Acting Styles: Shakespeare

The Elizabethan and Jacobean period.

In 1576 James Burbage, father of  actor, Richard Burbage, purchased a lease and permission to build The-Theatre in London.

The Lord Chamberlains men, a theatre company led by Richard. Performed Shakespeare plays and were the company in residence from 1594 to 96.

Writers began by presenting their ideas for a plot. The actors and managers then decided whether they liked it or not and  offer a down payment for it's completion.

Writers created their characters with certain actors in mind. For example knowing that Richard burbage was the Chamberlains leading man and  that he had a good memory for long scripts. Shakespeare created the parts of Richard 3. And hamlet for him. And as he grew older. Shakespeare made his characters more mature

Each player or actor received their own role. A long sheet of parchment with lines written on. This meant that they would not see who else was going to be on stage until they actually rehearsed the scene

Rehearsals were used to sort out the details not specified in the script. Entrances costumes and songs were all filled in by the actors

1593. London theatres had to close due to outbreak of bubonic plague.

1596-97 the city of London authorities banned public performances of plays within the city limits

1597. Dispute over the lease of the theatre. The Puritan owner. Giles Allen. Disapproved of the theatre and the acting troupe. Burbage opened negotiations to renew lease of the theatre
Shakespeare's company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations to re new lease for the theatre.

1598. Timber from TheTheatre taken to use for the building of a new venue. Called the Globe Theatre

1599. The globe theatre is opened on bankside. Southwark. London.

1603. Bubonic plague re-emerged  and killed over 33000 people.

1608 the theatre closed.

1613 June 29. Fire at the globe theatre during a performance of Henry VIII..

1614. Globe theatre is rebuilt on it's original foundations. This time the roof of the globe is tiled. Not thatched.

Two years before Shakespeare's death.

Not all theatres were outside. Until 1609 the indoor theatres were used by boy companies. These grew out of choir schools that performed privately. They usually played just once a week rather than almost every day. As the adult companies.

The audience was thought to be more educated and richer than an outdoor one. Indoor plays had more music more sparkly pros sucks as pearls and more speeches than action

Indoor theatres grew into existing theatres. They were open to a public and charged an entry fee. First permenant indoor theatre St. Paul's opened in 1575. Held 500 people.
Tickets more expensive. Lit by candles.

Quen Elizabeth died in 1603. King James took throne. Jacobean era ran until 1625.

Jacobean theatre was dark and disturbing. Grotesquely violent and often shockingly obscene.

Sexuality was very prevalent in Jacobean performances. Along with a heightened sense of violence and general immoralities.

As the economy declined. So did the delicacy of the theatre performances moved from outdoor to indoor because of the changeable weather.

Jacobean drama.

Revenge plays
Obscene and violent

Tragicomedies were more grotesque with dark humour and very sexual in nature.

 The two most producers of Jacobean revenge plays were John Webster. The Duchess of Malfi. And the White Devil. Ben Johnson and Shakespeare were also performed a lot at this time including Othello, Macbeth and King Lear.

1642. The English civil war role out between the parliamentarians puritans and the royalists. Parliaments suppress plays that didn't for their religion. And the globe was pulled down. Houses were built in place

1648 the puritans orders all playhouses to be pulled down. All actors were arrested and anyone caught attending was fiend. It took 12 years before theatres re opened

1649. The civil war finally leads to the terrible execution of King Charles 1 by parliament

1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England

Theatre stops it will take 7 years before the restoration begins.

Our task

We were split into new groups and handed scripts a section of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Our main challenge was trying not to slip into the reading the lines in a typical Shakespeare style, we had to read into the context of our scene as we didn't understand what it meant. We found that the Fairies and Puck are actually mocking each other, whilst Titania and Oberon argue, but flirt at the same time. This helped us alter our tone and body language as a result.

Our next task was to stage our scene. We knew that Shakespeare plays staged two sides on separate sides of the stage and stuck to this, however, we wanted to allow our characters to move round to appear more interesting and exciting, but were wary of how we blocked the scene and made sure not too much movement was happening. With Oberon and Titania, we wanted to show them coming close to the boundaries of the two sides to show their flirtatiousness and the fact that they aren't true enemies, just hiding a love for each other. As Shakespearian Theatre limits us to what we can do in terms of techniques, we really have to exaggerate our lines and body language to engage the audience, whilst improvising in places such as they would back then. I think this style has been the hardest so far, simply because it is hard to understand.