1.The Roman Catholic Church is important in the history of theatre for many reasons. First, church services were beginning to be more theatrical and performances would be staged in the churches. Secondly, the stories from the Bible were the material that the plays of this time were based on, liturgical drama. The churches would later aid in the organization of these dramas outside of the actual churches. Thus, without the Roman Catholic Church, theatre history may have been different.2.The church architecture was important to medieval theatre in that the churches were used as performance areas for liturgical dramas. The performances used existing structures that were modified to serve as Christian locales in the empyrean heaven. These were structures were called mansions, sedes, loci, etc., and were representative of Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, the clouds, etc. depending on where they were placed in the church’s floor plan. Now, one might ask why the churches were used to perform plays? Well, for centuries, disease droughts, shortages of foods, and wars had caused all of the conventional theatres to be abandoned or destroyed or ruined. Without stability in life, there isn’t a place for theatre. It was not until the sixth century that the monasteries and churches began to stage these religious dramas. With that, the church became the stage and that is why the architecture was important to medieval theatre.3.Liturgical drama is a religious drama emerging from Christianity in the Middle Ages when the church added theatrical elements to worship to revitalize the ceremonies and to attract newcomers, especially Pagans, to Christianity. Examples of this are the ostentatious procession on Palm Sunday, making a figure eight through the center aisle and two halves of the pews. On Maundy Thursday, the altar is stripped and all religious markings, i.e. crosses, Chiros, are covered with a black cloth and the candles are exting...
