An Overview of Drama in Medieval Time

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Group : Medieval era Class : 7B Members : 1. Rani Widi Noortatik (1003146) 2. Restu Anggi Gustara (1002775) 3. Rizki Aulianisa (1002774) 4. Siti Khodijah (1009178) 5. Yohanti Ambarita (1009212) Medieval Drama (476-1500 A.D.) In the earliest history of human society –as what anthropologists have analysed, the act of role-playing was already exist as an important part of their life. Role playing, at that time, according to Lewcook was used to “ teach the codes and behaviours required to live and survive in that society; for example, to teach the skills needed in knowing what and how to hunt, the making and use of weapons and the rules of warfare”. Later, this role playing act began to develop into a more complicated one along with the time flow and the development of some influential civilizations such as Greek, Roman, etc. Role playing then began to be called as Drama, which derived from Greek and means “to act” or “to do”. One of the important developments of Drama history is happened in the Medieval era or also known as “the dark ages” (476-1500 A.D.). Drama in medieval era mostly are liturgical plays, means the play was came from a part of the church services or liturgy (Jhonston, 2003). At that time, christian was a dominant religion and the story of the play usually came from Bible or day’s lesson but still connected with the story of christ. As the christian solid-institutution, church controlled all role plays, theatrical performances outside the church which were not related to the church services and religious activity were abolished (Fletcher, 1916). The plays were usually held in the great cathedrals or churches, because at that time those places were the finest stage available. But then the liturgical plays were slowly developed into drama scenes. As the plays were extended and additional scenes were added, the play then began to be staged
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