A1 S2 - A Midsummer Night's Dream - Context

The theatre during Shakespeare's time

This lesson will focus a little bit on the theatre during Shakespeare's time.

We will also look at Act 1, Scene 2 from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

​

This lesson

Poll

What do you anticipate you will learn about the theatre during Shakespeare's time? Choose the option that you think is the most likely.

• Only men were allowed to act on stage, so even the female characters were played by men.

• Shakespeare was not famous during his own time. He was only famous after his death.

• The theatre was considered a 'low' form of art and only poor people attended.

• Shakespeare was more famous for his poetry than his plays.

​What kind of person goes to the theatre?
What do you associate with the theatre?

Discuss these questions with the person next to you, and, when prompted, share your ideas.

Discuss

In Shakespeare’s time, a stage wasn’t just one type of space; plays had to be versatile. The same play might be produced in an outdoor playhouse, an indoor theater, a royal palace—or, for a company on tour, the courtyard of an inn. In any of these settings, men and boys played all the characters, male and female. And the theatre attracted all types of people - both commoners and the wealthy upperclass. It wasn't until the early 1900s that the theatre became associated with 'high art' and that theatre goes were thought of as posh.



Source: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-theater/

​

Versatility!

Open Ended

If you were writing a play and you knew that both the lowly commoners and the upper class were coming to see it, how would you keep all of the audience members happy? (Write your answer in 1-2 sentences).

Outdoor playhouses

Outdoor playhouses drew big audiences, but they were not popular with everyone. The officials who ran the City of London thought that playhouses were noisy and disruptive, and attracted thieves and other ‘undesirable’ people.

So people built playhouses on sites outside the control of city officials. This meant outside the city wall, in most cases. The south bank of the River Thames was outside the city and already had animal baiting arenas, brothels and taverns where people could buy food and drink. So people already went there for entertainment. 





Source: https://teach.shakespearesglobe.com/fact-sheet-playhouses#:~:text=There%20were%20two%20different%20types,attracted%20different%20types%20of%20audiences.

What did outdoor playhouses look like?

All outdoor playhouses had:

• a central yard that was open to the sky

• a raised stage sticking out into the yard

• a roof over the stage, which was called ‘the heavens’, although the first Rose theatre (1587-92) may not have had one;

• a tiring house behind the stage with a backstage area, where actors dressed and waited to come on. Above this were lords’ rooms, rooms for storage, and a room level with ‘the heavens’ to work the special effects from;

• galleried seating all around the yard, on several levels, which was roofed.

​
Source: https://teach.shakespearesglobe.com/fact-sheet-playhouses#:~:text=There%20were%20two%20different%20types,attracted%20different%20types%20of%20audiences.

These businessmen had money to spare, while most acting companies did not. So a businessman leased some land, built a playhouse and leased it to acting companies for a set number of years. The company paid the playhouse owner a share of the takings; usually half the income from galleries.

Two of the most famous playhouses of this kind were The Rose (built in 1587) and The Globe (built in 1599). The first Globe was actually built by the theatre company Shakespeare was in – the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

​Outdoor playhouses were sometimes built by businessmen who saw the rising popularity of the touring acting companies that played in the yards of inns and other open spaces around the city.

​​
Source: https://teach.shakespearesglobe.com/fact-sheet-playhouses#:~:text=There%20were%20two%20different%20types,attracted%20different%20types%20of%20audiences.

General public or people who were not nobility were referred to as groundlings. They would pay one penny to stand in the central pit. The upper class spectators would pay to sit in the galleries often using cushions for comfort. Rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the side of the Globe stage itself, so an audience viewing a play may often have to ignore the fact that there is a noble man sitting right on the stage!
The audiences did not always behave. Sometimes they called out, threw things at the stage or left before the play had ended!

​

Who sat where?

​Source:http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/henry4/papers/mthomas.htm#:~:text=Elizabethan%20general%20public%20or%20people,often%20using%20cushions%20for%20comfort.

Poll

Where would you prefer to be in an outdoor playhouse?

• On the ground, close to the stage and the action! I want to see everything in detail. Who cares if it rains!

• In the galleries; I need a cushion for my bum, and I don't want the actors' spittle on my face!

• In the seats on stage; I am just as important and worthy of notice as the actors themselves!

Acting troupes

Shakespeare’s troupe was called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later The King’s Men). They were, and still are, the most well known acting troupe of all time. There were many other acting troupes of varying success. The troupes would often have lead actors that were stars.

Because of the insatiable demand and high turnover rate for new plays, there was little time for rehearsal. As a result, when it came time for actors to learn their lines, they used two techniques. “Cue acting” in which a person would whisper the lines to the actor from offstage, and “cue scripting” in which the actor was only given his lines and the cues immediately before their lines. Only when the actors were on stage was the complete scene and the content of the play revealed. This method may have been invented to stop rival playwrights from stealing plays. There were no copyright laws at the time, so if someone else could steal a play for their theatre, they probably would!


Source: https://www.orlandoshakes.org/2020/03/05/the-acting-profession-of-shakespeares-time/#:~:text=Shakespeare's%20troupe%20was%20called%20the,troupe%20called%20the%20Admiral's%20Men.

Let's test your memory of what we have discussed so far.

Multiple Choice

Two of the most famous outdoor playhouses during Shakespeare's time were...

• The Thorn and The Globe

• The Rose and The Thorn

• The Rose and The Globe

• The Globe and The Rust

Multiple Choice

The roof of outdoor playhouses like The Rose and The Globe...

• Did not cover the central pit where the groundlings stood.

• Did not cover the central pit or most of the stage.

• Did not cover the central pit, most of the stage or the galleries.

• There was no roof at all!

Multiple Choice

While the general public or 'groundlings' stood in the central pit, the upper class...

• Sat in special seats on the stage

• Sat in the galleries and could rent cushions to sit on

• Could bring their horses into the central pit and sit on those

• Did not attend the theatre as it was a 'low' form of art

Multiple Choice

Playwrights (like Shakespeare) and the actors in the acting troupes needed to be versatile and adaptable because...

• The plays would be performed in many different venues

• All types of people attended the theatre (from lowly commoners through to rich nobles)

• Male actors needed to be open to playing both male and female characters

• All of the above

How does this information relate to A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Audiences first meet the acting troupe in Act 1, Scene 2. Six local craftsmen, later referred to as 'rude mechanicals', from Athens meet to rehearse an amateur production of 'The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe'. Their aim is to practice and perform the play on Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding night, as part of the celebrations. Nick Bottom fancies himself as the lead actor of the troupe and hopes to be admired.

​

The acting troupe

The play within the play

Towards the very end of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the actors perform. The play is ridiculous. It is absurdly brief; it is ad hoc, as if being made up on the spot; tragedy and comedy are jumbled together; it has a lot of action but no character development. The actors are also terrible. They mispronounce words, they repeat lines if they think the audience has not heard them the first time, and they deliver lines incomprehensibly out of nervousness. Nick Bottom believes himself to be a wonderful actor, but the joke is that he is actually terrible. Loud comments from the audience disturb the actors, the audience interacts with the actors and not all of the audience members watch the whole play.

All this was based on what actually happened in theatres!




Source: https://writerjyotijha.medium.com/role-of-play-within-the-play-in-midsummer-nights-dream-by-william-shakespeare-b34fd2466e81

Open Ended

Why might Shakespeare (who is a playwright and a member of an acting troupe himself) choose to write a play with a group of terrible actors that perform a ridiculous play? (Write your answer in 1-2 sentences).

Multiple Choice

The acting troupe first meets in Act 1, Scene 2. What is the name of the troupe's director?

• Portia Kumquat

• Paul Tart

• Philip Cheese

• Peter Quince

Multiple Choice

Nick Bottom is an amateur actor and is hoping to make it big. What does he do as his day job (which it appears he should surely keep)?

• Weaver

• Blacksmith

• Cooper

• Baker

Multiple Choice

Flute is told to play a female character, but he doesn't want to because he says he...

• 'has a deep voice'

• 'has a beard coming'

• 'has a toothache'

• 'is too tall'

Who can remember what else happens to Nick Bottom later in the play?​