing, as it happened in Italy.

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Spain was having kind of a moment in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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In the 1600s, English theater had to go into hiding, from PURITANS. Enter: WOMEN.
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Thanks, Shakespeare! Let's talk about Ben Jonson, revenge tragedies, and court masques.
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Let's take a look at Shakespeare's comedies, romances, problem plays and heroines.
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Shakespeare's tragedies had some jokes, and they changed the way tragedies were written.
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How a young Shakespeare stormed into London's theater – and wrote some pretty good plays.
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Let's take a look at London theater and the playwrights who set the stage for Shakespeare.
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Noh, and its counterpart Kyogen are some of the most revered theater forms in Japan.
Get Outside and Have a (Mystery) Play
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After European churches changed their minds on theater, drama became an outdoor activity.
Hrotsvitha, Hildegard, and the Nun who Resurrected Theater
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Meet Hrotsvitha: a cool, 10th century nun/playwright who influenced a new era of theater.
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As Christianity rose in the west, theater declined. But it returned – via Catholic Mass!
Nostrils, Harmony with the Universe, and Ancient Sanskrit Th
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Thanks to Bharata Muni, we can tell you quite a bit about Ancient Sanskrit theater.
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