The Elizabethan Stage

Early Elizabethan Theaters

The First Permanent Theater

The Globe

The Globe’s Stage

The Sets

The Actors

The Audience

The Elizabethan Stage

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The Elizabethan stage was very different from the type of stage most common today—the proscenium stage.

The Elizabethan Stage

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Elizabethan Stage Proscenium Stage

Platform or “thrust” stage that extended into the audience area.

Inner stage that is separated from the audience by a large curtain

Simple or no sets Often have elaborate and realistic sets

Before permanent theaters were built, wandering acting companies set up stages—or platforms—in the courtyards of inns.

Early Elizabethan Theaters

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• The audience stood around three sides of the stage or sat in balconies surrounding the inn yard.

The first permanent theater in England was

The First Permanent Theater

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• built by James Burbage in 1576

• located outside the city walls of London

• called “The Theater”

The Globe Theater was built using the timbers from “The Theater.”

The Globe

• When Burbage’s landlord raised the rent and threatened to take over “The Theater,” members of Burbage’s company tore down the structure and stealthily transported the timbers across the river on the night of January 20, 1599.

Shakespeare’s greatest plays were performed in The Globe Theater. It

The Globe

• had an open area about sixty-five feet in diameter surrounded by a circular (or polygonal) building

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• had three tiers of seating

• was called the “wooden O” in Henry V

The Globe’s main stage

The Globe’s Stage

• had trapdoors in the floor

main stage

• was forty-by-thirty feet

• stood five feet off the ground

• projected into the courtyard

The Globe’s inner stage was

The Globe’s Stage

• curtained off

• flanked by two entrances

inner stage

• had an upper stage above it

upper stage

The roof above the stage was called “The Heavens.”

The Globe’s Stage

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• Actors could be lowered from the Heavens by cranes.

The Sets

A lioness hath whelpèd in the streets,And graves have yawned, and yielded up their dead;Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the cloudsIn ranks and squadrons and right form of war,Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;

from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare did not use realistic or elaborate sets.

• He “set” the scene with language and depended on the audience’s power of imagination.

• He could change scenes quickly and fluidly.

The Sets

Shakespeare did not use stage lighting because the plays were performed during the day in the open air.

• Actors carried torches to convey the idea of night.

The Sets

• elaborate costumes

• props—flags and banners

• special effects—actors appearing and disappearing through trapdoors

• sound effects—cannons and music

The destruction of the Globe Theater [End of Section]

Shakespeare did use

All actors were male in Shakespeare’s time. Female roles were played by professionally trained boy actors who

The Actors

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• wore elaborate and concealing costumes with long, full skirts

• wore elaborate wigs

• powdered their faces heavily

The audience at Elizabethan theaters

The Audience

• ate and drank before and during the performance

• arrived early, visited with friends, and moved around freely

• Playwrights had to write scenes that would capture the audience’s attention.

The Audience

• Actors used vigorous and flamboyant gestures and expressions and moved about the stage.

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