Medieval+Playwrights

In the early Middle Ages, churches began to stage dramatized versions of important biblical events. The churches were faced with explaining a new religion to a majorly illiterate population, so these dramas visualized what would later be able to be read in the Bible. These productions also celebrated annual religious events. These productions evolved into liturgical dramas. The earliest known liturgical drama is the Easter trope, Whom do you Seek, which dates circa 925. Liturgical drama did not involve actors impersonating characters, but it did involve singing by two groups. An important playwright in early Medieval times was Hrotsvit, a historian and aristocratic canoness from northern Germany in the 10th century. Hrotsvit wrote six plays which she modeled after Terence’s comedies. Though Terence’s comedies show ordinary human subjects and situations involving marriage, sex and love, Hrostvitput a moral and religious spin on Terence’s plays in order to avoid criticism from the church. She wrote a preface to her collection of plays which stated that her purpose for writing was to save Christians from the guilt that reading Classical Literature instilled in its readers. She is the first recorded female playwright. She is also wrotethe first identified Western dramatic works of the post-classical era. Her works were first published in 1501 and had a large influence on religious drama on the sixteenth century. Following Hrotsvit was another female playwright, Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard’s most famous work, OrdoVirtutum, is regarded as the first play set to music, or the first musical. Her songs were collected into a symphony,Symphoniaarmoniaecelestiumrevelationum, that was set to words from Hildegard’s own hymns, sequences and responsories. Secular Latin plays were an important aspect in the 12th century in England in France. Other early Medieval performances included mimes, minstrels, storytellers and jugglers who traveled in search of employment. There is not much information available about specific performances of these entertainers. - See more at: http://www.thefinertimes.com/Middle-Ages/theatre-in-the-middle-ages.html#sthash.t9XGgEQc.dpuf
 * Theater in the Early Middle Ages**

=Hrotsvitha= =Hildegard= =Bale= =Adam de la Halle=