The Lesser K nown S ide of S hakespeare.

1. The Lesser Known Side of Shakespeare. By Max Anderson, Alexander Clifton-Blight and Michael Chauval

2. A little bit on Shakespeare. • He was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. • His works consisted of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. • Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise till the nineteenth century. • His influence extends from theatre and literature to the present day movies and English language itself. • He had transformed European theatre by expanding expectations about what could be accomplished through characterization and plot.

3. The Time Of Shakespeare • Shakespeare lived his life during the Elizabethan Age. This is the time when Queen Elizabeth I was ruling England. • During Shakespeare's life, England had three big epidemics of the plague. This is the time period when lots of citizens got sick and died. • During shake spears life citizens still believed in witches and ghosts. Often in Shakespeare’s plays he would incorporate these make believe spirits. • Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. • England 1558–1603 was the golden age in England and also the height of the renaissance times.

4. Who was Shakespeare? Was he just a Playwright and a Poet?

5. NO!He was also an actor

6. Shakespeare the Actor • Shakespeare moved from Stratford to London and was working as an actor there by 1592. • He was probably recruited by the Leicester’s or Queen’s men (acting troupes). • He has also been associated with Pembroke’s men and Lord Chamberlain’s Men and performed in front of Queen Elizabeth the first • He played roles in his own plays including Macbeth and Hamlet.

7. Lifestyle of an Elizabethan Actor • Many acting troupes of the time were thought to be rogues and vagabonds. Actors had to buy licenses to be able to perform in certain places. • As big theatres were built (e.g the Globe Theatre) acting got a more respectable reputation. • Early Elizabethan Amphitheatres were open to the weather and therefore were only used in summer. • The white make up used on the boy actors for female roles gave them lead poisoning.

8. Costumes of the time • Actors were the only people other than the rich, to be allowed to wear upper class clothing. • People would come to the theatre just to see the clothes. • The colors of the costumes had meaning in the time, so the audience understood who the characters were.

9. Onstage performance style. • Actors at the time had little to no rehearsals for their plays. • Sometimes, actor’s lines were whispered to them while they were on stage! • The actors were generally given their lines while the play was in progress, and may not have known where the plot was going. • Young men would play female parts of the play.

10. The Elizabethan Theatre • Elizabethan theatres were inspired by the Roman Amphitheaters: A round ground plan surrounding a stage. • Actors would be suspended from ropes to make flying entrances. There were also trap doors in the stage. • Commoners would stand in front of the stage while the rich would sit up in the galleries.

11. The globe

12. Bib • http://www.william-shakespeare.org.uk/william-shakespeare-actor.htm • http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareactor.html • http://literature11.pbworks.com/w/page/18014148/Elizabethan%20Theatre%20and%20The%20Globe • http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-actors.htm • http://hearteng.110mb.com/shakespeare/life.htm • http://tonyaanna.tripod.com/id4.html • http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/life.htm