Renaissance Theater

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Renaissance Theater

• Renaissance theater of the nobility was comprised
  of elaborate spectacles called masques.
• Masques were performed in the ballrooms of courts
  with elaborate scenery and costumes.
• No expense was spared.
• Stories were incidental.

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Renaissance Theater

• Before 1576 there were no formal theaters for the
  masses in London
• The inner courtyards of inns were used as
  theaters.
• A platform was placed over the watering troughs
  just outside the stables at one end of the
  courtyard. The spectators either stood in the
  courtyard or sat on benches on the balconies
  above the yard. This layout was the model for
  the later formal theaters.

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Renaissance Theater

• The first theater was called simply The Theatre
  and was built by James Burbage in 1576.
• Within a few years other theaters arose.the
  Curtain, the Rose, the Swan, Hope, Fortune, and
  most importantly, the Globe.

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Elizabethan Theaters
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Elizabethan Theaters
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Sketch of the Swan
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The Globe

• Opened in 1599 with Julius Caesar as one of its
  first productions.
• The plays were acted by the Lord Chamberlains
  men, later known as the Kings Men. Shakespeare
  was an actor in this company.

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The Globe
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The Globe
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The Globe

• Hexagon with an inner court about 55 feet across.
  
• Platform stage stretched halfway into this court.
• The audience either stood in the open courtyard
  -- the pit -- or sat in one of three
  semi-circular galleries.

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The Globe

• More than 1500 people could crowd into the
  theater.
• At the first level of the stage house were the
  platform stage and and inner curtained stage
  flanked by two doors.
• At the second level was another curtained inner
  stage fronted by two windows and a balcony.
• On the third level was a small music gallery.

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The Globe

• On the roof was a flag (flown when a play was to
  be performed) facilities for shooting a cannon,
  and over the platform stage a roof through which
  characters could be lowered by crane to the
  stage.
• With so many stage spaces, the multiple scenes of
  Shakespeares plays could be played without
  interruption for scenery changes. The action
  moved from one playing space to another.

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Other Playing Spaces

• There were private theaters at Blackfriars and
  St. Pauls.
• Masques were usually presented to the court in
  the Great Hall at Whitehall.