GlobeTheatre1



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgnInT4x8kA - video talking about the globe theatre.

Matthaeus 1 Alex Matthaeus April 5, 2010 English 1 **WHAT IS THE GLOBE THEATRE? HOW IS IT CONNECTED TO SHAKESPEARE? WHAT IS ITS HISTORY AND LEGACY? WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME? WHAT IS ITS ARCHITECTURE AND HOW DID IT FUNCTION AS A THEATRE? WHAT IS IT LIKE TODAY? WHAT IS THE NEW SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE IN** **LONDON****? WHAT IS ITS HISTORY AND ITS** **MISSION****?** ** Answer by: Alex Matthaeus ** In 1599 on the bank of the Thames River in London, England a theater was built that became the main site where plays by the most famous playwright in history would be first performed. This place was the Globe Theatre and the playwright was William Shakespeare. The original Globe was built by Peter Streete and financed by James Burbage. This is where Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the acting group that Shakespeare belonged to, usually put on their play performances. The Globe’s construction was very interesting. Most of the oak used for building the original Globe came from James Burbage’s old theater, which Streete deconstructed. They wanted to make a theater in a new location but without the land owner seeing so they moved all the materials over the Thames river when the owner was not there. It turned out to be a notorious start to an extremely famous theater. From the book //The Globe Theatre// by Don Nordo I learned that the specific design of the Globe is unclear, but it was definitely a polygon. It is thought that the Theatre, one of the first theaters in England, had the same layout as The Globe. To build the Globe, Streete started with a sturdy foundation of poles of oak sunk into the mud. Matthaeus 2 Don Nordo explains that then they would make the oak frame by first, “laying large oak timbers called sills horizontally,” (23). The rest of the form was built with vertical and horizontal timbers called the post-and-lintel technique. The walls were then constructed over the frame using the wattle-and daub method. This is where weaved branches were placed over the entire structure then it was all covered in a sort of plaster. Finally the roof was constructed using interwoven straw. Moving deeper into the Globe was the most intricate part, the stage. From the website //The Old Globe Theatre// I learned it had two major sections: the tiring house and the front stage, which goes into the yard. The tiring house had a rear stage and dressing rooms. Both the front stage and tiring house had special effects of the time. There was also hell, which was underneath the stage so that the actors could come up in different places. Additionally there was heaven where actors could go up into the air on a seat attached to a pulley. The Globe Theatre was an innovation of the time and it treated many people to great fun. The original Globe was one of the greatest forms of entertainment at the time, but in 1613 it caught on fire from a prop cannon and burned to the ground. I learned from the website //The Original Globe// that it was rebuilt a year later. After many more great years The Globe was demolished by Puritans in 1644 and never rebuilt. Hardly anyone ever had the thought of rebuilding it until 1949, when Sam Wanamaker came to London and was extremely disheartened to find the Globe Theatre was no longer around. He engineered the idea to accurately rebuild the Globe Theatre. He worked hard to try to

Matthaeus 3 garner support for his cause, and eventually he began a trust for rebuilding the Globe. Finally in 1993 construction began but sadly Sam Wanamaker died that year. I learned from the book //The Globe Theatre// that The New Globe was finished in 1996. The New Globe does not have the same construction because now it is circular, and it is not in the same place as the original was. However it has close to the same inner workings as it had originally. It has renewed modern interest in Shakespeare and his plays in the hope that people will once again realize the fun of going to plays.

** Works Cited for the Globe ** 1. Nordo, Don. //The Globe Theater//. Miami: Black Birch Press, 2005. 7-33. Print. 2. "The Globe Theater." //Elizabethan Era//. N.p., 2005. Web. 4 Apr 2010. . 3. "The Old Globe Theater." //Elizabethan Era//. N.p., 2005. Web. 4 Apr 2010. .