Elizabethan Theatre and The Globe, Kristel Linnutaja.ppt 

Elizabethan Theatre and the Globe (Villem Valgi).ppt

Elizabethan theatre and the Globe KAARIN.ppt

Kaarin Kivirähk  

The first permanent theatre in England was established by James Burbage(an actor) and was called just The Theatre. When people saw the success of The Theatre, it was rapidly followed by the Curtain,the  Rose, the Swan,the Globe,the Fortune and the Hope but none of these Elizabethan theatres are remained.

The picture depicts the Swan theatre and is the only remaining picture of the interieur of a theatre of that time.

The Globe is the most famous Elizabethan theatre. It was built by the sons of Burbage(the one who established the first theatre) in 1599 on the southern shore of the Thames. The Globe is especially famous for William Shakespeare` s plays that were produced there. The Globe was quite an usual example of an Elizabethan theatre house. The globe was octagonal building but there were also theatres that had round or square structures. It did not have a roof and it resembled the inn yard. There was a large platform stage with doors and balcony at the rear, a stage roof carried on pillars rising from the stage (actually it was a canopy and represented the sky) , a playhouse flag and a trumpeter announcing a performance. Ordinary poor people were standing in front of the stage while the rich enjoyed the perfomance from the galleries.

 

The reconstructed Globe theatre nowadays outside and inside.

The scenery of the plays was usually very minimalistic but it was compansated by rich decorations. For example,  the wooden pillars in the theatre were dyed to look as marble and the general colour combination was blue-red-gold.

Most of the costumes were donated by rich patrons. Were the characters rich or poor, from Elizabethan age or from Ancient Rome, the clothes were always bright and luxurious. There might have been only some recognisable additions like on the picture above: the soldier has a helmet and a men`s skirt that resembles to the Roman military clothing.

 

 While all the actors were still considered to be rogues and thiefs, all the troups of Elizabethan time were protected by someone rich and powerful. Like in Ancient Greece, there were no women on the stage in the Elizabethan age in England. Young male actors who were graceful and had a loud and clear voice played the parts of young women. Old women were played by the comedians of the troup.

All actors had to know dancing, singing and stage fencing.

They also used a lot of improvisation. Famous actors of that time were for example Edward Alleyn and Richard Burbage.

 

 

                                                    Richard Burbage

 William Shakespeare is definitely the most important of the Elizabethan theatre`s playwriters although he was not so valued during his life as now. He even didn`t have a university education as his predecessor Christopher Marlowe had. Marlowe was born the same year as Shakespeare but started playwriting earlier and died earlier too. He was a great theatre renewer and he wrote a famous play about doctor Faustus legend. The other important playwrighter of that time is Ben Jonson who was influenced from renaissance theatre more than other English writers. His tragedies are almost all forgotten but his comedies are still popular.

   

Plays of these playwrighters are still very popular all over the world. Scenes from Marlowe`s "Doctor Faustus"(produced in England) and from the play "Head ööd, vend" based on plays of Shakespeare (produced in Estonia).

 

A video clip from the film "Henry V" that depicts a perfomance in the Globe theatre.

 

Sources:

http://eng.1september.ru/1999/eng16-1.htm

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-costume.htm

http://www.fathom.com/course/28701903/session3.html

Phyllis Hartoll "Lühike teatriajalugu", Tallinn "Eesti Raamat", 1989

 

Elizabethan Theatre and The Globe

by Villem Valgi

 

 Elizabeth I

 

Introduction

Elizabethan theatre is a period in the history of English theatre that is associated with Queen Elizabeth I’s reign from 1558 to 1603. It is also called the English Renaissance theatre, only the Renaissance theatre comprises a much longer period – from the reign of Elizabeth I until the closure of the theatres in 1642 during the Civil War.

  

Events

In medieval times there were no houses built for performances. Groups of players pushed around their carts from village to village and performed their plays on the market places and village squares and the most popular subject was Robin Hood.

  

In 1572 a law was passed banning strolling players from touring the country because the English government was worried that plays on subjects such as Robin Hood would encourage the people to become rebellious and that strolling players would spread diseases such as the plague. The only actors allowed were those employed by nobles who started their own companies. At first the plays were performed in the courtyards of inns or in the houses of the noblemen. In 1576 the first permanent playhouse was built by actor-manager James Burbage at Shoreditch, just outside the City of London. It was simply called The Theatre. It received a great success and soon there were several theatres in London: the Globe, Newington Butts, the Curtain, the Rose Theatre, the Swan, the Fortune, the Boars Head, the Bear Garden, the Bull Ring and the Hope Theatre. Those theatres could now hold several thousands of people.

 

The Globe's interior

 

Buildings

Elizabethan theatres were inspired by the Roman amphitheatres and were, therefore, with round ground plan, only much smaller. The theatres were constructed of oak beams and topped by thatched roof. The yard was surrounded usually by three floors of galleries and in it there was a rectangular platform occupying about a third of the yard. Standing places were usually on the ground, the stadium-style seats were usually in the galleries and used by the upper classes. Musicians usually performed in most upper gallery.

  

Performances

Nowadays it is usual that the plays run for months or even years on end but during Elizabethan era troupes hardly ever acted the same play two days in a row or even twice a week. So the workload of the actors must have been tremendous as they had to learn the words by heart for the next day afternoon when the next show had to be performed as there was no artificial lightning.

  

In Elizabethan times troupes included only male actor as women were not allowed to act during that period. That is why female parts were usually played by young boys in women’s costumes.

  

Some of the theatres like the Bear Garden were also used for gambling, bear and bull baiting and other immoral purposes. These were quite popular and even patronized by the Queen herself.

 

Bear beating

  

Most of the Londoners could afford to go to the theatre because the prices were quite low, only a penny plus some extra money for sitting places.

  

Costumes

In Elizabethan era it was fixed by the law what clothes people could wear. It didn’t matter how wealthy they were, it was the status and position that dictated the look and fabric. But there was a clause that allowed the licensed acting troupes to break this rule. Therefore Elizabethan theatres were also like fashion shows.

  

Whatever play and whichever era the play was set in, the actors generally wore the dress of their own time. However, togas from Roman times are with a simple cut, therefore it might have been usual that a combination of Roman clothes and Elizabethan clothing might have been seen together.

  

An important part in the costumes was the colour. Nearly each colour had its own meaning but the audience totally understood it. For example, purple is always associated with Royalty, white with the pope, virtue and purity, the Virgin Queen, black with the death and blue symbolized the servitude.

 

On the stage

  

Usually young boys played the women’s parts and had, therefore, to wear female clothes, wigs and the make-up was done. Elizabethan women's clothing was extremely elaborate and was constructed with many layers of clothing. It would have taken some considerable time, and the help of a dresser, to dress in the costume of a female. Wigs were not a problem as they were in fashion at that time. However, the make-up was. It was lead based and highly poisonous. The young boy actors were therefore very unhealthy, had unpleasant facial skin diseases and many of them actually died of poisoning.

  

Playwrights

Although most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 have still remained. The playwrights in those days were primarily self-made men from modest backgrounds. Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority does not seem to have supplemented its income by acting.

 

Playwrights had no ownership of the plays they wrote. Once a play was sold to a company, the company owned it, and the playwright had no control over casting, performance, revision or publication.

 

A playwright, working alone, could generally produce two plays a year at most. Therefore the majority of plays written in this era were collaborations. Although the income was then divided, playwrights could produce in teams enough plays to get paid twice as much as an average artisan.

 

The most famous playwrights from Elizabethan times are William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow, Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Kyd.

 

  

William Shakespeare                                   Christopher Marlowe  

 

Genres

Genres of the period included the history play, which depicted English or European history. Shakespeare's plays about the lives of kings, such as „Richard III“ and „Henry V“ Christopher Marlowe's „Edward II“ and George Peele's „Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First“. There were also a number of history plays that dealt with more recent events, like „A Larum for London“, which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. Tragedy was a popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally popular, such as „Dr. Faustus” and „The Jew of Malta“. The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd’s „The Spanish Tragedy“. Comedies were common too. A sub-genre developed in this period was the city comedy, which deals satirically with life in London.

  

The Globe

The Globe was owned by actors who were also shareholders in Lord Chamberlain's Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, owned a single share, or 12.5%. The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, The Burbages originally had a 21-year lease of the site on which The Theatre was built but owned the building outright. However, the landlord, Giles Allen, claimed that the building had become his with the expiry of the lease. On 28 December 1598, while Allen was celebrating Christmas at his country home, carpenter Peter Street, supported by the players and their friends, dismantled The Theatre beam by beam and transported it to Street's waterfront warehouse near Bridewell. With the onset of more favourable weather in the following spring, the material was ferried over the Thames to reconstruct it as The Globe. On 29 June 1613 the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of „Henry VIII“ when a theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. It was rebuilt in the following year. Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642 and pulled down in 1644.

 

Original Globe theatre

 

In 1970 American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust, and International Shakespeare Globe Centre with the objective of building a faithful recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe close to its original location. While many had said that the Globe reconstruction was impossible to achieve, he persevered for over twenty years, and eventually a new Globe theatre was built according to a design based on the research of historical advisor John Orrell. The theatre was opened in 1997 under the name "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre" and now stages plays every summer. The new theatre on Bankside is approximately 230 metres from the original site and was the first thatched roof building permitted in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666. The only covered parts of the amphitheatre are the stage and seated areas. Plays are staged during the summer. Performances are staged in a manner which is as close as possible to the original environment. There are no spotlights - the plays are staged during daylight hours. There are no microphones or speakers and the actors must use their natural voices. All music is performed live on period instruments. The actors can see the audience, and the audience can see each other, adding to the feeling of shared experience and community event. Seating capacity is 1,380 making up an audience about half the size of a typical audience in Shakespeare's time.

 

The Globe today

 

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/elizabethan-theatre.htm 

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDtheatre.htm 

http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/englisch/shakespeare/10.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theatre 

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-costume.htm 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare's_Globe 

 

 

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE.ppt 

Elizabethan Theatre and The Globe 

Matis Leima XI A

 

 

Terminology

English Renaissance theatre is sometimes called "Elizabethan theatre." The term "Elizabethan theatre", however, covers only the plays written and performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603).

 

Theatres

The Elizabethan Theatre had an unsavory reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark, outside the authority of the city administration.

The first proper theatre as we know it was the Theatre, built by James Burbage and John Brayne at Shoreditch in 1576. The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604). Before this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen.

These theatres could hold several thousand people, most standing in the open pit before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself.

 

Theatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. Women attended plays, though often the prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise her identity. Further, no women performed in the plays. Female roles were generally performed by young boys. The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama—once they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent rather than a transitory phenomenon.

 

The Globe

The Globe was only in use until 1613, when a cannon fired during a performance of Henry VIII caught the roof on fire and the building burned to the ground. The site of the theatre was rediscovered in the 20th century and a reconstruction built near the spot.

When the Globe burned down in June 1613, it was rebuilt with a tile roof; when the Fortune burned down in December 1621, it was rebuilt in brick.

 

Structure

Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late twentieth century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences; yet their common function necessitated a similar general plan. The public theatres were three stories high, and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect (though the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square), the three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open center, into which jutted the stage—essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience, only the rear being restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians.

 

Usually built of timber, lath and plaster and with thatched roofs, the early theatres were vulnerable to fire, and were replaced (when necessary) with stronger structures.

 

Costumes

Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead leaving the stage largely bare with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage was in the costumes. Costumes were often bright in color and visually entrancing. Costumes were expensive, however, so usually players wore contemporary clothing regardless of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear a conventionalized version of more historically accurate garb, but secondary characters would nonetheless remain in contemporary clothing.

 

Playwrights

The men (no women were professional dramatists in this era) who wrote these plays were primarily from modest backgrounds. Some of them were educated at either Oxford or Cambridge, but many were not. Although William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were actors, the majority do not seem to have been performers, and no major author who came on to the scene after 1600. It is known to have supplemented his income by acting.

 

Not all of the playwrights fit modern images of poets or intellectuals. Marlowe's career, however, was cut short at a comparatively young age when he died in a tavern fight in Deptford, the victim of a knife in the eye.

Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several probably were soldiers. 

 

 

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_theatre

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/elizabethan-theatre.htm

http://images.google.ee/images?hl=et&source=hp&q=elizabethan+theatre&btnG=Otsi+pilte&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

 

Elizabethan Theatre and The Globe

by Kristel Linnutaja

Elizabethan Theatre 

 

The term "Elizabethan theatre" covers the plays written and performed publicly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558–1603).

 

The real Queen Elizabeth I and Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I.

 

The Elizabethan Theatres started in the cobbled courtyards of Inns - they were called Inn-yards. As many as 500 people would attend play performances. There was clearly some considerable profit to be made in theatrical productions. It was the idea of James Burbage (an actor) to construct the first purpose-built theatre - it was called 'The Theatre'. It was built in 1576 at Shoreditch and was to be the first of many Elisabethan theatres. Before this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen. A noble had to be careful about which play he allowed to be performed within his home, however. Anything that was controversial or political was likely to get him in trouble with the crown! It was based on the style of the old Greek and Roman open-air amphitheatres. However, profit dropped in the winter as people would not venture to the cold open arenas of these massive Elizabethan Theatres. Playhouses were therefore used for many winter productions.

Theatre had an unsavory reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark, outside the authority of the city administration.

 

After the Theatre, further open air playhouses opened in the London area. The London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open-air "public" theatres, the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull, and three smaller enclosed "private" theatres, the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court. These theatres could hold several thousand people, most standing in the open pit before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself. The early theatres were vulnerable to fire, and were replaced with stronger structures.

Theatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. However there was some artificial lighting mainly intended to provide atmosphere for night scenes Women attended plays, though often the prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise her identity. Further, no women performed in the plays. Female roles were generally performed by young boys. In fact, many of the boy actors died of poisoning due to the vast quantities of lead in their make-u.p

The open air arena of the amphitheatre was called the 'pit' or the 'yard'. The stage of the amphitheatre projected halfway into the 'pit'. The stage was made  of wood, sometimes covered with rushes. Trap doors would enable some special effects e.g. smoke in the Elizabethan Theatre.  It had a raised stage at one end which was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries with balconies overlooking the back of the stage.

There were no toilets. People relieved themselves outside. Sewage was buried in pits or disposed of in the River Thames. All theatres closed during outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague - disease would have spread via the rats & fleas.There was also no heating. Plays were performed in the summer months and transferred to the indoor playhouses during the winter.

Performances

They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week. The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers must have been tremendous. One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Until the reign of Charles II, female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume. Genres played included history plays, tragedies, comedies.

Music was an extra effect added in the 1600's.

Playwrighters and their plays

Most of the plays written for the Elizabethan stage have been lost, over 600 remain extant.

A small number of plays from the era survived not in printed texts but in manuscript form.

Not all of the playwrights fit modern images of poets or intellectuals. For example Christopher Marlowe was killed in an apparent tavern brawl, while Ben Jonson killed an actor in a duel. Several probably were soldiers.

Playwrights were normally paid in increments during the writing process, and if their play was accepted, they would also receive the proceeds from one day's performance. However, they had no ownership of the plays they wrote.In Shakespeare’s time copyright did not exist!

 

End of English Renaissance theatre

The rising Puritan movement was hostile toward boys dressing as women to play female roles. Politically, playwrights and actors were clients of the monarchy and aristocracy, and most supported the Royalist cause. The Puritan faction, long powerful in London, gained control of the city early in the English Civil War, and on September 2, 1642 ordered the closure of the London theatres. The theatres remained closed for most of the next eighteen years, re-opening after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

 

The Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642.

Examination of old property records has identified the plot of land occupied by the Globe as extending from the west side of modern-day Southwark Bridge Road eastwards as far as Porter Street and from Park Street southwards as far as the back of Gatehouse Square. The precise location of the building however, remained unknown until a small part of the foundations, including one original pier base, was discovered in 1989 beneath the car park at the rear of Anchor Terrace on Park Street. The shape of the foundations is now replicated on the surface.

 

 

The Globe theatre was also used for gambling and prostitutes plied their trade within the confines of the Globe building and grounds! Fights also broke out amongst audience members adding to the enetertainment available!

 

 

Design and Structure and the Day of Performance

 

The Globe was built by carpenter Peter Smith and his workers and was the most magnificent theater that London had ever seen. The design of the Globe theater was based on the Roman Coliseum but built on a much smaller scale. An open arena design & structure. The designers believed that basing the look of the theatre on Classical Greek and Roman structures would give them an aura of respectibility. It  had a 1500 plus audience capacity. Up to 3000 people would flock to the theatre and its grounds. The Grounds of the theatre were filled with stalls selling a variety of take-away foods and beverages!

 

Flags were erected on the day of the performance which sometimes displayed a picture advertising the next play to be performed.

 

Colour coding was used to advertise the type of play to be performed - a black flag meant a tragedy , white a comedy and red a history.

 

A trumpet was sounded to announce to people that the play was about to begin at the Globe Theatre in order for people to take their final places.

 

The crest and motto of the Globe Theatre Above the main entrance of the Globe was a crest displaying Hercules bearing the globe on his shoulders together with the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (the whole world is a playhouse). This phrase was slightly re-worded in the William Shakespeare play As You Like It - "All the world’s a stage".

 

Globe Theatre Costumes

The Globe Theatre Costumes were fabulous - sumptuous materials, vivid colors and extremely costly. The costumes did not always reflect the correct period of the Play. The Globe actors generally wore the dress of their own time. Some were specifically made for the actors and some were donated by rich patrons.  The Globe plays had to be produced in a great hurry in order to ensure a rapid turnover of new material and performances for the insatiable Elizabethan audience and to beat the competition from rival theatres.

 

 

 

The Pit was the area located around the stage. There was no seating - the cheapest part of the Globe Theater and the audience had to stand. The stage structure projected halfway into the ' yard ' where the commoners (groundlings) paid 1 penny to stand to watch the play. They would have crowded around the 3 sides of the stage structure.

The Galleries - Around the Globe theater were three tiers of roofed galleries. The galleries had rows of wooden seats, were accessed from a back coridor and had a roof offering shelter from inclement weather.

The Heavens - The pillars supported a roof called the ' Heavens '. The ' Heavens ' served to create an area hidden from the audience. This area provided a place for actors to hide. A selection of ropes & rigging would allow for special effects, such as flying or dramatic entries. Special effects at the Globe were also a spectacular addition at the theater allowing for smoke effects, the firing of a real canon, fireworks (for dramatic battle scenes) and spectacular 'flying' entrances from the rigging in the 'heavens'.

The stage wall was called the ' Frons Scenae ' taken from Latin. It was situated behind the pillars. There was a doorway to the left and right and a curtained central doorway from which the actors made their entrances. Above the door area was the highly decorative screen.

The Stage Gallery above the Stage Wall was called the ' Lord's rooms ' used by the rich members of the audience, the Upper Classes and the Nobility. Immediately above the stage wall was the stage gallery which was used by actors (Juliet's balcony). The ' Lord's rooms ' were considered the best seats in the ' house ' despite the poor view of the back of the actors. The cost was 5 pence & cushioned seats were provided for these elite members of the audience.

The Gentlemen's rooms - These seats were for rich patrons of the Globe theater and the cost was 4 pence for which cushioned seats were provided.

The Tiring House and the Hut - The stage wall structure contained at least two doors which lead to a leading to small structure, back stage, called the ' Tiring House '. The stage wall was covered by a curtain. The actors used this area to change their attire - thus it was called the 'Tiring House'! The ' Hut ' Above the ' Tiring House ' was a small house-like structure called the 'hut' complete with roof. The Hut was used as a covered storage space for the acting troupe.

Closing

Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled down in 1644, or slightly later—the commonly cited document dating the act to 15 April 1644 has been identified as a probable forgery—to make room for tenements.

A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened in 1997. It is approximately 230 metres (750 ft) from the site of the original theatre.

The original site of the Globe Theatre.

 

USED MATERIALS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance_theatre

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/elizabethan-theatre.htm

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-theatre.htm

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/globe-theatre.htm