The Globe Theatre
Introduction
The Globe Theatre is today found on 21 New Globe Walk Bankside London close to where the original was built in 1599. The original building was able to hold 3,000 spectators, was 100 feet in diameter and three stories high. It was circular open air theater with seating all around the stage and a space on the ground where poorer people could pay a penny to stand and watch. A white flag was raised above the building when a play was on that day. The Globe Theater was and still is one of the most famous open air theaters.
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History of The Globe
The first theater in England was built in 1576 by the actor-manager James Burbage, in Shoreditch, London and it was named The Theater. Shakespeare was given a job at the Theater in the 1580's and the company thrived there for 20 years.
In 1596 a problem arose because Burbage’s lease of the land was coming to an end and the land owner refused to extent the leasing period. In February 1597, a month before the lease expired, James Burbage died but the dispute continued for two years.
In Christmas 1598 the company decided on something drastic: they leased a plot near the Rose (another theater in Southwark) and in the dead of night they demolished The Theater and carried its remains over the river where they built another one except this time calling it The Globe. By early 1599 the theater was up and running and for 14 years it thrived, hosting many of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Sadly in 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, there was an accident involving a stage cannon. This resulted in the thatched roof igniting and within two hours the theater burned to the ground. The theater was quickly rebuilt, this time with a tiled roof but in 1642 the Puritans closed all England theaters. Since it was no longer of use, it was demolished to make room for housing in 1644. |
"Totus mundus agit histrionem" - The Globe Theater motto
(Translates to "All the world is a stage").
The Reconstruction of the Globe
It was not until 1989 that the foundations of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre were discovered in Bankside. The discovery an enormous fundraising and research project was organised which led to the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre between 1993 and 1996. Nobody is certain what The Globe actually looked like, but using historical evidence and traditional building techniques the theatre was constructed as close to the original as possible. The replicate of The Globe is not a complete duplicate however. The newly constructed theater seats 1,500 people (half the original capacity), uses fire resistant materials and modern backstage machinery. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre continues to stage Shakespeare’s plays in the open air and is a very popular tourist attraction. |
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