Archive for the ‘acting’ Category
Posted in The plays of Shakespeare during his lifetime were performed on stages in private theatres, provincial theatres, and playhouses. His plays were acted out in the yards of bawdy inns and in the great halls of the London inns of court. Although the Globe is certainly the most well known of all the Renaissance stages associated with Shakespeare and is rightfully the primary focus of discussion, a brief introduction to some of the other Elizabethan theatres of the time provides a more complete picture of the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: bawdy, Blackfriars, Butts, countryside, court, Curtain, discussion, district, Elizabethan, elizabethan theatres, English, english countryside, focus, Globe, inn, inns of court, introduction, lifetime, London, london district, Newington, Palaces, picture, playhouses, provincial theatres, Renaissance, Rose, Royal, royal palaces, Shakespeare, Swan, Theatre, Time, world, Yards
The Swan Theatre was built by Francis Langley about 1594, south of the Thames, close to the Rose, in Surrey. Scholars disagree as to whether Shakespeare and his company, the Chamberlain’s Men, played there — some argue that the troupe definitely played at the Swan from time to time while they were looking for a permanent home. The Swan was one of the largest and most distinguished of all the playhouses, but its place in history is primarily owing to the following two facts: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: acting company, amateur poetry, Amsterdam, Anything, Bentley, Berry, Biographical, Boyce, Carol Chillington, Chamberlain, Charles, closure, company, copy, de witt, decay, deduce, documents of the rose playhouse, Dover, drawing, eades, Elizabethan, File, Francis, Gerald Eades, Globe, government, Handbook, Herbert, history, home, Isle, isle of dogs, Johannes de Witt, Langley, Lee, Life, life of william shakespeare, London, Manchester, manchester university press, Men, Montreal, New Haven, New York, Pembroke, picture, place, play, playhouse, playhouses, poetry, poetry readings, Press, Public, public playhouse, Publications, Queen, References, right, Rose, Rose Playhouse, Rutter, s university, Scholars, Sir Sidney, sketch, staging, summer, Surrey, Swan, swan theatre, Thames, Theatre, Time, traveler, trip, trip to london, troupe, University, variety, way, William Shakespeare, Yale, yale university press, yale university press new haven, Z. Facts
The best information regarding the date of Romeo and Juliet comes from the title page of the first Quarto, which tells us that the play “hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his servants.”
This reference would indicate that the play was composed no later than 1596, because Hunsdon’s acting troupe went by a different name after this date. Moreover, “[m]any critics have placed it as early as 1591, on account of the Nurse’s reference in I.iii.22 to the earthquake of eleven years before, identifying this with an earthquake felt in England in 1580″ (Neilson, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 36). But the earliest performance of Romeo and Juliet actually documented was in 1662, staged by William Davenant, the poet and playwright who insisted that he was Shakespeare’s illegitimate son. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: account, acting, advent, alteration, applause, art, Augustan, augustan rome, balcony, caius, Caius Marius, call, Caught, century, Claire Danes, control, date, David Garrick, Deny, earthquake, eighteen, eleven years, England, English, era, Fall, Family, fifty, film, fit, Franco Zeffirelli, fworn, Garland, Garrick, Gentlemen, hand, hath, history, honor, Honourable, Hunsdon, iii, illegitimate son, information, Juliet, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Whiting, Leonardo DiCaprio, license, Love, Luhrmann, mainstay, Marius, Marius Senior, mass, material, Metellus, motion, name, Neilson, New York, nineteenth, nobility, Nurse, O Marius, office, Olivia Hussey, ordeal, page, Parent, patrician, patron, performance, physical confrontations, plaid, play, playwright, plot, poet, political struggle, popularity, power, power struggle, production, Quarto, reference, regard, right honourable, Rome, Romeo, romeo and juliet, Rosaline, scene, series, seventeenth, seventeenth century, seventy, Shakespeare, son, stage, stock, story, struggle, term, text, Theophilus Cibber, Thomas Otway, thou, thy, title, troupe, two lovers, Verona, version, West Side, wherefore, William Davenant, wilt, work, worthy patron
Very little is known about this theatre, which was in use on occasion from approximately 1580. It was, unfortunately, situated over a mile from the Thames, in Surrey, near an archery training field, and the Privy Council complained of “the tediousness of the way.” It appears to be the first theatre in what would later become the most important theatre district in London. When a riot in Southwark broke out on June 23, 1592, the Privy Council closed Newington Butts and all of the other playhouses around London. A brief time after this ruling, Lord Strange’s Men were granted permission to resume acting, not in their former abode, the Rose, but at the more unpopular Newington Butts. Outraged, the troupe refused and decided they would rather perform around the countryside. But they could not make a living outside the London area and so they returned, once again petitioning the Council to grant them permission to return to the Rose. This is the response by the Privy Council to Lord Strange’s Men, and one of the very few contemporary documents that mention Newington Butts whatsoever:
To the Justices, Bailiffs, Constables, and Others to Whom it Shall Appertain:
Whereas not long since, upon some considerations, we did restrain the Lord Strange his servants from playing at the Rose on the Bankside, and enjoyned them to play three days a week at Newington Butts; Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abode, Appertain, archery, area, bailiffs, Bankside, Bentley, Berry, Biographical, Boyce, Butts, Carol Chillington, Chamberlain, Charles, commandment, Constables, contrary, Council, countryside, district, Dover, field, File, forasmuch, Gerald Eades, Hamlet, Handbook, Herbert, infection, June, june 23, Kyd, Lee, liberty, Life, London, london area, Lord Strange, Manchester, Men, mile, Montreal, New Haven, New York, Newington, newington butts, number, occasion, Outraged, permission, play three, playhouses, Press, Privy, privy council, Public, Publications, Queen, reason, reference, References, response, restraint, riot, Rose, Rose Playhouse, ruling, Rutter, servants, Shall, Shrew, Sir Sidney, sort, Southwark, Surrey, Thames, Time, titus, Titus Andronicus, training, troupe, University, use, version, watermen, way, week, Whom, William Shakespeare, Yale, Z. Facts