About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have loved Shakespeare all my life, and as a Stage Director and Actor for over twenty-five years I have had the opportunity to study his work in intimate detail. I would be happy to share my knowledge of his plays. I can also help with acting Shakespeare, working with blank verse, character development, script analysis and interpretation. I don`t have as much knowledge in the area of his sonnets, but I can help to understand their meaning and language. I also have some knowledge of his life and of the Globe theatre where he performed his plays, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company and his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, and can point you in the direction of some wonderful websites on the subjects as well.
Experience
Organizations SSDC - associate member The Shakespeare Institute (MA Candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
The Shakespeare Association of America
Question Hello Ms. Schulman,
I am curious about the behind the scenes aspect of Elizabethan plays,
especially the plays performed by The Lord Chamberlain's Men in the fall of
1598. Was the Company at The Curtain or The Theater? I would like to be
able to picture it and understand how many actors there were and what they
were doing before the performance, during, and after. Was it very different
from plays today? Also, I have read the phrase "tiring room." What is a tiring
room?
Thank you for your help!
Christine
Answer Hi Christine,
Let me answer your last question first. The "tiring" room was sort of a combination of what we refer to today as the "green room" and a dressing room. It was a room directly backstage in which the actors changed their costumes and waited for their next cue to come on. Technically a "retiring" room, it was commonly known as the "tiring" room.
In the Fall of 1598 the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing at the Curtain. In April 1597 the company was ejected from The Theatre when the Burbages' lease on the land expired (the building was theirs but they leased the land it was built on). They then moved to the neighboring Curtain which they rented and where they performed for the next 20 months, enjoying some of their greatest successes including Romeo & Juliet, Henry IV, and, reportedly, 10 more of Shakespeare's plays. It wasn't until December of 1598 that the company demolished the old Theatre (apocryphally in the middle of the night) and transported its timbers across the frozen Thames. With these they built the framework of the new Globe Theatre, which was owned jointly by the main company members as shareholders.
The company seems to be led by 8 shareholders, each holding one full share. In later days it apparently became possible to buy a part share. We are sure of 7 of the initial 8 shareholders - Richard Burbage, George Bryan, John Heminges, Will Kemp, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope, and Will Shakespeare. The eighth was probably Will Sly. George Bryan lasted only a few years. Henry Condell bought his way in early on and probably replaced Bryan. There were others who left over time and new shareholders bought their way in. Aside from the shareholders there were other actors hired working their way up in the company, those hired for particular plays, and the boy apprentices who lived with their masters and teachers. There were a great many actors who worked with the Lord Chamberlain's Men over the years of their existence - we know of almost 100. The First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, 1623, lists 26 members of The King's Men (the name taken by the Lord Chamberlain's Men after Queen Elizabeth died and King James I became their patron) as "Principal Actors in all these plays."
We know they performed in the afternoon, largely in open air theatres, at least until 1608 when they started using Blackfriars Theatre, an indoor theatre, as well, so they most likely rehearsed in the mornings. They also performed at Court, as well as touring the countryside in the summers when the theatres in London were closed because of the Plague. We know that a different play was performed every day (requiring a huge amount of memorization by the actors). They only had a few rehearsals to learn the play, and were not given a full script, but only their one lines, each preceded by three or so cue words. It is likely that the roles were type-cast, each actor usually playing the same kind of character (clown, lead, woman, old man, etc.) which would help them learn their roles faster. That is quite different from what our actors do today.
We really don't have specific records of what any particular day might have been for the actors. Beyond that the personal lives of the players would have differed as our actors' do today.
There are a number of books that talk about the company and what theatre was like in Elizabethan/Jacobean times. You might want to check out "The Shakespeare Company 1594-1642" by Andrew Gurr. It may be a little dry, but it gives a good picture of the company and the process of theatre at that time.
Another book illuminating Elizabethan theatre is "The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642" also by Andrew Gurr.
