At the time Shakespeare was writing the focus in theatre was
on the language being said rather than the physical action, because of this the
actors had no rehearsal time and only had one read through the day before the
performance, they learnt their lines for the show and then performed without
any direction. This being the norm, in Shakespeare’s writing there is some
stage directions but also in the language of the line for the characters. This
gave the actors some direction of what to do on stage and also what Shakespeare
intended for the performance. For us now performing Shakespeare it is really
interesting to notice these indications left by Shakespeare as it shows us elements
of our character such as how they would react in a certain situation by
indicating whether they would move away from a scary or intimidating situation
or stay strong.
Traditionally Shakespearian theatre is formed of a basic
reading of the language. As they don’t have rehearsal time they didn’t
contextualise the language as we are doing now with our piece as we link it to
the African theme and what could be meant or message being said by Shakespeare
in the language. As a result of this thee performance had very little meaning
than that of what Shakespeare meant by it, unlike us where we have a director
and company to put another tone on top of the piece, in Shakespearian times the
performances would simply about the words and the message of the words not a
deeper or underlining message. As well as this traditionally when performed in
Shakespearian times the lines would be declaimed when they were spoken. A line
could be thrown away very easily in a scene. Consequently the lines would have
very little emotional attachment or objective connected to them, this would
make the performances full of stereotypes as the actors didn’t look deeper into
the characters. Also because of the lack of emotional attachment to the line
and as theatre at the time was focused on the language the body was very
detached from the words and action that was taking place on stage.
When we saw the performance at the Globe one thing that we
noticed was the decoration on the stage and the building as a whole. There was
paintings of the Zodiac sign, which represents the world, this is important as
it shows how the theatre takes in everything about the world and all aspects of
the world can link into theatre. The top of the building with the open roof
represents the heavens being above, making hell below. This was also mimicked
by the seating arrangements of the audience as the higher in class you were the
higher in the audience you would sit with the peasants being the groundlings
who only paid one penny and had to stand, it was believed then that the higher
class you were, the more money you had the closer to God you were as he had
given you that wealth, this links to the idea that the theatre is set our as a
world with heaven and hell watching it. This was also highlighted by the two
trap doors that are on the stage which also can indicate to the
characterisation of certain characters. One of the trap doors represents heaven
while the over comes up from the bottom showing hell. Shakespeare would use
these to his advantage and if a character came up from the bottom trap door it
tells the audience that this is a dark character that is devilish. To support
this other actors would make the sound effects as a character came up from the
hell trap door as they would make the sound of hounds crying and crows, this
played on the audiences superstitions and made the character even more frightening
to the audience. This helps us as actors now as we can look into the language
used by Shakespeare and his given stage direction as it tells us if our
character has a certain superstitious quality to them or if they are a hero and
close to God or the opposite. Other than these trap doors there was no
elaborate set or scenery and the lighting would come from the natural light
from the outside as performances would take place in the afternoon or later on
they got lighting from burning limestone. Because of the lack of scenery the
actors and writers also relied on the audience by asking them to use their
imaginations in create the set, for example in Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare writes into the line that it is dark, allowing the audience to
create the world of the play in their minds. This is really interesting to us
actors as it shows us what was expected to of the audience in that time and
when comparing this to theatre now and how we could use the language to get the
audiences attention like they used to and to engage them as Shakespeare
expected them to be engaged.
However they would have costumes to use in the performances
and were hugely important as other than the writing they were the only thing
other than the words that they had to set the scene for the audience. The
costumes were often donated by patrons of the theatre and consequently they
could be really expensive clothing of high status people. The language and the
costume was what was used mainly in Shakespearian times to set the scene, the
time and the place, so they played a huge part in the performance.
At the back of the Globe stage are two doors leading to
backstage or as it was called the tiring house, where they would change
costume, with the stage wall being covered by a curtain. Above the stage wall
is a gallery which has the musician in it. This shows the importance of music
in Shakespeare’s plays. Also in the gallery, really rich people would pay to
sit there, even though they had a bad view. This was because going to the
theatre for the rich was about showing off their wealth and a socialising event
rather than watching the performance. By sitting in the gallery those who sat
there would have all the other audience members watching them and they would
peacock to show off their power and wealth. On the stage there were also two
pillars that are made of tree trunks, these hold up the roof and the heavens.
Behind them there was the frounts scenan.
The role of the audience has changed massively over time as
now they sit quietly and rarely respond vocally or physically to the
performance, in Shakespearian times the audience were heavily involved in the
performance. Often the audience’s would be very drunk especially the
groundlings and this meant that they were very rowdy and loud. During the
performance they could talk, joke, and throw things if they weren’t enjoying
the performance but also they listened to the words of what was being said as
this was what was important to them in the theatre. However the main thing about
the audience to know is that they were uncontrollable and interacted with the
actors largely with lines being said directly to them. This is really
interesting for us to know as this is something that our audience will not be
used to that and as we are trying to get this in our performance we have to
understand that the audience may not be used to it but I think we need to be
able to bring in these lines and to use them in a really effective way that
won’t make them look or sound cheesy. It shows us how there was no separation
between the audience and the actors, unlike Checkov the audience weren’t to be
made to believe that we were in a different world to them but that they are
with the actors.
How do we
contextualise the performance compared to Shakespeare:
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Difference
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Similarities
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Sound effects
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Costume
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Lighting
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Thrust stage
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Set
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Voice projection
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Style of Acting – unification of emotion, gesture and word
to make a character
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|
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Story set on interaction no words
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Two scenes at once
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Amount of rehearsal time
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Using music
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Director
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Song in curtain call
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Contextualise – put theme on
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Interact with audience
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Abridged version
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Measurements of the
Globe:
Height – 5 feet
Width – 45 feet
Length – 30 feet
People – 600 in the pit and 900 seated
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