Jesuit Theater and Drama

Abstract

The historic Jesuit theater represents two centuries of didactic theater in which the Society of Jesus, following both the organizational instructions andSpiritual Exercisesof founder Ignatius of Loyola, used theater to inculcate virtue in both performer and audience member while teaching Latin, dance, poise, rhetoric, oratory, and confidence to the students who performed. Jesuit spirituality is inherently theatrical, and conversely Jesuit theater was intended to also be highly spiritual. The dramaturgy and scenography was spectacular and designed to draw audiences who would delight in them and learn the moral lessons the Jesuits hoped to teach while simultaneously drawing them away from a corrupt public theater. This essay considers Jesuit drama and theater in four key aspects: (1) Jesuit spirituality and performative practice; (2) the historic Jesuit educational theater of early modern Europe; (3) Jesuit drama in the missions outside of Europe; and (4) contemporary Jesuits involved in theater.

Religion and Theatrical Drama

“…The bibliography on Jesuit theatre is constantly growing, from the seminal article by Schnitzler (1952) to the more recent O'Malley (2013); Wetmore (2016) and Gallo (2018); see also Oldani and Yanitelli (1999); Sani (2009) and Zanlonghi (2004Zanlonghi ( , 2006 for Jesuit theatre in Italy in particular. Elissa Weaver has suggested that the Jesuits may have been aware of and possibly influenced by the tradition of theatre used in the education of young women in convents before the establishment of Jesuit schools (Weaver 2002, p. 4).…”

“…But the reason behind such effects also connects to Jesuit spirituality: as part of the spiritual exercises, Ignatius Loyola instructed on the "application of the senses" to make one's meditation or contemplation more effective. In other words, as Wetmore (2016) summarizes, "the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises are a form of acting exercise in which one imagines oneself as a character in various biblical situations and explores what it means, physically, emotionally, and (most important) spiritually to experience it".…”

“…17 In many of the Jesuit plays, similar demons and angels appear as part of the background action, as for example in the The apotheosis or consecration of Saints Ignatius and Francis Xavier, staged for the first time in 1622 at the Collegio Romano on the occasion of the canonization of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. Mixing acting, opera and ballet, the play contained scenes set in hell, as well as acts in which demons attacked the saints (Wetmore 2016). The play ended with "a spectacular earthquake [which] gives way to an opening in the heavens [and] all the countries prostrat[ing] themselves before the new saints and a chorus of angels" (Cohelho 1997, p. 31).…”

Go and Sin No More: The Afterlife as Moral Teaching in Italian Catholic Educational Theatre

“…"The Jesuits embraced theater as a didactic tool" explains Kevin Wetmore, "even as they feared its potential for immorality. They recognized its power, but worked to ensure the students seeing and performing the shows realized the drama was a means to an end, not an end in and of itself" (Wetmore 2016). Already by 1555, or possibly even earlier, 8 comedies and tragedies began to be performed in Jesuit schools (Oldani and Yanitelli 1999, p. 18), 9 bringing several benefits to both the students and the school.…”

O uso da música nos dramas jesuíticos austríacos

“…Diferentemente da música, que só foi verdadeiramente aceita como um meio legitimo para que os jesuítas alcançassem seus objetivos após muitos anos de controvérsia e polêmica, o drama foi incorporado nas atividades pedagógicas jesuíticas desde os primeiros anos de atividade da Ordem. Já em 1551, por exemplo, os estudantes do colégio de Messina (primeiro colégio fundado pela Companhia de Jesus) apresentaram o primeiro drama jesuítico (WETMORE, 2016). E em 1555 a peça Euripus, escrita pelo libretista Levinus Brechtanus e apresentada em Viena, tornou-se o primeiro drama jesuítico apresentado nos territórios de língua alemã (KRAMER, 1961: 2).…”