The Elizabethan Stage

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The Elizabethan Stage

• Drama During Shakespeares Day

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Can you imagine a play
performed outdoors in the daytime?
with part of the audience standing in front of
the stage for the entire production?
with male actors playing female roles?
with no background scenery?
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Early English Theater

• Before permanent theaters were built, wandering
  acting companies performed
• in the courtyards of inns or in other open areas
• on temporary platform stages
• with the audience standing around the stage or
  sitting in chairs on surrounding balconies

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The First Permanent Theater

• Built by James Burbage in 1576
• Located outside the city of London
• Called The Theater
• Dismantled in the middle of the night, moved
  piece by piece across the river, and rebuilt as
  the Globe in 1599

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Typical Elizabethan Theaters

• Theaters were three-story circular or polygonal
  structures with

• a courtyard open to the sky
• three tiers of seats for spectators

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Typical Elizabethan Theaters

• The stage jutted out into the yard.

• Groundlings stood in the yard to watch the
  play.

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Typical Elizabethan Theaters

• The gallery, or balcony, above the stage could be
  used as

• part of the play
• a seating area for musicians
• a seating area for wealthy spectators

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Typical Elizabethan Theaters

• The trapdoor in the front part of the stage could
  be used for

• burial scenes
• surprise entrances
• mysterious exits

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Typical Elizabethan Theaters

• The ceiling over the stage, the Heavens,
  contained another trapdoor. Actors could be

• lowered to the stage below
• flown over the heads of other actors

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Setting the Stage

• Acting companies did not use
• artificial lightingactors carried torches to
  convey the idea of night.
• scenery or realistic backdropsplaywrights set
  the scenes with descriptive dialogue.
• . . . Look, love, what envious streaks Do
  lace the severing clouds in yonder
  east. Nights candles are burnt out, and jocund
  day Stands tiptoe on the misty
  mountaintops. from The Tragedy of Romeo and
  Juliet by William Shakespeare

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Setting the Stage

• Acting companies did use

• propsflags, banners, swords, thrones, tables,
  beds
• special effectsactors appearing and disappearing
  through trapdoors, cannons firing
• sound effectsmusic, thunder
• costumesexquisite suits, robes, and gowns
  normally reserved (by law) for upper-class
  citizens and nobility

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Acting the Part

• In Shakespeares time, all actors were male.
• Female roles were played by boy actors, who
  concealed their gender by
• wearing long, full skirts
• wearing wigs
• powdering their faces

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Capturing the Audience

• Elizabethan theatergoers came from various social
  classes, including

• nobility
• wealthy merchants

• tradesmen
• commoners

• Playwrights had to include material to appeal to
  all classes.

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Capturing the Audience

• Elizabethan theatergoers were active and vocal.
  During a performance, they might

• eat and drink
• laugh and shout
• boo and hiss
• Actors had to move around, make grand motions,
  and speak loudly to keep the audiences attention.

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Not Everyone Loved the Theater

• Puritans, city officials, and others had low
  opinions of actors, plays, and theaters.
• They feared that playgoers would
• catch contagious diseases
• be morally corrupted
• They objected to
• suggestive or obscene language
• actors (commoners) wearing upper-class clothing
• scenes depicting rebellion

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What Have You Learned?
1. Most Elizabethan theaters were shaped more or
less like a. circles b. rectangles c.
diamonds 2. Audiences consisted of commoners
only. a. true b. false 3. Theater companies
used all of the following EXCEPT a. costumes
b. artificial lighting c. special effects
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The End