RoleofTheatre5

** WHAT ROLE DID THEATRE, DRAMA, ORATORY, AND OTHER PERFORMANCE SERVE IN SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLAND? WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN THEATRES AND PERFORMANCES? WHAT WERE SETS, COSTUMES, AND SO ON LIKE IN THE THEATRE OF SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLAND? ** ** Answer prepared by: Harriette H ** Theater, drama, and oratory played an immense role in entertainment and daily life in Shakespeare’s England. The major growth of theater began in the 1580’s (Claybourne and Treays, author of //__World of Shakespeare__//, 14) and according to Chrisp, author of //__SHAKESPEARE__//, whenever a playhouse raised its flag, meaning that a play was being performed, most people were already in the audience (35). This shows how huge and popular the theater was. Theater was also the mass entertainment that was becoming a large-scale business, making huge profits (Claybourne and Treays 14). Next, Drama in Shakespeare’s time developed faster than ever before (Claybourne and Treays 14). Drama was not seen as literal, but as popular entertainment, like Hollywood today (Laroque, author of //__The Age of Shakespeare__//, 69). Plays of drama were performed by schoolboys, college students, and touring companies that go from town to town (Claybourne and Treays 14). Lastly, oratory was greatly valued and excellence was required and expected. First off, oratory is “the art of public speaking, esp. in a formal and eloquent manner,” as stated on dictionary.com. So, many people would publicly speak, doing it well and frequently. Public speaking was extremely common, which was surprising to me because I do not enjoy public speaking whatsoever. Overall, theater, drama, and oratory were tremendously common in London.

Costumes and make-up in the theater of Shakespeare’s England were elegant, extravagant, and useful in altering the appearance of the characters. Costumes helped set the play in its historical time period according to Claybourne and Treays (43). Costumes were extremely exaggerated, “Noblemen and women paraded around like peacocks in spectacular outfits that were padded to create startling shapes and slashed to display extra colors and fabrics,” (Chrisp 40). Also according to Chrisp on page 40, women wore over-stuffed, unpractical dresses that didn’t allow them to walk through a door normally. In addition, women wore sparkly jewelry, lace ruff around their necks, and gloves (Chrisp 40). I found the story on the gloves to be very unusual; Chrisp states that the women wore leather or satin gloves scented with perfumes (40). The perfume scents were many women’s main use for the gloves, like “In //Much Ado About Nothing//, Hero says, ‘These gloves the Count sent me; they are an excellent perfume,’” (Chrisp 40). Then the costumes for the men were ruffs at their necks and their hips and shoulders were padded to make their waist look narrower (Chrisp 41). The men also had a three section leg covering, consisting of the trunk hose, canion, and nether stockings (Chrisp 41). One thing that I had found very interesting about the boy actors is that boys up to about age 20 had to be women in plays because women were not allowed to be actors. Lastly, make-up was a necessity because every actor wears at least a little. Make-up is used in many ways, like to do small touch ups to make sure that the people in the back row can see the actors expressions or to completely change a character, like to make them look older, younger, ill, injured, paler or supernatural (Claybourne and Treays 44). The most surprising thing for me about the make-up was that they were and wanted to be turned paler. It was so surprising because most people today try to get extremely tan, tanning booths have even been made, so I was not expecting people to make their selves look even paler. Luckily, after a while, I did come to understand why they wanted to look paler. It was because at the time pale skin showed that you were wealthy since the poor would get tan from being outside all day working. So during that time period, tan skin represented that you were a poor working citizen. Generally, the costumes and make-up was used for transformation. These two images are of the costumes in England. This last image is one of the perfume scented gloves the women wore. As you can see in the first two images, the actors had almost ill-looking pale skin.

Sets and props in the theater of Shakespeare’s England were important to the plays and personally surprising. There were a variety of settings during the time (Laroque 61) and they established the atmosphere and emphasized particular aspects of the play (Claybourne and Treays 39). For example, in //A Midsummer Night’s Dream// Oberon explains the flowers struck by Cupid’s bow, so the set could have a cluster of those flowers all around the stage. Set designers also have to take into account the size and shape of the theater, the time limit, and the cost (Claybourne and Treays 39). Lastly, Props were important in enhancing the visual of the story. Some props were daggers, rapiers (used for fencing), skulls, crowns, and fake blood (Chrisp 36-37). The most disgusting and surprising prop that I learned about was the blood, which according to Chrisp was pigs’ or sheeps’ blood that was thrown around to make the gory scenes more realistic (36). Overall, sets and props helped with the understanding of the play. A skull was a common prop used in shakespeares plays.This second image is a recent set of a Midsummer Nights Dream.

Elizabethan and Jacobean theaters and performances had several similarities that often go unknown. For example, they both had extremely gory plays and performances presented in their theaters (Greenblatt, author of //__Will in the World: how Shakespeare became Shakespeare__//, 181). This is not usually thought about as a momentous similarity, but theater was essential in both of these time periods, so any similarity in theater would be important to know about. Also, most of the plays were performed outside (Claybourne and Treays 10).  This is a similarity that people should know about because plays were a common daily activity, so the location of them is essential. Elizabeth and James were also interested in theater. Queen Elizabeth loved watching plays and had many plays performed at her court (Claybourne and Treays 10). James loved the theater and wanted to become a patron, so he supported Chamberlain’s men, who then on came known as The King’s Men (Claybourne and Treays 10). Lastly, the costumes of both times stayed the same, exaggerated and unpractical. This made the plays in both times have similar atmospheres (Chrisp 40-41). The Elizabethan and Jacobean theaters and performances had various significant similarities.

**Works Cited** 1. Chrisp, Peter. //SHAKESPEARE//. 1st ed. 14 volumes. New York, New York: DK Publishing, Inc., 2002. Print.

2. Claybourne, Anna, and Rebecca Treays. //World of Shakespeare//. 1st ed. 4 volumes. London: Usborne Publishing Ltd., 1993. Print.

3. Greenblatt, Stephen. //Will in the world: how Shakespeare became Shakespeare//. 1st ed. 9 volumes. New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004. Print.

4. Laroque, Francois. //The Age of Shakespeare//. 1st ed. 4 volumes. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrahams, Inc., 1993. Print.