Globe Theatre Research Paper

920 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Elizabethan theater shakespeare and the globe

Charlie Sniezek
Justin Parlette
Globe Theatre Research Paper
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Did you know that the Globe Theatre’s motto was “Totus mundus agit histrionem” meaning “The whole world is a playhouse?” The reason the Globe Theatre was so important was because Shakespeare’s plays were performed there. It opened in 1599 and destroyed in 1644. This theater was an important historical building with important history within it. The Globe Theatre was a very important building during its time, and it continues to be to this day. To get the whole story of why this is such an important and historical building, you have to start before it was even built. In 1576, a man by the name of James Burbage created the first playhouse near the …show more content…

It had a very strange shape and layout. The Globe Theatre was, oddly, a twenty-sided building. It was said to be over 40 feet tall, 100 feet in diameter and 300 feet in circumference. Inside, there are three levels for the wealthier guests watching the play. The less wealthy people watched from the ground level also known as the “yard.” It was an open air theatre so if it rained the playgoers would get rained upon. Admission for the theatre was one penny per person. To be seated in the first level or gallery, you would need to pay another penny for a total of two pennies. For every level, it would cost the playgoer another penny and so on. The best seats in the whole theatre were named the Lord’s Room. The people seated in the Lord’s Room would be accompanied by musicians. It was provided with cushioned seats. The people sitting there were able to hear the actors clearly. The only downfall was that they had a poor view of the actors. The maximum capacity for the theatre is from about 1500-3000 people. There was no heating or lighting in the theatre neither was there toilet facilities. The stage was five feet high, 20 feet long, and 45 feet wide. On the stage, there are two large pillars supporting the roof called the Heavens. The Heavens was used as a place for the actors to hide for dramatic entrances, and it was where ropes and rigging were kept for special effects. Behind the pillars is the backstage wall named the Frons Scenae. The Globe Theatre was a very unique building with lots of amazing architecture within

Show More
Related

  • The Causes Of The Iroquois Theater: Theater Fire

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theatre had three audience levels. The main floor (known as the "orchestra" or "parquet") was on the same level as the Foyer or Grand Stair Hall. The second level (the "dress circle") and the third level (the "gallery") were accessed through broad stairways that led off the foyer. The backstage areas were unusually large, with dressing rooms on five levels, an uncommonly large fly gallery (where scenery was hung), and even an elevator available to transport actors down to the stage level. The Iroquois was Chicago's newest and most polished theater, built by architect Benjamin Marshall, who had studied many fires over the years and had tried to make this particular building as safe as possible. The Iroquois was designed in the image of a famous Paris opera house, and the four-story structure contained elaborates stained glass windows and polished wood. The lobby of the Iroquois had a sixty-foot high ceiling and marble walls, and Marshall had put in as many as twenty-five exits that supposedly would allow a capacity crowd to escape any problems in less than five minutes. A curtain made of asbestos was supposed to be present, one that could be lowered from above the stage to protect the audience in case of a fire that started there.

    Read More

  • The Private and Public Leisure Activities of Pompeii and Herculaneum

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    There were two theatres at Pompeii used for a variety of purposes. One of these includes drama performances. The two theatres held a large number of patrons. The largest held 5000 people while the smaller once called the Odeon held approximately 1500 people. The types of performances that where held were usually tragedies, comedies and farces. They took place in the larger theater usually during religious celebrations and in celebration of achievements.. The larger theatre was designed for comfort in mind with facilities for an awning on days that where very hot. Historians including Paul Zanker and Richard Beacham suggest that the theatres of Pompeii were as much as a political venue then a entertaining one. Entry was free in the theatre but social class assigned seating. The lower social class sat in the back of the theatre while the upper class sat at the front where the best view was. The smaller theatre known as the Odeon was ...

    Read More

  • At the Heart of the Globe Theatre

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theatre can hold up to 1500 and more people, so each performance is in front of a huge audience. Many members of the audience can watch from the grounds directly in front of the stage. Up to 3000 people can stand there to be exact.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Charles Busch's Play 'The Divine Sister'

    1334 Words  | 3 Pages

    Your ticket told you which seat you were to be seated in, and the was also a person that would direct you to the right seat. The seats were comfy, but the rows were awfully close to each other leaving little leg room. The theatre was at a perfect temperature; it wasn’t too hot or cold. The acoustics of the theatre allowed the actors’ voices to be very audible at all times of the play. Immediately when the play began with an announcement for the Pope to hopefully come and see this play, the audience started laughing. The audience was filled with other theatre students and friends of the people in the play, and also some elderly there to enjoying a comical evening. Everybody in the audience despite their differences were laughing in unison at all the hilarious scenes. I have to admit there was multiple times where I was dying of laughter.

    Read More

  • De La Guarda Villa Villa

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the moment an audience member enters the theatre, he is welcomed with refreshments and waits in the basement until an usher calls the audience to come upstairs to the main performance area. Since the tickets purchased for the show say “General Admission,” there are no assigned seats and the audience is left standing in a large dark square room, with four black walls and a white ceiling. The once empty room becomes filled with people waiting for the show to begin. Ushers remain in the room to guide the audience to move from one area to the next because the performers may need room to perform later in the show.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theatre

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The original Globe theater, built in 1576, was actually just called "The Theater" and was

    Read More

  • Act One, Scene Five of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

    1862 Words  | 4 Pages

    Like all the plays of Shakespeare, 'Romeo and Juliet' was written for a typical Elizabethan playhouse. These theatres came about from 1576, when the first theatre was built. Before this time, plays had been performed by a group of actors (all male) who travelled from town to town, using open places, such as inn-yards, or with permission, the hall of a noble house as a theatre. Shakespeare's own theatre the Globe was quite typical of that period. It was hexagonal in shape, with three roofed galleries that encircled an open courtyard.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater, Home of Many of Shakespeare's Plays

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    The structure of The Globe Theater quite complicated. There isn’t an inside picture of the Old Globe Theater existence just a diary composed together with sketches of the interior layout. Pictures of other theaters such as The Swan and the Elizabethan theaters had similar design. Before entering the Globe Theater the audience paid a fee of one cent in the box to watch. The halfway task structures lead to yard where groundlings to watch the play. The Lord’s room rated the best seats in the house. The Lord’s room able to hear and listen to the actors clearly. The upper class paid five pennies and cushioned seats were supplied. The Heavens, ...

    Read More

  • Elizabethan Theater

    621 Words  | 2 Pages

    Actors were expected to memorize hundreds of lines at a time. While one play could be performing, actors would be practicing lines for their next show. Play writers also began to make roles for the actors in the theatrical pieces. The theaters that actors performed in were roofless so that the sun could be used as lighting. Theatrical shows were held in the afternoon because it provided the best amount of light for the show. When the people gathered into the theater, the different classes of people were separated by where they could afford to sit and watch the show. The lower classmen were situated on the bare earth where it was dirty and smelly because it was never cleaned. The owners’ of the theaters found it less expensive if they did not keep high maintenance of their establishments. Higher classmen sat under a roof and for a penny more, they could buy cushions for their seats.

    Read More

  • The Globe Theater: The Amphitheater and Its Role in The Renaissance Time Period.

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... the people of the Renaissance would have during the fifteenth and sixteenth century. It continues to affect, inform, and inspire its audiences in London. The Globe Theater will always be “All the World’s Stage” ("Fun Facts on the Globe theater”).

    Read More

  • Greek Theater: The History And History Of Greek Theatre

    1234 Words  | 3 Pages

    Theatres were always located in or near sanctuaries. Greek plays were and still are performed in the Epidaurus Theater today. It is approximately 66 feet in diameter. The audience sat in the theatron or the “seeing place,” which was on a semi-circular terrace full of rows of benches. These theatres were usually built in a natural hallow even though the sides were reinforced with stone. There are 55 semi-circle rows which provide about 12,000 to 14,000 seating areas. In seats only part of the way up and from the top rows, the actors would be fairly small and they were only able to see mostly colors and patterns of movement but no details of the costumes or

    Read More

  • Why Did The Rose Theater Decline

    1404 Words  | 3 Pages

    Philip Henslowe was leased the land, called “Little Rose”, in 1585 and the actual theatre was built by carpenter John Griggs in 1587 (Adams). Records show that the actual theatre was small, polygonal-like structure with 14 sides (“The History”). A lot of the knowledge of how the Rose looked was from the two-thirds of the theatre’s ground plan that was discovered by archeologists

    Read More

  • Scripting Stage Space in Oedipus the King and Hamlet

    2400 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sophocles' Oedipus the King was designed to work on an Athenian stage . Great amphitheatres, like those at Athens and Epidauros would hold thousands of citizens who would be seated in a semi-circular tiered theatron looking down upon the acting space. Central to this space was the skene, which represented the wall of a building, and would be entered by a central door. There would have been a rectangular stage in front of the skene for actors and a semi-circular orchestra for the chorus. The audience would be able to see the stage, each other and also the surrounding landscape beyond the amphitheatre. The theatre place, and the way the play was designed to be viewed on stage certainly contributed much to the play's impact and message.

    Read More

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay: Love and Marriage

    2341 Words  | 5 Pages

    Oberon gives us many set-piece descriptions: of the "bank whereon the wild thyme blows", of the "fair vestal" whom Cupid's bolt failed to hit, and of Titania's "seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool" (Bottom), among others. Here Shakespeare shows us what can be done "in this kind", lest the failure of Pyramus and Thisbe lead us to the conclusion that the theatre can only depict what can literally be brought on stage. In watching a play filled with references to moonlight, darkness, day-break we do well to recall that it was first performed in open-air theatres in daylight!

    Read More

  • The Elizabethan Age

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theater was one of the primary forms of entertainment in Elizabethan England, as anyone, rich or poor could attend the plays.The rich would sit in boxes or galleries, while the poorer people would have to stand for the entirety of the play (Haigh). The poor would stand in front of the stage which would normally be raised about 4 to 6 feet and the theater could hold on average 3,000 people (Trumbull). The rich however usually watched plays in indoor private theaters, but sometimes would watch the plays in the outdoor public ones. Performances ...

    Read More

More about Globe Theatre Research Paper

Open Document