Actors• All actors were males• Actors had to have 3 skills:

– Fencing/Combat

– Dancing

– Good Voice

• Actors had 3 Demands from the audience:– Murders and bloody scenes

– Certain poetry forms

– Loud and clear speaking

• Had many expectations: Performing many roles at once, having a good memory, and being active and athletic

• They were held in disrepute at times. They were lumped together with unsavory groups; “Rogues, vagabonds, sturdy beggars, and common players.”

Scenery/Setting/Props• Scenery: Little scenery, depended on

audience’s imagination.

• Setting: Outside during daytime, in “The Globe”

• Props: Elaborate costumes, flags and banners, swords, trap doors, and sheep

blood

The Globe

• Built in 1599• AKA “the wooden O”• stage projected into a round courtyard• Audience sat in three tiers in a circular building

surrounding the courtyard.• Main stage had an smaller inner stage with

another stage above it• Burned down in 1613• Shakespeare’s most famous plays were

performed there

Shakespeare’s Life

• William’s birthday is celebrated on April 23 (1564)• 1 out of 8 children• Went to the local grammar school for boys• 1582: married Anne Hathaway• 1583: 1st child born (Susanna)• 1585: twins were born (Hamnet and Judith)• Went to London to seek future and became actor and

playwright in 1592• Retired in 1612• Died on April 23, 1616

Elizabethan Theater/Audience• Acting companies sat up stages in

courtyards and inn-yards.• The stages were simple, allowing the

audience to feel like a part of the action.

• All of the stages also consisted of a large velvet curtain.

• The Audience could either stand around the three sides of the stage or for a price they could sit in balcony seats.

• The Audience could eat, drink, and mingle during the plays.

• Elizabethan Audiences enjoyed graphic fights.

• John Burbage created the first permanent theater in 1576 called “The Theater.”

Poetic Style

• Unrhymed IAMBIC PENTAMETER- an unstressed syllable follows a stressed syllable five times in a line. There is a weak beat and a strong beat.

Duh-DUM Duh-DUM Duh-DUM Duh-DUM Duh-DUM

• End-Stopped Line: Lines ending with a punctuation mark.• Run-on Line: Lines not ending with a punctuation mark. • Blank Verse: A verse that duplicates natural rhythms of English

speech.