What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? A
Theatres at the beginning of the era were amphitheatres, all built without a roof so the plays were able to be lit by the moon and stars as this was a time before anything like electricity was invented and therefore items like light bulbs didn't exist. TThe popularity of the theatre also meant that after a while plays started to be produced inside so that the art form could exist more easily in the winter months. These became known as playhouse. each playhouse had a large main yard for audience members to stand and watch in which was open topped (this was known as the pit), the raised stage that was where all performance would occur however this would always be covered by a small roof, a 'tiring house' that was located behind the stage for actors to rest and get ready in before and during shows, above these there were storage rooms, the lords rooms and an area called the heavens which was where people creating the stage/sound effects would work, lastly all playhouses had wooden, roofed seating that went up in levels as it got higher. The majority of playhouses seated around 500 people and the huge rising success of Elizabethan theatre meant that the majority of theatres were often filled with huge audience numbers.
Playhouses were introduced in the late 1500's with the first playhouse being built in 1567 by a man named John Brayne. The playhouse was called the Red Lion after the Red Lion Inn, the pub that occupied the building before it was turned into a playhouse. The making of playhouses ensured a huge boost within the industry as acting troupes now were able to have an all year round job that wasn't affected by the unpredictable English weather. These buildings were also home to a lot more comfortable and luxurious seating, especially more the upper class and nobility of the city. These conditions encouraged more powerful and wealthy members of society to come to the theatre and thus lifting the standard and reputation of the theatre higher and higher. Playhouses either came out of the conversion of an older buildings, such as great halls like The Grays Inn and Whitehall or would be purpose built from scratch like the Salisbury Court Playhouse. Shakespeare's company aimed for years to be able to operate their own indoor theatre, this dream became a reality in 1609 when the Burbages took over the London Blackfriars Theatre.
Plays were usually staged with additional skills being shown on stage such as fencing, singing, the playing of instruments, and athletic dances. however hardly any scenery was used for the majority of plays as they had to travel, so instead the playwright would compensate but include really colourful and descriptive language within plays so the audience could still have the imagery of the setting created. There wasn't much effort made to disguise the fact it was a play on a stage and not a window into reality with the exits and entrances being completely visible at the sides of the stage. There were some other technical options to go on and off such a ‘descending from the heavens’ where the actor would be lowered down from up high or to come up from hell where the actor would enter or exit from a trapdoor. There were sometimes even the option for characters to interact and performance from midway galleries in between the stage and the roof.
Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?
Actors in the Shakespearean era were only men. There was no such thing as a female actor as it women were not allowed to enter that profession, any female roles would be done by men in drag. It wasn't until 1660 that women were allowed to to act in public theatres in England, lots of other places in Europe already had female actors within their theatres. Actors often began their training and involvement in the industry at a young age, with lots of them trying to join companies and become and apprentice to one of the more senior actors. It was a requirement and normally expected for acts to be able to sword fight, dance and sing on top of the standards skills for line learning and general acting. The size of the company you were working with also depended on its wrath and status, a more wealthy company would have around 8 - 12 older and more experienced members called sharers and then 3 - 4 younger boys who are just starting out, and then a number of hired men and tiremen (back stage members who would help with the running of the show) and some musicians. Less wealth companies would have a much smaller amount of members and probably less diverse in skill. In this sense I think being an actor then and being an actor now we're relatively the same as they still had the element of having lots of different roles and pockets of skills and workers to create the final piece, similarly to what goes on now. Within both way of creating theatre the production and role of the actor os one amongst many different components that come together to create a piece. The element of money is also something that hasn't changed through time, the scale of your team and role as an actor often changes depending on weather you're doing a well funded high profile production or a smaller scale show that doesn't have as much of a budget. Actors that were successful would join a company that was under the patronage of a monarch, for example the Lord Chamberlain's men or the Queen's
A large difference between acting then and now was how and what the actors earned through the job. In the Elizabethan era most companies operated a shareholder system where people that shared in the company earned more than men they hired from outside the company. For example Shakespeare was a sharer within the company of the Chamberlains men and therefore the way he earned money was slightly different. The amount he earned was dependent on the amount of profit the business was making as he shared both the profits and earning great of the company as well as the costs. There a higher profit meant a high earning but if there was a larger amount of costs to be covered he would get a lower Earning from sharing that too. This is significantly different to the way we operate now in giving a standard wage to each actor depending on the amount they're involved in the play and the overall budget. The amount earned by actors within this time period was also reliant on where the company was performing, the best place to work was London as performing there always meant a higher earning due to making a larger profit than performing in the countryside. A good example of this was how the actor William Kendall was paid 10 shillings a week while working in London but only half that at 5 shillings a week while working out in the country.
Something that's created a large difference between the experience of acting in the 1600s and now was the invention of the printer in the late 1930s because before this everything was done hy hand. Therefore in the Shakespearean era there was only one hand written copy of the ply and so actors would have to learn their own part by writing out the lines. This creates a huge difference as the lines and text you are given are not within the context of the whole play, making it a lot harder to build the picture of the entire world of the play and the play of your character within the context of the scenes and setting. The only other bits of the play the actors would have would be their cue lines, the first and last words spoken by the other characters before their own lines.
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