Textuality » 4A Interacting
THE GLOBE THEATRE
General informations
Name: the Globe theatre
Address: Maiden Lane (new Park Street) Southwark
City: London
Architect: Peter Street (carpenter)
Owned by: Lord Chamberlain's Men
Capacity: 3000 seated and standing
Type: Elizabethan theatre
Opened: 1599
Rebuilt: 1614
Closed: 1642
What is the connection between Shakespeare and the Globe?
The Globe theatre was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
It was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613 and a second was rebuilt on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642( by the Puritans who controlled the city of London) . In 1997 a modern reconstruction of the Globe, named ‘Shakespeare's Globe' opened. During the accident a theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale.
What is the Globe structure?/what is the Globe's structure?
The theatre had a total capacity of between 2000 and 3000 spectators. Performances took place in daylight (probably most often in the mid-afternoon span between 2 P.M and 5 P.M) because there was not electricity .
The stage of the Globe was a level platform about 43 feet in width some 27 or 28 feet deep that was raised about a five feet off the ground. The stage was fitted with a number of mechanism and distinct sections that were creatively utilized by Shakespeare in his stage directions.
It was surrounded on three sides by the "pit" in which "one-penny" spectators stood and, at a setback, by an amphitheatre three stories high, each having a gallery and seating for "two-penny" theatregoers. While the galleries of the two-penny section may have been partially covered, the stage and the pit were open air. On the fourth side of the stage was an adjacent "tiring" house, where costumes changes were made. It was capped by a small turret
