Read the jokes and comment on the functions of the Gerunds. Act them out in pairs.

Give English equivalents to the following Ukrainian proverbs. Using them make up situations in pairs.

Match the following proverbs in the left column with their halves in the right one. Comment on the use of the Gerunds.

1. Сльозами горю не зарадиш.

2. Сьогодні бенкетувати, а завтра старцювати (Коли густо, а коли й пусто).

3. Ліс рубають – тріски летять. (Де борошно – там і порошно.)

4. Хрін від редьки не солодший (Не варто обирати з двох лих).

5. Без діла псується сила.

6. Само собою зрозуміло.

7. Щоб рибу їсти, треба в воду лізти.

8. Апетит приходить під час їди.

9. Легко ловити рибу у каламутній воді.

10. Якщо вже щось робити, то як слід.

11. Світ не клином зійшовся.

12. Говорити, не думаючи, все одно, що стріляти, не цілячись.

13. Не так швидко робиться, як мовиться.

14. Менше говори – більше діла твори.

v ‘So she turned you down, eh?’

‘Yes, I made the mistake of confessing that my heart was in my mouth when I proposed’.

‘What had that to do with it?’

‘Oh, she said she couldn’t think of marrying a man whose heart wasn’t in the right place.’

v On being asked to write down a definition of ‘capital punishment’, a Glasgow schoolboy submitted this: ‘Being locked in an ice-cream or chocolate factory for a week-end would, in my opinion, be capital punishment.’

v One of Kembles made his first appearance on the stage as an opera singer. His voice was, however, so bad that at a rehearsal the conductor of the orchestra called out: ‘Mr. Kemble! Mr. Kemble! You are murdering the music!’

‘My dear sir,’ was the quiet rejoinder, ‘it is far better to murder it outright, than to keep on beating it as you do.’

v A composer once brought a manuscript to Rossini, who, on listening, every minute took off his hat and put it on again. The composer asked whether he was so warm.

‘No,’ said Rossini, ‘but I am in the habit of taking off my hat whenever I meet an old acquaintance, and there are so many I remember in your composition, that I have continually to bow.’

v ‘Doctor, how is a man to tell a mushroom from a toadstool?’

‘By eating it. If you live, it’s a mushroom; if you die, it’s a toadstool.’

· History of Theatre in Great Britain

· A Visit to the Theatre

· The performance arts: reviews and critiques

· The Ukrainian Theatre

· The Ukrainian Theatre. My Favourite Playwright/Actor/Actress

— Speaking

Comment on the following quotation:

“All the world ‘s a stage. And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances”

/W.Shakespeare “As You Like It”/

History of Theatre in Great Britain

& 1. Read the text. Make sure you study the language of the text to be competent in further exercises and discussions.

HISTORY OF THEATRE IN

GREAT BRITAIN

THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

Although plays of one sort and another had been acted for many generations, no permanent playhouse was erected in England until 1576. In the 1570's the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London and the players were constantly at variance. As a result James Burbage, then the leader of the great Earl of Leicester's players, decided that he would erect a playhouse outside the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor, where the players would no longer be hindered by the authorities. Accordingly in 1576 he built the Theatre in Shoreditch, at that time a suburb of London. The experiment was successful, and by 1592 there were two more playhouses in London, the Curtain /also in Shoreditch/, and the Rose on the south bank of the river, near Southwark Cathedral.

Elizabethan players were accustomed to act on a variety of stages; in the great hall of a nobleman's house, or one of the Queen's palaces, in town halls and in yards, as well as their own theatre.

The public playhouse for which most of Shakespeare's plays were written was a small and intimate affair. The outside measurement of the Fortune Theatre, which was built in 1600 to rival the new Globe, was but eighty feet square. Playhouses were usually circular or octagonal, with three tiers of galleries looking down upon the yard or pit, which was open to the sky. The stage jutted out into the yard so that the actors came forward into the midst of their audience. Over the stage there was a roof, and on either side doors by which the characters entered or disappeared. Over the back of the stage ran a gallery or upper stage which was used whenever an upper scene was needed, as when Romeo climbs up to Juliet's bedroom, or the citizens of Angiers address King John from the walls. The space beneath this upper stage was known as the tiring house; it was concealed from the audience by a curtain which would be drawn back to revealan inner stage, for such scenes as the witches' cave in Macbeth, Prospero's cell or Juliet's tomb.

There was no general curtain concealing the whole stage, so that all scenes on the main stage began with an entrance and ended with an exit. Thus in tragedies the dead must be carried away. There was no scenery, and therefore no limit to the number of scenes, for a scene came to an end when the characters left the stage. When it was necessary for the exact locality of a scene to be known, then Shakespeare indicatedit in the dialogue; otherwise a simple property or a garment was sufficient; a chair or stool showed an indoor scene, a man wearing riding boots was a messenger, a king wearing armour was on the battlefield, or the like. Such simplicity was on the whole an advantage; the spectator was not distracted by the setting and Shakespeare was able to use as many scenes as he wished. The action passed by very quickly: a play of 2500 lines of verse could be acted in two hours. Moreover, since the actor was so close to his audience, the slightest subtlety of voice and gesture was easily appreciated.

The company was a "Fellowship of Players", who were all partners and shares. There were usually ten to fifteen full members, with three or four boys, and some paid servants. Shakespeare had therefore to write for his team. The chief actor in the company was Richard Burbage, who first distinguished himself as Richard III; for him Shakespeare wrote his great tragic parts. An important member of the company was the clown or low comedian. From 1594 to 1600 the company's clown was Will Kemp; he was succeeded by Robert Armin. No women were allowed to appear on the stage, and all women's parts were taken by boys.

2. Comprehensive questions:

1. When did James Burbage decide to erect a playhouse? Why?

2. What was the name of the first playhouse?

3. Was the experiment successful?

4. Where were Elizabethan players accustomed to act?

5. When was the Fortune Theatre built?

6. Describe the building of the Elizabethan theatre.

7. How did the actors play on the stage at that time?

8. What do you know about the company a "Fellowship of Players"?

9. Were women allowed to appear on the stage?

10. Did the stage resemble the present day one?