Shakespeare’s Theatre:

The Globe

Siobhan Cahill, Chris Charles, Jessica Potter, Amy Warrick

The Idea

Shakespeare’s theatre company erected the storied Globe Theatre in 1598 in London’s Bankside district

About the Globe

Open-air, octagonal amphitheater, three stories high.

Diameter of approx. 100 feet.Seating capacity of up to 3,000

spectators. Rectangular stage that housed trap

doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects.

1597

Shakespeare’s theatre company technically owned the Theatre, but their lease on the land expired.

Giles Allen desired to tear the Theatre down.

This led the company to purchase property at Blackfriars in Upper Frater Hall and set about converting it for theatrical use.

1598

Autumn Cuthbert Burbage tried to renegotiate the lease with

Giles Allen Allen vowed to put the wood/timber of the building “to

better use.” Richard and Cuthbert set in motion a plan of their own to

dismantle the building themselves Winter

Allen left London The Burbage brothers, their chief carpenter, and

workmen assembled at the Theatre and stripped it down to its foundation.

They moved the materials across the Thames to Bankside and used them to construct the Globe

1613 - 1644

1613 The original Globe Theatre burns to the ground after a

cannon is shot during a performance of Henry VIII. The cannon ignited the thatched roof of the gallery.

The new Globe was completed on the foundations of it’s predecessor before Shakespeare died.

Continued operating until 1642 1642

Puritans close down the Globe 1644

Puritans burned the building to build tenements upon the premises.

The Globe would remain a ghost for the next 352 years

1989 - 1997

1989 The foundations of the Globe were

rediscovered. New interest in an attempt to erect a modern

version of the amphitheater. 1993

Workers, led by the vision of Sam Wanamaker, began construction of the new theatre near the site of the original.

1996 The latest Globe Theatre is completed

1989 – 1997 (con’t)

1997 Queen Elizabeth officially opens the

theatre on June 12, 1997 with a production of Henry V.

Initial season attracts 210,000 patrons.

The latest Globe is as faithful a reproduction as possible to the Elizabethan model. It seats 1,500 people between galleries and the “groundlings.”

WORK CITED

"Shakespeare's Globe." Shakespeare Resource

Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.