Transcript Shakespeare Life and Times Yr 7 Spring

Shakespeare
A Man And His Time
Contents
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Shakespeare and Elizabeth
Shakespeare and Stratford
Shakespeare’s London
Shakespeare’s Theatre (Part I)
Shakespeare’s Theatre (Part II)
The Globe Theatre
Shakespeare’s Plays (Part I)
Shakespeare’s Plays (Part II)
Shakespeare’s Performances (Part I)
Shakespeare’s Performances (Part II)
Shakespeare’s End
After Shakespeare
Modern Shakespeare
Shakespeare and Elizabeth
• He was born in 1564,
around the time when
Elizabeth I (the first)
came to the throne.
• He was brought up in
Stratford-Upon-Avon.
His family were not
particularly rich and he
probably went to the
local free grammar
school.
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Shakespeare’s Stratford
• Stratford was a pretty
town, but it wouldn’t have
been as big as it was
today.
• In Stratford Shakespeare
married Anne Hathaway
(not the actress!), and
they had a house.
• Anne Hathaway and their
children stayed in
Stratford while
Shakespeare went to
London to write and
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perform in plays.
Shakespeare’s London
• Shakespeare went to
London in about 1590.
• London in
Shakespeare’s time
was a nasty place!
• In 1595, there were
food riots in London
(everyone fighting for
food) because there
was not enough food
for everyone.
• In1594 the plague killed
over 5% of London’s
population – not nice!
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Shakespeare’s Theatre
• Shakespeare went to London to
become an actor and a playwright.
• It wasn’t only rich people that went to
the theatre – poor people stood in the
stalls. The Queen/King often went to
the theatre and sat right at the top.
• Theatres did not have roofs so if it
rained, the people standing in the
middle got wet!
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Shakespeare’s Theatre
• In 1597, after the
theatres reopened
after the plague,
Shakespeare and his
men took over the
Globe Theatre.
• In 1603, James I
became King and
Shakespeare and his
actors became “The
King’s Men” – they
performed plays to
the King – a great
honour!
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The Globe Theatre
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Shakespeare’s Plays
• Shakespeare wrote plays for the theatre. He
did not write them in a fancy book but instead
there were scripts.
• Each script had to be hand-written – there
were no computers in Shakespeare’s time!
• Shakespeare wrote about 2 plays a year… and
directed the plays… and acted in the plays…
he was a very busy man!
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Shakespeare’s Plays
• Shakespeare wrote
three types of plays:
• Comedies – have a
happy ending,
usually ending with
a marriage, e.g. A
Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
• Histories – are about
Kings and Queens,
e.g. Richard III.
• Tragedies – have
lots of sadness and
the main person dies
in the end, e.g.
Macbeth.
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Shakespeare’s Performances
• It was quite common for people to talk and
shout during a performance in
Shakespeare’s time.
• Girls were not actors in this time and so
female parts were played by young boys!
Maybe that’s why there aren’t very many
female parts in Shakespeare’s plays!
• Theatres didn’t have many props, costumes
or sound effects, and so the actors and the
playwright had to make the lines come to life!
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Shakespeare’s Performances
• The group of actors
would not do a ‘run’
of the same plays;
instead, they would
rehearse lots of plays
and then perform
each in the
afternoons and
evenings - how did
they remember all
those lines?
• “The King’s Men”
once performed 13
different plays in a
row!
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Shakespeare’s End
• By the time Shakespeare
died, he had written 38 plays
(and maybe more…)
• Some of his plays were very
popular and others weren’t
performed very much.
• He had been a successful
playwright, actor, director
and poet.
• He died aged 52 in 1616.
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After Shakespeare
• Shakespeare’s plays were all written
out (yes, by hand!) and published in
something called the First Folio in
1623. Only 36 of his plays were put in.
• It became fashionable to have the plays
in rich people’s libraries.
• Lots of directors started to put on
Shakespeare’s plays…
• …And Shakespeare-mania began!
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Modern Shakespeare
• Films like Baz
Luhrmann’s “Romeo
and Juliet” have made
Shakespeare
fashionable again.
• Also, some films base
their stories on
Shakespeare plays –
“10 Things I Hate About
You” is based on “The
Taming Of The Shrew”.
• Even “The Lion King” is
based on a Shakespeare
play!
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