SET+DESIGN


 * They didn't have much. That's why, if you read Shakespeare's plays, you'll notice that there are a lot of descriptions of the scene around them by the characters. This was done so that the audience could imagine what the scene would look like.


 * Elizabethan stages were generally outdoor amphitheatres such as The Globe, with thrust stages that had audience seating on at least three sides, sometimes all four. Indoor theatres, such as Blackfriars Playhouse, which came into use toward the end of Elizabeth's reign and during James I's reign (the Jacobean period), were smaller, lit by candles, but also used a thrust stage. Since you will be using a proscenium stage, you might want to try seating some of the audience on the stage, as they did at Blackfriars.

Elizabethan theatre used no real sets and only the most basic set pieces and props. They had no curtains and until the opening of Blackfriars and the other indoor theatres they had no scene or act breaks. The action from one scene to the next ran into each other - one set of actors exiting as the next entered - creating a continuous performance. It is easy enough to do that on any stage.


 * As mentioned, there were several stages to use during a performance: the main action took place on the main stage and, because it was surrounded on three sides by the audience, the apron stage made for an intimacy we do not get today on the conventional stage with a proscenium arch; soliloquies could appear to be spoken confidentially to the audience and on the large stage 'asides ' were less artificial than they often are today. The curtained recess at the back would be used, for instance, for the Capulets' tomb in Romeo and Juliet or for Desdemona's bedroom; the balcony, for Juliet's bedroom; and a trapdoor to the space below the stage would be Ophelia's grave.

There was no scenery or scene painting as such, but plenty of stage properties, some simple, some considerably more elaborate. There were realistic noises off, sometimes from the 'heavens' - for example, in the storm in King Lear. Lear's words: "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!" would be accompanied by appropriate noises of thunder from above; in other plays, the sounds of battle would be heard from behind the stage and from under the stage would come such sounds as the music 'Under the earth' in Antony and Cleopatra or the Ghost in Hamlet citing "Swear!


 * Apron stage or main stage was used for the main action.
 * Upper stage was used for balcony and bedroom scenes
 * The globe had the most basic of set design and it often meant that the audience had to imagine the scene themselves.
 * They used more props than set because the plays did not have any breaks or halftimes so they had to continue with the action on stage.