Ms. Faughey

The Globe Theater

http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/enrich/globe_picker.html
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/
Check out the interactive links above to learn more about the Globe Theater!

The sketch at left is perhaps one of the most important in theatrical history. In 1596, a Dutch student by the name of Johannes de Witt attended a play in London at the Swan Theatre. While there, de Witt made a drawing of the theatre interior. A friend of his, Arend van Buchell, copied this drawing—van Buchell's copy is the sketch rendered here—and in so doing contributed greatly to posterity. This sketch is the only surviving contemporary rendering of the interior of a public theatre during this time period. As such, it's the closest thing historians have to an original picture of what the Globe may have looked like in its heyday.
The original Globe was built in 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area—the other three being the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope. It was an open-air octagonal amphitheater that could seat up to 3,000 spectators. The theatre was three stories high, with a diameter of approximately 100 feet. The rectangular stage platform on which the plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep. This staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects.
In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground. Responsibility has been placed on a cannon shot during a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII that ignited the thatched roof of the gallery. Construction was begun on the original foundation, and a new Globe was summarily completed before Shakespeare's death.
The new Globe continued operating as a theatre until 1642, when it was closed down by the Puritans (as were all the theatres and any place, for that matter, where people might be entertained). In 1644, the Globe was razed in order to build tenements upon the premises.
In 1993, the late Sam Wanamaker saw the beginning of construction on a new Globe theatre near the site of the original. This latest Globe Theatre was completed in 1996, and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May of 1997 with a production of Henry V. The Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model, and seats 1,500 people between the galleries and the "groundlings." In its initial 1997 season, the theatre attracted 210,000 patrons.

posted by Deirdre Faughey @ 4:42 PM