Theatres and plays, Shakesperean age

Theatres were considered immoral by the authorities and dangerous from the point of view of hygiene and safety. We must remember that was a wooden structure and fires were frequent (1613 the Globe is destroyed by fire), and that was often overcrowded.

The stage was very big and there was different levels, but there was no curtains and actors were surrounded by people. Poor people stood in front the stage, but wealthier people could seat on wooden benches in the galleries, and also rent a pillow.

The word “box office” derives from the box in the entrance of the Elizabethan theatres
The profession of the actor wasn’t well seen so they had to be sponsored by some important people.
For example, in 1603 The Lord Chamberlain's Men company curry favor with King James I and change the name in King's Men.
The fortune of a play is how was well known at his time, and we can deduce it from the number of editions printed. Nowadays an actor learn a play and bring it around, but in Shakespeare’s time they had to perform more than a drama in the same period.

Inside the play

Often in Shakespeare’s plays there is a secondary story line in addition to the main plot. It usually reflect the themes of the main plot but presents them from a different point of view.
Place and time can be inferred both from the dialogue and the stage directions. In order to clarify the events can also be used the asides, short and simple comments for the audience alone.
Characters are divided in major and minor and the number may vary. They can be introduced by a dialogue soliloquies asides or stage directions.
The dialogue creates the action, provides details contributing to theme development, give infos about the past, and foreshadows the future.
The difference between a soliloquy and a monologue is that in the first one the character is alone on the stage, and in the last one the speaker ignores the other characters on the scene.
The prologue derives from the Greek tragedy and quite always present the characters and the plot to let people understand
Natural elements are often used to compare and define people, because are something easy to understand.

Comparison between comedy and tragedy

A tragedy starts with a positive situation, the opposite of the comedy that usually begin with a problem that is solved in carrying. In the tragedy normally the characters are military leaders or comes from the aristocracy, they are heroes, extraordinary people, always someone above. For this reason they only have a name, that is enough to distinguish them. Instead, in the comedy women are often the main characters. The comedy worries about entertaining and make people have fun, laughing on human worries and vices. Tragedies focuses on the psychological aspect and the conflicts of the hero.