Evolution+of+the+Theater

​How did theater evolve and change from Elizabethan times to now?
 * Since Elizabethan times, the theater has become less popular, more technically advanced, and something you do once a year rather than once or twice a week. Theater has become a spactacle to watch nowadays because of all of the speacial affects not because of the actual story or actors abilities. It is also less popular because of modenr movies and TV. With movies and TV we can watch anything we want almost instantly or within a few days or hours using On Demand or Netflix, whereas you have to wait until a show is playing at a theater which costs more money and tickets can sell out.
 * Also, one difference between Elizabethan theaters and modern theaters is that the modern theaters are in more of a rectangular shape than before; Elizabethan theaters were circular and were wooden. They also used to be out in the daylight and were in open air. Today, theaters are indoors almost 95% of the time and are lit by electricity. Electricity is a very big factor today because most of the sound effects are done by computers and soundboards.


 * What did people do for entertainment in Elizabethan London? Who would you expect to find at the theater?
 * During the Elizabethan times, they had many ways of entertainment. They had feasts, which were large, and elaborately prepared. These were usually for many people and often accompanied by court entertainment. They often celebrated religious festivals. They also had banquets, which were ceremonial dinners honoring particular guests. They had many plays. they had plays starting as plays in town squares followed by actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns, followed by the first theaters, and then finally followed by the introduction of indoor theaters called playhouses. There were also mystery plays, which are stories re-enacted from the bible. Festivals were also very popular. They had celebrating church festivals. Dancing was a very popular entertainment. Dancers performed for Upper Classes, Royalty and Nobility, included Cinque-pace, Galliard, Pavane, Roundel, Tordion, and the Volta. Besides these, there were also many games and sports. There were jousting tournaments which were a series of tilting matches between knights, archery, bowling, cards, dice, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, quoits, skittles, and wrestling. Hunting was not only for food, but also a very fun and popular sport.
 * The Elizabethan Theater Audiences attracted people from all classes: the Upper Class nobility and the Lower class commoners. You would see royalty, such as Queen Elizabeth I very often because she loved watching plays. Plays were generally performed in indoor playhouses for her pleasure, but she would not have attended the plays performed at the amphitheaters. You will also find nobles there very frequently, but they pay much higher prices for better seats in the Lord's rooms. You can also see many commoners, called the Stinkards, or Groundlings. They would usually be standing in the theater pit for a very low cost.


 * Find out about the original Globe Theatre - what happened to it? What other theaters were operating in London?
 * The Globe Theatre was built from the remains of a theater created by Cuthbert Burbage. He constructed the Globe Theatre to perform William Shakespeare's plays. It was an open air theater so all plays were performed during the day when the weather was nice. The Globe had poor acoustics and often the actors had to yell their lines. It was also large so the actors had to over exaggerate their expresions so that the audience could understand what was going on. Also, something that would be found particularly odd is that they did not have a background scenery, curtains, or any stagehands other than the actors themselves. Shifts in scene were shown through Shakespeare's text in the plays instead. The stage was fairly good sized and about five feet off the ground. There were two seating areas, one where commoners stood and balconies where the wealthier people would watch.
 * The Globe Theatre burned to the ground on June 29, 1613. It was accidentally shot by a cannon in a performance of Henry VIII. It was rebuilt the following year with tiles instead of flammable straw on it's partial roof. Soon afterward Shakespeare died and 25 years later, a new regime came to power that shut down all of the theatres in England and eventually tore down the Globe to build tenement housing on it.

(Rachel Santee)
 * What technical aspects of theater were different? How did those elements affect the written text of the play?
 * Five hundred years ago there weren’t programmed spotlights, projected backgrounds, or sound boards. This affected the written text in many ways. One, an author, such as Shakespeare, couldn’t write about people disappearing in bubbles or someone being an actual ghost. If he did it would be almost impossible to act out on stage. Sure they could attempt it, but it would look extremely cheesy. Nowadays using holographic images or special images is common. Although flying was common but it used cranes and heavy ropes. And really the only special effects included smoke/fire traps in the floor which would make the stage either look foggy or smoky. This was very dangerous since most of the buildings were made of wood, so fires would occur often. Today we have smoke and fog machines that do not create a large fire hazard.
 * Today there are specific stores that sell props for stage theatre, such as fake blood. This can be purchased in bottles and bottles with no harm to anyone. So there’s no reason why a play today can’t contain as much blood as the Civil War. Back then, however, a play had to use either real human blood or goat’s blood. Imagine doing a show like Dracula where there’s blood on the stage constantly and running the show for weeks. That’s hundreds of goat deaths. If that happened today animal rights activists would be on them like peanut butter on jelly.




 * What was The Lord Chamberlain's Company (later The Kings Men)? What was Shakespeare's association with it?
 * The Lord Chamberlain's Company, or The Kings Men, were a originally a traveling group of actors that performed where they went.

Works Cited:
 * 1) "Ashland 2001." //White Weasel//. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. []
 * 2) //Ed OKeeffe Photography//. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. []
 * 3) "Elizabethan Theatre." //Fraumischo@DHPS//. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. []
 * 4) "Encyclop." //Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia//. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. []
 * 5) //Elezebethan Theatre//. Photograph. //The Great Books List//. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. []
 * 6) "Shakespeare's Globe Theater." //ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More.// Web. 17 Feb. 2010. []
 * 7) "A Pictorial Biography of William Shakespeare." //Heart of England//. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. []
 * 8) "Theater." //Index//. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. []
 * 9) Wilson/Goldfarb. "Introduction to Theatre --." //Nova Online Home Page//. 16 Nov. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2010. []