All the World's a Stage: Shakespeare's Globe Theater

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In today’s society there are things like television, movies, Internet, cell phones, and video games for entertainment. None of these luxuries existed in the time of Elizabethan Theater, but that does not mean there was no source of entertainment available. Instead of people going to the movies or playing video games, Renaissance folk would flock to the Globe Theater to see plays written by the great William Shakespeare. The Globe Theater, also known as Shakespeare’s Globe, was not only the most important structure for Shakespeare’s dramatic career but also the the pinnacle for the bustling environment with citizens in frenzy for entertainment. The Globe Theater was one of the greatest theaters of the Elizabethan era because its grand design, atmosphere, and rich history.
In 1598, Shakespeare’s theater troop, Chamberlain’s Men, was facing a serious crisis when their twenty-year lease on The Theater had expired. The grounds landlord Giles Allen, a puritan man who disapproved of theatrical productions, raised the price of the lease to The Theatre to an exorbitant level and when the troop failed to agree with these new terms they had no choice but to relocate. With all of the failed attempts to negotiate new terms for tenancy and the lease agreement Giles Allen planned to pull down The Theater and capitalize on the building materials. This plan was cut short when James Burbage found a clause in the former lease allowing them to dismantle the building themselves. Chamberlain’s Men worked all through the night to dismantle The Theater and transport all of the lumber to the South side of the Thames River to where the new Globe Theater was being built (Stock, 2014). The original Globe Theater opened in autumn 1599 and was one of s...

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..., August 20). Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron. Retrieved from Shakespeare Online website: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/ biography/patronelizabeth.html Elizabethan Literature. (2014). In Student Recources in Context. Retrieved from
Gale Virtual Reference Library database. (Accession No. GALE|EJ2181500178)
The Globe Theatre. (2006.). Retrieved from PlayShakespeare.com website
Mabillard, A. (2008, August 20). Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Retrieved from
Shakespeare Online website
Schoenbaum, S. (2003). The Globe Theatre. In Exploring Shakespeare. Retrieved from Gale Virtual Reference Library database. (Accession No.
GALE|EJ2115602285)
Stock, J. (2014, April 10). The Globe Theatre is Constructed: 1599. Global
Events. Retrieved from Gale Virtual Reference Library database.
(Accession No. GALE|NMMNCG472191692)

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