Hello Shakespeare!
The public theaters of Shakespeare's time were most often open-air playhouses. Some were enclosed and/or roughly circular. They were said to hold two or three thousand spectators, who most likely squeezed together tightly. Some paid extra to sit or stand in upper-level, roofed galleries all the way around the theater, surrounding an open space. In this central space were the stage, perhaps the tiring house (dressing rooms), and the yard, a roofless area for spectators who paid less and were exposed to the weather. There they stood on a floor, made either of mortar or a softer surface of ash mixed with hazelnut shells. The stage itself was covered by a roof. Stages of the different playhouses could differ from one another.
After about 1608, Shakespeare's plays were also staged indoors at a private theater the Blackfriars, constructed by James Burbage in a former monastery. The stage, lit by candles, was built across the narrow end of the hall, with boxes flanking it. There was seating room, but no standing, in the rest of the hall; this limited attendance to less than a thousand, a fraction of the Globe audience. Admission was correspondingly more expensive. The boxes flanking the stage at Blackfriars were five times the price of the Globe's best seats. Spectators who particularly wished to display themselves paid even more to sit on stools on the stage. (Inside the Theaters 2013)
Shakspeare's Theatres
The Globe Theatre
Courtesy of Google Images 2013
The Globe Theatre
The playhouse that has most often been connected to Shakespeare is The Globe Theatre (Shakespeare's Theatre 2013). The Globe was built by Peter Smith in 1597-1598 on the south bank of the Thames River (The Old Globe 2013). The Globe was an amphitheater that could hold thousands of spectators and was ultimately very successful (The Old Globe 2013). The crest of The Globe was an image of Hercules carrying a globe on his shoulders and the motto of The Globe was "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (the whole world is a playhouse) (The Old Globe 2013).
The crest and motto of The Globe Theatre
Courtesy of Google Images 2013
The Blackfriars
The Blackfriars Theatre
Courtesy of Google Images 2013
The Blackfriars was a private, indoor playhouse that was located in London on the site of an old monastery that was no longer in use located between the Thames River and Ludgate Hill (The Blackfriars Theatre 2013). In 1596, James Burbage bought the Blackfriars and turned it into the private, indoor playhouse which served as a winter venue for the King's Men starting in 1608 (The Blakfriars Theatre). The King's Men continued to use the Blackfriars until 1642 when the majority of theatres were closed due to the English Civil War, and the playhouse fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1655 (The Blackfriars Theatre 2013).
The Theatre
The Theatre was the first London playhouse, built in 1576 by the English actor and entrepreneur James Burbage, father of the great actor Richard Burbage and friend of Shakespeare. It was located in a northern suburb of London (north of London Wall which bounded the city proper); on the edge of Finsbury Fields, just past Bishopsgate Street. There are no images of the Theatre, but written accounts of the building describe a vast, polygonal, three-story timber structure, open to the sun and rain. Its exterior was coated with lime and plaster. It had features similar to those of the future Globe playhouse and other playhouses of the day, such as galleries, upper rooms, a tiring house, and trap doors in the stage floor. Like the Globe, the Theatre had two external staircases, standing on either side of the building, and leading up to the galleries. Those people who watched from the main "yard" surrounded by the comfortable covered galleries, were forced to stand during the entire performance. The Theatre was home to many acting companies, but was used primarily by Shakespeare's acting troupe, the Chamberlain's Men, after 1594. Unfortunately, the Theatre fell victim to government censorship, due to the production of Thomas Nashe's "seditious" play Isle of Dogs that prompted all of the London theatres to be closed for the summer of 1597. The Theatre did not reopen, and was dismantled by the carpenter Peter Street in 1598, forcing the Chamberlain's Men to find another home. (The Great Theatre 2013)
Cross-Section of The Globe Theatre
Courtesy of Google Images 2013
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