Elizabethan theatre

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Elizabethan theatre
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Elizabethan theatre

• The globe theatre was where William Shakespeare
  performed his plays. When there was a play to be
  performed that day, they raised a flag at the
  globe theatre, telling everyone to come on down
  and watch. The globe theatre was built originally
  in 1599

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Elizabethan theatre

• It was built in London on the west side of the
  London bridge in a very shady part of town, full
  of prostitutes and pick-pockets. It performed
  many plays until in 1613 an accident with a
  cannon (used for special effects) started a fire
  and burned the roof down during a performance of
  King Henry VIII.

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Elizabethan theatre

• The Globe Theatre was a circular, wooden
  building that was several stories high. Wealthy
  people sat in boxes on the upper stories around
  the perimeter of the Globe while poorer people
  stood on the ground in the middle, hints the name
  groundlings.
• (if anyone remembers griffin groundlings)

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Elizabethan theatre

• William Shakespeare was the most influential
  playwright of the era writing a grand total of
  154 poems and 37 plays. Among the most notable of
  these are sonnet 18, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet,
  Othello, and The Tempest.

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Elizabethan theatre

• Shakespeare wasnt the only popular playwright
  in the Elizabethan era, one of his lead
  competition was Christopher Marlowe, who died
  early due to a knife in the eye at a bar fight in
  London.

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Elizabethan theatre

• Because women had little rights in this time
  period, only men were allowed to be onstage, so
  back then, all of the female parts were played by
  young boys, because they were slightly feminine
  looking and had a high pitched voice like a woman.

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Elizabethan theatre

• Actors during this period only had a day to
  memorize their lines, with no que cards or
  anything and performed multiple plays in a year.
  This must have been incredibly difficult for
  actors in long plays such as Macbeth and Hamlet.

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Elizabethan theatre

• The crowd wasnt exactly the nicest either. It
  was perfectly acceptable to be loud and rowdy, as
  well as criticize and throw food at the actors.
  Anyone who dropped a coin in the box was able to
  come in, often prostitutes worked the crowd
  inside of the Globe.

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Elizabethan theatre

• People had to be very careful about which plays
  they decided to host and write because they could
  be put to death if it was against the king and
  queen of England, although Shakespeare believed
  that it a poets duty to write exactly whats in
  your heart.

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Elizabethan theatre

• Theatre was almost shut down at the end of the
  Elizabethan era, Puritans, extremely strict
  protestants, shut down all the theatres in London
  and tried to have it banded for good around 1644.