WEEK 4 - THEATRES, ACTORS AND ACTING IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

QUESTION: What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them?

 source: https://goo.gl/images/xYsKVj

Stages were very open and not at all as intricate as they are in today’s day. Stages like The Globe theatre and Playhouses were open as they needed light for the performers and of course they didn’t have the advanced technology to have light bulbs. This also meant that if the weather started to get bad, even though the seated, wealthy members of the audiences would be fine, the performers and the people standing “Groundlings” would be covered in rain with nothing to cover them.

Stages were simple and didn’t have much set to make them look fancy. Playwrights had to write in a way that would allow the audience members to imagine a lot of the set that wasn’t actually there.  Even though this meant that they couldn’t depend on set to make their play look incredible before they went on to perform, this also meant that their stages were very flexible in the sense that any type of play could be performed. The stage would be usually set for three sides of the audience (roughly 270 degrees). They were able to interpret their stage onto any scenario such as a battlefield, a crowded town, a royal court, the beach, it was open to anything!

If they needed a large object on stage such as a bed as a prop, usually they would use something like a curtain to cover the piece of furniture until it needed to be present in the act. Sometimes they would use the back of the stage to reveal surprises including to the audience members and one or more of the characters. An example of when they did this was in one of Shakespeare’s plays “A Winter’s Tale” in which one of the character’s (Hermione) statue came to life. The actor hid at the back of the stage waiting for the curtain to come down to then reveal him in which he was then able to come to life.

QUESTION: Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?

• Before Queen Elizabeth l came to ruling, actors were not at all popular and were seen as untrustworthy people. When Queen Elizabeth came to ruling, as entertainment became more important so did theatre. Performers were now seen as superstars and very highly respected people but of course these performers were only allowed to be men.

• Out of the Globe’s most popular performers (also form Shakespeare's company) were Henry Condell, William Shakespeare, Richard and John Heminges.

• All the performers in Shakespeare’s company were expected to be able to perform their own stunts. This included fighting and falling from heights whilst making sure it looked completely believable.

• Voice was also a very important aspect as the Globe theatre was such a large space. The actors had to make sure they had a lot of projection to their voices because of this so that the audience members could get everything of what they were saying. This caused a lot of the actor to perform in a very melodramatic manner along with their small gestures becoming large physicality movements.

• Actors salaries depending solely on their position as a performer. Men actors who had to act as women got paid the least out of all the performers. The Admiral’s were the main company of actors that were competing against Shakespeare to get the most audience members in. They paid young actors three shillings a week. Some of the more older and serious actors were paid about 2 shillings per day.  

Fun Fact ! Actors were expected to know their lines very quickly and also a large amount of them as they moved very quickly onto the next play. When learning lines Shakespeare had a method that helped his actors remember them quickly even if they then forgot what they had to say. He would get his performers to all stand on stage and create images for each line and place them in their minds around the globe theatre’s audience seats. This meant that if one of the actor’s did then forget their lines, they would be able to pick them back up by remembering  where they placed the particular image for that line.

WEEK 3 - SHAKESPEARE’S LONDON AND ELIZABETHAN AUDIENCES

QUESTION: What was London like in Elizabethan times and who were the people attending the theatre?

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Above is an Image of Queen Elizabeth l taking her rule in 1558 as she transformed England into what they called the "Golden Age".  At the time Queen Elizabeth l came to power, women were seen as weak and 'pretty objects' so having such a powerful woman come to power was very unusual for the people living in England. Her image of strong power and strength was something that she felt had to be kept and maintained. Elizabeth would commission portrait artists to paint her as a powerful woman to help keep her presence strong and bold. Elizabeth also used her unmarried status to reinforce that she didn't need the help of a man to be just as strong leader as others might have been. Her independence was shocking to England as they hadn't ever met anyone quite like her. Although she started to become less successful during the end of her throne most people believe that Queen Elizabeth leaded a great impact into creating the 'Golden Age'.

LONDON

Population

Although at the time London wasn’t that big, it was rapidly increasing as it’s population started to grow massively. Many people were moving from the countryside and uter europe into london in search of a better life. It is believed that between the years of 1550 and 1600 London grew from a population of 50,000 to over 200,000.  London quickly became packed as a tourist described the area saying that “one simply cannot walk along the streets for the crowds”.

Sickness

The overcrowding of all the people soon leaded to more serious problems as diseases came about that they were not able to cure. The plague wiped out ⅔ f the population and killed people within roughly 4-7 days. People were frightened to even leave their houses as the summer of 1593 came along wiping out about 10,000 residents.

Religion

Many people were living having different religions to each other and so to calm the tension between the people she came up with the idea of 'middle way'. The idea of this was that people who were either Catholics or Puritans were allowed to keep their religious beliefs along with staying private about them as long as they still attended the Church of England.

Poverty

When Elizabeth came to power, poverty was a big issue especially in the countryside as there had been many problems with harvest and crop growth. In order to try and help to resolve this she passed on 'The Poor Law' this was supposed to help to reinforce the help that was needed for people living in the countryside. As a result of the the law wasn't actually that successful and didn't make much of an impact as people in the countryside still continued to struggle.

Attractions

London already had it’s site attractions with places such as The Tower of London, London Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral helping it gain much popularity especially for the rich and wealthy.

Notes/ People that went to the theatre

• All people living in London were attending the theatre ranging from the poor to the wealthy. At the top where they were able to stay seated, were all the rich people including lawyers and merchants. At the bottom where they would have to stay standing during the entire performance were “Groundlings”, the not so wealthy people who would pay a penny to watch the show. Apprentices,  journeymen, tradesmen and women were among those to stayed standing.

• The Shakespeare shows were of all genres  including romance, tragedy and comedy.

WEEK 2 - SHAKESPEARE’S LIFE AND BIOGRAPHY

source:  https://homesteadtheatre.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/william-shakespeare_5029159247682.jpg

Origins

Shakespeare was living over 4000 years ago and for that reason a lot of the information we have on him is very limited. Things for example like the date of his actual birthdate we don’t know however we can estimate this as we know when he was baptised in Stratford On -Aven. Shakespeare grew up mostly around London and Stratford. As he grew up and started working as an actor and playwright he became very popular and known by others.

Relationships

In 1852 Shakespeare got married to Anne Hathaway who at the time was already pregnant with their child. 3 years later they had twins named Judith and Hammet. Soon the couple separated in which Shakespeare then went on to live in London whilst Hathaway and the children stayed living in Stratford.

As the couple only had two children very soon the family tree died out leaving Shakespeare with no descendants

More about him

- His family was well off and Shakespeare managed to have quite a good education,

in fact he was intelligent enough to become a tutor

- They also believe that Shakespeare could’ve spent some time working as a sailor.

- Shakespeare was not at all in the shadows of “unhidden talent” as he was growing up. There is evidence of his theatre company performing some of his plays to the Queen (Queen Elizabeth l)

- As Elizabeth died in 1603, James VI of Scotland then became James I of England. James himself was a big fan of theatre and so he continued to commission plays from Shakespeare.

- Shakespeare died on the 23 of April (St George’s Day)