Elizabethan Theatre

In Tudor England groups of strolling players toured the country performing plays. These plays were performed in barns and in the courtyards of inns. One of the most popular subjects of these plays was the story of Robin Hood. The English government did not approve of strolling players as it was worried that plays on subjects such as Robin Hood would encourage the people to become rebellious. nother fear was that strolling players were responsible for spreading diseases such as the plague. In !"#$ a law was passed banning strolling players from touring the country. The only actors allowed were those employed by noblemen. %uring the ne&t two years' Elizabeth gave permission for four noblemen to start their own theatre companies. However' actresses were not allowed to join. (omen)s parts had to be played by young boys. t first these theatre groups performed in the courtyards of inns. These inns could only provide seats for small audiences. Therefore' in !"## Robert %udley, Earl of *eicester' built a permanent theatre in *ondon for his group of actors. This venture was a great success and it was not long before there were several theatres in *ondon. +rices were low so most people who lived in *ondon could afford to go to the theatre. It cost only a penny to stand but it was e&tra if you wanted to sit down.

Elizabethan Strolling Players

,y !"-" over !"'... people a wee/ were attending plays being performed in *ondon theatres. There was now a great need for new plays to be written. The most important playwright of the period was (illiam 0ha/espeare . His first play' Henry VI' was performed in !"-$. In the ne&t eleven years twenty1three of 0ha/espeare)s plays were performed in *ondon. These included Richard III' Hamlet' Romeo and Juliet' The Merchant of Venice' King Lear' Macbeth' and Julius Caesar. 0ha/espeare also wrote several1plays about former /ings of England. +lays that showed wea/ and corrupt 2or/ist /ings such as Richard III were very popular with the Tudors. Elizabethan plays were often used as propaganda. 3or e&ample' a play called A Larum for London' that showed 0panish soldiers /illing innocent civilians in ntwerp' was performed many times during Elizabeth)s conflict with +hilip II in the !"4.s.
Elizabethan Theatre
Elizabethan theatre and the name of William Shakespeare are inextricably bound together, yet there were others writing plays at the same time as the bard of Avon. ne of the most successful was !hristopher "arlowe, who many contemporaries considered Shakespeare#s superior. "arlowe#s career, however, was cut short at a

comparatively young age when he died in a tavern fight in $eptford, the victim of a knife in the eye. %heatre had an unsavory reputation. &ondon authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres opened across the %hames in Southwark, outside the authority of the city administration. %he first proper theatre as we know it was the %heatre, built at Shoreditch in '()*. +efore this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen. A noble had to be careful about which play he allowed to be performed within his home, however. Anything that was controversial or political was likely to get him in trouble with the crown, Shakespeare After the %heatre, further open air playhouses opened in the &ondon area, including the -ose .'(/)0, and the 1ope .'*'20. %he most famous playhouse was the 3lobe .'(440 built by the company in which Shakespeare had a stake. %he 3lobe was only in use until '*'2, when a canon fired during a performance of Henry VIII caught the roof on fire and the building burned to the ground. %he site of the theatre was rediscovered in the 56th century and a reconstruction built near the spot. %hese theatres could hold several thousand people, most standing in the open pit before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the stage itself. %heatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. Women attended plays, though often the prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise her identity. 7urther, no women performed in the plays. 7emale roles were generally performed by young boys.

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre

Most people associate the Elizabethan Theatre with those built in a similar style to the Globe Theatre - the massive Amphitheatres but the natural development of the Elizabethan Theatre followed a logical progression:

The trolling !layers The licensed Acting Troupes The "nn-yards The Elizabethan Amphitheatres The !layhouses

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre - #andering Minstrels

$efore the %&''(s there were no such thing as a theatre in England) There were wandering minstrels who travelled from one town and castle to the ne*t+ some street players who entertained people at mar,ets and fairs- The troubadours+ strolling players and minstrels were e*pected to memorize long poems and these recitals were included in their repertoire-

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre - Acting Troupes

Many of the wandering minstrels+ or strolling players+ were viewed as vagabonds and had the reputation as thieves- The spread and fre.uent outbrea,s of the $ubonic !lague+ or $lac, Death during the Elizabethan era resulted in regulations restricting all people who travelled around the country - licenses were re.uired to travel- This led to licenses for entertainers- /icenses were granted to the nobles of England for the maintenance of troupes of players- The Elizabethan Acting Troupes were formed and the development of the Elizabethan Theatre moved on-

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre - The "nn-yards

Acting troupes had their patrons but the actors could ma,e additional money by playing to ordinary Elizabethans- The Elizabethan Theatre started in the cobbled courtyards of "nns+ or taverns - they were therefore called "nn-yards- As many as &'' people would attend play performances- There was clearly some considerable profit to be made in theatrical productions- 0ames $urbage was an actor+ who at one time would have played in the "nn-yards and + no doubt + negotiated a high price with the "nn ,eeper to perform on his premises- "t was the idea of 0ames $urbage to construct the first purpose-built Elizabethan theatre - it was called (The Theatre(-

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre - The (Theatre( and the Amphitheatres

This type of Elizabethan Theatre was based on the style of the old Gree, and 1oman open-air amphitheatres- (The Theatre( was to be the first of many - the Elizabethan Theatre had arrived) The Globe Theatre was constructed in this styleThis type of Elizabethan Theatre could hold an audience of up to three thousand Elizabethans) The money started to roll in) 2owever+ the profits dropped in the winter as people would not venture to the cold open arenas of this massive open-air amphitheatre style of architecture which was first favored in the Elizabethan Theatre- An indoor structure for an Elizabethan theatre was clearly re.uired---

Development of the Elizabethan Theatre - The !layhouses

The development of the Elizabethan Theatre moved on to indoor theatres which were called !layhouses- The Elizabethan theatre style of the playhouses were therefore used for many winter productions- Many of the playhouses were converted from the old coaching inns or other e*isting buildings - all productions were staged in the comparative warmth of the indoor design of the Elizabethan Theatre-

The Elizabethan Theatre To understand Shakespeare's plays, we need to appreciate the context in which they were first written and performed. The Elizabethan theatre was a thriving popular source of entertainment, with buildings, stagecraft and conventions there were no actresses, for example, and female roles were taken by boys! which were all ma"or influences on the texts created for them.
The playhouses

# copy of a drawing of a performance at the Swan Theatre, probably in $%&', by the visiting (utchman )ohannes de *itt is one of the very few contemporary documents which can help us visualise an Elizabethan playhouse. #s the scholar )ohn #stington observes, this is +the only 'eye,witness' view of the interior of a large Elizabethan playhouse we know of today. -t shows a large platform stage with doors and balcony at the rear, a stage roof carried on elaborate pillars rising from the stage, a playhouse flag and a trumpeter announcing a performance, and a yard and three,storey ring of gallery seating surrounding the performing area.+ +.layhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare's time+, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, /argreta de 0razia and Stanley *ells, eds., 1ambridge, 233$, p. $3$.! The foundations of the 4ose Theatre in 5ondon, which were uncovered during building work in $&6& and subse7uent archaeological work on the site, have been especially significant in supplementing what is known about Elizabethan theatres. -t can be calculated that a full house here would have held about 2,333 people, whereas the nearby 0lobe is believed to have held up to 8,333. /any would have stood in the open central court, while others sat, for a higher cost of admission, in three tiers of galleries. The raised stage was narrower at the front than at the rear, with a maximum depth of about five metres. *hilst this is the standard picture of the late sixteenth,century theatre, not every playhouse of the time conformed to this model. -n $'36 Shakespeare's company began to use the 9lackfriars playhouse as well as the 0lobe. This was located in a large medieval hall with a roof and windows. #n audience of perhaps '33 would have en"oyed a more intimate experience here, watching a drama gloomily lit by candles and torches. .erformances, however, were staged in the afternoons, "ust as they were in the outdoor theatres where performances seem to have begun at two o'clock. :ther spaces in 5ondon, such as the hall of the lawyers' /iddle Temple, were also used as venues for performances, and it is recorded that Twelfth Night was staged here in ;ebruary $'32. #ny such venue had to provide only a stage and a backstage 'tiring house' for actors to <at=tire themselves!, separated by a wall or curtain. #lmost all of the action could then be accomplished by moving the actors around, on and off a platform stage.
The players

#ctors in the Elizabethan theatre worked together in groups which often en"oyed the patronage of a nobleman. These groups shared investments in plays, costumes and the like! and such profits as were achieved, and they also trained new members. part of the recently,formed 5ord 1hamberlain's /en, which had an association with 5ord >unsdon, the 5ord 1hamberlain at ?ueen Elizabeth's court. The company 7uickly established themselves as one of the leading

groups in 5ondon, and were rivalled only by the #dmiral's /en, led by the actor Edward #lleyn. /uch of what is known about the operation of such companies is thanks to the survival of the papers known as the Diary of .hilip >enslowe, an entrepreneur associated with the #dmiral's /en. /embership of the 5ord 1hamberlain's company, for whom Shakespeare acted and wrote an average of two plays a year, brought the playwright profits both from the commercial activities of the company and from a share in the ownership of their playhouses. 9y $%&@ it appears that Shakespeare was one of six shareholders, along with 4ichard 9urbage. Aot only was 9urbage acknowledged as the leading tragedian of his time, but he was also the son of the builder of the first purpose,built playhouse in England, the Theatre, where the company performed until (ecember $%&6. 1ompanies had an extensive active repertory, and would fre7uently play five different dramas on consecutive days. +#t any given time during a season+, #stington observes with admiration, +a player would have to have been prepared to perform in nine or ten plays, knowing the lines for perhaps two or three roles in each play. Shakespeare wrote many of his plays while maintaining such a schedule+. +.layhouses, players, and playgoers in Shakespeare's time+, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, /argreta de 0razia and Stanley *ells, eds., 1amrbidge, 233$, p. $3@.! .lague outbreaks often forced the authorities to close the playhouses, especially during the summer months. This was the time when companies took to the road, travelling to Aorwich, 1oventry, 0loucester and many other towns throughout England. The first printed edition of Hamlet in $'38, for example, notes that it had been given in :xford, 1ambridge +and elsewhere+. # new season would begin in September, and in the following months the monarch's :ffice of the 4evels would select performances to be given at the court over 1hristmas. ;ew if any clues exist about the acting style of the Elizabethan theatre. *hile this lack may have been beneficial to subse7uent generations of players, who have felt no need to respond to an +authentic+ presentation, it is particularly frustrating to students of the age. *hat is known is that costumes were an essential component of the Elizabethan theatre, and were probably more significant than props, although key scenes would have demanded the use of a bed or a table. 9oy actors were dressed in lavish women's gowns to take the female roles, but all of the actors were colourfully and richly dressed. # $%&6 inventory of costumes notes the use of velvet, damask, %itle page from the first 9uarto edition of silk, and cloth of gold, with fur and metallic lace Hamlet, published in '*62. trimmings. 5eading actors, however, would have been expected to provide their own costumesB 4ichard )ones of the #dmiral's /en is recorded as

Cniversity 5ibrary, Ctrecht %he interior of the Swan %heatre in '(4*, from a copy of an original drawing by 8ohannes de Witt.