The Renaissance Theater

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The Renaissance Theater
Feature Menu
Forerunners of Renaissance Drama The First
Theaters The Globe Structure of the Globe
A Performance at the Globe Music Most
Eloquent Varying the Venue
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Forerunners of Renaissance Drama
Miracle and Mystery Plays

• probably evolved from church ceremonies, such as
  the dialogue songs performed at Easter Eve
  services

• taught saints legends and Bible stories

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Forerunners of Renaissance Drama
Morality Plays

• started in the 1300s and 1400s, when drama moved
  out of the churches and into the marketplaces of
  towns

• dramatized the history of the human race as set
  forth in the Bible

• gradually became less religious and began to
  incorporate comedy

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Forerunners of Renaissance Drama
Interludes

• One-act plays that started around the early 1500s

• Some very similar to morality plays, others rowdy
  and farcical

With the introduction of interludes, playwrights
stopped being anonymous.
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The First Theaters

• In 1576, James Burbage built the first public
  theater in Englandthe Theaterin a northern
  suburb of London.

• Later came the Curtain, the Rose, the Swan, the
  Fortune, the Globe, the Red Bull, and the Hope.

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The Globe
The Globe is the most famous of the public
theaters because the company that Shakespeare
belonged to owned it. Many of his plays were
performed at the Globe first.
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Structure of the Globe
The Globe was a wooden, three-story
buildingprobably sixteen-sidedwith a spacious
yard in the center.
It had three main parts

• the building proper

• the stage

• the tiring house (backstage area)

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Structure of the Globe
Wheres the Audience?
The main part of the building housed three levels
of gallery seating.
For a lower cost of admission, spectators could
stand in the yard and be groundlings.
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Structure of the Globe
The stage jutted halfway out into the yard.
Notice how close the actors are to some of the
audience members. Groundlings would pay a penny
to stand on the ground area.
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Structure of the Globe
The Tiring House
The tiring house was a backstage area that

• housed machinery and dressing rooms

• provided a two-story back wall for the stage

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A Performance at the Globe
The actors were highly trained They could sing,
dance, wrestle, fence, roar, and weep.
Scenery was kept to a minimum, but costumes and
props could be elaborate.
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A Performance at the Globe
Setting the Scene
Often, instead of seeing a lot of scenery, the
audience would hear the scene described.
Try to picture the scene this character is
describing
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A Performance at the Globe
Setting the Scene
Lets say a forest setting was called for

• There would be no painted scenery imitating real
  trees.

• Instead, a few bushes might be pushed onto the
  stage, and the actors lines would take care of
  the rest.

In As You Like It, Rosalind simply looks around
and announces, Well, this is the forest of
Arden.
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A Performance at the Globe
Spectators put their imaginations to work and
enjoyed all the sensational effects.

• The stage had a trapdoor, which everyone imagined
  led down to Hell.

• Spooky witches and devils would emerge and
  descend through the trapdoor.

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A Performance at the Globe
The ceiling was painted with suns, moons, and
stars and was considered the Heavens.

• The Heavens had a trapdoor, too.

• Angels, gods, and spirits could be lowered
  through the trapdoor on a wire and even flown
  over the other actors heads.

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A Performance at the Globe
From the curtained area on the back wall . . .

• performers could be discovered and emerge onto
  the stage

• large props (thrones, beds, and so on) could be
  pushed onto the stage

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Music Most Eloquent
Renaissance theatergoers expected to hear music
during the play.
Trumpets announced the beginning of the play as
well as important exits and entrances.
Musicians sat in the gallery and played between
acts.
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Music Most Eloquent
Shakespeare included a variety of songs in his
playssad, happy, comic, thoughtfuland they were
all fresh and spontaneous.
A song could

• advance the dramatic action

• help establish the mood of a scene

• reveal character

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Music Most Eloquent
Most of the original music for Shakespeares
songs has been lost, but the songs have been set
to music right up to the present.
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Varying the Venue
Acting companies also performed in

• the great halls of castles and manor houses

• indoor, fully covered theaters in London, such as
  the Blackfriars

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The End
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Structure of the Globe
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Structure of the Globe
The back wall contained a gallery above and a
curtained space below.
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Varying the Venue
The Blackfriars

• In 1608, Shakespeares company acquired a private
  theater called the Blackfriars.

• The Blackfriars was entirely roofed over and had
  artificial lighting.

• The company could put on plays all year long,
  increasing profits for shareholdersincluding
  Shakespeare.