What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them?
Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?
Theatres and Playhouses
The stage back then was never just one type of space
because the plays had to be versatile. The same play could potentially be
produced in an outdoor playhouse, an indoor theatre, a royal palace – or, for a
company on tour, the courtyard of an inn. The stage itself was quite bare and
empty, and for most parts, the playwrights used vivid words instead of scenery
to picture the scene onstage. In 1576, when Shakespeare was still a 12-year-old
in Stratford, James Burbage built The Theatre just outside London. The
Theatre was among the first playhouses in England since Roman times. Like
the many other playhouses that followed, it was a multi-sided structure with a
central, uncovered “yard” surrounded by three tiers of covered seating and a
bare, raised stage at one end of the yard. The spectators could pay for seating
at multiple price levels, and those that had the cheapest tickets, stood
throughout the whole length of the plays.
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| James Burbage The Theatre |
Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men,
was one of several to perform at The Theatre, and they first appeared
that about 1594. The large open playhouses like the Globe was marvellous in the
right weather, however the indoor theatres were able to operate suitably
all-year round due to the enclosure of the stage and seating by the roofing.
The indoor theatres also offered a more intimate setting with the use of
artificial lighting and therefore was able to add to the atmosphere a lot more.
However, the Globe Theatre now still hasn’t changed much due to the fact that
it still has the “yard”, open roofing and wooden structure, but they have been
able to install as well as use the most amount of lighting physically possible
without damages to equipment to still enhance the evoking of emotion or
atmosphere on stage. Still more indoor productions often came during the period
between Christmas and New Year, and at Shrovetide (the period before Lent) at
one of the royal palaces. This is where Shakespeare’s company as well as other
leading companies gave command performances which were high honour that was
also well-paid.
The bare stages of Shakespeare’s day had little or no
scenery except for objects required by the plot. Examples of this would be;
like a throne, a grave or a bed. The exits and entrances were in plain view of
the audience which meant that you knew exactly when someone was going to come
on or off. Cleverly, they included some vertical options too which meant that
actors could descend from the “heavens” above the stage, or enter and exit from
“hell” below through a trapdoor. Characters described as talking from “above”
might appear in galleries midway between the stage and the heavens. In 1642,
the English playhouses and theatres were closed down, and often dismantled for
building materials as the English Civil War began. There were
two different types of playhouse in London during Shakespeare’s time. There
were outdoor playhouses, also known as ‘amphitheatres’ or ‘public’ playhouses,
and indoor playhouses, also known as ‘halls’ or ‘private’ playhouses. These
were very different theatres that attracted different types of audiences.
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| A Map of the Playhouses and Theatres |
All
Outdoor Playhouses had:
- A central yard that was open to the sky
- A raised stage sticking out into the yard
- A roof over the stage, which was called ‘the heavens’, although the first Rose theatre (1587-92) may not have had one
- A tiring house behind the stage with a backstage area, where actors dressed and waited to come on. Above this were lords’ rooms, rooms for storage, and a room level with ‘the heavens’ to work the special effects from
- Galleried seating all around the yard, on several levels, which was roofed.
Indoor
Theatres were different to Outdoor Playhouses as they were:
- Smaller than outdoor playhouses, holding about 500 people, not thousands.
- Built inside an existing building, so not open to the sky.
- More expensive (ranging from 6d to 2s and 6d), compared with open yard standing (at 1d) as in outdoor playhouses. (d= penny, and s= shilling).
- Lit by candles as well as daylight through the windows.
Actors and their Experiences
In any one of these settings, men and boys played all the
characters, male and female. Back in Renaissance England, acting was an
exclusively male profession and women were not allowed to be actresses.
Nowadays, gender role characters are generally played by the same gender
actor/actress, and sometimes even cross gender roles. Whilst most women’s roles
were played by boys or young men in the all-male casts, comic female parts such
as Juliet’s Nurse might have been reserved for a popular adult comic actor, or
clown. In addition to their dramatic talents, actor in William Shakespeare’s
time had to fence onstage with great skill, sing songs or play instruments
included in the plays. They also had to perform the vigorously athletic dances
of their day. In the modern theatre society, the acting hasn’t really differed
much in terms of theatrical elements and extra skills for stage as what they
used to do back then, would be equivalent to our musical theatre now.
Actors usually didn’t really aim for historically
accurate costumes, although a toga might have appeared for a Roman play.
Instead, they typically wore gorgeous modern dresses, especially for the
leading parts. Costumes, which was a major investment for an acting company, provided
the essential “spectacle” of the plays. These were often second-hand clothes
that were once owned and worn by real-life nobles. In 1629, a French company came over to visit
and when they performed, they were hissed and ‘pippin-pelted’ from the stage because
they used female actors to play the female roles, and this is something that
the audience were really outraged about. Most of the audience in the
Elizabethan era didn’t sit down and watch the performances in silence like we
do today. They used to clap at the heroes, boo at the villains, and cheer for
the special effects. Sometimes, fights would break out due to thieving within
the audience. This obviously had an impact on the actors because it would
therefore possibly knock their confidence, but it would definitely make them
feel as if they hadn’t done a good enough job to appease the audience. However,
in theatres now, people send positive energy to everyone in the sense that
whether they prefer a specific character or not, they don’t put them down and
make them feel less important.
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| Elizabethan Actors |
In Shakespeare’s time, acting
was a profession only open to boys and men. Women were acting elsewhere in
Europe but they were not allowed to perform in public theatres in England until
1660. In an Elizabethan production boys would play the female parts, like
Ophelia in Hamlet or Desdemona in Othello, whilst occasionally men would play
the older women. The life of an actor changed dramatically during Shakespeare’s
lifetime. At first actors toured in companies, travelling the country to
perform in towns, cities and in private homes. When William Shakespeare died, London
had several permanent theatres where the actors performed and drew in huge
audiences. Despite the popularity of people going to watch plays, the acting
profession had a bad reputation. Actors were seen as unruly and a threat to a
peaceful society. Most of
the actors began their careers as young boys, and they could join a company as
an apprentice, and be taught by one of the more senior actors within the
company. Actors were expected to be able to sword fight, sing and dance, as well
as having a good memory for learning lines. This potentially is the same as our
current musical theatre aspects as they require you to sing, dance, and act all
at the same time.
An actor’s earnings also
depended on where the company was playing. The company made more money in
London than in the country, so could pay actors higher wages. In 1597, the
actor William Kendall was paid 10 shillings a week in London but only 5
shillings in the country. An average day for an actor was hectic. They normally
performed in the afternoon because they relied only on natural light to be seen
when on stage. The plays were performed in repertory and which meant that the
same play was never performed two days in a row. Actors spent the morning
rehearsing, and then perform in the afternoon. They didn’t have much time for
rehearsals as they were often juggling several plays and several parts at one
time based on the repertory. Actors back then learnt their lines by them saying
it over and over. However, there weren’t multiple copies of the play, so each
actor would have been given their own part written out to learn. An actor’s
part only contained their lines and their ‘cues’. Nowadays, we have the
technology and enough resources to all have a script or copy of the play each,
and this therefore makes learning easier in the sense that we are able to get a
feel of the other characters, and what their characters feel and think about
the character in which we are playing personally.
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