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IMC 2008: Sessions

Session 705: Playing Conventions, Wealth, and the 'M' Words

Tuesday 8 July 2008, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Medieval English Theatre (METh)
Organiser:Philip Butterworth, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair:Peter Meredith, School of English, University of Leeds
Paper 705-aPlaying Conventions in the English Medieval Theatre
(Language: English)
Philip Butterworth, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 705-bThe Concept of Wealth in Tudor Interludes
(Language: English)
Peter Happé, Department of English, University of Southampton
Paper 705-cDrama and the Three 'M' Words: Medievalism, Mysteries, and Moralities
(Language: English)
Katie Normington, Department of Drama & Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London
Abstract

Philip Butterworth's paper seeks to identify English medieval playing conventions by dealing with the implications arising from the question: 'What did the player do who had just completed his lines?' The intention of Peter Happé's paper is to examine how the notion of wealth is interpreted in Tudor interludes. The study is partly informed by the idea that interludes carried a great deal of meaning as expedient public statements as well as being conceived as theatrical entertainments. Katie Normington's paper argues that much 20th-century scholarship on early drama worked to a set of principles which were based on maintaining 'fixed' boundaries. Her paper suggests other ways of categorising early drama through a study of wider conditions of the ways in which audiences watched events and analysis of the rules which governed performance space.