‘As You Like It’ — THE GLOBE THEATER

According to recent discoveries made at the Globe excavation site, the playhouse may have had as many as twenty sides, giving it a circular appearance. It was an open - air theater that held about three thousand spectators.

Performances were given every day but Sunday, and plays ran from two to five in the afternoon, so that sunlight wouldn't bother the audience and the players.

As two o'clock neared, a raised flag and a trumpet fanfare proclaimed that the performance was about to begin. The flag indicated the day's feature: black signified tragedy; white, comedy; and red, history.

Patrons were transported across the River Thames to Southwark by "wherry boats." At one time over two thousand wherries made their way to and from the theater district.

As people entered the theater they would drop their admission into a box (hence "box office").

Vendors offered beer, water, oranges, nuts, gingerbread, and apples, all of which were occasionally thrown at the actors.

There was not one rest room for all three thousand spectators. Nor were there any intermissions. The playhouse thus smelled of urine as well as of ginger, garlic, beer, tobacco, and sweat (few Elizabethans bathed).

There was no producer or director; the actors were in complete control of the production.

Scenery and props were minimal. Lighting was the natural light that filtered in through the open roof. Actors described the setting through dialogue called "scene painting." (Horatio in Hamlet says, "But look, the morn in russet mantle clad..." letting us know that it is dawn.)

Costumes were often the castoffs of the aristocratic patrons and could be velvet, silk, gold, and lace. Actors also wore makeup, an abomination to the Puritans who tried to close the theaters. (After 70 years of trying, the Puritans at last triumphed. In August 1642 Parliament passed an ordinance that shut down all the theaters.)

Since women were forbidden to act on the public stage, female roles were played by prepubescent boys - one reason why there's so little actual sex in the plays. Shakespeare turned this restriction into an advantage, evoking desirability through language and dramatic action.

Like all the other playhouses, the Globe had its own acting company, which was under the patronage of a nobleman. The patron system grew out of the Puritan city father's decision to review an ancient statute prohibiting "masterless men, " which stated that every man without a master was regarded as unemployed and a threat to law and order. Thus each company had a noble "master."

Shakespeare's company was initially The Lord Chamberlain's Men, but with the accession of James I in 1603, they became the prestigious King's Men, the premier company in London.

Plays belonged to the acting company and not to the playwright. Shakespeare didn't own or have any right to publish his own plays.

After 1608, the King's Men began to use the old Blackfriars monastery as their winter playhouse. An enclosed private theater with a capacity of seven hundred, the Blackfriars catered to a select audience who could afford its higher admission price. Illuminated by candlelight, the indoor playhouse was ideal for such claustrophobic interior dramas as MACBETH. Although Shakespeare's later plays were also performed at the Globe, they are more refined and effete than those written for the boisterous audience at the public playhouse.

The Globe burned down in 1613, when a prop cannon exploded during the first-night performance of HENRY VIII.