Week 4 Theatre's, Actors And Acting in Shakespeares Time

A playhouse was a small, private indoor hall and were open to anyone however were more popular amongst the richer people and therefore had a more select audience. The audience capacity  

The audience capacity was about 500 people. Playhouses were thought to be much more helpful to actors as they enabled actors to have an all year round profession as they were indoors and wouldn't be effected by the unpredictable English weather. Playhouses also allowed for luxury and comfort for courtiers and noblemen when watching plays and this encouraged an audience of wealthy and powerful people. The first playhouse, the Red Lion, was built in 1567 by John Brayne. 

There were two different types of playhouses: outdoor playhouses and indoor playhouses and they both were different therefore attracted different audiences.

All outdoor playhouses had a central yard , a raised stage that jutted out into the yard, a roof over the stage, which the actors called ‘the heavens’, a tiring house which was a place behind the stage with a backstage area, where actors dressed and waited to come on-stage. There was also galleried seating all around the yard, on several levels, which was roofed.


Playhouses drew big audiences, but they weren't popular with everyone and because the officials who ran the City of London thought that playhouses were noisy and disruptive, and attracted thieves and other ‘undesirable’ people it was decided that playhouses should be built on sites outside the control of city officials and this meant outside the city wall. The south bank of the River Thames was outside the city and already had animal baiting arenas, brothels and taverns where people could buy food and drink so people already went there for entertainment.

The experience of being an actor then differs from the experience today because most young male actors would have been expected to play women in the all male casts as women were not allowed to perform on stage. Also comic characters such as the nurse in Romeo & Juliet would have been played by a comic actor or a clown. In addition, costumes were normally the main spectacle of the play rather than the actors story-telling ability.

The actors would have had to also be good singers and musicians in order to sing songs and play music written within the play.

The stages in the playhouses in Shakespeare's day had very little scenery apart from props and objects needed due to the plot and exits and entrances where visible to the audiences. The stages were a lot smaller giving the actors less space for fighting scenes or crowds.

Playhouses were sometimes built by businessmen who had money to spare, while the acting companies did not. The businessman would rent some land, built a playhouse and leased it to acting companies for a certain amount of years. Most playhouses were made from bricks with timber-framed walls and the roofs were made from thatch or tile.

Week 3 Shakespeare's London and Elizabethan Audience

London:

During Shakespeare's time London was becoming a overcrowded city due to many migrants from Europe and the English Countryside moving and settling there. London was very dirty and noisy.
Every available space was built on creating homes for many people new to the area. As the biggest and richest city in England it was the home of many theatres. Most people in London were illiterate which was one good reason for them to go to the theatre, to experience entertainment in which they would only have to watch.

The population of London had risen to 200,000 by 1600 and the city was evolving as the multicultural city that it is today. There was a Jewish community in Bishopsgate and a few thousand black people – servants, musicians, and dancers. There were also many Huguenot and Flemish refugees. Southwark was London’s entertainment zone. There were theatres, surrounded by inns, taverns, cockpits, gambling houses and brothels . Partly because of the many crowds, Southwark was a dangerous place to wander about in after dark, with muggers, drunkards and pickpockets everywhere.The Southwark inns and taverns sold cheap ale, which people drank instead of water because at the time drinkable water was an expensive luxury. For the most part the rich drank imported wine, and the less well-off drank ale.

Audiences:

All sorts of people went to the theatre however it was generally men more than women. 

Rich noblemen became the patrons of the theatre companies, financially and legally supporting them but royalty also supported theatres. In the Elizabethan Era everyone was welcome to go to the theatre. It was one of the few entertainment activities that was affordable to pretty much all. Those who couldn't afford the most expensive seats would stand or take the cheaper seats. Even royalty went to
the theatre although they didn't go to public theatres.

The Globe is the theatre most commonly associated with the performance of Shakespeare’s plays. It was established in 1599 on the south bank of the Thames and it became their main performance space until it was destroyed by a fire on June 1613.

Theatre was so popular mostly because it was so inexpensive you could buy a seat for as little as a penny which is the amount of money that could buy you a loaf of bread. The more expensive seats were only 5 pennies more and at 6 pennies you still wouldn't be paying too much. By 1600, London’s theatre-goers numbered 20,000 per week.

From the years 1603 to 1613, Shakespeare’s own company played at King James' court roughly 15 times per year. Audiences could buy food and drink for a reasonable price during the performance for inexpensive prices. 

Week 2 Shakespeare's Life & Biography

Who was Shakespeare?

William Shakespeare was an English poet, actor, dramatist, and playwright. He is frequently called England's national poet. 

His Birth & Childhood:

Shakespeare was probably born about April 23, 1564 which was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was the third of eight children, though his two elder siblings did not survive childhood. It is assumed that he attended a grammar school in Stratford named King’s New School where he would have been educated on Latin and its classical authors intensively. Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, when practising Catholicism in England was against the law.

His Marriage and Children:

A few years after he left school, in late 1582, William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and 6 months later she gave birth to their first child, Susanna. In early 1585, the couple had twins, Judith and Hamnet (Hamnet died young at the age of 11 of unknown causes). After this, they lived in Stratford while Shakespeare worked in London. Some people believe that this was because someone pursuing a theatre career had no choice but to work in London although some like to argue he moved away because of a strained marriage.

His Work: 


In 1598, Love's Labor’s Lost was Shakespeare's first work published with his name on the title page.His work consists of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two narrative poems and some verses. His plays have been translated into many languages include British Sign Languages and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.

His Style of Writing:

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The grand speeches in Titus Andronicus, are said to often hold up the action. The poetry in his plays often depends on the extended and sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical. Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter.

His Death:

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52 and was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.

Week 1 Setting The Scene – Life in Elizabethan England

Elizabethan Life

In order to understand the background context to Shakespeare and his plays I think it is important to do an adequate amount of research about Elizabethan England, Shakespeare’s life & biography, Shakespeare’s London and Elizabethan Theatre audiences because these are the factors that would have hugely impacted his writing, subject matters and possibly even character types.

The Elizabethan Era (1558–1603) is often considered to be a golden age in English history. Elizabethan life was heavily dependent on social order. The monarch was the highest of importance, and then came the nobility, then the gentry, the merchants, and right at the very bottom were the labourers. People then believed that God had formed these social ranks.

The era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre.

The Role of Women:

Back then women of noble birth were educated join several languages including Latin, Greek, Italian and also French but even they were not allowed to go to university and were only taught by tutors who visited them in their home.

A woman at that time was expected to stay at home and manage the house hold duties as from birth women were taught how to govern a household and perform domestic duties so that when they married their husbands would be proud. Women were also expected to provide a dowry (an amount of money, good or property) that was to be their contribution to the marriage. Women were expect but sometimes pressured into having and raising children. However, not all Elizabethan women married and those that didn’t were often suggested to join a nunnery and if not they were advised to work in domestic service.

Wives were regarded as properties of husbands and women were expected to get married and also be dependent on male relatives- father, brothers, uncles and husbands. Even religion dictated the fate of women and emphasized the obedience of a woman to a man.

They were:

 -Not allowed to vote
- Not allowed to own a profession
- Not allowed to go to school or University (just private tutors)
- Not allowed to act
- Not allowed to own an estate 

It can be said that women in power are treated with distrust in Shakespeare’s plays due to the fact that they often have questionable morals. For example, Gertrude in Hamlet marries her husband’s murdering brother and Lady Macbeth coerces her husband into murder.

The Role of Men:

Men during the Elizabethan era were to bring honour and respect to their families as they held the power and also provided the money for the family also. All men were expected to live up to the standards of their titles even if they were servants or on the lower social classes. In the marital home, men made the decisions and the women were expected to obey them. The husband of the family was always designated the ownership of the land and property that they family lived on.

The Lives of the Poor:

The Poor were often dominated by the Rich. Many of the poor people around at this time would have lived in the countryside in small thatched cottages that would have most probably been hundreds of years old and would have faced many hardships as life there was not very pleasant. Despite the struggles of the lower class, the government tended to spend money on wars and exploration voyages instead of on welfare.

Families would have consisted of about 8 people and so there would not have been much space inside. Inside, the home for the poor, would have been very dark basic with an earth floor, a small fire going, pots and pans, a tiny window to allow the smoke out, a basket and a bench.

A lot of the time parents would have to go hungry in order to feed their children due to the lack of money and food. The poor consumed a diet largely of bread, cheese, milk, and beer, with small portions of meat, fish and vegetables, and occasionally some fruit. 

The Lives of the Rich:

The Rich were the most powerful and helped to run the country. They were also in power in the House of Commons and helped to solve most of the country’s political problems.

The House of a Gentleman would typically have, lots of carved wood furniture , paintings and self-portraits, rugs and servants to wait on the nobles.

The richest washed themselves irregularly but with rain water as they believed it was sent directly from God as it came from the sky. They believed that cleanliness is important in showing sophistication. However they washed their clothes more than they actually washed themselves.

They often travelled so had to be taken around in horse drawn coaches. They would often drink at taverns or inns but had to be careful about what they said as there were many spies hired to keep an eye on nobles in case they said anything negative about the queen. Assassination plots against the queen were very common during the Elizabethan era because the queen was Protestant and many people disagreed with this.

The rich considered food from the ground to be lowly. Meat and fish, meanwhile, were luxuries reserved for the rich, who could choose among venison, beef, pork and lamb but they occasionally took vegetables such as turnips, carrots, and radishes and fruits such as apples, plums, and strawberries. They also ate desserts such as pastries, tarts, cakes, and crystallized fruit, and syrup, a luxury the poor couldn't afford.

Elizabethan Theatre:

One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent boy actors in women's costume. Performances also occurred in the afternoon since no artificial lighting existed. When the light did begin to fade, candles were lit so that the play could continue until its end. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors through the course of the play.

Elizabethan theatre refers to the theatre of England between 1562 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

Costumes during this time period were often bright in colour, visually entrancing, and expensive. Due to the fast-paced nature of the plays, there was sometimes not even enough time to create period specific costumes for the actors. Because of this the actors wore contemporary and not period specific clothing for the plays.

The growing population of London, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent. 

One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males. Female parts were played by adolescent actors in women's costume. Performances also occurred in the afternoon since no artificial lighting existed. When the light did begin to fade, candles were lit so that the play could continue until its end. Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors through the course of the play.

Population:

The population of Elizabethan England was about 4 million and had almost doubled since the Tudor Era.

Entertainment:

Because the life expectancy of people was quite short it was important for people to celebrate as much as possible to make the most of their short lives but this was of course only if they could afford it. This meant entertainment was mainly for the upper classes. Entertainment back then would include feasts, jousts, banquets, music and dancing. These would take place at betrothals, weddings and victories.

Religion:

The two major religions around in the Elizabethan Era were Catholicism and the Protestant religion. The two religions differed and caused so much controversy that they led to a lot of executions due to feuds. The queen herself was recognised to be Anglican, however.

Superstition:

The Elizabethan people were often very superstitious due to the way in which they carefully followed the bibles teachings and so became very weary of anything that could be potentially caused by the devil. They believed in witches, thinking that they were woman who had made a pact with the devil in exchange for supernatural powers. They would often test women for being a witch and of course more than often their tests were biased and would not give a fair or honest answer. If they found a woman to be guilty of being a witch she would be burnt at a stake immediately. Shakespeare about this time wrote Macbeth (a story that includes themes of witchery).

Other superstitions included:

• walking under a ladder causing bad luck
• saying 'bless you' when someone sneezes to stop the Devil from entering your body through your mouth
• if you touch a man who is about to be executed , if a cow breathed on you, or if you spit into a fire then you will have a good luck
• the seventh so of the seventh son is believed to have supernatural powers

Money:

The Queen was paid £60,000 annually, nobleman earnt between £1500 and £3000 a year however carpenters only made £13 per year. Coins in the Elizabethan era were worth the value of the metal they were made from. 

Back then there was no paper money instead it was all in coins.

Here is a list of some things that you can but with the currency used at the time:

Currency            Items

(in shillings)    

12 wine, L 

12 shoes

 6 scissors 

 6 eyeglasses

 6 blue cloth vest 

 5 meal at an inn
12 shoes
6 scissors
6 eyeglasses
6 blue cloth vest
5 meal at an inn
3 a dozen buttons
2 see a play from the gallery
1.3 bread, kg
1 see a play from the ground
1 bed in a tavern
0.8 candle
0.5 ale or beer, L

Jobs:

There were three types of men in employment in poor areas:

• Yeoman- a man who owns a farm and employs others
• Husbandman- a man who rents the land he works on
• Labourer- a man who works on other people’s farms

There were many different jobs around at the time because there was a great change in medical science, fashion and weapons.

 About 1 out of 4 people in England at the time were domestic servants and lived with the families that they worked for.

The most respected occupations in England at the time were Medicine, Law, Education and Church.

Medicine:

In this time medicine followed the theory of the 'humours'.

Humours were four liquids in your body. These were blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. They believed that they all had to be balanced for a person to be healthy. They thought that each liquid gave off vapours that entered the brain and changed the personality of the person.

They thought that if someone was ill you could treat them by altering the amount of humour they had inside of their bodies because each humour was supposed to correspond to a type of personality.

• 'Sanguine' meant you (dominated by blood) you would be optimistic, jolly and fat.
• 'Choleric' (yellow bile) you would have red hair, be thin and possibly ambitious.
• 'Phlegmatic' (phlegm) you would be pale, lazy and slow
• 'Melancholic' (black bile) you would be thin and tend to spend a lot of time thinking and worrying

Many of Shakespeare's characters correspond to one of these 'humours' and he often made reference to the names of them. Characters often use as 'sanguine' as an insult (Prince Hal in Henry IV)

The reason for the need of so much medicine was often caused by illnesses from lack of sanitation in large towns and cities. This was because of the open sewers and streets with lots of rubbish.

Most medicine was very basic and often included blood letting, lancing and applying varieties of balms and mixtures of herbs on problem areas.