Style- The Elizabethan and jacobean period

In 1976 James Burbage who was the father of Richard Burbage bought a lease and permission to build 'The Theatre' in Shoreditch, London. The company that was in residence there from 1594 to 1596 was 'The lord chamberlain's Men' which was led by Richard Burbage who performed Shakespeare's plays.

Audience interaction, noise, no scripts- Shakespeares style

When beginning planing a performance there writers started by presenting ideas that they had for plots. The actors and managers then decided which ones they liked and would offer a payment for it to be written. When writing the plays the writers created their characters to fit certain actors. As Richard Burbage was the leading man he always go the main role because he had a good memory for scripts. When Richard was younger Shakespeare created characters that were of a similar age. These parts included Richard III and hamlet and as he mature his characters did to. These were the character such as king Lear and Macbeth. When the play had been written each player (actor) got given there own role. This was on a long sheet of parchment with only his lines written on. This meant they did not know who else would be in the scene with them until they began rehearsals. Rehearsals were used to sort out the details which were not in the script and fill in the entrances, exits, costumes and songs.

In 1593 London the Theatres closed due to the outbreak of the bubonic plague in England this was to prevent spreading of the disease.

Moving across the river

From 1596 to 1597 The city of London authorities banned public performances of plays within the city limits this meant that they could not perform. Then in 1597 there was dispute of the lease of 'The Theate' as the puritan owner Giles Allen who disapproved of the theate and acting troop and 'The Theatre' was built on land he owned. So Burbage opened negotiations to renew the lease. However his attempts failed and they moved to Curtain Theatre. So when in 1598 'the Theatre' got taken down they took the timber and used it to construct a never venues called The Globe Theatre. Then in 1599 The Globe Theate was opened on bankside. Southwark, London. Then in 1603 the Bubonic plague came about again and killed 33,000 people. Then in 1608 the theatre closed as the Bubonic plague hit London.

On the 29th june 1613 the Globe caught fire during a performance of Henry VIII. Then it was rebuilt in 1614 where they used tiles for the roof rather then thatching it as it is less likely to catch alight. 

2 years later Shakespeare died.

Indoor Theatres

There were some theatre that were indoors which were used by boy companies. The members were boys from choir schools who performed privately once a week. The audience were though to be more educated and richer as it was more expensive to get into the performance. Indoor performances has lots more music, sparkly props and lots more dialogue then a play by adult companies who performed all week in open air theatres. The places where they performed where existing building such as town hall and there was an expensive fee to enter. When they performed the could also perform at night because of the candle lit they used inside. The first indoor performance was in 1575 in Saint Paul's.

King James I into power

in 1603 queen Elizabeth I died and king James took the throne until 1625 and this was called the Jacobean period. This was a dark, disturbing and violent period and sexuality was prevalent. In this period economy was declining and so did the delicacy of theatre performances moved from outdoors to indoors. 

2 types of performance:

Revenge plays which were plays that were obscene and violent and the main character was called revenger who is a hero avenging an unfair or cruel death.

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

Theatre in the decline

In 1642  the civil war broke out between the puritan and the royalists. This is when parliament suppressed plays and the globe was pulled down. Then Finally in 1648 all theatre were shut down, actors arrested and audince member fined if caught watching a performance.

THIS MEANT 12 LONG YEARS BEFORE THEATRE REOPENED.