Shakespeare, and The Globe Theatre.
Quick Fact Sheet.
William Shakespeare
 Most Famous Writer in the world
 He left very few personal writing and journals to study his life
 What we know about him comes mostly from church or legal documents
 He was 1 of 8 children
 Born around April 23 1564
 Born in Stratford Upon Avon
 Stratford of 100 miles NW of London
 He attended grammar school. He had no further formal education
 Married Anne Hathaway when he was 18. She was 8 years older than him
 They had three children (the last two were twins)
 Shakespeare moved to London just after the birth of the twins; apparently leaving his
family in Stratford
 By 1592 he had become an actor and a playwright
 By 1594 he was a charter member of the theatrical company called the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men, which was later to become the King’s Men.
 Shakespeare worked with the company for the rest of his writing life
 Year after year he provided the company with plays on demand (the first writer for hire)
 He was the ultimate professional writer
 He had a theatre that needed plays, actors that needed parts, and a family that needed to
be fed
 In 1612 Shakespeare returned to Stratford to live in retirement
 By 1612 he had written 37 plays
 Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52
 Shakespeare is buried at Trinity Church in Stratford this is his epitaph
o Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear
o To dig the dust enclosed here!
o Blessed by the man that spares these stones
o And cursed by he that moves my bones
The Theatre in Elizabethan England
 Theatre groups depended on the endorsement and financial support of a wealthy patron
(The Kings Men was patronized by King James himself)
 Existing theaters influence the shape and form of plays
 Shakespeare’s theatre influenced his plays
 It was called THE WOODEN O
 James Burbage built the first permanent theatre
 He called it the Theatre
 Until The Theatre actors played in whatever space they could rent; usually the courtyards
of inns
 The first theatre derived its shape from the shape of courtyards
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In 1599 The Theatre was torn down and the timbers were used by Shakespeare and his
company to build the Globe Theatre (the theatre for which Shakespeare wrote most of his
plays)
A large, polygonal building
Three stories high
Large platform stage that projected from one end into a yard open to the sky
In the back wall of this stage was a curtained off inner stage
Flanking the inner stage were two doors for entrances and exits
Above the inner stage was a small balcony or upper stage
Trapdoors were placed in the floor of the main stage for entrances and exits of ghosts or
descents into hell
Plays were performed in the afternoon
Since it was open to the sky there was no need for lights
Very few sets
The stage was set by the language
Costumes were often elaborate
Stage was hung with colorful banners and trappings
This design made for a theatre of great fluidity
Scene flowed into one another with almost cinematic ease
Plays were performed by all-male troupes
All women’s parts were played by boys