Transcript Theatre in Shakespeare`s Day

What was Theatre like in
Shakespeare's time?
The Theatre
The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located
in Shoreditch just outside the City of London. It was
the second permanent theatre ever built in England,
after the Red Lion, and the first successful one.
Built in 1576 by actor-manager James Burbage,
The Theatre is considered the first theatre built in
London for the sole purpose of theatrical
productions. The Theatre's history includes a
number of important acting troupes including the
Lord Chamberlain's Men which employed
Shakespeare as actor and playwright. After a
dispute with the landlord, the theatre was
dismantled and the timbers used in the construction
of the Globe Theatre on Bankside.
The Curtain Theatre
•The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Curtain
Close, Shoreditch (part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just
outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging
plays until 1622.
•The Curtain was built some 200 yards south of London's first playhouse,
The Theatre, which had opened a year before, in 1576. It was called the
"Curtain" because it was located near a plot of land called Curtain Close.
•From 1597 to 1599, it became the premier venue of Shakespeare's
Company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who had been forced to leave
their former playing space at The Theatre after the latter closed in 1596. It
was the venue of several of Shakespeare's plays, including Romeo and
Juliet (which gained "Curtain plaudits") and Henry V. In this latter play the
somewhat undistinguished Curtain gains immortal fame by being
described by Shakespeare as "this wooden O." The Lord Chamberlain's
Men also performed Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour here in
1598, with Shakespeare in the cast. Later that same year Jonson gained
a certain notoriety by killing actor Gabriel Spencer in a duel in nearby
Hoxton Fields. The Lord Chamberlain's Men departed the Curtain when
the Globe, which they built to replace the Theatre, was ready for use
(1599).
The Rose Theatre
•The Rose was an Elizabethan
theatre. It was the fourth of the
public theatres to be built, after
The Theatre (1576), the Curtain
(1577), and the theatre at
Newington Butts (c. 1580?) —
and the first of several
playhouses to be situated in
Bankside, Southwark, in a liberty
outside the jurisdiction of the City
of London's civic authorities.
•The Rose was home to the
Admiral's Men for several years.
When the Lord Chamberlain's
Men built the Globe Theatre on
the Bankside in 1599
The Globe Theatre
•It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing
company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was
destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.
•It went up in flames during a performance of Henry
VIII. A theatrical cannon, set off during the
performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams
and thatching. According to one of the few surviving
documents of the event, no one was hurt except a
man whose burning breeches were put out with a
bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.
•A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site
by June 1614.
•Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was
closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled
down in 1644
The Palaces & Inns of Court
•The royal family did not, for obvious reasons, attend plays
with the common populous in the playhouses, and so
Shakespeare and the Chamberlain's Men would, on
occasion, be requested to perform at court. During
Christmas, 1594, Shakespeare acted before Queen
Elizabeth I in her palace at Greenwich in two separate
comedies, and during Christmas, 1597, the Chamberlain's
Men performed Love's Labour's Lost before the Queen in
her palace at Whitehall. In 1603, Shakespeare performed
multiple times before King James I at Hampton Court with
his troupe, now known as the King's Men.
•The Inns of Court were four law schools in London, namely
the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Gray's Inn, and
Lincoln's Inn. Gala performances of Shakespeare's plays
were held in the halls of at least two of the Inns of Court -Twelfth Night in 1602 in the Middle Temple and The
Comedy of Errors in 1594 in Gray's Inn. Shakespeare was
interested enough in the Inns of Court to make them the
setting for Act 2, Scene 4 of 1 Henry VI.
Staging & Audience
Staging & Audience
•The stage
•The Trap Doors
•Heaven, Earth, Hell
•Groundlings
•Gentlemen, Nobility, Royals
•Set design
Props & Costume
•Were bought second hand
•Were donated to the company
•Were supplied by the actors
themselves
•Indicated character class
•Actors were allowed by law to
dress as upper classes ONLY if
they were in role.
•Silks, Velvets (Upper class)
Music
&
Special
FX
•Set scene
•Change locations
•Sound effects
•Traditional Medieval
•Flute, Lyre, Harp etc
•Pig's blood & animal offal used
for gore and battle scenes.
•Cannons used
•Ropes & flys used for flying
Characters down from the
Heaven trap door.
Attitudes to women on the stage
•http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WfUTDlmL
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•http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o_KXbKa2c
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Attitudes to Plays
•http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=relm
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And Finally...
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=relmfu&v=Ss
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