Playhouses
There were two different types of playhouse in London during Shakespeare’s time. There were outdoor playhouses, also known as ‘amphi theatres’ or ‘public’ playhouses, and indoor playhouses, also known as ‘halls’ or ‘private’ playhouses.
All outdoor playhouses had:
• A central yard that was open to the sky;
• A raised stage sticking out into the yard;
• A roof over the stage, which was called ‘the heavens’,although the first Rose theatre (1587-92) may not havehad one;
• A tiring house behind the stage with a backstage area,where actors dressed and waited to come on. Abovethis were lords’ rooms, rooms for storage, and a roomlevel with ‘the heavens’ to work the special effects from
• Galleried seating all around the yard, on several levels,which was roofed.
There were several differences between indoor and outdoor theatres. Indoor theatres were:
• smaller than outdoor playhouses, holding about 500
people, not thousands.
• built inside an existing building, so not open to the sky.
• more expensive (ranging from 6d to 2s and 6d),
compared with open yard standing (at 1d) as in
outdoor playhouses.
• lit by candles as well as daylight through the windows.
The Globe
Playhouses, like the Globe, were outdoor theatres – they had some covered seating, but the yard in the middle was open to the sky. Indoor theatres were inside a larger building, so had a roof. They were much smaller than outdoor theatres. Plays were performed in the round and the Globe was very large. Therefore, actors would have to be very loud in order to be heard as they didn't have any microphones. The design of this theatre was possibly adapted from the inn-yards that had been used for rehearsals. The building was a polygonal wooden building with three galleries that surrounded an open yard.The Globe was very expensive to construct by Elizabethan standards.
Actors
In this era, it was only boys and men who were allowed to become professional actors in England. Women were allowed to act in other areas of Europe, however this wasn't allowed in Shakespeare's productions. Women were not allowed to perform in public theatres until 1660. Boys would play all the female parts in shows while men would occasionally play the older women. While most women's roles were played by boys or young men in the all-male casts, occasionally some iconic or comedic female parts such as Juliet's Nurse may have been played by a particularly famous or popular actor.This seems very unfair as women are just as important as men in plays within today's society and I think we would struggle to cop without female actors. I find it strange that boys would have to play female parts as this would take away from the naturalism or truth within a performance. However, Shakespeare's plays weren't usually naturalistic so it wouldn't have been too odd at the time. There was a large variety of characters to be played and some actors were renowned for specializing in a certain type of part. This meant that William Shakespeare wrote some parts for a specific actor to portray. For example, Dogberry, in Much Ado About Nothing, was written for William Kemp because he was very good at physical comedy. Actors in Shakespeare's time also had to be skillful in fencing, dancing, singing and playing musical instruments in his plays. The costumes in Shakespeare's plays weren't usually historically accurate. Instead, they were very modern and designed to be aesthetically pleasing and impressive, especially for the leading parts. Costumes provided the essential wonder and were a key part of the plays. They were often second-hand clothes once owned and worn by royalty. I find this interesting as today we usually go for naturalistic costumes rather than aesthetically pleasing costumes. It doesn't seem anywhere as important now than it was in Elizabethan times. It seems extravagant and wasteful to spend so much money on costumes in my opinion. How much an actor earned depended on the location the company performed at. Companies earned more money when they performed in London rather than the country, therefore they were able to pay their actors more money. Some actors would be paid 10 shillings a week in London but only 5 shillings in the country. In some ways, this seems unfair as actors do the exact same job and get paid less money. However, I understand this as theatre was more popular in London, therefore plays probably received larger audiences and more money, therefore companies would be able to afford to pay actors more. Actors normally performed in the afternoon because they relied only on natural light to be seen as they didn't have the same equipment we have in today's society to chooses the amount of light we want. Plays were performed in repertory, meaning that the same play was never performed two days in a row. Often, actors would have to be in several plays at once playing several different roles which would have been very difficult and confusing for them.
Population
Life in Elizabethan England life was either very luxurious or the complete opposite; depending on whether you were born into nobility had a significant impact on what your lifestyle. Those who were born into nobility were wealthy and powerful members of society. They lived profligate lives and if they were close to the monarchy could enjoy all the benefits of court life. However this was only affected a small percentage of the population, 97% of the population lived in extreme poverty. Most people lived in old, damp and miserable cottages in the countryside with minimal possessions. They lived in an agricultural society where growing your own food was the only way you would be able to eat. During this period there was a shift in the economical/societal model as the mediaeval feudal system was adapting to a new hierarchical scheme based around trade and barter with goods from the newly discovered world were making their way into Elizabethan Britain.
Entertainment
In Elizabethan England, private entertainment didn’t exist. You were considered lucky if you had a court jester or a minstrel to sing you songs or tell you a story. The most common way to have fun was to entertain yourself. This meant that people listened a lot more; secrets and scandal were widespread everyone’s secrets were known. However there were constantly outbreaks of the bubonic plague which meant morale was low so the poor needed a way to lift their spirits, forms of entertainment that did this include: travelling actor troupes, banquets and feasts, festivals celebrating special events, social dancing, jousts and tournaments, hunting and of course plays. Most Elizabethan entertainment was public which meant there must have been a strong sense of community for these people.
Who came to the theatres?
In general, there were more men than women who went to the theatre, but there was a huge variation in the type of people who went. Somebody described the audience of a show as ‘a gang of porters and carters’. Other people said it wad filled with servants and apprentices spending all their spare time there. However, the wealthy and elite members of society also went to the theatre. Occasionally, the royal family also went to the theatre. However, they didn’t go to public theatres,instead they summoned a group of skilled actors to perform at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I. This happens in A Midsummer Night's dreams where the mechanicals perform for the duke. I find it interesting how William Shakespeare was often influenced by his surroundings and included these in his famous plays.
How much did it cost?
The cheapest tickets in an outside theatre were only 1 penny, these tickets bought you a place among the ‘groundlings’ standing in the ‘yard’ around the stage. Bench seats were two pennies and these were situated in the lower galleries which surrounded the yard. The most expensive seats were in the ‘Lord’s Rooms’. these seats usually cost around 6 pennies. The tickets to watch a piece of theatre were extremely cheap in comparison to today's society where tickets to see a west end show may cost around £80. This influenced why theatre was so popular and loved in Elizabethan times.
How did the audience behave?
Some of the rich or powerful members of Elizabethan society went to the theatre to be seen and admired rather than to watch and enjoy the show. They dressed in their best clothes and some people would sit on the stage so that they could be seen by everyone. A lot of people in the audience were very loud and rude rather than watching shows in silence like we do today. This suggest that people went to the theatre as a social event or for fun rather than purely to enjoy the performance. They clapped the heroes and booed the villains, and cheered the special effects. It seems strange that they cheered the special effects as this is so unheard of in today's society. However, cheering heroes and booing villains is still common, especially in pantomimes. The theatre wasn't always a pleasant environment due to a large number of thieves in the audience and occasionally fights broke out. In indoor theatres, the audience were thought to be more educated and richer than the audiences of an outdoor theatre.
What was London like?
London was quickly growing due to migration from citizens from rural countryside areas into the city. Between 1550 and 1600, the population grew from around 50,000 people to over 200,000. New buildings were being built everywhere in order to create room for the new people. Outside, the suburbs grew steadily into the countryside. London was a bustling, overcrowded city. The city was ridden with a large number of thieves and the overcrowding brought diseases such as the plague which struck almost every summer in Elizabethan times. In 1593 about about 10,000 people were killed and all the theatres were closed.
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