Week Four-Theatres, Actors and Acting in Shakespeare's time.

WEEK 4 - THEATRES, ACTORS AND ACTING IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

QUESTION: What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? 

There were two different types of theatre during the Elizabethan era; there were outdoor theatre (amphitheatres/public playhouses) and indoor playhouses (halls/ private playhouses)

Indoor playhouses were smaller than outdoor playhouses with a capacity of around 500 rather than the thousands that could view outdoor theatre; they were open to the public but charged an entrance fee ranging from 6d to 2s and 6d rather than the 1d paid for standing in the yard at outdoor playhouses. The first permanent indoor playhouse was st Pauls in 1575; however until 1609 only boy companies really played in indoor theatres and they only performed once a week rather than every day like the adult actors. Indoor theatre was attended by more educated people due to the cost and the plays included more music and props, they were wordier than action filled. The stages of indoor theatre were smaller than that of outdoor theatre, about half the size, there were seats on stage called stools where the rich sat to watch the plays and also to be seen by audiences, this meant there was less space for the actors to perform, which was another reason the plays performed in indoor theatre was less action filled. The plays were lit by candlelight and some natural light form windows rather than just natural light, this meant there would be small breaks regularly during the play for candles to be replaced and trimmed.

Outdoor playhouses had a central yard open to the sky to let natural light in, the stage then came out into the yard and was like a raised platform. There was then a roof over the actual stage area called the heavens, there was an area behind the stage called the tiring house where actors dressed and waited to come onto the stage above this was rooms for storage and aces to a room level with the heavens to work special effects from. There was then seating all around the yard on several levels that was roofed.

Most playhouses were built of a brick base and timber walls, the roofs were then thatched or tiled. They were built by businessmen who saw the opportunity to make money from theatres as they were rising in popularity, the companies that were then leased the theatres gave the owners a share of usually around half the income.

The first playhouse was built in 1567 and was called the red lion just outside the city walls; there isn’t much evidence of how successful it was however due to more playhouses being built afterwards we can assume it did reasonably well. In 1576 brayne who built the red lion also built the theatre with help from James Burbage, after this more theatres were built and companies also performed in the yards of inns. The playhouses were popular however officials didn’t like them as they thought the caused disruptiveness and attracted undesirables such as thieves, this is why most playhouses were built just outside of the city walls so officials had no power over them, the south bank of the river (where the globe was eventually built) was outside of the city walls and already had entertainments such as taverns and brothels so people were already going to these areas form entertainment.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed at the globe theatre built by Shakespeare’s company the chamberlain men, the company had previously played at the theatre owned by the Burbage’s (Richard Burbage was the companies leading actor) however the land it was built on was leased and the owned refused to renew the lease in 1597, the burbages could afford to lease a new site so they offered five of the chamberlain men including Shakespeare to become part owners of the new theatre for £10 each. They agreed and leased land on the Southbank near the rose theatre. The timbers of the theatre had been saved and stored by a builder on the north side of the river, when the weather got better he transported this across the river to the Southbank, this was a good place for the globe as it was outside the city and people already went to Southwark to be entertained. They used the cheapest materials to build the globe as they were struggling for money. The original globe the opened in 1599 and was a major success. The original globe burnt down in an hour in 1613 due to a cannon being shot during a performance of Henry VIII , however it was soon rebuilt in the exact same spot however with better materials as the company now had money.

Costumes were not historically accurate in the plays, they wore more elaborate clothes often second hand from actual Nobel men, the stage often didn’t have many props apart from what was absolutely necessary such as thrones and graves exits and entrances were in plain view of the audience however there were some special staging features with people descending from the heavens on cord and rising from below stage or ‘hell’. Special effects were also created by using drums offstage for thunder.

QUESTION: Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?

During Shakespeare’s era most roles were played by men, women’s role were played by younger boys however some of the more comical women’s roles would have been played by clowns as women were not allowed to perform in England until 1660 nowadays women generally play women’s roles so this is different to what it would have been like in the Elizabethan era. The actors had to be very athletic and well rounded, they needed to be able to fence on stage, sing/play instruments and dance, this isn’t a thing that is expected of actors now however they are all skills that actors could still use.  Boys who wanted to become actors started at a young age and joined companies and were trained by more experienced actors. The actors mainly worked in London as this is where the large playhouses were however they did also go on tour to other places in the uk and also in Europe, there were things called shareholder systems where actors that were part of a company earned more than hired men and also shared the costs of running the company and profits, you were likely to make more in London which is another reason most actors were based in London. The companies varied in size, a wealthy company could have 8-12 senior actors (the sharers) 3-4 boys who were training and playing women’s parts. Then there were stagehands and tiremen who helped actors change backstage and then some musicians.  There was no such thing as copyright in the Elizabethan era so to stop people plagiarising scripts actors would be given only their lines and their cue lines, this would have been difficult as they wouldn’t of known what else was going on in the play. Theatre was often performed during the day as the use of elec5ticitywasnt available so the actors relied on natural lights, lighting in modern theatre is helpful to set atmosphere so this made the actors jobs harder as they had to portray what time of day it was/ what the weather was like in the play. The experience of an actor was different as the way that theatre was set up in the Elizabethan era was different to modern day, they didn’t have as much technology so found other ways to deal with issues.