Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Theatre
Shakespeare’s Theatre The Elizabethan Theatre Although plays of one sort or another had been acted for many generations, no permanent playhouse was erected in England until 1576. ... Accordingly in 1576 he built the Theatre at Shoreditch at that time a suburb of London. ... Elizabethan players were accustomed to act on a variety of stages; in the great hall of a nobleman’s house, or one of the queen’s palaces, in town halls and in yards, as well as their own theatre. The public playhouse for which most of Shakespeare’s plays were written was a small and intimate affair. The outside measurement of the Fortune Theatre, which was built in 1600 to rival the new Globe, was but eighty feet square. ... Performances took place during the day, using natural light from the open center of the theatre.