PIctures

 I really like this first picture, its a very medieval portrait of the representation of Adam and Eve and Eve taking an apple from the tree of Knowledge of good and evil. but I mostly enjoy the representation of Satan, he isn't quite a snake but more of a reptile. Though Costume-wise it doesn't leaves much room to decide how to clothe the actors without offending the faint of hearted.

This second picture is an awesome view of how the pageant cars worked, the audience circling around the stage. words can not really describe how intriguing it is to see the re-inactments of these events, so that people of the modern day can witness what the events of the past.








This last picture is my favorite out of all three of my pictures that I've found. the tree that God creates and tells Adam and Eve to not eat from is called the tree of knowledge of life and death (good and evil) and to have the tree made out of a skeleton is just a revolutionary idea, it makes people think more about how this tree was influential, because I believe that people really over look the tree.

ORO

So I did a little more in depth research on York Cycle plays and Oxford Referance Online pointed me to Mystery Plays which I thought was an interesting name choice, since they aren't very mystery like. But they were basically religious plays that were in vernacular (which means the common language, instead of all in Latin). The york plays or mystery plays could also be named Bible-histories as they were all stories right out of the Bible, almost as if they were like educational children's shows on the television set.
Below I've inserted the excerpt from ORO.


Mystery Play,   medieval religious play which derives from liturgical drama, but differs in being wholly or partly in the vernacular and not chanted but spoken. Also it was performed out of doors—in front of the church, in the market square, or on perambulating pageants. The earlier English name for it was miracle play, now seldom used, and a better name would be Bible-histories, since each play was really a cycle of plays based on the Bible, from the Creation to the Second Coming. Substantial texts of English ‘cycles’ of such plays have survived from Chester, Coventry, Lincoln, Wakefield, and York. Simultaneously with the English mystery play there arose in Europe, in the vernacular, the French mystère, the German Mysterienspiel, the Italian sacra rappresentazione, and the Spanish auto sacramental, to name only the most important. Traces of similar plays are found in Russia, in the states of Central Europe, and also in Denmark.

"Mystery Play"  The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Ed. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  8 December 2010  <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t79.e2154>

Monograph

Christian humanism in the late English morality plays
By Dorothy H. Brown

This monograph is rather long but let me try to summarize it up for everyone.

Dorothy writes this book to help show how the late morality plays provide an exquisite way to teach ideas of education, religion, politics, and personal morality to a very diverse education. The morality plays had a lot of influence of daily activities to help bring the plays to realism. it also then goes into how from the morality plays the English theatre grew and in what ways.

the link that I have for everyone to follow is:
http://books.google.com/books?id=QH-dfBod0R8C&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=Song+in+Morality+Plays+and+Interludes&source=bl&ots=9PmSMUWYVw&sig=9eXWqCZfIgFFhao6zeOfeuDbQTc&hl=en&ei=vf79TNPtLozEsAP8xbGwCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Song%20in%20Morality%20Plays%20and%20Interludes&f=false

This is a Google Book and you should be able to read the whole book.

Video

So There's a few different plays of "The Creation of Adam and Eve", but I found the video above, and I'm all about having a good laugh at things and this video really captures what you need to know along with throwing a few curveballs and bundles of laughter. Below is a more informative video of the true stories of Adam and Eve and how the story doesn't fit very well in the bible, but gets you to know a little bit more about what is going on in that time.

Primary Document

for my primary document, I am using the Bible, though the Bible is an unciteable source, it still is important to see where this play's plot has originated.

I'm using the King James version of the Bible, and I say which version because there's like eight (Hyperbole) different versions of the Bible, so I want to try to cite my source for you as best as possible.

In King James The story of Adam and Eve is in the Book of Genesis Chapter 1:26 through 3:24
, and from the looks of the actual written story, the play is a near exact replication of the Bible chapters. Though in the Bible verses it talks more about the complete creation of the universe, but mostly just Earth, finishing up with the creation of Adam and Eve.


A website that I found that has the exact chapter and verses of the King James Version of the Bible is
http://www.dltk-bible.com/genesis/chapter2-kjv.htm

Scholarly Article

The reason that I'm using this Scholarly Article is because it talks a lot about how the plays during advent, the weeks leading up to Christmas, were very religious, which also happens to be the main theme for York Plays. And I believe that they somehow have a wild connection in the sense that the York Plays may have flourished during advent. And though the York plays were most likely NOT performed in the small northern French town Laon. The town could of used the York Plays as inspiration, because Laon's advent is significantly altered versions of other towns works. they revamped the advent calendar to make a more proficient schedule and their plays were something to behold.

Sermons, Exegesis, and Performance: The Laon Ordo Prophetarum and the Meaning of Advent.Full Text Available By: LAGUEUX, ROBERT C.. Comparative Drama, Summer2009, Vol. 43 Issue 2, p197-220, 24p

MEDIEVAL BLOG

So now onto a new section for our class. We've wrapped up Greek Theatre and now we are onto Medieval Theatre. I'm putting my focus on thia Dramaturgy blog section on a York Cycle play titled : "The Cardmakers' Play: The Creation of Adam and Eve".

Let me begin with why the play's title has the words "The Cardmakers'" in it. Back in the day, pre-1500's to be precise, the theatre was poorly funded and the stuff that was funded was through the church, which not to bash on churches but when they funded the plays it just took all the fun out of them. So the town's guilds would sponsor theatre carts and have plays put on, but the catch was that the people who out the plays on had to represent the guilds VERY well, including having the guilds crest put on the front of the stage so that everyone who went to see the play knew which guild sponsored them.

So this play is pretty simple and only consists of 3 Characters:
God: An Omnisious Being that has the Power to create and destroy things.
Adam: the first man to be created from Dirt
Eve: the first woman to be created from dirt and one of man's ribs.

The play is pretty basic as were most of the plays of this time.
It starts of with God talking about his wonderufl creation (Earth) then he makes the animals and Man (Adam), but Adam is lonely all by himself, so God makes Eve out of Adam's left rib. The play soon after ends with God saying how he made the the earth how it was in 6 days and going onto the 7th day he was tired so he was going to take a rest.

and now for the main attraction ladies and gents. my Dramaturgy Blog on Medieval theatre