The Globe Theater

Shakespeare didn’t actually own the Globe Theater, but was rather a co-owner of it. He influenced it in many ways and made it a legacy with his famous plays. Although we have a fantastic replica today, the struggle for it to even make it in our history books today is still unknown to many.
The Globe Theater was built in 1598, but unfortunately for Shakespeare’s acting troupe The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the lease for the land it was built on had expired in 1597. The owner of the theater, James Burbage, not wanting to pay a higher rent for the land hired a local carpenter to loosen all the joints in the building in the night. The next day The Lord Chamberlain’s Men tore up the theater, stealing all the oak crossbeams and crossed the frozen Thames River to the new construction site. The crossbeams were used for the structural frame for the theater’s reconstruction in 1599, which was now situated in a place called Bankside, in Southwark, London.
The theater was open air, octagonal, and three stories high. It had primitive rigging and possible trapdoors for stage effects. Capacity for the audience was 3000, mostly comprised of groundlings that either sat or stood to watch the performance. Those who could afford to sat in gallery boxes.
In 1613, the premier of Henry VIII, written by Shakespeare, was being preformed and during one of the scenes a cannon fired and set fire to the roof. The entire theater burned to the ground in one hour. However all of Shakespeare’s plays, props and costumes were saved.
Not too long after the second reconstruction of the Globe Theater, The Puritans came to power. In 1642 they had all theaters shut down because they disapproved of entertainment of all types. The theater was torn down two years later in 1644.
Studies on where the actual location of the Globe Theater began to commence in 1970. In 1989 when they were building it’s replica they found the foundations of the original which is 100 yards from the new Globe. The new Globe Theater reopened in 1999 showing one of Shakepeare’s first plays, Henry V.
It was remade three times from it’s original but it still made it to today even though it was missing for almost 300 years. You can go and see Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe today, and in the future. Just go to Southwark, London by the Thames river!


Citations

Malvasi , Meg G. "A History of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre." Suite 101.com (1999): 1. Web. 23 May 2010. .
Unknown. "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre." Absolute Shakespeare (2000-2005): n. Web. 23 May 2010. .