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• William Shakespeare was an English actor, poet and playwright.

• During Shakespeare’s lifetime, the theatre became a very popular form of entertainment in London.

• Shakespeare wrote tragedies, like Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, and also comedies, like The Tempest and Twelfth Night.

• Acting companies built their own theatres for their performances. In 1599 Shakespeare’s company built the Globe Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames in London.

Watch this video about Shakespeare’s plays in performance

In 1613 the original Globe Theatre burned down. A spark from a cannon fired during a performance of Henry VIII set fire to the thatched roof.

Acting companies were groups of professional actors who would perform plays together. In medieval times, companies performed theatre versions of Bible stories, which gradually transformed into stories with a strong moral.

At first, these acting companies travelled around the country from town to town, carrying their costumes and props in carts. However, in 1576, the first public theatre was built and acting companies began to base themselves in theatres instead of travelling around the country.

The theatre was a very popular form of entertainment in the 1500s and 1600s. However, it was illegal to put a play on inside London, so theatres were built just outside the city.

Acting companies were required by law to have a patron. The patron would grant a license to the actors and sometimes support them financially.

Acting companies were often named after their patron. Shakespeare was part of an acting company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men - their patron was the Lord Chamberlain at the court of Elizabeth I. This meant the company had royal support and were paid to perform at the queen’s palace.

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men were a very successful acting company. The actors had shares in their company and Shakespeare became wealthy because of their popularity with audiences.

When James I inherited the throne after Elizabeth I died, Shakespeare’s company were renamed the King’s Men. James I also enjoyed the theatre and had private performances of plays.

Shakespeare is believed to have joined the theatre as an actor, but he became better known as a playwright.

Shakespeare’s plays would only be performed by his acting company and the profits were shared among actors and other owners of the company.

Actors often specialised in one type of part. In Shakespeare’s acting company, there were several actors who became famous at the time:

Richard Burbage
Burbage was the company’s star actor and a celebrity of the time. He was famous for playing the main tragic roles in Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello.

William Kempe
Kempe often played the comedy roles, such as the character Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was also famous for his on-stage jigs.

Actors were not given a copy of the whole play. Instead, they would be given their ‘parts’ – a sheet with only their lines and directions. During the performance, a list of scenes with the exits and entrances was posted behind the stage for the actors to check.

Many of the theatres in Shakespeare’s day were open-air. The most famous stage was at the Globe Theatre, which was built by Shakespeare’s theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, in 1599. Shakespeare was one of six original shareholders and owned 12.5% of the theatre.

The Globe Theatre was shaped like a doughnut. The stage and the seats round the edge were sheltered, but the main middle section, called the yard or the pit, was open to the sky.

There was no artificial light in the open-air theatres, so plays were performed during daylight hours.

The Heavens
The roof above the stage was called the Heavens and was painted to look like a starry night.

The Gallery
People watching the play from the first or second floor were in the galleries. The gallery balcony directly above the stage could be used as part of the action to show castle battlements or an upper window. Musicians may also have played from this gallery.

The Tiring House
The area behind the stage, where the actors prepared by changing their costumes and collecting props. The actors would have entered the stage through a curtain from the tiring house.

The Globe’s name was symbolic – it meant that the theatre represented the whole world. Shakespeare himself wrote:“All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely players.”

The stages didn’t have scenery, but there is evidence they used sound and special effects during the plays.

Musicians
Music was an important part of the theatre, and an audience would expect to hear musicians playing live music. There is evidence of music in many of Shakespeare’s plays, including the song ‘Sigh no more, ladies’ from Much Ado About Nothing. After the play was finished, there would often be music and a dance on stage.

Trap door
There was a space underneath the stage, accessed from the stage by a trap door. Actors could appear and disappear suddenly from the trap door. This space would often represent hell and actors would often hide here to make ghostly noises, for example when the ghost speaks in Hamlet. The trap door could also act as a grave, with a character lowered into the space below.

Sound effects
To make the noise of thunder, drums could be played off stage or a cannon ball could be rolled across the floor of the Heavens.

Other special effects
Many of the plays had violent scenes that needed special effects to show the gory details. Actors would fill animal bladders with animal blood to use in a scene. If there was a particularly gory part they might also use pigs’ intestines to throw across the stage.

Costumes were an important part of the theatre in Shakespeare’s day and were the most expensive part of a performance. There is evidence that the acting companies invested a lot of money in the clothes the actors wore on stage.

The costumes worn by the actors would show the audience the status of their character. Expensive materials would signal that a character was of a high status. The female characters were played by young men, so the actors would also need to wear wigs and make up.

Props were also an important part of a play. When the actors carried candles, it was a signal to the audience that it was night-time. The actors might also use small props like daggers, swords, crowns and flowers. Larger props like thrones and benches would often remain on stage for the whole play.

The tradition of using elaborate costumes continued into the 1800s. In the late 1880s, the actress Ellen Terry played Lady Macbeth and wore a green gown made from the shimmering wings of 1,000 beetles.