Venues, Audience, actors, playwrights, conventions Elizabethan Theatre Venues, Audience, actors, playwrights, conventions

Venues Theatrical productions held in many locations including Court (royal residences), universities (Oxford & Cambridge), churches, guildhalls, patrons’ homes. Construction of theater buildings started just before Shakespeare wrote his first plays, in the 1590s. Built outside the jurisdiction of the city of London (across the river) because civic officials were hostile theater & tried to abolish it. Shared the neighborhood with houses of prostitution and the theaters also staged bearbaiting and bullbaiting (in which the animals were killed in front of the audience.) Globe theater was open air and very large—big enough to hold about 2000 people crammed together. “groundlings” stood in the dirt in front of the stage & paid a penny; best seats cost sixpence Used costumes, but most no sets or props, although actors could enter from below (trapdoor) and above (pulleys from the roof).

Audience: Who came, what did they want and how did they act? Short answer: EVERYONE came (house servants to Kings and Queens) and acted Very Freely The “quality” had private boxes or bought a stool on stage; poor people stood in the dirt & trash below the stage It was rowdy, talking back to actors, snacking, hooting, chatting to friends Vendors circulated selling beer and snacks, which were sometimes thrown at the actors. No sense of “fourth wall”, so actors also talked directly to spectators sometimes No toilets, no intermissions (the place probably smelled) Shakespeare’s main competition: Companies exclusively of boy actors. (Choirboys: Children of the Chapel Royal, and Children of Paul’s Cathedral) and bearbaiting. Audience wanted high drama and familiar stories: Dramas, Histories (catering to rulers in the audience), and Comedies (Comedy = anything w/ happy ending, not about jokes necessarily) Not meant to be realistic

Actors’ Rules and expectations Actors without aristocratic patrons had the legal status of “vagabonds and sturdy beggars,” so had to become officially servants of some lord. Shakespeare’s company started as “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” until they became “The King’s Men” in 1603. Women forbidden on the stage, so boys played their parts Main actors were shareholders in the company, so they shared the ticket revenues & costs. No producer or director; actors determined how they would perform the play Minimal rehearsal, maybe a week to learn a part and lots of new plays all the time. A leading man might have to memorize 800 lines a day and performances were every day except Sunday Very fancy costumes, but almost no sets, and acting for 2-3000 people probably means some exaggeration Shakespeare and his shareholders did very well. About 10% of London’s population went to the theater.