Overview of the Historical Context of Elizabethan Drama

1. Overview of the Historical Context of Elizabethan Drama • Dramas before the Renaissance period were confined within the church and later moved into the streets (strolling players). • These dramas focused mostly on biblical stories and staged on temporary/makeshift stage (plays were performed on carts that the players pushed around from village to village ) • The kind of temporary stage that was dominant in England about 1575 was the booth stage of the marketplace – a small rectangular stage mounted on trestles or barrels and ‘open’ in the sense being surrounded by spectators on 3 sides • The backdrop was a cloth, usually open at the top and served as the changing room for actors. • Before the Elizabethan period, there was no paying profession of writing and there were no specially-designed buildings for presenting plays until the last quarter of the sixteenth century.

2. A little bit more about strolling players • They were actors, tumblers, jugglers, all rolled into one: they performed plays, they walked on stilts, they juggled, they created slapstick scenes - anything to please, to entertain and, of course, to earn themselves not only applause but money on which to live. • At the end of their performance they called upon the audience to be generous and went round with their hats collecting whatever was thrown to them. • If their performance pleased the crowd they would be well rewarded; if they did badly they would not have much for supper that night. Life was pretty hard and rewards unreliable for actors.

3. Morality plays are likely to be performed in this manner

4. Morality play on a modern stage

5. From makeshift stage to great halls • More refined performances took place in the great halls of noblemen's houses, of the Inns of Court, or of Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. • In 1603 during the Great Plague, the King and his Court left London to stay at Hampton Court Palace and there Shakespeare's company performed their plays to entertain them.  • The Great Halls were, again, make-shift theatres and the Players would act in such places by invitation. • A screen would be erected at one end of the hall and behind it there would be room for the actors to dress; in front, they would perform their play. In general, these would be more serious performances, often in celebration of a special occasion.

6. Advantages and disadvantages of playing in the inns • Players were in no way responsible for their upkeep • In both Inn-Yards and the Great Halls there would be a ready-made audience • Players always had to rely on the hospitality of inn-keepers or of the noblemen and others who owned the Great Houses • They had no storage space, so they had to carry all their properties and costumes with them • The City of London authorities were hostile to them. Then as now, London was like a magnet and the Players in particular, were drawn to it since the population was such that they could perform the same play a number of times and still get an audience; furthermore, there was some prestige in playing in London; everybody who was anybody went to London to make his name

7. An example of a great hall in Kent

8. A need for a proper playhouse • Eventually the public appetite for drama became huge and playhouses were erected on the south bank of Thames, where most illegal businesses operated. • The London theatre scenario during the last years of the reign of Elizabeth was an exciting place since QE supported the activity. • Elizabethan plays are meant to be performed on a stage where the needs and reactions of an audience always to be considered (entertainment sake). • In a city of some 100,000 people, perhaps as many as 15 to 20,000 people attended the theatre each week, even though play were presented during mid-day, when practically everyone had to work.

9. From 1594 to 1600, 2 companies of actors operated in London: a) The Chamberlain’s Men (for whom Shakespeare wrote and performed) b) The Admiral’s Men. • Unlike their predecessors (strolling players), actors played in structured facilities i.e. theatres/playhouses • The theatres/playhouses were similar: large, octagonal buildings with 3 levels of spectators. • The stage was especially large (ampitheatre): a ‘thrust’ stage that projected out into an open area. • Cheapest seats (yard) at the front and spectators in this area did not sit. They only paid a penny and stood (2-3 hours) throughout the performance.

10. These people are called groundlings. They endured the sun, rain and snow because the playhouses were open at the top (open-air ampitheatre) • Only those who can afford to pay slightly more can sit under cover (in one of the 3 tiers) • The back of the stage for actors was called ‘tiring house’ (short for ‘attiring’) • Audience were large, excited, expectant, noisy, and demanding (unruly) • Plays had to entertain them, whether comedy or tragedy, or they became restless, disruptive, and even violent (even throw things on stage)

11. Elizabethan Playhouses It is customary to distinguish 2 major classes of permanent Elizabethan playhouse: ‘public’ (outdoor/open-air) and ‘private’ (indoor)

12. Public (outdoor/open-air playhouse) • Large, round outdoor theatres • Maximum capacity 3,000 spectators • Were found only in the suburbs (outside London) • Majority of spectators stood in the yard for a penny (groundlings = lower class) • The remainder sitting in galleries and boxes for 2 pence or more (middle class) • Audiences were socially heterogeneous, mainly drawn from the lower classes

13. Private (indoor) playhouse • Smaller, rectangular, indoor theatres • Maximum capacity 700 spectators • Used exclusively by Boy’s companies • Were found only within the city of London • Audiences tended to be better educated and of higher social rank (high class) • Plays usually catered for the eyes of the Queen or King in reign

14. Public Playhouses in London