2 - Theatre History Midterm Study Guide

Rabinal Achí / Xajoj Tun

A Maya dance-drama from Rabinal, Guatemala. Xajoj Tun is its older name and means roughly "dance of the tun" (a wooden drum). It was written down in the 1850s by a French priest, Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, who gave it the name Rabinal Achí ("man of Rabinal"). The story centers on a warrior of Rabinal who captures an enemy K'iche' warrior, puts him on trial, and sentences him to death. The captive gets to dance, drink, and speak before his execution. Its themes include honor, loyalty, territory, and ritual obligation. It is still performed annually during the town's festival.

K'iche' (K'ich'e) language

A Maya language of the Guatemalan highlands. It is the language family of the Popol Vuh (the K'iche' creation story), and the Rabinal Achí is performed in a closely related K'iche'an language (Achi). The text matters because it is a rare example of Indigenous American drama preserved in its original language.

UNESCO World Heritage

The Rabinal Achí was recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity (2005), and later placed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2008). Check how your course phrases this

Mayan World

Four Corners / Four Sides

Syncretism

The blending of different religious or cultural traditions into a new form. In the Rabinal Achí, it shows in the mixing of Maya traditions with Spanish Catholic ones, such as the performance being tied to a Catholic saint's feast day and organized through Catholic lay brotherhoods.

Middle Ages

The period in European history from roughly 500 to 1500 CE, between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. The Christian Church was central to daily life and shaped most theatre of the time.

Feudalism

The social and political system in which lords granted land to vassals in exchange for loyalty and military service, while peasants worked the land. It organized society into fixed ranks, with the Church as another major power.

Hrosvit (of Gandersheim)

A 10th-century German canoness who wrote six Latin plays modeled on the Roman playwright Terence but with Christian themes such as chastity and martyrdom. She is often called the first known female playwright. It is debated whether her plays were ever staged.

Liturgical Drama

Religious drama in Latin, performed inside the church by clergy as part of worship, growing out of the liturgy (especially at Easter and Christmas).

Tropes (Quem Quaeritis)

A trope is an expansion added to the liturgy. Quem Quaeritis ("Whom do you seek?") is the Easter trope in which angels at Christ's tomb speak with the three Marys. It dates to about the 10th century and is often cited as the starting point of medieval drama.

Platea

The open, neutral playing area in front of the mansions, where action moved between locations.

Mansion

A small scenic structure representing a specific location, such as Heaven, Hell, or Jerusalem. Mansions stood side by side, so many locations were visible at once.

Vernacular Drama

Drama in the local language rather than Latin. It moved out of the church into town squares and was increasingly performed by laypeople.

Mystery Plays (Cycle Plays)

Sets of short plays dramatizing biblical history from Creation to the Last Judgment, often staged on the feast of Corpus Christi. Major English cycles come from York, Chester, and Wakefield.

Miracle Plays

Plays about the lives and miracles of saints or the Virgin Mary.

Morality Plays

Allegorical plays showing an everyman figure tempted by vice and called to repentance and salvation. Everyman is the best-known example.

Second Shepherd's Play

A play from the Wakefield Cycle that combines a comic story of Mak, a sheep stealer who hides a sheep in a cradle, with the Nativity. It is a good example of comedy and the sacred mixing, and of everyday English life in a biblical story.

Confraternities

Lay religious brotherhoods that organized and performed plays, especially on the Continent. A well-known example is the Confrérie de la Passion in Paris.

Trade Guilds

Associations of craftspeople who, in many English towns, financed and produced individual plays of a cycle. Guilds often chose stories related to their trade, such as shipwrights staging Noah.

Passion Plays (ex. Oberammergau)

Plays depicting the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Oberammergau, in Bavaria, has staged one since 1634 after a vow made during a plague, roughly every ten years.

Pageant Master

The person responsible for organizing a production, including rehearsals, costumes, props, and finances.

Pageant Wagon

The wheeled stage on which one play of a cycle was performed and moved from station to station. Evidence of what they looked like is limited.

Processional Staging

A system in which plays were performed on wagons that moved through town to a series of stations, so each audience group saw the plays in sequence. It contrasts with fixed-site staging (mansions around a platea), more common on the Continent.

Hell-Mouth

A scenic piece showing the entrance to Hell as the gaping jaws of a monster, often with smoke, fire, and noise. It was a popular spectacle.

Allegory

A story in which characters and events symbolize abstract ideas, such as Good Deeds or Death in Everyman. It is the key technique of morality plays.