¶ … Globe Theater is the place where most of William Shakespeare's major works including his famous four tragedies were first staged. This fact alone makes it a fascinating subject for students of literature and history to explore. Although the original building was destroyed in the mid-seventeenth century, a new "Globe Theater" has been built near the site of the old theater in London. The building replicates many of the original features of Shakespeare's Globe Theater and still stages some of the bard's plays to give the modern theater going audience the original 'flavor' of the bard's masterpieces. This paper traces the history of the Globe Theater, describes the original building's main features, and covers the recent re-building of the new Globe in the vicinity of the old theater.
Origins
Cuthberg Burbage, an associate of Shakespeare and brother of the most famous Shakespearean actor of the time, Richard Burbage had inherited a London theater called simply 'The Theater.' (Pressley, para No. 3) When the lease on the land on which it was built expired, Cuthberg and his associates including several actors, decided to take the matters in their own hands. They dismantled 'The Theater', transported its material across a frozen River Thames and proceeded to construct a new theater that was named "The Globe." The new theater, with its trademark logo of Hercules carrying the world on his shoulders, was located in the Bankside district of London alongside three other theaters -- the Rose, the Swan and the...
Shakespeare was a shareholder in "The Globe" and his name has become linked forever with the theater as it staged most of his plays over the next several years and became the finest theater in London. (Malvasi, para No. 1; Moore, para 1 & 2)
Main Features
Although no drawings of the original Globe exist, a fairly accurate picture of the theater can be pieced together as a result of various descriptions and archeological findings. Like most theaters of the time, the Globe was an octagonal-shaped building with an open air stage located on the inside that could accommodate up to 3000 people.
The stage of the Globe was a five feet high level platform of about 43 X 28 feet size. The stage was fitted with mechanisms such as trap doors in its floor that were creatively utilized by Shakespeare in his plays. It was surrounded on three sides by the "pit" in which the general audience (known as "groundlings" or the "one penny" audience) stood to watch the performances. The fourth side of the stage had a room for the actors where costumes changes were made. Around the pit were three galleries (balconies) one above the other that had seating for "two-penny" theatergoers. The topmost gallery was roofed with thatch and had a small turret structure, from which a trumpeter announced the day's performances. Since no artificial lighting was available, plays were usually scheduled for the afternoons. The acoustics were poor due to the open air stage the actors had to shout their lines and resort…
When the lease expired for the original location, the Burbages reassembled the theater on the South Bank of the Thames in 1599. This was considered to be one of the 'seedier' districts of London. As well as play-going (a disreputable practice in and of itself), bearbaiting, bull-baiting, and prostitution, were other popular spectator sports on the South Bank (Cummings 2003). When the first Globe burnt down in 1613 "an
theater order variety fortunate today. Because Shakespeare the Globe Theater great It was quite an experience to watch Shakespeare's Globe Theater Production of Othello in 2007. There are quite a few elements of Shakespeare, and of dramatic works in general, that take on different connotations when they are acted out and presented to the public vs. simply being read. These connotations had both positive and negative effects for both of
William Shakespeare was born into a world of words that took him from cold, stone castles in Scotland to the bustling cities of Italy and the high seas of colonial change. An emblem of the Renaissance, the Bard of Avon was not only the conqueror of his own mind and pen, but also of the language of his own social, political, and religious reality. His theatre, the epic Globe, mirrors
Elizabethan Theater Elizabethan theatre is a general concept embodying the plays written and performed openly in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603. The term can be applied more generally to also incorporate theatre of Elizabeth's immediate successors, James I and Charles I, till the end of public theatres in 1642 on the inception of Civil War. (Elizabethan theatre: Wikipedia) During the end of 16th century
A hut on top of the 'Tiring House' was there for apparatus and machines. Flag above the hut was there to indicate concert day. Musicians' veranda was beneath the hut at the third level and spectators would have to sit on 2nd level. (the Elizabethan Theatre: Introduction to Theatre Online Course) The performance sites are also original. First managed in suitable public places like inn courtyards, in the fashion of
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