The Elizabethan Stage

1. The Elizabethan Stage • Basic Information Theater • Audience Information • Physical Aspects of Globe • The Sets and Effects • The Actors

2. Basic Information • performed wherever they could find space, usually in court yards • First permanent theater • built in 1576 • outside of London • Built by James Burbage • named “The Theater”

3. “The Theater” Changed • 1599 “The Theater” moved across River • Moved b/c of raised rent • Renamed “The Globe Theater”

4. Audience Information • Audience stood; seats for only paying customers • Officials tried to close theaters due to “waste of time” • 1592-1594 London closed theaters to help not spread the plague

5. Physical Aspects of the Globe • “Wooden O” • open space - 65’ in diameter • surrounded by a circular building • 30’ high with 3 tiers of seats • stage 5’ high, 40’X30’ rectangle

7. Globe Theater

8. Globe Performance

9. Balcony Seats – The Globe

10. The Sets and Effects • Bare stage, but used flags, banners and musicians • actors lowered from heavens by cranes • Torches used to make night • Sound Effects- Cannon (sparks from cannon set fire to Globe and destroyed it)

11. The Elizabethan Actor • Fencing: Audience loved duels • Tumbling: Lots of movement • Dancing • Elocution: Words were very important • Acting: Many young boys played female roles with wigs and makeup • Music

12. ACTORS • All actors were male (played both roles) • considered “rogues, vagabonds, sturdy beggars, & common players”

13. Shakespeare’s Life • Lived 1564-1616 days of Queen Elizabeth • Greatest and Famous Playwright/poet • Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon • 1 of 8 kids

14. Family Life • 1582 he married Anne Hathaway. • 1583 first child born, Susanna • 1585 twins born, Hamnet and Judith

15. Shakespeare Married • His wife, Anne, was the daughter of a local doctor in Stratford. • This was Shakespeare and Anne’s home in Stratford.

16. The Playwright • Rival was Robert Greene • Was an actor for 20 years from 1585-1605 • 1594 Charter Member of Lord Chamberlain’s Men • 1603 Lord Chamberlain’s Men became the King’s Men

17. His Works • 154 sonnets, 37 plays, 2 book length narratives poems • Histories, Comedies, and Tragedies • Great Tragedies: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Romeo and Juliet

18. More Info. on Works • All plays written for Kings; paid $40 per play • His plays were published 7 years after his death • 1623 the First Folio was published-this is a collection of the supposed “true original copies” of Shakespeare’s plays

19. What Inspired him? • characters were REAL people (some historical people) • other plays and poems

20. Caesar Inspiration • (we’ll be reading parts of this play later!) • 1599 Julius Caesar was written; it was inspired by Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans

21. What was his Genius? • Understanding of the people • Commoners • Rich • Human nature • Skilled with words • Charismatic

22. Why does he appeal to us? • People are always quoting him. • “It was Greek to me” • “A sorry sight” • “In a pickle” • “To be or not to be” • “All that glitters is not gold” • “elbow room” • “downstairs” • “The long and short of it”

23. Appeal? • He is serious, funny, angry, ironical… • He does not make moral judgments • He captures in words and actions all the great problems that have tormented human beings throughout the ages. We take comfort in the fact that the hero has flaws and is not perfect.