The+Elizabethan+Stage

The theatre experience in the time of Shakespeare was a very different experience for the Elizabethans than it is for theater-goers today. The stage was round and were more like an ampitheatre, with teared seats, than what we consider to be a theatre today and it was often open at the top,roofless. The audience was involved in the performance. The Elizabethan audience often anwsered back when actors to them through soliloquies or remarks that an actor as a character in the play that is intended to be heard by the audience but not heard by the characters in the play.

During the Elizabethan period, politicians and clergy were opposed to the threatre because they thought it was going against their religion. Theaters and playhouses were banned in the "proper" part of London and pushed out to the suburbs. In this new "theater district" playgoers coulg choose between the different theatres that were located there. In between all the theatres located there, there were pubs, taverns, and bawdy houses. There were also a lot of pickpockets and thieves who hung around in this area, which added to the theatre's already bad reputation.

To announce a play's beginning, a raised flag would appear and trumpets would sing. The flag told what type of play would be showing that day, being white for comedy, black for tragedy, or red for history. When theatregoers entered the theatre, they placed their entrance money in a box. They could on wooden beches, cushions in front of the stage, or acually sit on the stage itself, which would cost more money. Most people would stand in the back with the crowd because it was cheaper and all they could afford. The people who stood on the ground in the back were also called "groundlings." They were also known as "penny stinkards." This is because the majority of the people payed a penny to get into the theatre and they mostly smelled sweat, beer, and garlic because they did not take showers often, at the time. Also, when people went to the bathroom at the time, they did not have indoor plumbing, so they threw their "deeds" out the window onto the street. People who walked around on the streets, would smell of whatever was thrown out the window. Vendors sold beer, fruit, and nuts. If the actors onstage were bad, the audience would throw these snacks at the actors.

Shakespeare wrote speccifically his stage in the Globe. Although not for certain, we think that the globe could have had as many as 22 sides to provide its circular appearance. The stage consisted of three sections, "earth," heaven," and "hell." "Earth" was the trapdoor on the main stage that would be used to raise and lower actors and props into and out of "hell." Over the stage, was a canopy painted with golden stars to represent the "heavens." Scenery and props were limited during Shakespeare's time. To let the audience know what time of day it was or what the weather was like in play, it was described through actor's words. Actors wore elaborate costumes and makeup, which was considered sinful, especially by the Puritans. Puritans were very strict, especially strict on morals. In the novel, "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it shows the close-mindness of the Puritan community and how they isolate a townsperson because of one sinful act.

During this time, women were not allowed to act on stage. Instead young boys, whose voice had not yet matured, played the roles of the women in the plays. This is why most of Shakespeare's plays do not have women as main characters and why there aren't many women in each play. There are some exceptions to this, such as "Romeo and Juliet." For example, when "Romeo and Juliet" was first written and performed, Juliet was played by a boy.

Theatres always had new plays to show. In six months, one theatre company might give about 150 performances of 25-30 different plays. Since there were so many plays to be performed and in such a small amount of time, rehersal time was extremely short. Actor usually had about only a week to learn their parts, which is equals to about 800 lines a day for the leading role. To add on to the terrible rehersing tactics, an actor would only get his set of lines. For example the actor who played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" would only get Romeo's lines but nobody else's lines.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burned down in 1613 due to a cannon that exploded during a performance of "Henry VIII," which set the theatre on fire. The theatre was eventually rebuilt in 1642 but the Puritans finally got their way and they had the English Parliament order to shut down all theatres, which resulted in the Globe being destroyed in 1644.

A modern version of the Globe theatre, which is located in England. A rough sketch of what the Globe would have looked like in Shakespeare's time.