4. Actors and 'Playhouses'

What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?

The Globe theatre was reconstructed in 1997 and is still open and throughly in use for plays constantly. The original globe had an open roof allowing light to pour in during the daytime and offering no shelter to the weather. It had an open pit for the poorer 'groundlings' who would pay a penny to stand as they could not afford the seating which was went around the theatre on all three sides. Because of the open roof there were no footlights or darkened areas to the theatres and any preparation was exposed at all times with no curtains or wings on the stage.

Clips of comedic re-enactment of Shakespearean acting (Rowan Atkinson)-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQKihNpsHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb6MpS54RVE

A traditional production of Shakespeare-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJYrEyGKh

The expectations of acting and
theatre today have changed drastically from the expectations in the Elizabethan Era. Acting is fundamentally respected for being a raw and honest representation of humanity, after influential practitioners such as Stanislavski and people who sought to define theatre as 'reality', without the breaking of the 'fourth wall' between actor and audience,  it evolved that actors would perform solely with each other on stage, as though the audience were non existent and the play they were acting in real life. Although Shakespeare's plays are about the about the suffering of humanity in all possible ways, whether it be tragic, comedic or historical, the techniques of acting in the Elizabethan period were very different to the actor of Chekhov's plays, for example, in the middle to late 1800's. The Elizabethan actor would speak their lines directly out to the audience, and there would often be a speech which introduced the play before it started. Unlike Chekhovian or Stanislavskian theatre, the staging of plays did not intend to portray reality or a particular accuracy in presenting the separate locations, but would use the space with as little set as was possible for the play to still make sense and the scenes to be played out accurately.

Live music and the dramatisation of the large and epic battle scenes were an important aspect to the performance of Shakespeare's plays. Actors were expected to carry out fight scenes and violence on stage, as well as be skilled in sword-fighting song and dance, for there would often be a final dance which the cast did at the end of a play to mark the ending and convey to the audience that the tragedy or the chaos which had happened was now solved and completed, that peace and order had now been restored in the world of the play and they could go back to their lives.

Playhouses were somewhat looked down upon by the 'officers of the church' and other respectable people in power who insisted upon all kinds of laws in order to restrict the freedom of the playhouses and who could attend them to watch theatre. The authorities believed that the playhouses were places of revelry and profanity, encouraging crime from the poorer classes and the disturbance of peace in the 'narrow and dark' London streets and lanes. They also questioned the 'good nature' of actors and suggested that the profession is a dishonourable one.

In terms of women actors, they were restricted from the stage until 1660, almost 50 years after Shakespeare's death in 1616.