In addition to their dramatic talents, actors in Shakespeare's time had to fence onstage with great skill, sing songs or play instruments included in the plays, and perform the vigorously athletic dances of their day.
Actors usually did not aim for historically accurate costumes, although an occasional toga may have appeared for a Roman play. Instead, they typically wore gorgeous modern dress, especially for the leading parts.
Costumes, a major investment for an acting company, provided the essential "spectacle" of the plays and were often second-hand clothes once owned and worn by real-life nobles. The bare stages of Shakespeare's day had little or no scenery except for objects required by the plot, like a throne, a grave, or a bed.
Exits and entrances were in plain view of the audience, but they included some vertical options: actors could descend from the "heavens" above the stage or enter and exit from the "hell" below through a trapdoor. Characters described as talking from "above" might appear in galleries midway between the stage and the heavens. Related podcast: Designing Shakespeare: Changes in costumes, scenery, and other staging choices. In , the English playhouses and theaters were closed down and often dismantled for building materials as the English Civil War began.
With the restoration of the English monarchy in , theater returned—as did Shakespeare's plays, now with both male and female performers. The first recorded performance of an actress occurred in December , although we're not sure of her name; she appeared as Desdemona in Othello.
In the centuries that followed, Shakespeare's plays have been performed in England, North America, and around the world, in productions that mirror the state of theater in each place and time: from lavish scenes, to surrealism, to stark bare stages. They have been used as a medium for political commentary, and have been incorporated into theatrical traditions like Japanese Kabuki theater. Beginning in the late s, Shakespeare's plays inspired the creation of a wealth of replica Elizabethan theaters, more or less faithful to what was known of the theatrical past.
Dozens of open-air Shakespeare festivals have also grown up across the United States and other countries. The audience could walk around, eat and drink during the play. They cheered, booed and sometimes even threw objects at the actors. Theatres were open arenas or playhouses that had room for up to three thousand people.
They were structures made mainly of wood. There was no heating and actors got wet when it rained. Remember that in a play, unlike in a movie, the actors can see and hear you, too! Even with more sophisticated theater lighting that keeps the stage lit and the audience dim, the actors are often very close to the first few rows, and they can definitely hear the audience. And finally, remember that the theater is for everyone. Theater is not meant to be only for the upper class, only for college graduates, or only for older people.
Shakespeare wrote his plays to be for everyone, and that still shows through today. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Or for a penny or so more, you could sit more comfortably on a cushion. Admission to the indoor theatres started at 6 pence. One penny was only the price of a loaf of bread. The low cost was one reason the theatre was so popular.
Today, the place where you buy your theatre tickets is called the Box Office. So the place where audiences pay became known as the box office. The groundlings were very close to the action on stage. They could buy food and drink during the performance — pippins apples , oranges, nuts, gingerbread and ale. But there were no toilets and the floor they stood on was probably just sand, ash or covered in nutshells.
Some visitors complained that the pit smelled of garlic and beer and no good citizen would show his face there.
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