Salon Eras

 

 

 

 

THREE REPRESENTATIVE EPOCHS

 

The Salon Project can be used for any epoch of history in any place in the world.  It can be used for societies from contemporary to ancient.  Each of the three epochs listed below contains the basic style for a large body of classical plays written during or around that period. Most of our classical repertory theaters and conservatories regularly produce plays from these periods. The cast of characters for each project is made up of people who have eventful lives that interconnect with many of the other major characters and issues of that era.  The cast lists in the following epochs are suggested characters.  Each project contains about fifteen to twenty characters. The actors choose their own characters in collaboration with the instructor.  The actors themselves add to the list when they find new characters that fascinate them.

 

 

LATE RENAISSANCE

TIME:   1586
PLACE:  England, Court of Elizabeth Tudor, Elizabeth I, Queen of England.

cast members are the prominent people of Elizabeth's English court

the Nations of the world, and members of their courts who are politically and socially connected to her the court of England

 

 

EVENT: This is an international gathering arranged by Elizabeth and her Privy Council to possibly deal with the succession to Elizabeth’s Throne.

RENAISSANCE CAST:

England: Elizabeth I, Queen of England;
Her ministers: William Cecil, Lord Burghley; Francis Walsingham; Christopher Hatton; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

The English Courtiers:
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; Walter Raleigh; Philip Sidney; Henry Wriothesly; Francis Drake; Christopher Blount; the Throckmortons; Anthony Babbington, etc.

Ladies of Elizabeth’s Court:
Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Elizabeth Throckmorton, Maid of Honor to Elizabeth; Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury and her daughter, Arabella Stuart; Lettice Knolles Dudley, Countess of Essex and Leicester and her daughter, Lady Penelope Devereux Rich; etc.

Invited Members of other courts:
Scotland: Mary Stuart, Dowager Queen of Scots; her son James VI; King of Scotland. Monarchs and Ambassadors of France: Catherine de Medici, Dowager Queen of France; Henri III, King of France; Henry Duc de Guise; Henry Burbon, King of Navarre; his queen, Marguerite de Valois). Spain: Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta Spain; Don Bernardino de Mendoza, Ambassador. Ireland: Grace O’Malley, Irish Chieftain. The Ottoman Empire: to be selected. Papal Representative: to be selected.

 

 

BAROQUE

TIME:  1670

PLACE:

Versailles

The newly expanded hunting lodge

Louis XIV

 

Charles II

 

EVENT: This is a gathering of the intimate members of the courts of Louis XIV, King of France and his first cousin, Charles II, King of England.  They are negotiating the Treaty of Dover.  In secrete the meeting has been moved from Dover to unfinished building project of Louis XIV, Versailles.

BAROQUE CAST: 

The Kings and their wives:

Charles II

Catherine of Braganza

Louis XIV

Maria Theresa of Spain

t
Princes and Princesses of the Blood 

future English Kings, James Stuart and William Stuart, Prince of Orange; Philippe, Duc d’Orleans and his wife Henriette-Ann Stuart, sister to Charles II; Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde; Anne Marie de Bourbon, The Grande Mademoiselle; Prince Rupert Stuart, Count of the Palatinate; Liselotte, Princess of the Palatinate;

Women of Louis’ Court

Louise de la Baume, Duchesse de Valliere; Francoise d’Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon; Francoise-Athenais de Mortemarts, Marquise de Montespan; Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin; Marie Mancini, Princepessa de Colonna; Marie Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne; Louise de Kerouelle, maid of Honor to Duchesse d’Orleans; Catherine Deshays, Madam Voisin.

Women of Charles’ Court:

Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine; Nell Gwyn; Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond.

French Ministers:

Jean Baptiste Colbert; Francois le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois; Francois de Neufville, Duc et Marechal de Villeroy.

French Courtiers:
Philippe de Lorraine-Armagnac, Chevalier de Lorraine; Louis Henri, Marquis de Montespan.

English Ministers:
Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

English Courtiers:
John Churchill; James Scott, Duke of Monmouth; John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester.
Playwrights and Composers:
Lully, Moliere, Racine, Wycherley, Etheridge, Dryden, Pepys.

 

 

VICTORIAN-EDWARDIAN

TIME: 1894

Victoria

Queen of England, Scotland, Ireland, Empress of India 

PLACE: The English Court

EVENT: This is an international gathering of Victoria’s family, Ambassadors, and distinguished guests of Her Court in celebration of the marriage of two of Victoria’s grandchildren, Grand Duke of Hesse to Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh.  The immediate issue is whether or not the bride’s sister, Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt and Nicholas Aleksandrovitch Romanov, Tzarevitch of all the Russias will be allowed to announce their engagement.

VICTORIAN CAST:

Queen Victoria.
Selected members of her immediate family:
Queen Victoria’s oldest daughter, the Dowager Empress Fredericka of Germany; Victoria’s grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany; Victoria’s oldest son, Edward Albert, Prince of Wales; his wife, Alexandra of Denmark; Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and his wife Marie Aleksandrovna Romanova who are the parents of the Bride; their other daughter, Marie of Edinburgh, Crown Princess of Roumania; Elizaveta Feodorovna (Elizabeth of Hesse who is sister to the Bride Groom); her husband, The Grand Duke Serge Aleksandrovitch Romanoff who is brother to the Tzar and Russian Ambassador to Victoria’s court; Prince Henry Battenburg and his wife Princess Beatrice who is Victoria’s youngest child; Prince Louis of Battenburg and his wife Princess Victoria sister of Princess Alix and of the Bride Groom.

Representatives of the Empire’s Allies (in addition to those listed above):

Elizabeth, Empress of Austria; Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia and his wife, Empress Taytu Betal; Victor Emmanuelle of Italy; Ranavalona III, Queen of Madagascar; Grover Cleveland, President of the United States; Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony; Leopold II, King of the Belgians, etc.

England’s politicians:
Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury; Randolph Churchill; Arthur Balfour; Roger Casement.

United States distinguished guests:
W.E.B. Dubois; Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt and her daughter Consuelo; Ida B. Wells.

Members of the Marlborough Set:
Charles Beresford; Frances Evelyn Brooke, Countess of Warwick; Daisy Cornwallis-West, Princess of Pless; Lady Randolph Churchill; Spencer Churchill Ninth Duke of Marlborough.

Honored artists

from all parts of England’s Empire and its allies:
Sara Bernhardt; Sissieretta Jones, Oscar Wilde; Rudyard Kipling; Lilly Langtry; Adelina Patti; Samuel Clements; James McNeil Whistler; Samuel Coldridge-Taylor; William S. Gilbert, Ellen Terry; etc.

Photo Gallery