Thursday, 8 October 2015

Classical Theatre Assignment 1


Classical Theatre


 
The Elizabethan Era is seen to be one of the most interesting era’s, in the History of England. It was between 1558 -1603 and was names after the “Greatest Queen”. Not only is it famous for the Queen herself but also for the great explorers and the first theatre. The globe theatre was built on the south walk on the south bank of the River Thames in London by Peter Smith and his workers. It began getting built in 1597 and was finally finished in 1599, Richard Burage funded the project. I think the reason why Richard funded the project is because his father owned 'The Theatre' which was one of the earlier theatres and wood used to help build the globe theatre was rescued from the 'The Theatre' his father owned.

The globe is a big, round opened air theatre, where there is a roof covering the seating area. This theatre is similar to a Greek Theatre but much smaller. It holds three stories of seating and able to hold 3,000 people. The seating arrangement was determined by the class you were in back when it was first built, for example the lower class would be on the bottom floor having to stand for the whole show. During the Elizabethan times the amount of poor people increased highly that there was actually a law made that was devided into three catagories. Middle would be sat on the first balcony and the higher class sat up on the top balcony. Some of the really higher class people sat upper stage above the performers so the lower class could see them. The pit was the area at the base of the stage which the lower class people would pay just a penny to watch the show.
 
 Shakespeare was a share owner of the globe and owned 12.5%.

The theatre used colour coded flags to signify what sort of play was being performed. For a historic play, a red flag would of been shown. White for a comedy and black for a tragedy. The inscription "Totus mundus agit histrionem" which was above the main entrance is Latin for playhouse. To allow the audience to know that the play was beginning and for them to take their seats a trumpet would be played. You would only see male actors on stage as performing was seen too 'risque' for females.

 When the 'bubonic' plague was serious in London, The globe theatre was forced to close in 1603 and 1608 to stop it spreading.

In 1613 the globe theatre was burnt down due to a cannon used for a performance for Henry VIII set the thatcher roof a light, the fire quickly spread causing the globe to be burnt down completely in 2 hours. According to a few surviving documents no one was hurt during this event. After the globe was then re-built in the exact same spot in 1614. In 1642 a order by the puritans was made suppressing all stage plays and in 1644 is was turned into tenement housing, ending 85 years of history.

We all see the globe as a circle building but in the late 1980's a small part of it's foundation was uncovered where it seemed the building was a polygon of 20 sides.

In 1997 "Shakespears Globe Theatre" was built close to the original site of "The Globe Theatre", this was the third version of the globe theatre. The new globe theatre has been built using 1,000 oak trees and 6,000 bundles of reeds for the roof.









The globe theatre used many special effects such as a Cannon
  • Trapdoors
  • Wires, ropes and harnesses
  • Fireworks
  • Flowers and petals
  • Music
  •  Live Animals
  • Bones, intestines and blood of dead animals

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    These would of been used throughout many different plays but the one thing the Globe didn't have was scenery so it would have been quite plain on stage during the performances but back then people focused more on their voices then the physicality so it wouldn't of bothered them as much. For the play Much Ado About Nothing “One of Shakespeare's most popular comedies" the theatre had pillars which would of been great for the Act 3 scene 1 when Hero and Ursula are talking about how Benedick loves Beatrice whilst she's secretly listening and they would of been great for her to hide behind. In the David Tennant performance they use the pillars for that scene as well as ropes and harnesses which would have also been good to use and possible was back when it was first performed. I would have also had it that maybe during the scene Beatrice stood on the trap door and had to climb back out because it would have been very amusing for the audience. The main theme is love, the love of Hero and Claudio and the love between Beatice and Benedick, both very different. The way is see it is Hero and Claudio's love is all fairytale where as Benedick and Beatrice can't admit there love to each other. Other strong themes are humour as it is a comedy and gender which I think is based on Beatrice and Benedicks relationship because they mock each other ad it's battle of the gender with them I feel. It was written by William Shakespeare and performed in the late 1590's.William Shakespeare is one of the most famous people from the Elizabethan era, he is considered to be one of the most famous play writers of all time. He has wrote 34 plays and are written in early modern English. Much Ado about Nothing was set in Messina in Sicily and back then the English was very fascinated by the Italians. A few of Shakespeare plays were set there. It was thought that Shakespeare and Elizabeth were very close as he would regularly be invited round along with his acting company and sometimes they would perform for her. Elizabeth was very fond of the theatre and due to her support helped to not have it shut down.

    I think the play brings up the part when Hero is seen as un-loyal because religion was big thing back then as Elizabeth was religious herself and Catholics don't believe in sex before marriage. In the play when Hero is accused of this her own father dishonours her as it was taken very seriously because no man wanted a women who is unfaithful. A women’s reputation was everything and it shows that in the play with Hero. I feel like the relationship between Hero and Claudio is to show how everyone views love, like a fairy tale, love at first sight which some people believe to be true. Whereas Benedicks and Beatrice is very different, it's a love hate relationship, they act as if they hate each other when they do indeed love each other but they don't want to admit it. Beatrice also comes across has a very strong, dominate women when in a relationship it is normal the man who is. It's almost as it's try to show equality between sexes and as well the role would be performed by a man as women were not allowed to perform until the late 1600. During that time it was very little the women could do, they were mainly house wife’s and would stay at home to, cook, clean and looking after the kids.

    The things that are the same of the Shakespeare version and the David Tennant version is probably that both used little scenery. The modern David Tennant one used pillars which Shakespeare would have had as they were on the globe stage and they would have used them during the bit where Benedick is hiding and the same for Beatrice and made out to be tree's. A difference would probably be that the modern play had a lot of beer and smoking involved which Shakespeare’s wouldn't have had. The masked ball would have been the same apart from the modern version was made more comical as they used masks like the Queen's face and back then it would have been plain masks with different facial expressions. The costumes would of definitely been different as theatre back then didn't have a lot of money so wouldn't have as good as costumes as they did in the modern version. The modern stage was able to rotate so that they could get one side of the stage ready whilst a scene was going on in front of the audience. Elizabethan audience would probably of carried horrible food with them to chuck at the actors if it wasn't good where as you wouldn't get that now.

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