The Globe Theatre history and structure History The

The Globe Theatre history and structure

History • The Globe Theatre was built 1599 in London on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark. • In 1598 The Lord Chamberlain’s Men , Shakespeare’s playing company, decided to build a new theather with timber wood recovered dismantling ‘The Theatre’ built by James Burbage. • The Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site in June 1614. It was closed in 1642 • The modern Globe opened in 1997, called Sheakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Structure of the rebuilt theatre • Conjectural reconstruction of the Globe theatre by were made by scholars based on archeological and documentary evidence • The construction techniques used for the modern Shakespeare’s Globe are similar to the original ones, in fact scholars agree on straw , strucco, untreated oak • It 's a semi-opened theater that includes the stage and orchestra discovery flanked on three sides by covered bleachers. • The representations are held in the afternoon, with no artificial lighting and no protection for bad weather. • At the base of the stage, there was an area called the pit, (or yard) where, for a penny, people (the "groundlings") would stand on the rush-strewn earthen floor to watch the performance. • Vertically around the yard were three levels of stadium-style seats, which were more expensive than standing room. • A rectangular stage platform, also known as an apron stage, thrust out into the middle of the open-air yard. The stage measured approximately 43 feet (13. 1 m) in width, 27 feet (8. 2 m) in depth and was raised about 5 feet (1. 5 m) off the ground.

• On this stage, there was a trap door for use by performers to enter from the "cellarage" area beneath the stage. • The back wall of the stage had two or three doors on the main level, with a curtained inner stage in the centre and a balcony above it. • The doors entered into the "tiring house"(backstage area) where the actors dressed and awaited their entrances. The floors above may have been used as storage for costumes and props and management offices. • The balcony housed the musicians and could also be used for scenes requiring an upper space, such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Rush matting covered the stage, although this may only have been used if the setting of the play demanded it • • The octagonal structure had an open space in the middle where the natural light penetrates. The admission price was one penny for standing room and two pence for seats in the three circular galleries.

Conjectural reconstruction of the Globe theatre by C. Walter Hodges based on archeological and documentary evidence