Theater

  We will be showing you the history of the Globe Theater.

 Submitted by Christen Mercier©

 The Globe Theater was built by Richard Burbage and his family in 1599. It was used for fourteen years as a very popular theater in London before it burned down on June 29, 1613. A second Globe Theater was built on the same site in June 1614. The Theater was owned by six shareholders and actors of the Lord Chamberlain's Men,the play group that preformed at the globe. Two of thos six men, Richard Burbage and Cuthbert Brurbage owned double shares of 25% each. The other four, William Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips and Thomas Pope each owned 12.5%. As the theater became more well known, all these shares were diminished as new share holders were added.        <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(1,0,16)"><span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 80%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">      <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(1,0,16)"><span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 80%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">Submitted by [|Meagan's Public Gallery]<span style="COLOR: rgb(1,0,16)"> ©

=
<span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(1,0,16)"><span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 80%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">      ====== <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(1,0,16)"><span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 70%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 80%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 140%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive">The fire that caused the theater to burn down was started by a cannon that was fired as a special effect in Shakspeare's play " King Henry VIII". It was then rebuilt in 1614 and operated until 1642 when it was closed, like all the other theaters in london, by the Puritans, who thought acting was a sin.

The theater was approximately 100 feet in diameter, it could hold up to three thousand people, and was three stories tall. On the inside walls were boxes where more wealthy or more important people could watch with a roof over their head. The rest of the crowd were known as Groundlings, they payed one penny and were able to stand on the floor around the stage and watch the play from there. These people were mostly poor laborors and peasants. They would bring old vegtables and fruits, and any other uneatable food that they had lying around, and if they did not like the play, they would throw it onto the stage at the actors. Also, the roof of the theater was retractable so they could perform when it was raining or when it was sunny outside. On the day of a play one out of three flags were hung; a white one for comedy, black for tragedy, or red for history. Below is a picture of what it would have looked like inside the theater. At the time, as you can see, it would be hard for them to build adequate sets and so most of the time the audience had to image in great detail what they were watching. Actors were usually very hard workers, and even though the pay was just okay, they still came in to work every day very highly motivated. Although many parts were for men, there were occasionally parts for women to play. Acting for women was outlawed by society, and so their parts were played by prepubesintboys.

<span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left">
<span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left">  http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/images/globetheater.jpg</span <span <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left">  <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 50%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: left">  <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 50%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: center">