The Globe Theatre

Katherine Wiley- Horn Lake High School

The Globe Theatre

• In 1599 when “The Theatre,” the first permanent theatre in England, was torn down, the wood was used for building The Globe Theatre across the Thames River from London in Southwark, a major entertainment area of the time.

The Globe Theatre

The religious leaders in London considered plays to be immoral so they were banned in the city of London. That is why the theater was built in Southwark.

The Globe Theatre

• The Globe Theatre was an open-air building with so many sides that it appeared to be circular.

• It held nearly 3,000 people.• Shakespeare called this theatre “the

wooden O.”• It was three stories high, with a large

platform stage that projected from one end into a yard open to the sky.

Interior view of The Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre• Laws prohibited theatre managers

from advertising, so to announce that a play was being staged they would

raise a flag and

play a trumpet

The Globe Theatre

• Different colored flags represented what type of play was being performed that day.

•

= history = comedy

= tragedy

The Globe Theatre• Plays were performed between two and

five in the afternoon when the sun would not be too bright and darkness had not yet fallen. WHY?

• NO ELECTRICITY!

• The roof of The Globe was made of straw and the middle of the building was open to the sky to allow the natural light in.

The Globe Theatre—aerial view

The Globe Theatre• A show would last about two and a half hours• There were no acts, but frequent intermissions• The end of scenes was indicated by “rhymed tags” or

a change in actors• There was little to no scenery, but there was elaborate

props and costumes to give reality—a prologue set the scene

• The stage was “set” by the language

The Globe Theatre• Because the theatre itself contained three levels,

actors utilized all three levels to help with scenery.

• Devices such as trap doors, scaffolds were used to produce scenery or make scenery or actors disappear (ex—trees, gods, ghosts, etc.)

• Because of the closeness of the stage to the audience, asides and soliloquies could effectively be used

The Globe Theatre

• People who paid the most money were seated in the balcony. Usually these were the people in the upper class—the Lords and Gentry

• People who paid a penny could stand at the front of the stage. These people were called groundlings and were usually from the lower class.

The Globe Theatre• Acting was not considered a respectable profession

for women• ALL of the characters in plays were played by men.• Female roles were played by young boys between

the ages of six and eighteen.• Because there were very few boys in Shakespeare’s

company at one time, there were very few women’s roles in Shakespeare’s plays and very few romantic scenes.

An Elizabethan actor had to be an expert in…

• fencing elocution

• tumbling acting

• dancing music

The Globe Theatre

• Shakespeare loved to put Queen Elizabeth and her family in his plays, but he had to be very careful—she had the power to behead him if she did not like what she read.

• He generally portrayed her and her family as the saviors of England

.

The Destruction of the Globe Theatre x 2

In 1613, a canon that was being used for special effects was fired during a performance and caught the roof of The Globe on fire. It burned to the ground.

It was rebuilt in 1614, only to be destroyed by the Puritans in 1643. They outlawed plays and attending the theatre, making it a crime punishable by seizure, whipping, and a fine.

The Globe TheatreA replica of the Globe was built in 1999, 400

meters from the site of the original. It was constructed using traditional materials, with very few modifications, so that it is as close to the original as possible.

Shakespeare: the Playwright• The Globe Theatre is the theatre where Shakespeare wrote

most of his plays.• He was inspired by other playwrights and their works

including Seneca, Plautus, Ovid, Plutarch’s Lives, Holinshed’s Chronicles, Italian plays, and Marlow’s plays about kings in Greece and Rome—he did not get ideas from his personal life or local London material.

• He wrote at least thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets.• He wrote easily to please his audience-

he was intuitively creative and made his characters real.

Things to Note about Shakespeare’s Style

• Use of Puns: humorous play on words indicating different meanings

• Use of Metaphors: comparing something in terms of something else

• Use of Conceits: whimsical, extravagant, fanciful ideas• Use of Soliloquies: somebody speaking to himself• Use of Asides: saying something to the

audience that other players cannot hear

• Use of Blank Verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter