Shakespeare

647 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare and the globe theatre the elizabethan era

The Globe Theatre
1. Prehistory
Shakespeare joined the Lord Chamberlain men in 1594. At that time the company didn't have an own theatre. Sometimes they played in ,,The Theatre" or in the ,,Curtain-Theatre". After James Burbage died in 1598, the lease of the land where ,,The Theatre" was built, was passed. His sons Cuthbert and Richard Burbage tried to convince the owner to renew the lease, but he didn't. So Cuthbert and Richard leased land at the south bank of the Themse. Half of the needed money was raised by the Burbage brothers, the other half was raised by five actors of the group, one of them was Shakespeare.
As the owner wasn't in London for some days, the people of the company teared the theatre down and transported the material over the Themse to the new land. The Globe Theatre was established between pubs and brothels (Kneipen und Bordelle).
The theatre building was finished in 1599 and the first performance was in the summer of 1599.
2.The construction of the Globe Theatre
The G.T. was London's most important public theatre.
The name of the G.T. came from a sign beyond the gate, where Hercules was shown together with a globe.
Around the picture there was written the sentence: "Totus mundus agit histrionem", that means: "The whole world is a stage".
The G.T. was made from wood. It was an almost round building. There was place for circa 1200 people.
A roof made of straw protected the three galeries inside the theatre and also the dressing-room but not the stage. Even if it was raining, the actors had to play. The court was surrounded by the galeries. Most of the stage laid in the court. The stage was a large platform. At the back, on each side of the platform, were two large doors. In the centre of the platform was a recess or inner stage, which was usually concealed by a curtain. But there was no front curtain to hide the stage completely and separate the actors from their audience.
3.The actors and the audience
The actors were all men. Even the female roles were played by boys. The actors had to learn 800 lines a day, that was the reason why they could play 70 roles after three years. They acted without any costumes or scenery, instead they played in their own clothes.
There was no real owner of the theatre and no boss.

Show More
Related

  • Richard Burbage and the Theatre

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Richard Burbage was part of the troupe, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, with Lawrence Fletcher, William Shakespeare, Augustyne Phillippes, I...

    Read More

  • Closing and Reopening of the American Theatres

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    There was lack of professional bands of actors. Therefore those bands which found most success were patronized by the court. The Earls of Essex, Pembroke and others all had their own bands. Certain troops became so famous that people thronged to see them, therefore leading to the opening of theatres. The first playhouse "the theatre" opened in 1577 and the famous "the Globe" opened in 1599.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater, Home of Many of Shakespeare's Plays

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    The curtains of the play draw, the audience, quiet and eager waits for the lights to dim to see what William Shakespeare had brought before them. Shakespeare’s plays became enjoyable and fun to watch, seeing actors dress in amazing costumes and props used in The Globe Theater. (1-1)

    Read More

  • What Was The Theatre In The Tudor Theatre

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1576/7 James Burbage built the first ever successful public theatre, The Theatre. The Earl of Leicester's Men were the acting company who performed on The Theatres stag...

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Globe Theater is said to be the most important structure in Shakespeare's dramatic career. The Chamberlain Company built the Theater in 1599. The Theater was located on the Southern shore of the Thames River in London. Shakespeare, being a member of the Chamberlain Company, became a shareholder in the Theater. Along with Shakespeare, James Burbage, his two sons, and five members of the troupe owned the Globe. This group of men was called Lord Chamberlains Men after a patron of the acting company. In May of 1603, King James I came to see their plays and the troupe changed their name to The King's Men. These people and groups became a living part of the Globe Theatre.

    Read More

  • Greek And Roman Art

    1867 Words  | 4 Pages

    " The audience arranged in rows, looked out across a rounded orchestra" (Kennedy 1102). Because most of the early dramas were religious and required a sacrificial ceremony, a thymele (an altar or sacrificial table) was located in the center of the orchestra. The orchestra was where the chorus and actors performed. Arnott states, " the nucleus of the drama was the chorus" (Arnott 9). David Taylor comments, " The theater actually did start without any separate actors; there was only the chorus" (15). Later actors were added, but the chorus still remained the center of attention. The audience sat at a considerable distance from the orchestra and looked down on the performance. Although the amount of detail perceived was limited, they of...

    Read More

  • A Critique on Purlie

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    The stage was in proscenium form so it allowed most audience members to have the same amount of viewing as others throughout the theater. Due to the theatre space being so small and intimate, it created the relevant atmosphere of everything on stage happening to be small.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Theaters." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 120-122. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Mar. 2014

    Read More

  • Globe Theater

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    During Shakespeare's era, the Globe Theatre was not in the formal jurisdiction of London per se, but was located on the south side of the Thames River in the Southwark district. Along with its predecessors and rivals, the Globe Theatre was part of what might b...

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was the fourth or fifth playhouse in London (Westerhof). The architecture of the Globe was original for its time. It was built out of wood, hexagonal outside and circular inside. The Globe was open to the weather except for the upper gallery which was covered with a thatched roof. It was the first theatre in London to introduce protection from the weather.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    Among the many famous writers we have studied this year is William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's life was assuredly most intriguing. Seeking answers, we had simple questions we wanted to determine. What were his morals? His passions? His legacy? When studying Shakespeare, we found that his life revolved around the Globe Theatre. Naturally we wanted to see why Shakespeare spent so much of his life involved in the Globe. The first Globe lasted from 1599-1613. Additionally, this structure was called the "wooden o" playhouse. Before the Globe, there was another "Theatre", which many people do not realize. "The Theatre" prospered for 21 years. Refusing to renew the players' lease, the landowner Giles Allen caused an unexpected problem for the players. James Burbage had recently died and his two sons, Richard and Cuthbert became managers. Although Allen owned the land, the sons owned the Theatre, and they wanted their valuable timber. In desperation, the brothers decided to take action. They leased land across the river and they waited until Christmastime to strike, when they could be sure Allen was away on vacation. At night they began to dismantle the Theatre piece by piece and floated it across the river Thames. With the timber, the brothers and their friends reconstructed their cherished playhouse. Because of the saying "the whole world is a stage" they would call it the Globe Theatre. By the middle of 1599 the Globe opened and was a huge success. Audiences were packed in "the house with a thatched roof", sometimes even so much as three thousand people could be held at once. For sixpence the rich sat in the Lord's Rooms to get a better view, which were on the top half of the Globe. For threepence they sat on cushions in the Gentlemen's Rooms. For twopence they perched on hard wooden benches, but most were called "groundlings" who paid a penny to stand in the yard beneath the open roof. Interestingly enough, there were two trap doors, the trap door to heaven and the trap door to hell. Since the players already had to pay for the structure most of the actors actually lived in the Theatre. During a play of Henry the V, a spark from a cannon accidentally caught the thatched roof on fire and the whole Globe was burned down in less than an hour. Yet within a year a second Globe was built and completed in 1614 but the Puritans tore it down in 1644.

    Read More

  • Elizabethan Theater

    621 Words  | 2 Pages

    Actors were expected to memorize hundreds of lines at a time. While one play could be performing, actors would be practicing lines for their next show. Play writers also began to make roles for the actors in the theatrical pieces. The theaters that actors performed in were roofless so that the sun could be used as lighting. Theatrical shows were held in the afternoon because it provided the best amount of light for the show. When the people gathered into the theater, the different classes of people were separated by where they could afford to sit and watch the show. The lower classmen were situated on the bare earth where it was dirty and smelly because it was never cleaned. The owners’ of the theaters found it less expensive if they did not keep high maintenance of their establishments. Higher classmen sat under a roof and for a penny more, they could buy cushions for their seats.

    Read More

  • Greek Theater Analysis

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Later on, these theaters were deserted in AD 476, but the tradition was active among street performers who traveled through streets for entertainment purposes. The reason of abandonment of the theater was the church, meanwhile, Church was the reason which created the concept of the theater in the first place to convey biblical lessons as their teachings. (Moirai, 2013)

    Read More

  • Scripting Stage Space in Oedipus the King and Hamlet

    2400 Words  | 5 Pages

    The shape of the theatre allows each spectator to see some of his fellow spectators as well... so they could see and respond to their collective reaction t...

    Read More

  • The Elizabethan Age

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theater was one of the primary forms of entertainment in Elizabethan England, as anyone, rich or poor could attend the plays.The rich would sit in boxes or galleries, while the poorer people would have to stand for the entirety of the play (Haigh). The poor would stand in front of the stage which would normally be raised about 4 to 6 feet and the theater could hold on average 3,000 people (Trumbull). The rich however usually watched plays in indoor private theaters, but sometimes would watch the plays in the outdoor public ones. Performances ...

    Read More

More about Shakespeare

Open Document