Elizabethan Theatre

Elizabethan Theater English drama came into existence during the reign of Elizabeth 1, developing into a sophisticated and very popular art form. Before the reign of Elizabeth 1, theater companies traveled about the country performing plays whenever and wherever they could find an audience, or they would perform in courtyards of inns. Spectator would watch plays either from the ground or from balconies or galleries above. James Burbage was the name of an actor who constructed England’s first playhouse. When Shakespeare was twelve years old, an actor named James Burbage built London’s first theater just beyond the city walls in Shoreditch, which he simply named “The Theater”. In 1597, the city fathers closed down the theater. In late 1598, Richard Burbage, the son of James Burbage and his men, dismantled it and hauled it in pieces across the Thames to Southwark. It took them six months to rebuild it, and when they eventually did they renamed it the ‘Globe‘. Scholars disagree about what the Globe actually looked like, since there were no surviving drawings or descriptions of it. William Shakespeare refers to it as ‘the wooden O,’ so we have a sense that it was round or octagonal. It was of importance that the theater had a lot of space for plays as well as sporting activities. The building had to be small enough that the actors could be heard. It is said that performances usually draw an audience as large as 2,500 to 3,000 people. The houses were uncomfortable at times because people didn’t bathe or change their clothes very often in those days. People who paid the entrance fee of a penny would usually stand. Some would sit behind performances and this was classed as the second most seat in the house although they only saw the backs of the actors and probably couldn’t hear well either. In those days actors had no technological assistance like modern actors. There were no sets or lighting at the Globe. Plays were performed in the bright afternoon sunlight, and a playwright’s words alone had to create the mood. The first Globe met its demise in 1613. This occurred when a cannon was fired as part of a performance of Henry VIII and ignited the theatre’s thatched. Everyone escaped unharmed, but the Globe burned to the ground. Although it was rebuilt, the Puritans had it permanently closed in 1642. Almost four centuries later after the original Globe was demolished it was later rebuilt. After long years of fund-raising and construction, the theater open to its full season on June 8, 1997, with a performance of Henry V.
Elizabethan Drama　 During the late sixteen century, Elizabethan drama came into full bloom. Playwrights turned away from religious subjects and began writing more sophisticated plays. Drawing on models from ancient Greece and Rome, writers reintroduce tragedies. Dramatists also began writing their plays in carefully crafted unrhymed verse, using rich language and vivid imagery.
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, northwest of London. Shakespeare’s father, John, was a successful glove maker and businessman who held a number of positions in the town government. His mother, whose name was Mary Arden, was the daughter of his father’s landlord. No written evidence of Shakespeare’s boyhood exists. However, given his father’s status, it is highly probable that he attended the Stratford Grammar School. His attendance at the grammar school from ages seven to sixteen would have provided him with a good education because discipline at school was strict and school hours lasted from 6a.m to 5p.m. At the age of eighteen, Shakespeare married twenty six year old Anne Hathaway, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585.Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596. By 1594, Shakespeare became part owner and the principal playwright of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, one of the most successful theater companies in London. In 1599, the company built the famous Globe theater in Southwark. This is where most of Shakespeare’s plays took place. When James 1 became king in 1603, following the death of Elizabeth 1, he took control of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and renamed the company “The King’s Men.” In about 1610, Shakespeare retired to Stratford, though he continued to write plays. On April 23, 1616, he died and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first published edition of his work, called the First Folio, was issued in 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell. Shakespeare’s varied output includes romantic comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You Like It; history plays such as Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; tragedies like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth; and later romances like The Tempest. In addition to his plays, he wrote 154 sonnets and three longer poems.