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Theatre Department   The Globe and Other Elizabethan Playhouses   The Globe Playhouse was probably the most successful theatre in London at the start of the 17th century, but there were several others including Philip Henslowe's Rose where Ned Alleyn starred, and the Boar's Head. Titles marked with appear on the Amazon.com site, and by clicking on the flag icon you may read more about the title or perhaps buy it if you so wish. Many titles also appear on the Amazon.co.uk site, and these are indicated with .     Pronouncing Shakespeare   by David Crystal For three performances in 2004 Shakespeare's Globe performed Romeo and Juliet using the pronunciation believed to have been used in Shakespeare's day. I saw one of these performances and it sounded so 'right'.  This book is an account of the preparation for those performances as well as the reactions of the actors and also an account of the other 'original practices' employed by the company at the Globe.  In the 2005 season the Globe  presented all performances of Troilus and Cressida in original pronunciation. The Rose Theatre   by Christine Eccles     The first part of this book tells the story of how the larger than life Philip Henslowe built a theatre called The Rose on London's Bank Side in 1587. How he ran the company of players led by Edward Alleyn with great success in competition with The Globe which was built nearby in 1599. After describing what Henslowe's Diary and other evidence tells us about the Rose, Christine Eccles' book moves to the late 1980's when the foundations of the Rose were discovered during building work. She discusses what was found, and describes the fight to save the foundations from being destroyed by developers.         Playgoing in Shakespeare's London by Andrew Gurr Not just the theatres but Professor Gurr describes every aspect of playgoing around 1600. How audiences went to 'hear' a play, what they expected, and what they experienced. How varied were the audiences, from all levels of society. The appendices list all the people known to have attended plays at the time, and all significant comments on playgoers and playgoing. Now updated and reissued 2004. The Shakespearean Stage 1574 - 1642   by Andrew Gurr   An excellent book covering the rise and fall of the theatrical tide whose highest crest was Shakespeare. The first London-based acting companies appeared in in 1574, and a total ban on playing was imposed by the Puritans in 1642. An appendix lists every play known to have been performed in London during the period. Chapters are devoted to players, companies, theatres, costumes, properties, social attitudes and much more. Now in its third edition.   Shakespeare's Second Globe, The Missing Monument     by C Walter Hodges This book was originally published in 1973, and Mr. Hodges did not have the advantage of the recent archaeological evidence, but it is a clearly reasoned argument explaining his views on what the second Globe, built to replace the original playhouse which burned down in 1613, must have been like. His conclusions agree very closely with the picture now drawn by scholars like Professor Andrew Gurr which were used as the basis for the design of the New Globe Theatre, standing proudly by the Thames today. The book has numerous large illustrations, many by the author, others from around the period when the Globe was the premier playhouse of the land.   Shakespeare's Wooden O       by Leslie Hotson Leslie Hotson is a maverick who believes that the accepted view of how playhouses at the turn of the 17th century worked is quite wrong. Simply put, Hotson is convinced that the stage of the Globe like that of its contemporary playhouses was a permanent form of the portable 'pageant' wagons of a few decades earlier; that the actors entered not from doors at the back of the stage, but from traps in the stage itself, and from 'houses' on each side of the stage. These 'houses' could be curtained off to represent rooms and have a second storey if required. Most controversially, Hotson claims that the actors would not have lowered themselves to play to the groundlings in the yard, nor to the galleries around the yard, but faced the Lords who sat in the small gallery overlooking the stage itself, with their backs to the multitude most of the time. He reasons that the terms 'stage left' and 'stage right' only make sense if this is the case. He is also a strong disbeliever in the existence of an 'inner stage' or alcove in the centre of the back wall of the stage. By his theory there would have been spectators there anyway, but he argues that it would have been the weakest part of the stage for an actor. I don't believe that Hotson's views are totally correct, but the 'houses' representing Heaven and Hell, or the two sides in a battle, ring true when reading some of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Food for thought.   The Quest for Shakespeare's Globe   by John Orrell In 1647 Wenceslaus Hollar of Antwerp published an etching called Long View of London which included The Globe. Hollar had drawn the scene some years earlier standing on the tower of the church we now call Southwark Cathedral, using a device called a topographical glass. The original sketches survive, and Orrell believes that these may be taken to be as accurate as a photograph when trying to pinpoint the site and approximate size of the Globe. Using this and other drawings, he predicted with remarkable accuracy the site where the foundations were actually found in 1989. Even though we now know where the playhouse stood, there is a lot about the theatre that we do not know, and this book follows the clues and evidence as though it were a scholarly detective story. A classic work   Shakespeare the Globe and the World     by Samuel Schoenbaum This book is not strictly about the Globe, but puts Shakespeare's life and career in the context of life at the turn of the seventeenth century. It describes English life at the time and uses a large number of illustrations, many in colour to show plant and animal life of the Warwickshire countryside, the schooling, and pastimes Will would have experienced in Stratford. It follows his career to life in London and at the Globe, and describes how the plays were printed. Finally he tells how Shakespeare fits into the world today. I borrowed this book for a long time from the public library until I finally managed to buy a second hand copy.   The Boar's Head Theatre     by C J Sisson     A slim volume telling the story of the inn called the Boar's Head in London's Whitechapel which was converted into a theatre in the late 1500's and was the the home of the Earl of Worcester's players. Edward Alleyn was their leading actor. What evidence there is suggests that plays were performed in the yards of such inns, and were influential in the design of purpose built theatres like the Globe. They were rectangular with galleries on three sides and a gateway on the fourth. Where was the stage erected, and was it a permanent structure? Just two of the questions examined in this work.       Click on a to read details about buying the associated title from Amazon.com. Click on a to read details about buying the associated title from Amazon.co.uk       Book Shop Entrance Art Department Theatre Dept Original Globe Playhouse The Rose Playhouse       Home|Gaynor|Mike|Art|Theatre|Book Shop Updated 2nd October 2005