GlobeTheatre4

__GLOBE THEATRE__ Wynn Culver Theatre was an important component of Elizabethan England, and one of the most famous theatres is the Globe Theatre in London. Two brothers, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage owned a theater called The Theatre, but in 1598 the lease on The Theatre expired. When the lease expired, The Burbage brothers decided to tear down The Theatre then pack and ship all the pieces across the Thames River to Southwark, where it was rebuilt in 1599 and renamed the Globe Theatre. It took six months to build the new Globe, upon its completion, William Shakespeare received shares of the new building and the Burbage brothers received the remaining shares. Shakespeare was part of the acting group called “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” who had been a popular group of actors dating back to 1594. Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed at the new Globe Theatre after Shakespeare received his Globe shares.

Attending and watching plays in theatres was a popular pastime for people in the Elizabethan era. When people attended the Globe to enjoy plays, wealthy patrons, who could afford better seats, sat in tiered galleries in an open area. These were the best seats to watch plays from, whereas the lower class were only allowed to stand and watch performances from an area around the stage. The space under and behind the stage was used for special effects, like trapdoors for actors to enter and exit the stage, for storage of theater materials and supplis and for costume changing rooms. The Globe’s stage itself was 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep and had the capacity to accommodate two thousand people during a performance. Two of the most famous and well known plays performed at the Globe included, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth. The Globe theatre was constructed of wood and had a thatched roof made of straw. In 1613 the roof accidentally caught fire by a cannon explosion during a theater performance, the entire theater burned to the ground in an hour. It was rebuilt – however in 1644, thirty years after it was rebuilt, The Globe was forced to close because the Puritan parliament created and enforced a law suppressing all stage plays. Eventually the Globe Theatre was demolished by the Puritans because they thought when people acted in theater, they were assuming new identities, and, that, they believed was a form of lying. Puritans also were convinced theatres spread the plague. The Globe remained in a demolished state until 1993 when The Globe reconstruction began. The Globe’s transformation and rebuilding was completed in 1996, its grand reopening held in 1999 with former USM student, Mark Rylance (Waters) as its Artistic Director.

The Globe Theatre