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Significance Of The Globe Theatre

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Elizabethan drama remains some of the most appreciated and world-renowned to ever exist. Despite its early foundation in the mid-16th century to early 17th century, plays from William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe, almost five hundred years later are regularly produced and performed to a modern audience. ‘No dramatist, living or dead, has been more frequently reprinted or performed, or translated into a greater variety of languages…Shakespeare in performance is now reaching larger audiences than ever before in history’. (S.Schoenbaum, 1979) One of the main reasons for the longevity of Elizabethan theatrical success was the construction of ‘The Globe Theatre’ in 1599. With the construction of The Globe came notable improvements in special effects, costumes, makeup and the size of audiences attending the performances.
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The simplistic architecture throughout The Globe and its productions can be recognised as another example of its lasting influence as this tradition remains within modern performances in the 1997 Globe and its own construction. Theatrical innovation was quite creative with regards to special effects and sound. These were managed by using fireworks, drums, and even firing canons throughout the dramas. ‘When Shakespeare wrote plays, all the action took place on a small stage with little more than a painted wall to suggest the setting. If a scene called for thunder, stagehands pounded a drum or rippled sheet metal. If a scene required a ghost or a god, stagehands lowered him on a winch line or sent him up through a trap door. A character wounded in a sword fight clapped a hand to his chest, bursting a pouch beneath his shirt to release blood–or a facsimile thereof’. (Cummings,

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