1. SHAKESPEARE &
ELIZABETHAN
THEATRE
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College
Fall 2011

2. CHILDHOOD
 Born in Stratford-upon-Avon
 Son of a glove-maker
 Grammar school education
(6 AM – 6 PM) boys studied
Latin: Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, and
Seneca
 Developed a vocabulary more
than 50,000 words
 His writing reveals a
knowledge of a wide variety of
subjects: Music, law,
seamanship, the Bible, military
science, the stage art, politics,
history, psychology, hunting,
woodcraft, animal husbandry,
and sports

3. ADULTHOOD
 At 18 he married Ann
Hathaway who was 26.
 Lord Chamberlain’s Men
 In 1592 and 1594, the
theatres of London were
closed by the plague.
 He wrote poetry; considered
himself a better poet than
playwright.
 His works have been
translated into more
languages than any book
other than the Bible

4. WILL IN THE WORLD
 By the late 1580‟s, he
was in London
 The city was a hotbed of
political intrigue
 London was, at the
time, the site of the
most potent literary and
political era in English
history

5. MEDIEVAL THEATRE
 Initially, theatre began
as an acting out of
„dramas‟ in religious
scripture
 These religious
performances
recreated events
such as the
Resurrection and the
3 Mary's coming to
seek the body of
Christ

6. MEDIEVAL THEATRE EVOLVES
 Into „mystery‟ plays, telling  Into „morality‟ plays, where
the cycle of creation history characters like Everyman
and performed by members interact with other allegorical
of guilds each year, often on figures and learn moral and
religious holidays, on spiritual lessons, often
„pageant wagon‟ sets pulled performed by clerks &
throughout the streets or in eventually professional
churchyards. actors in halls, innyards, and
other public spaces

7. THE MEDIEVAL THEATRE
 Thrived on stereotypical
characters called „vices‟ and
„virtues‟
 Did not know about
Classical, 5-act Greek
theatre
 Was overtly moral, to avoid
church & community censure
 Was suspect because actors
moved from place to place,
counterfeited other people‟s
identities, and didn‟t have
„estates‟

8. THE EARLY MODERN THEATRE
 True, modern theatre as
we know it today begins in
London, under the reign
of Queen Elizabeth I
 The first modern theatre
space was constructed on
the southern bank of the
River Thames in 1595,
and was christened the
Swan Theatre
 The image on the right
shows the Swan as it
looked in 1616

9. SHAKESPEARE & LANGUAGE
 English  Critical
language  Disgraceful
was rapidly  Dishearten
growing; new  Distrustful
words and
phrases  Dwindle
 Eventful
 No
dictionaries  Exposure
or grammar  Fretful
books  Gloomy
 Will coined  Lonely
many words  Misplaced
himself:  Recall
 Assassinatio
n  Monumental
 Courtship  Suspicious
 Critic

10. SHAKESPEARE THE PLAYWRIGHT
 Wrote a total of 36 plays
 Known for having
written:
 Histories: Henry IV
 Comedies: Much Ado
About Nothing
 Tragedies: Hamlet,
King Lear, Romeo &
Juliet
 He borrowed most of his
plots from other sources
and wasn‟t always
faithful to historical
accuracy

11. HIS AUDIENCES
 Audiences were enthralled by language
 An auditory – not visual – audience.
 Those who could pay more sat in the seats
surrounding the stage.
 The poorer crowd stood as “groundings” and paid a
penny for admittance.
 All social classes, attended the plays
 Playwrights had the challenge of keeping everyone
entertained.

12. SHAKESPEARE'S THEMES
Shakespeare‟s
crowd enjoyed
viewing:
 Supernatural spirits
 Instant madness
 Dueling tales of
monarchy‟s intrigues
 Powerful characters
in splendid costumes

13. ACTIVE AUDIENCES
 Shakespeare’s audiences
were active throughout the
performances
 The actors addressed the
audience, and members of
the audience often spoke
back
 Norrie Epstein claims that
“the average Elizabethan
yelled, hooted, snacked, and
chatted.”

14. ENVIRONMENT
History suggests
that play going was
most likely a smelly
experience
There were no
bathrooms
People relieved
themselves inside
People rarely bathed

15. THE THEATRE
 Awnings covered the
stage and gallery seats
 Not in the city of
London, but on the
south bank of the
Thames
 In 1574 public plays
banished from the city
by an ordinance for
“corruptions of the youth
and other enormities”
(opportunities for
prostitutes and thieves)

16. HOW WIDESPREAD WAS ACCESS TO
THEATERS?
 Around 1600, when both the Swan
and the Globe were full on summer
days, the total capacity of London
theaters was about 5,000 spectators.
The population of London was about
100,000
 London‟s total daily theater capacity
exceeded 10,000 after 1610; the
population may have been as much
as 200,000 then.
 In 1600, London citizens could
purchase admittance to the Swan or
the Globe for a penny
 So theater attendance was still
affordable to almost all of London

17. THE PERFORMANCES
 Performances took
place between two and
five in the afternoon
 Advertising of plays was
prohibited
 A raised flag and a
trumpet fanfare
announced the
beginning of the
performance
 A black flag meant
tragedy, a white flag, a
comedy; and a red flag,
history

18. THE REPERTORY SYSTEM: HOW SUPPLY
MET DEMAND
 The acting companies functioned on a repertory system; unlike modern
productions, the companies of this era rarely performed the same play for 2
days in a row. And they didn‟t have teleprompters.
 In the 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men, between Feb. 19 and June 23,
the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days.
They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play
twice in a week.
 They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular
play of the season, The First Part of Hieronimo,15 times.
 Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess ran for nine straight performances in
August 1624 before it was closed by the authorities - but this was due to the
political content of the play and was a unique occurrence.

19. THE PERFORMANCES
 Vendors sold beer,
water, oranges, nuts,
gingerbread, and
apples
 Up to 30 plays were
performed in 1
season
 Customarily, the
program changed
daily.

20. COULD YOU MAKE A LIVING AS A
PLAYWRIGHT?
 Theatre owner Philip Henslowe paid as little as £6 or £7 per play
during the Globe‟s heyday
 Most plays were written collaboratively
 Shakespeare produced fewer than 40 solo plays in a career that
spanned more than two decades
 He was financially successful because he was a shareholder in
the company for which he acted and in the theatres they used and
invested his earnings in real estate. He also collaborated on
plays.
 Few plays were printed because the acting companies held onto
them so they would continue to be profitable to perform; estimates
say a little over 600 plays were published in the period as a whole

21. THE GLOBE THEATRE
 In 1599, Shakespeare‟s
company, the Lord
Chamberlain‟s Men, opened
the Globe Theatre
 The Globe Theatre was built
by a carpenter called Peter
Smith together with his
workforce.
 They started building in 1597
and it was finished in 1598.
 Its nickname was the “Wooden
O”
 Fire broke out at the original
Globe Theatre on June 29,
1613
 The Second Globe Theatre
was built shortly after in 1614

22. Doors on
either side
of the stage
led
backstage
to the
‘tiring
rooms’
The “Pit”,
(dressing
where
rooms)
“groundlings”
watched for a
penny
The trapdoor or “hell”, The “discovery space,”
where actors could make which could be curtained This is called an ‘apron
surprise entrances off stage’ or ‘proscenium’

23. With the three
levels of covered
galleries and the
groundlings in
the pit, the
seating at the
original Globe is
estimated at
around 2500 -
3000 people.

24. Spectators could
also be seated in
the galleries above
the stage; these
were considered
very choice seats.
By the way, all the
columns are wood
painted to look like
marble.

25. As the pit
begins to fill
up before the
performance,
the actors and
audience could
interact.
This is a
performance
of Julius
Caesar.

26. The ceiling under
the stage cover is
called the “heavens”
and could
accommodate
pulleys and other
stage effects.

27. From the “hut”
above the stage,
other special
effects could be
used
A cannon shot
off from here
during a
performance of
Henry VIII in
1613 burned
down the
original Globe.
Oops.

28. THE GLOBE REOPENED IN 1997

29. PRIVATE, INDOOR PUBLIC
THEATERS
 Indoor theaters allowed all-
weather performances year-
round
 Often in old religious buildings
which were “liberties” in zoning
terms
 Shakespeare‟s company
leased the Blackfriars Great
Hall in 1608
 The King's Men "gott. . .more
in one Winter in the said great
Hall by a thousand powndes
than they were used to gett in
the Banckside."