1576-James Burbage (father of an actor, Richard) bought a lease and permission to build ‘The Theatre’ in Shoreditch. However he did not own the land, he only rented it. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men a company led by Richard were the company residence from 1594 to 1596. Basically, rich father James built a theatre for his spoilt son Richard.
Shakespeare Style: Writers gave their ideas for a plot. Actors and managers then chose whether or not they liked it or not and offer a payment for its completion. Shakespeare’s main job was to write plays, this was the only income he had.
Writers make a play for the characters instead of making a play and then casting people for it. Richard Burbage was always the leading man and therefore Shakespeare made his plays for him. As Richard got older Shakespeare started making plays with older characters and this is why his later plays were for a more mature and older audience.
Actors were known as ‘players’ and each player got a scroll with their lines on. They weren’t given a full script or stage directions. Each player would learn their lines before you perform at the rehearsal, you’re expected to learn them before you get there so they could focus on stages. The players had to come up with a lot of stage directions themselves as they didn’t have any apart from when they enter and when they exit. The players had work out between them when they were on and off stage together.
1593-London theatres closed due to the outbreak of Bubonic Plague.
The Theatre was on the same side as houses of parliament etc. In 1597 the council banned performances of plays within the city limits of London. Dispute over the lease of ‘The Theatre’. The Puritan owner, Giles Allen disapproved of theatres and was against all types of entertainment. He decided that the land he owned (that James built the theatre on) was to be stripped of all the things he didn’t like. This caused the lord chamberlains men to move to a different theatre for 6 months.
After about 6 months rumour has it that The Theatre had its parts moved overnight on carts and horses. Around a year later in 1599 the theatre opened on the other side of the river. It was renamed the globe.
1603 the bubonic plague returns, killing over 33,000 people. 1608 the theatre closes.
1613-A fire occurred during the performance of Henry V111 (8th)
Till 1609 indoor theatres were used by ‘boy companies’ these were theatre companies/school choirs only with boys. They performed once a week and always indoors. They were watched by families and other local people. This audience were seen as a more educated and richer than an outdoor one. These were more expensive than outdoor theatre such as the Globe.
Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 without children, King James took the throne. This was known as the Jacobean period and ran until 1625. Jacobean theatre was dark and disturbing, he wanted more action and violent plays. This lead Shakespeare to writing plays such as Macbeth and including insanity, death, sword fights in his performance. The economy went down, so did theatre. As things got hard theatre became more watching violence and wasn’t as entertaining.
Theatres then moved indoors as plays could be performed at any time as there’d be more light.
Two types of theatre:
Revenge Plays- Very obscene and violent. The main character was called a revenger a hero avenging an unfair or cruel death.
Tragicomedies- Dark humour and very sexual in nature.
1642 English civil war started between Parliamentarians (Puritans) and the royalists. Parliament pulled down the globe and made council houses.
1648 they destroyed every theatre and actors were arrested. If you tried to watch a play you were fined. There was then another 12 years until theatres were re opened.
1649 Civil war causes execution of King Charles 1 by Puritans.
1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England.
Theatre stops, 7 years until the restoration begins. For this period you went to work and church, there was no entertainment allowed.
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