The Elizabethan StageThe Elizabethan Stage

What Theaters Were Like What Theaters Were Like During Shakespeare’s TimeDuring Shakespeare’s Time

How It StartedHow It Started

Elizabethan Theater evolved from 2 Elizabethan Theater evolved from 2 things:things:

1.1. Religious Pageants (plays about the Religious Pageants (plays about the Bible) Bible)

2.2. Morality Plays (also called “the Morality Plays (also called “the mysteries)” these contained mysteries)” these contained characters characters

like like Death, Kindness, Virtue, Death, Kindness, Virtue, EverymanEveryman

The Actors

Those who acted in the

plays were not real actors:

they were groups of

acrobats, mimes, musicians,

and even working-class

people

Before there were theaters, plays took place in:

Hotel courtyards Town squares Village halls Fairgrounds

The Stage A bunch of boards were laid across barrels

to create a stage (where the phrase “treading the boards” comes from)

A curtain ran behind the boards, not in front of the stage

The stage was covered by a roof, but the rest of the theater was not

Plays were held during the day, because there were not lights

About the Theater

• Few props and little scenery were used

• Fantastic, elaborate costumes were worn

• Women were not allowed on the stage, so men performed their roles

• Disease often forced theaters to close for a while.

More About the Theaters:Overall Design The open air arena, called the 'pit' or the

'yard', had a raised stage at one end and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries with balconies overlooking the back of the stage. The stage projected halfway into the 'pit'

Design was similar but far smaller version (1500 -3000 crowd capacity) than the Coliseum of the Roman period (50,000 crowd capacity) allowing the maximum number if playgoers in the space available

Audience Capacity

• 1500 plus. Up to 3000 people would flock to the theatre and its grounds

What if I had to pee? Where’s the bathroom?

There wasn’t one . People relieved themselves outside. Sewage was buried in pits or disposed of in the River Thames.

Lighting and Heating

• Natural lighting as plays were produced in the afternoon.

• There was no heating. Plays were performed in the summer months and transferred to the indoor playhouses during the winter

The audience sat according to their rank in the society:

• GROUND LEVEL: The “groundlings” (or poor people) Seats cost 1 cent

• TEIR ONE: The lower class/Seats cost 2 cents

• TEIR TWO: The middle class/Seats cost 3 cents

• TEIR THREE: Upper class and Royalty/Seats cost 4 cents

How a Playwright Sold His Play

Writers proposed an idea for a play to a theater company

If the company manager liked the idea, he’d pay the writer to write the play

Sometimes, a manager would come up with his own idea and ask a playwright to turn it into a play

The going rate was 4 pounds per play ( about $700-$1000 of our money). Once sold, the play was the property of the company

Notes:

Theater came from 2 things: religious pageants and morality plays

Actors were not real actors: they were acrobats, mimes, musicians, and working-class people

Before there were theaters, plays took place in hotel courtyards, village squares, town halls, and fairgrounds

Notes:

Early stages were made by placing boards on top of barrels (“treading the boards”)

The curtain ran behind, not in front of, the stage

There was a roof over the stage Plays were held during the day, since

there were no lights

Notes:

Few props and scenery were used Women were not allowed on-stage, so

men played their roles Costumes were elaborate Disease often forced the theater to

close

Notes

The groundlings sat in the open area in front of the stage: “the pit”

Audience capacity was 1500+, although 3000 crammed in

There were no bathrooms Plays were in the afternoon to use the

sunlight No heat; plays performed in the summer

Notes:

People sat according to rank: ground level-groundlings (1 penny) tier 1-low class (2 pennies) tier 2-middle class (3 pennies) tier 4-royalty/upper class (4 pennies)

Notes

To sell a play, a playwright told his idea to a company

If the company liked it, they’d buy it Once bought, the play belonged to the

company If the owner of a company had his own idea,

he’d pay a playwright to write it The cost per play was about 4 lbs ($700-

$1000)