Writing Plays

Writing Plays:

• Christopher Marlowe to university 
• Ben Johnson didn't
• wanted to rewrite old stories and make it there own 
• The master of rebels would verify the plays so people used to set the plays in fictional places so they didn't offend him

Who wrote the plays:

• Shakespeare wrote many plays as well as co-wrote over 40 plays 
• Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson were also well known play writes during the time
• The grammar school boys were also taught to write plays 
• Most play writers went to University however some did not like Shakespeare and Ben Jonson 

What were the plays about:

• Play writes in that time tended to re-create stories and plays
• Shakespeare's  'the Taming of the Shrew' was a re-write of an earlier play 

Plays usually fall into 3 genres:

Histories:

These were the stories about Britain's past, for example Shakespeare wrote a lot about the past kings such as  Richard III, and Henry VIII. 

Tragedy:

These were unhappy stories that most likely ended in death, such as Romeo and Juliet. John Webster had a big hit with the play 'The Duchess of Malfi' These types of plays contained lots of blood and gore to entertain the crowds.

Comedies:

Comedies normally ended with happy endings such as weddings. 

What were the play writes payed:

• Most play writes weren't wealthy
• They didn't get any repeat fee's if their plays were performed more than once
• They only got payed once for selling their plat to an acting company
• However it was common for them to write in pairs or groups so they had to split the money