The Roles Of The Elizabethan Theatre

The theatre has been a part of entertainment since ancient Greece, around 4th century BC or thereabouts. The theatre grew out of festivals in honor of the god Dionysus. Aeschylus created the first play in her honor. The first Greek plays were all tragedies but eventually comedy made its way and these plays were performed at festivals all over Greece. Through the centuries theater played the main role of entertainment from noble and royalty to the common person in any city or village, and as we move into the twenties

The Globe Theater was a theater that was built and owned by Shakespeare and the group he belonged to called the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Although it is not known exactly when the theater was built, the first record of it shows that it was built before the end of 1599. The Globe Theater was built using lumber from a theater that was not very far away. Even though the Globe Theater was built with wood from a dismantled theater, it was not the same as the previous theater. In fact the globe theater was much larger than the previous one. The theater was a great success for many years; nevertheless, it was burned down in summer of 1613 during a play of Henry VIII. During the performance something happened to a theatrical cannon to cause it to misfire

to. Theater during this time period was used to divert people from what was going on around

How did Elizabethan theater affect popular entertainment? It affected popular entertainment massively at the time because it was very different than anything that had been popular entertainment before it and because even though it was popular it attracted a lot of criticism from the English Society. It came about in a time when drama shifted from religious to a secular function in society. The Elizabethan Theater lasted from the end of the 16th century and well into the 17th century. And it set out the stage for some actors very well-known even today.

Next, the performance at The Globe Theater help separate it’s self from the other theaters. “The plays at The Globe” article articulate, “As soon as a play had been written it was immediately produced and printed followed productions”(Alchin). Rival theaters would send out some of their workers to go to the plays to produce unauthorized copies, plays and they were copied quickly as possible. The fact that, other theaters copied The Globe Theater’s plays shows that the plays performed there had the other companies scared of losing their audience so they had to do something similar to The Globe Theater. It proves the plays performed were a huge success and very profitable. The plays and overall Theater had a tremendous influence on the people of England in several ways.

Poor people called the groundlings, or penny knaves, were famous their love of plays.  They would pay one penny to stand in front of the stage in an area called the open yard. Going to a play was a lively event.  Groundlings would frequently talk, yell, and even throw things (think rotten produce, etc.) during the play. If the audience liked or did not like the play or the actors, the groundlings would let everyone in the theater know it. Rich people would even sit on stage and make comments to the audience during the play. The most expensive seats in a theater were the in the top row of the theater, farthest from the audience.  The cheap seats were directly in front of the stage, although people in this area stood. Rich people would want to

These rings were often merged with inn-yards which were used to hold some of the earlier play performances. The result of the merging basically became the foundation for the Elizabethan amphitheater. During the 16th century the first theater was created, which had the same seating arrangement as the baiting arenas, but had a secure stage as well as a cobbled floor as opposed to the original dirt ground to allow for plays to be held in any kind of weather. Although the main purpose of this new type of theater, the amphitheater, was to house plays, bear baiting could also still be conveniently held in the same structure, providing for both gamblers and the new show business. The importance of the creation of the amphitheater was the easy transition that it delivered for the English Renaissance to take place.

Due to the increasing popularity of music, theater became popular itself. Location was very important to a theater musician, as the location gave different effects to the sound produced. This could create the illusion of distance or providing an atmosphere to the plays and performances. With the rise of William Shakespeare in 1556, theater music became even more popular.

During this time period, there were not any televisions, cell phones, or computers. Because of this people relied on the theater to keep them entertained. Though officially approved playhouses and acting companies had only been around for about five years The Lord Chamberlain's Men was one of the two acting companies that were permitted to perform in London city limits. Lord Chamberlain's Men used the globe theater, while the other group used the Rose Playhouse which was owned by an impresario and his son-in-law who was a former actor. In 1576 the Blackfriars Theater was built, but Lord Chamberlain's Men could not use it to perform in. This is why the Globe Theater was built in 1598, though they could not finish the original construction because

„h The form of Elizabethan theatre derived from the innyards and animal baiting rings in which actors had been accustomed to perform in in the past. They were circular wooden buildings with a paved courtyard in the middle. Such a theatre would hold around 3,000 spectators. The yards were about 80 feet in diameter and the rectangular stage 40ft by 30ft in height

would pay a visit to the theatre. As going to the theatre was one of

     Once plays started being written, the number of interested spectators increased. In order to satisfy the Greeks amphitheaters were constructed all over Greece. Three well-known theaters were the theater at Delphi, the Attic Theater and the theater of Dionysus built at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. During their prime time, the plays attracted crowds of 30,000 and more. The stands were built around the orchestra and up hillsides; somewhat like a baseball stadium today. This made it possible to seat more than 17,000 spectators at a time.

2. The Elizabethan theater represented a great source of entertainment because it provided what people wanted: dancing, games and plays at an affordable price.

          Although the origin of the Greek theater is unclear, many historians believe that it developed out of religious ritual and its performances were connected to religious festivals. The performances were used to educate and entertain. "The theater is certainly not the same as it was in ancient

Although condemned by London authorities, along with cock-fighting, bear-baiting and the bawdy attractions of taverns, the Southwark theater district operated outside the legal reach of the City's officials. But while the Globe Theatre, and indeed, the entire Elizabethan theater scene opened its doors to the low life of the pits, it also accommodated an audience of higher-status, well-heeled, and better educated individuals. As Harry Levin notes in his general introduction to the Riverside Shakespeare (1974), the "Globe was truly a microcosm or little world of man". With its logo of Hercules holding up the earth (as a temporary replacement to Atlas), the Globe Theatre constituted a "little world" in which the social elite rubbed up against a cross-section of common vulgarians, drunken idlers, and other shady, street-wise sorts. Yet, at the same time, the Globe was grand even in the eyes of Elizabethan society's most powerful and prosperous leaders. As Levin also observes in his prefatory essay, recently discovered documents indicate that reconstructions of the Globe as "a quaint little Tudor cottage" have been errant, since Burbage's house "may have had arches, pilaster, and other details of Baroque architecture". Contemporaneous accounts suggests that the Globe was far more impressive than the thatched and half-timbered models of it can capture, having a more spectacular look to its structure than is commonly recognized, one