Life in the Theater

By Caroline Hopkins, Rachel Carter, Taryn Scott, and Lauren Rzeszewski

Shakespeare

From Mrs. Adair’s English 1 L2 mod 04 class

Stage SetupUnlike today’s performances, plays in

Shakespeare’s time were much different. For example, there was basically nothing to hide the stage from the audience when they changed settings. When a setting changed, playwrights and directors had to be resourceful.

Stages in his time also had trapdoors, for times such as in the performance Hamlet, when the

Ghost had to appear in the first act.

Staging and Performance

Who could perform?Typically in Shakespeare’s time, only

one people of the male gender could be performers.

Boys would usually play the roles of women, but would typically play the parts of men when they grow older.

Staging and Performance (cont.)

Acting Companies In Shakespeare’s time, acting companieswere run in many different manners. For example, Philip Henslowe, the owner of

The Rose (a theater) would lease it to different acting companies.

He would be paid from their earnings and would act as the manager.

Business Within the Theater

Shakespeare’s status under the law was conditioned under the protection of patrons, some of which were the lord chamberlain and, after the accession of King James in 1603, the king himself.

“Common Players,” on the other hand, lacked patrons and were classed under the law as “vagabonds and sturdy beggars.”

Business within the Theater (cont.)

In London, theaters were built shortly before Shakespeare wrote his first plays in the 1590s. These theaters were two kinds: outdoor or public playhouses that could hold large numbers of playgoers, and indoor or private theaters for much smaller audiences.

Famous public playhouses were the Curtain and the Fortune built in Northern London; the Rose, the Swan, the Globe, and the Hope were located across south of London. They had to be built outside the jurisdiction of London because many civic officials were hostile to the performance of drama and repeatedly petitioned the royal council to get rid of it.

London Playhouses

The actors of Shakespeare's time performed plays in the great halls of royal residences such as Whitehall; Hampton Court; and Greenwich; in halls at universities like Oxford and Cambridge, and they also played in the private houses of great lords and civic officials.

During the outbreak of the Black Plague, some theaters were forced to close due to the contagiousness of said plague.

London Playhouses (cont.)

Shakespeare’s theaters were very different from today’s theaters. Unlike today’s theaters, Shakespeare’s theaters had open-air playhouses. Some of them were circular shape, except for a theater called “The Fortune” which is square in shape. These buildings are about 72-100 feet. These were known to hold two or three thousand people at a time. 

Inside the Theaters

The empty space around the stage was called the “yard” and the ceiling was known as “the heavens”. After about 1608 Shakespeare’s plays went a little more known and were performed in a private theater in Blackfriars. 

Something interesting: Hazelnuts were a very popular thing to eat while watching Shakespeare’s plays, and Archaeologists have found hazelnut shells around the same area of where the theaters were found.

Inside the Theaters (cont.)

"Shakespeare's Theater-Folger Shakespeare Library." -Folger Shakespeare Library. Folger         Shakespeare Library, n.d. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. <http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-      Shakespeare

Work Cited