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Explain Elizabathean stage in Shakespeare's time.
The development of drama during the age of Shakespeare was greatly influenced by the establishment of the private and the public theatres. Towards the end of the 16th Century, dramatic activity was in full swing.

Public theatres were larger than private theatres and held at least 2500 people. They were built around a courtyard that had no artificial lights. Private theatres were smaller, roofed structures. They had candlelight for evening performances. Private theatres charged higher prices and were designed to attract upper class patrons. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays for the public theatres.

The first playhouse in London was erected in the year 1576 by James Burbage at Shoreditch. The public theatres included The Theatre (1576), The Curtain (1577), The Rose (1587), The Swan. In 1599, Shakespeare and his associates built the Globe Theatre. Blackfriars, Salisbury Court and Drury Lane were famous private theatres.

The whole idea of these early theatres was like that of the Roman amphitheatre. The structure that enclosed the courtyard of a public theatre was round, square or many-sided. In most theatres it probably consisted of three levels of galleries and stood about 10 metres high. The courtyard, called the pit, measured about 17 metres in diameter. The stage occupied one end of the pit. For the price of admission, the poorer spectators, called the groundlings could stand in the pit and watch the show. For an extra fee, wealthier patrons could sit on the benches in the galleries.

The stage of a public theatre was a large platform that projected into the pit. This arrangement allowed the audience to watch from the front and sides. As the audience surrounded the stage and the actors, there was close intimacy between the two.
Actors entered and left the stage through two or more doorways at the back of the stage. Behind the doorways were tiring (dressing) rooms. At the rear of the stage, there was a curtained discovery space. The space could be used to “discover” – i.e., reveal – one or two characters, by opening the curtains. Like that of in The Tempest, Prospero ‘reveals’ Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess in his cell. The gallery that hung over the back of the main stage served as an upper stage. It could be used as a balcony, like in Romeo and Juliet, or the top of a castle wall.

A half roof projected over the upper stage and the back part of the main stage. Atop the roof was a hut that contained machinery to produce sound effects and various special effects, such as the lowering of an actor playing as god. The underside of the hut was sometimes called the ‘heavens’.

The main stage had a large trap door. Actors playing the parts of ghosts and spirits could rise and disappear through the door. The trap door, when opened, could also serve as a grave.

Unlike most modern dramas, Elizabethan plays did not depend on scenery to indicate the setting (place) of the action. Generally, the setting was unknown to the audience until the characters identified it with a few lines of dialogue. In addition, the main stage had no curtain. One scene could quickly because there was no curtain to close and open and no scenery to change. Although the stage lacked scenery, various props were used.

The acting companies spent much money on colourful costumes, largely to produce visual splendor. Sound effects had an important part in Elizabethan drama. Trumpet blasts and drum rolls were common. Sometimes unusual sounds were created, such as in Antony and Cleopatra “the noise of a sea-fight”. Music also played a vital role. Shakespeare filled Twelfth Night with songs. Acting companies consisted of only men and young boys (they did the women part) because women did not perform on stage during that age.

While the play begins, there will be a flag hoisted on top of the theatre. If it is black, the play is a tragedy and blue when it’s a comedy.

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays for audiences with a broad social background. To the Globe theatre, came a cross-section of the London society. The most widespread convention was the use of poetic dialogue. Although Shakespeare’s plays contain prose and rhymed verse, the chiefly used an unrhymed, rhythmical form of poetry called blank verse. For he wrote plays that had to appeal to people of many backgrounds and tastes.


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