Shakespeare and His Theater

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Shakespeare and His Theater
Feature Menu
Shakespeare and His Theater Early Elizabethan
Theaters The First Permanent Theater The
Globe The Globes Stage A Performance at the
Globe The Modern Stage The Movies and Theater
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What Is Drama?
A play is a story acted out, live and onstage.
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Structure of a Drama
Like the plot of a story, the plot of a drama
follows a rising-and-falling structure.
Climax tension at highest point
Complications tension builds
Resolution conflict is settled, play ends
Expositionconflict is introduced
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Performance of a Play
Plays are meant to be performed. A play comes to
life in each unique performance.
Stage DirectionsPlaywright describes setting and
actions
InterpretationActors, directors, and designers
interpret these directions creatively
PerformanceAudience experiences the story
through the actors speech and actions
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Kinds of Plays
A play may be a tragedy, a comedy, or, in modern
drama, a mixture of the two.

• A tragedy depicts serious and important events
  that end unhappily.

• A comedy ends happily. Although most comedies are
  funny, they may also make us think and question.

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Tragedy
Most classical tragedies deal with serious
subjectsfate, life, and deathand center on a
tragic hero. Tragic heroes

• are usually noble figures

rebelliousness
ambition

• have a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads
  to their downfall

passion
excessive pride
Innocent heroes
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The Characters
Characters speech takes the form of

• Dialogueconversation between characters

• Monologuea long speech by one character to one
  or more other characters

• Soliloquya speech by a character alone onstage,
  speaking to himself or herself or to the audience

Asides
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The Characters
Aside Sometimes a character speaks to the
audience or to another character in an aside,
dialogue that is not supposed to be heard by the
other characters onstage.
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Shakespeare and His Theater
William Shakespeare wrote his plays to make the
best use of the theaters of his time. He relied
on language to

• set the scenes

• move the play fluidly from one scene to another

• entertain audience members from different
  backgroundsfrom commoners to wealthy merchants
  to royalty

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Early Elizabethan Theaters
Before permanent theaters were built, touring
acting companies performed

• in the courtyards of inns or wherever they could
  rent space

• on temporary platform stages

• to an audience who stood around the stage or sat
  in balconies surrounding the courtyard

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The First Permanent Theater
The first permanent theater in England was

• built by James Burbage in 1576

• located outside the city walls of London

• called The Theater

• torn down in 1599. Its timbers were used by
  Shakespeare and his company to build the Globe

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The Globe
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The Globe
Shakespeare wrote most of his plays for the Globe
Theater. The Globe Theater was

• a round (or polygonal) three-story building

• called the wooden O in Henry V

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The Globes Stage
The Globes main stage was a platform stage that

• projected into a yard open to the sky

• had trapdoors in the floor

main stage
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The Globes Stage
The Globes inner stage was

• curtained off

• flanked by two doors for entrances and exits

inner stage
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The Globes Stage
The balcony or upper stage could be used as

• Juliets balcony

• the high walls of a castle

• the bridge of a ship

upper stage
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A Performance at the Globe

• Plays were performed in the afternoon.

• No stage lighting was used.

• Very few setsscenery, furniture, etc.were used.
  Scenes were set by the playwrights language.

. . . Look, love, what envious streaksDo lace
the severing clouds in yonder east.Nights
candles are burnt out, and jocund dayStands
tiptoe on the misty mountaintops. from The
Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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A Performance at the Globe

• Plays were performed by all-male medieval trade
  guilds. Female roles were played by boys.

• Actors often wore elaborate costumes.

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The Modern Stage
Theater stages have undergone many changes since
Shakespeares time.

• Most theater stages today are proscenium stages,
  which have an inner stage and a large curtain
  that separates it from the audience.

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The Modern Stage

• Also common in universities and regional theaters
  is the arena or thrust stage, which is
  surrounded by audience members on three or four
  sides.

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The Movies and Theater

• Movies are a medium of images. Movie-goers
  generally want to see action, vivid scenery, and
  movement on screen.

• Plays are a medium of words. Play-goers generally
  want to watch the subtle development of conflicts
  among a small group of people in one setting.

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The Language of Shakespeare

• The words or diction that Shakespeare used in
  his day differ from the words we use today.
  Below are some of the words that you may
  encounter that are different today than they were
  when Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.
• loin line
• loffe love
• noting nothing.

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The Language of Shakespeare

• Shakespeare uses a wide variety of words in a
  differing order then we do today. Ordinarily, in
  present day English, the verb follows the
  subject, however, in Shakespearean writings the
  subject often follows the verb as seen in the
  example below.
• We say - Are you calling?
• Shakespeare said - Call you?

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The Language of Shakespeare

• Some of the verbs used in Shakespeares day ended
  in a different manner than the ones we use today.
  
• He does - modern       doth old
• She has - modern       hast old
• In Shakespeare's later plays these endings became
  less frequent

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• In modern English we say "I don't know" - This is
  what we call an auxiliary verb. It is often used
  in modern English in association with not.
  Shakespeare did not use these types of verbs as
  exemplified in the examples below.
• Modern - I do not know      
• Shakespeare - I know not
• Modern - What do you think?      
• Shakespeare - How think you?
• Shakespeare's language obviously did not use "do"
  in these two cases as does our language now.

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The Language of Shakespeare

• Shakespeare tended to use "are" or "were" rather
  than "have" or "had" in cases that deal with a
  past participle.
• Examples
• Modern - I am glad you have come
  Shakespeare - I am glad you are come Modern -
  people had stolen away Shakespeare -
  People were stolen away

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The Language of Shakespeare

• We tend to think of "thou" as simply being the
  antiquated version of "you," but Shakespeare used
  both forms
• "thou" was used to denote either familiarity and
  affection, or (if used inappropriately) contempt,
  while "you" was used for strangers.

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The Language of Shakespeare

• Example In Twelfth Night, Sir Toby suggests that
  Sir Andrew can insult Viola if "thou thou'st him
  some thrice"
• Example In Hamlet, Marcellus observes that
  Horatio has somehow offended the ghost it is
  possible that the offense comes from Horatio's
  useof "thou" "What art thou that usurp'st this
  time of night. . . By heaven I charge thee speak"

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The Language of Shakespeare

• Incidentally, "wherefore" is used here and in
  Juliet's famous query in the sense "why," not
  "where."
• Example Wherefore art thou Romeo?

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The End