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Interesting information about the Globe Theatre Female Roles during the life and times
of William Shakespeare and Elizabethan London, England

Globe Theatre Female Roles
Women were forbidden, by law, to perform in the Elizabethan theatre, therefore there were no actresses at the Globe Theatre. The acting profession was not a credible one and it was unthinkable that any woman would appear in a play. The parts of female characters were played by young boys. These boy actors were usually aged between 13 and 19 years of age when their voices were still high and muscles had not fully developed. The voices of Elizabethan boys were believed to break much later than the modern day due to differences in diet and lifestyle which made it possible for boy actors to play women's parts convincingly until they entered their late teens

Globe Theatre Female Roles - The women's costumes and make-up
Women were allowed to act in the theatre until 1660 as it was judged to be unseemly for a woman to undertake such a profession. Young boys were therefore hired to act in the female roles. The costumes used for the female characters were extremely elaborate, reflecting the clothes worn during the Elizabethan era. The women's costumes worn by the boy actors were constructed with many layers of clothing. It would have therefore taken some considerable time, and the help of a dresser, to dress a boy actor in the costume of a female. Wigs, or periwigs as they were called, were readily available as they were in fashion at the time so this was not a costuming problem. However, the make up used by Elizabethan women, and therefore the boy actors, was! The white make-up was lead based and highly poisonous! The young boy actors were therefore very unhealthy, had unpleasant facial skin diseases and a high proportion actually died of lead poisoning. The boy actors who took the female roles were also paid the least of all actors. The Admiral's Men paid boy players three shillings a week. The boys were apprenticed to adult actors and their wages were paid to their masters. In return the masters gave them board and lodging and a small allowance to spend on themselves.

Globe Theatre Female Roles - Character recognition
Nearly every color of clothing had its own meaning in relation to status and rank during the Elizabethan era. And these meanings were totally understood by the audience. The colors, materials and styles of the Globe Theatre Female Roles therefore conveyed an enormous amount of information as soon as the boy actors walked on stage. As soon as a character walked on the stage the fabric and color of his clothing would indicate the role of the character he was playing. The character and rank of an actor wearing a Globe Theatre costume made of velvets, furs, silks or lace would be instantly recognised as a member of the Upper Class. Cottons and taffeta would indicate a much lower status.

Globe Theatre Female Roles - The Masque and Class differences
A great deal of attention is paid the the fact that Lower Class Elizabethan women were not allowed to perform on the Elizabethan stage as it would have been considered to be lewd and highly immoral. This view was not taken regarding the appearance of Upper Class Elizabethan women who appeared in court masques! The mother of Queen Elizabeth certainly performed in masques! The first recorded appearance of Anne Boleyn at the Tudor Court was on March 1, 1522 was as a performer in a masque! Perhaps the element of disguise allowed for this as vizards, or masks, were always worn by the performers. But the more probable explanation was that these wealthy women of the court wanted to be included in performing in such an exciting diversion as a masque.

Globe Theatre Female Roles Interesting Facts and information about the Globe Theatre Female Roles. Additional details, facts and information about the Globe Theatre can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.

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Interesting information about the Globe Theatre Female Roles during the life and timesof William Shakespeare and Elizabethan London, England Globe Theatre Female Roles Women were forbidden, by law, to perform in the Elizabethan theatre, therefore there were no actresses at the Globe Theatre.

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The Queens' influence on the "Globe Theatre"

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The Queens' influence on the "Globe Theatre"

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Queen Elizabeth I was one of Shakespeare's chief patrons and served as a staunch defender of his plays when critics attempted to have them banned from the stage. Her insistence that women were emotionally and intellectually equal to men influenced his portrayal of women characters as three-dimensional human beings, a first in literature and theater at that time.

Elizabeth was a loyal patron of Shakespeare's work throughout his career, according to Shakespeare Online. She was a tremendous fan of theater and the literary arts; she was even an accomplished poet. In turn, Shakespeare faithfully supported the queen and referred to her in several of his works, including "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Bard even performed several of his plays before the monarch in the Royal Palace at Greenwich.

When the Puritans attempted to close down Shakespeare's early plays, Elizabeth stood in opposition to the effort and defended his work publicly, according to a Humanities 360 article.

While Elizabeth ensured Shakespeare continued to write plays, she also directly influenced their future content, according to the author of a Yale National Initiative paper titled "Queen Elizabeth's Influence on Disguise in Shakespeare's Plays and Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene.'" She was the first female British monarch to appear strong and wise as well as feminine. Shakespeare depicted this seeming dichotomy in several of his plays, including "As You Like It," in which two women disguise themselves as men for their own safety, and "The Taming of the Shrew," which features a woman who holds her ground despite being surrounded by arrogant men.

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How Was Shakespeare Influenced by Queen Elizabeth?

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Queen Elizabeth I was one of Shakespeare's chief patrons and served as a staunch defender of his plays when critics attempted to have them banned from the stage. Her insistence that women were emotionally and intellectually equal to men influenced his portrayal of women characters as three-dimensional human beings, a first in literature and theater at that time.

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Elizabethan Theatre: The Globe/ why it is unique

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Elizabethan Theatre: The Globe/ why it is unique

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The original Globe was an Elizabethan theatre which opened in Autumn 1599 in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, in an area now known as Bankside. It was one of several major theatres that were located in the area, the others being the Swan, the Rose and The Hope. The Globe was the principal playhouse of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (who would become the King's Men in 1603). Most of Shakespeare's post-1599 plays were staged at the Globe, including Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear and Hamlet.

The Globe was owned by many actors, who (except for one) were also shareholders in the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Two of the six Globe shareholders, Richard Burbage and his brother Cuthbert Burbage, owned double shares of the whole, or 25% each; the other four men, Shakespeare, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, and Thomas Pope, owned a single share, or 12.5%. (Originally William Kempe was intended to be the seventh partner, but he sold out his share to the four minority sharers, leaving them with more than the originally planned 10%). These initial proportions changed over time, as new sharers were added. Shakespeare's share diminished from 1/8 to 1/14, or roughly 7%, over the course of his career.

The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, that had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. The Burbages originally had a 20-year lease of the site on which the Theatre was built. When the lease ran out, they dismantled The Theatre beam by beam and transported it over the Thames to reconstruct it as The Globe.

On June 29, 1613, the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man who put out his burning breeches with a bottle of ale.

Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was destroyed in 1644 to make room for tenements. Its exact location remained unknown until remnants of its foundations were discovered in 1989 beneath the car park of Anchor Terrace on Park Street (the shape of the foundations are replicated in the surface of the car park). There may be further remains beneath Anchor Terrace, but the 18th century terrace is listed and therefore cannot be disturbed by archaeologists.

Layout of the Globe
The Globe's actual dimensions are unknown, but its shape and size can be approximated from scholarly inquiry over the last two centuries. The evidence suggests that it was a three-story, open-air amphitheatre between 97 and 102 feet (29.6 - 31.1M) in diameter that could house up to 3,000 spectators. The Globe is shown as round on Wenceslas Hollar's sketch of the building, later incorporated into his engraved "Long View" of London in 1647. However, in 1997-98, the uncovering of a small part of the Globe's foundation suggested that it was a polygon of 20 (or possibly 18) sides.

At the base of the stage, there was an area called the pit, (or, harking back to the old inn-yards, yard) where, for a penny, people (the "groundlings") would stand to watch the performance. Groundlings would eat hazelnuts during performances - during the excavation of the Globe nutshells were found preserved in the dirt - or oranges. Around the yard were three levels of stadium-style seats, which were more expensive than standing room

A rectangular stage platform, also known as an 'apron stage', thrust out into the middle of the open-air yard. The stage measured approximately 43 feet (13.1m) in width, 27 feet (8.2m) in depth and was raised about 5 feet (1.52m) off the ground. On this stage, there was a trap door for use by performers to enter from the "cellarage" area beneath the stage. There may have been other trap doors around the stage.

Large columns on either side of the stage supported a roof over the rear portion of the stage. The ceiling under this roof was called the "heavens," and may have been painted with clouds and the sky.[citation needed] A trap door in the heavens enabled performers to descend using some form of rope and harness.

The back wall of the stage had two or three doors on the main level, with a curtained inner stage in the center and a balcony above it. The doors entered into the "tiring house" (backstage area) where the actors dressed and awaited their entrances. The balcony housed the musicians and could also be used for scenes requiring an upper space, such as the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.

The modern Globe
At the instigation of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, a new Globe theatre was built according to an Elizabethan plan. The design team comprised Theo Crosby of Pentagram as the architect, Buro Happold as structural and services engineers and Boyden & Co as quantity surveyors. It opened in 1997 under the name "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre" and now stages plays every summer (May to October). Mark Rylance was appointed as the first artistic director of the modern Globe in 1995. In 2006, Dominic Dromgoole took over.

The new theatre on Bankside is approximately 225 yards (205m) from the original site, centre to centre, and was the first thatched roof building permitted in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666.

As in the original Globe, the theatre is open to the sky and has a thrust stage that projects into a large circular yard surrounded by three tiers of steeply raked seating. 700 tickets to stand (and you must stand, no sitting allowed) in the yard are available for every performance at 5 pounds each. The only covered parts of the amphitheatre are the stage and the (more expensive) seated areas. Plays are put on during the summer, usually between May and the first week of October. In the winter the theatre is used for educational purposes. Tours are available all year round.

The reconstruction was carefully researched so that the new building would be as faithful a replica as possible. This was aided by the discovery as final plans were being made of the site of the original Globe itself. Modernisations include the addition of sprinklers on the roof to protect against fire, and the fact that the theatre is partly joined onto a modern lobby, visitors centre and additional backstage support areas. Due to modern Health and Safety regulations 1,300 people can be housed during a show, under half the estimated 3,000 of Shakespeare's time.

Replicas

Globe-Theater, Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
A number of conjectural replicas or free interpretations of the Globe have been built around the world:
U.S.A.
OSF Elizabethan Theatre, Ashland, Oregon, built in 1935, rebuilt 1947 and 1959
San Diego, Old Globe Theatre, built in 1935[16]
Cedar City, Utah, Adams Shakespearean Theatre
Chicago, Illinois, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier, built 1999[17]
Dallas, Texas, Old Globe Theatre, built 1936[18]
Odessa, Texas, The Globe Theatre Of The Great Southwest
Williamsburg, Virginia, Globe Theatre, built 1975 in the Banbury Cross section of Busch Gardens Europe [3]
Germany
Neuss am Rhein, Globe Neuss, built 1991
Rust, Baden, Germany (in German), Europa-Park (in German), built 2000
Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg
Italy
Rome,[19], built 2003
Czech Republic
Prague, built 1999, burned down in 2005[20]
Japan
Tokyo, Isozakia Arata's Panasonic Globe Theatre in Tokyo, built 1988
Replica of similar Elizabethan theatre:
Waseda University Tsubouchi Shoyo Memorial Library Theatre (a replica of The Fortune Theatre), built early 1900s

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The original Globe was an Elizabethan theatre which opened in Autumn 1599 in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, in an area now known as Bankside. It was one of several major theatres that were located in the area, the others being the Swan, the Rose and The Hope.

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Shakespeare as an actor & The "Lost Years

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Shakespeare as an actor & The "Lost Years

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Visit this site dedicated to William Shakespeare including information about William Shakespeare and the Lost Years.Fast and accurate details about William Shakespeare and his Lost Years'.Learn about William Shakespeare Lost Years.