Abstract
Shakespearean theatre is a performing arts and theatre architecture phenomenon. Auditorium and stage arrangements in such buildings are specific and unique. It was the English renaissance theatre that introduced the human scale into the relation between the spectator and the actor. A strong bond was formed between the artists and the audience in the Elizabethan theatre. There are many stages today that operate without draw curtains and still resemble stages from the Elizabethan theatre. The author will be analysing modern theatre formats of this type. He will also examine whether such architecture could respond to artistic demands of non-Shakespeare drama performances or other types of events. The important issue is how and to what extent Shakespearean theatres may affect the spectators’ reception of the show. The study of several factors having a positive impact on every member of the audience within such buildings is the main purpose of this paper.
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Notes
- 1.
Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 until 1603.
- 2.
Among others to Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Robert Green and George Peele.
- 3.
The Italian theatre with its proscenium stage was based on the court theatre.
- 4.
Such was ‘The Globe’. It was rebuilt in 1997 in London as twenty-sided polygon. ‘The Swan’ and James Burbage’s playhouse – known simply as ‘The Theatre’ were similar in shape.
- 5.
‘The Globe’ was approx. 100 feet in diameter. 1 foot = 30.48 cm.
- 6.
‘The Swan’ was the fourth in the series of large public playhouses in London, after James Burbage’s ‘The Theatre’ (1576), ‘The Curtain’ (1577) and ‘The Rose’ (1587-88).
- 7.
But in ‘The Globe’ the roof covered the whole platform (according to the reconstruction).
- 8.
The stage platform of ‘The Globe’ was approx. 13 m wide and 8 m deep. It was raised 1,5 m above the yard.
- 9.
Some of them also in the ‘Lords Room’, which was situated in the same space as the upper stage.
- 10.
Modern legislation restricts the slope up to 30–35°.
- 11.
Tanya Moiseiwitch who had been involved in designing Guthrie’s theatres, designed another thrust stage in the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England (opened in 1971).
- 12.
Rapson design was remarkable also because of its colourful seating (seats were covered in an array of brightly hued fabrics) and the outside theatre architecture, which was characterized by geometrical forms made of glass curtain walls covered by a freestanding, light screens.
- 13.
In the theatre in Minneapolis, the distance from the centre of the stage to the furthest points of the auditorium did not exceed 18 m, despite the fact that the theatre had 1.437 seats. In Stratford Festival Theatre the total capacity was over 1.800 seats, yet no spectator was more than 22 m from the stage.
- 14.
It takes approximately three minutes to open both wings of the roof structure. When the wings are opened straight up, the edges reach a height of 24 m.
- 15.
The building is similar in dimensions to the Elizabethan-era ‘The Rose’ (approx. 72 ft).
- 16.
In the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, however, galleries are shaped in an orthogonal plan.
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Amałowicz, P. (2020). Human Factors in Shakespearean Theatre Architecture. In: Charytonowicz, J. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1214. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51566-9_20
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