Download Learning About the Globe Theatre and the History

Name: ____________________________________
Date: _________________
Learning About the Globe Theatre and the History of Shakespeare’s Famous Plays
Directions: As you learn about Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre by viewing the Virtual Globe Theatre site, please
answer the questions below. Don’t forget to answer in **COMPLETE SENTENCES**!!!
1. In what year did people go to watch the plays at the Globe Theatre?
2. What form of entertainment did Shakespeare’s plays have to compete with?
3. Since Shakespeare’s plays had to compete with the blood and violence of animal fighting, how do you think
this competition influenced the plays that he wrote?
4. What was the yard like that people stood in to watch Shakespeare’s plays?
5. How were the seating conditions at the Globe different for the rich versus the poor?
6. Who were the groundlings?
7. What would the audience do if they didn’t like what they saw on stage?
8. What time of the day did Shakespeare’s plays begin?
9. Why did Puritans and city officials view Shakespeare’s plays as immoral?
10. Was London a clean or dirty city? Explain with very specific examples of the cleanliness or filth that existed.
11. Why did people think that Queen Elizabeth was clean?
12. Who were known as being the smelliest members of the audience?
13. Why does knowing about the smell of Globe theatre help you to better understand Shakespeare’s plays?
14. How Shakespeare’s were plays advertised?
15. What would the audience do if they didn’t like a play that was being performed?
16. How did Shakespeare adapt his plays based on the particular actors that he had in mind?
17. Who sat in the galleries in the Globe Theatre?
18. What happened to people who pickpocketed others during the plays?
19. How was the sound effect of a bird created in Shakespeare’s plays?
20. Why is it important to understand the sound effects in Shakespeare’s plays?
21. What is ‘doubling’ in Shakespeare’s plays?
22. What regulated what you could wear in Elizabethan England?
23. Where did the theatre companies get a lot of their costumes for the actors?
24. Where were Shakespeare’s plays set?
25. What was the appearance of the Globe stage like?
26. What were theatre companies?
27. Was Shakespeare himself part of a theatre company? What role did he play in a company?
28. Why is it important to understand Shakespeare’s role in the theatre company?
29. Where did the light for the Globe Theatre come from and how did this affect the plays?
30. What was the acting style like in Shakespeare’s time?
31. What is a soliloquy?
32. How might a soliloquy be different in the Globe theatre vs. modern day theatre?
33. How did the audience heckle the actors?
Reflection Question:
If you were given the opportunity to visit Elizabethan England to watch one of Shakespeare’s plays in the Globe
Theatre would you want to attend? Yes or No. Why? Be very specific and detailed with the answer that you
choose.