Global InformationPageant wagon information
A pageant wagon is a movable stage or wagon used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play cycles of the 10th through the 16th century. These religious plays were developed from biblical texts; at the height of their popularity, they were allowed to stay within the churches, and special stages were erected for them.[1]
Pageant comes from the archaic word for the wagon stage, "pagyn.” It is a word used to describe the movable stage on which a scene of the processional religious play was performed.[2]
The origin of the religious play began in medieval churches. The dramas began as a simple way to impart the message of the Bible to the people. They then grew and developed their own conventions. They brought to the common person a pageantry and entertainment so necessary to relieve the people from the monotony of the everyday task.[3]
In places like St. Gall, Switzerland, in the 10th century, the Easter mass was often an occasion for festive performance. Pantomimes would take place in the church depicting Christ's resurrection.[4] A few centuries later in Florence, Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) began to create theatrical depictions of religious texts and see them as a potential work of art.[1]
It was not until 1493 however, that the Sacra Rappresentazione, an earlier form of the Mystery Play, was presented on a scaffold in the church in which “hundreds of lights encircled the ‘Throne of God.”[1]
This new form of spectacle based theatrical representation of both Old and New Testament texts spread throughout Europe and encompassed North and Central Europe, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and England. As the plays became more than mere pantomimes of biblical stories, they took on bigger texts and were performed at Christmas, Corpus Christi, and numerous other religious saints days or feasts.
As the drama of the production became more ambitious, the playing spaces also grew. The plays originally were performed on the altar of the church but grew to encompass the entirety of the front of the church. Eventually the plays grew beyond the capacity of the interior of the church and moved its front steps while also making use of the length and width of the streets. The performances sometimes even enveloped the public square just beyond the church steps. Since there was little space in these areas to provide a backdrop for scenery, the people created “mansions”, or wooden stages, on which to create the play. Eventually these stages would evolve into movable wagons as the troupes playing on them began to take their shows throughout the towns and play to different audiences.[1]
- ^ a b c d Nagler, A. M. A Source Book in Theatrical History. New York: Dover Publications, 1959. Print.
- ^ Hartnoll, Phyllis. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Oxford [Oxfordshire: Oxford UP, 1983. Print.
- ^ Cleaver, James. Theatre through the Ages. New York: Hart Pub., 1967. Print.
- ^ Fuller, Edmund. A Pageant of the Theatre. New York: Crowell, 1965. Print.