Overview of the Historical Context of Elizabethan Drama

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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• From 1594 to 1600, 2 companies of actors operated
  in London
• a) The Chamberlains Men (for whom Shakespeare
  wrote and performed)
• b) The Admirals 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.

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• 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)

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Elizabethan Playhouses

• It is customary to distinguish 2 major classes of
  permanent Elizabethan playhouse public
  (outdoor/open-air) and private (indoor)

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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

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Private (indoor) playhouse

• Smaller, rectangular, indoor theatres
• Maximum capacity 700 spectators
• Used exclusively by Boys 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