Shakespeare's Theater
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Shakespeare: A Theatrical Revolutionary
The Evolution Of...
The Theater (Building)
The Theatre was later dismantled over Christmas holiday in 1599 and moved across the frozen Thames river to be used beginning pieces of the Globe on the Bankside.
The Globe
Shape and Venues
The theaters were either outdoor, public playhouses that accommodated large numbers of playgoers or indoor, private theaters for small audiences.
The outdoor playhouses were polygonal or roughly circular (with some exceptions) and because they were open-air, the audiences endured all types of weather.Ceiling and the Floor
The Stage
Before Shakespeare’s time, stages consisted of ornate sets to depict the scenery of the play. Shakespeare, however, wrote plays for what was called a “bare stage.” Though it did not have an elaborate set, this type of performance did make use of various props. There was also no curtain to indicate scene changes so Shakespeare had to write in a way that would notify his audience when a scene had begun and ended. Often, all of the actors from one scene would simply exit the stage and the new actors would enter and begin the next scene. Often, scenes would take place off the stage. Sometimes characters would stand beneath the stage as if they were in the underworld. Other times, actors would be suspended above the stage, like Juliet’s balcony scene. The stage was covered by a roof, even in open-air theaters, and the dimensions varied from theater to theater. For example, the Fortune was a 43 feet by 37 feet rectangle, but the rose was tapered so that it was 37.5 feet at its widest point and 15.5 feet deep.
The Actor
Vocabulary: "Common players" are actors who have no patrons or masters.
The Audience
Works Cited
"Boxes at the Globe." Flickr Creative Commons. Flickr, n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2012. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/68067047@N00/5252022507>. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/11499994@N07/4192107756>. Commons. Wikimedia, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Procession_of_Characters_from_Shakespeare%27s_Plays_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg>. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/teagrrl/17574687/in/photostream/>. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shakespeare%27s_Globe-London.jpg>. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/38078870@N07/4485030593>. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/5390752214>. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/92906295@N00/3995687349>. Folger Shakespeare Library, 1992. Print. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/56796376@N00/2996992787>.