Life in the theater

1. Life in the theater By Devin Connolly, Ryan Perkins, and Alex Yahn

2. The Acting company of the theater • The group was originally called “Lord Chamberlains men” and later known as “ The Kings Men.” • They put on plays in a number of places from the courts of queen Elizabeth the 1st court room too king James as well, but most frequently performed in their own theater.

3. Shakespeare’s theaters • Most of the building were polygons or roughly circular (Except for the fortune was square) • The diameter was 75 feet at the rose and 100 feet at the globe. • All were said to hold a 2 or 3,000 person audience if they were squeezed together. • Also called air playhouses.

4. Business arrangements • The company’s were organized in different ways. • Phillip penslos owned the theater and let aspiring companies rent it out. • He would act as the manager of these companies. • Shakespeare's company managed itself because they had their own theater. • Shakespeare was a sharer and had the right to take in the money made and take the responsibility of the expenses.

5. Staging and performance • The theaters did not use a curtain between scenes they had to show other ways to end the scenes. • One technique required the characters from that scene leave and hade one or two characters from the next scene beginning the next scene. • Sometimes they would switch up the props to signify the scene had changed.

6. Groundlings and nutshells • Groundlings are people who spectated in the yard which is like the lower class area of seating. • People would also stand on the roof that was made of mortar or ash mixed with hazel nut shells. Said that the shells were better because they were softer to stand on. • had ladder that provided protection for some of the spectators feet from the ground.

7. Behind the stage • Shakespeare's stages were referred to as bar stages, when a ghost would appear they would come out of a trap door and emerge onstage. • They would retire behind the hangings across the back of the stage.

8. Private theater of Blackfriars • The theater was constructed in 1596 by Burbage, lit by candles, was built across the narrow end of the hall of a Dominican policy or monastic house. • The best seats at the Globe (in the Lords' Room in the gallery above and behind the stage) cost sixpence • Was a sort of rival to Shakespeare's Globe theater

9. Works Cited • http://www.folger.edu/Content/Discover-Shakespeare/Shakespeares-Theater/