twelfth night contents Click on the CHAPTER HEADINGS or on these Introduction . .3 LINKS to take you to Chronology of Shakespeare’s Plays . .4 where you want to go. Elizabethan Theatres . .5 b.t.w. the FORWARD and Life in Elizabethan England . .16 BACK buttons will take you Synopsis of the Play . .17 co n t e n t s . forward and back in in t r o d u c t i o n sequence! Interviews with the Actors . .24 ch r o n o l o g y The Creative Team . .27 th e a t r e s PREVIOUS will take you life in england back to the last page you Scenic Design for Twelfth Night . .29 in t r o d u c t i o n looked at. sy n o p s i s In the Classroom . .30 in t e r v i e w s And if you want to get out Appendices . .31 creative team of here, click on EXIT. set design i Theatre Terms . .31 cl a s s r o o m ii Student and Teacher Evaluations . .33 AP P E N D I C E S : Go to Court Theatre’s web site. theatre terms w w w. c o u r t t h e a t r e . o r g e-mail us at: ev a l u a t i o n s e d u c a t i o n @ c o u r t t h e a t r e . o r g pi a n o pr i n t back ¥ forward 2 ¥ EXIT Suggested activities invite exploration of the themes of The contents of fall into six broad the play and create opportunities for discussion and categories: writing. There are other activities which can be conducted as discussions or role play exercises, these encourage the development of a further understanding of the work of 1. Information and background on Shakespeare. the artists involved in a theatrical production and of the creative process. 2. Information and background on Elizabethan theatres. Of particular interest might be the Virtual Audition, where you can watch video of actors performing audition mono- 3. An introduction to the play by Prof. David logues. You can then, after careful consideration of issues Bevington of the University of Chicago. of character and character development, choose in what roles you would cast these actors. 4. A synopsis of the play. 5. Interviews with the actors and photographs of the set co n t e n t s design model. in t r o d u c t i o n 6. Suggested activities. ch r o n o l o g y th e a t r e s Categories 1-4 support the study of the play as literature, life in england as well as being the essential dramaturgical information which the director, designers and actors drew upon when in t r o d u c t i o n preparing for the production you are to see. sy n o p s i s in t e r v i e w s Category 5 gives insight into the process by which a literary text becomes a performance text, the process by creative team which an original and imaginative work of one artist is set design re-authored—re-imagined—by another artist, the Director, cl a s s r o o m together with her or his collaborators, the dramaturg, the designers and the actors. AP P E N D I C E S : Included in are early models— theatre terms by the scenic designer. By looking at these and ev a l u a t i o n s comparing them to the realized set it is possible to see how the ideas of the designer and director grew and pi a n o developed. William Shakespeare pr i n t back ¥ forward 3 ¥ EXIT This list is based, in part, on the scholarship of Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, who prepared the This chronology can be found, together with a Oxford edition of the complete works. As with many good deal of further interesting information on things Shakesperean, there remain conflicting opin - Shakespeare and his life, at the following web-site: ions about the date and order of many of the plays. ht t p : / / w w w .s h o p t h e n e t . n e t / p u b l i c l i b r a r y / S h a k e s p e a r e / l i f e . h t m l • Two Gentlemen of Verona, mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598. • Taming of the Shrew. • Henry IV, part 2, probably begun in late 1596 or • Henry VI, part 1, probably written in 1590-1. 1597 • Henry VI, part 3, first published in 1595. • Much Ado About Nothing, the role of Dogberry • Titus Andronicus, according to the first printing, was probably written for Will Kemp, who left performed by a company that had folded by Shakespeare's company in 1599. the summer of 1593. • Henry V, probably written in the spring of 1599. • Henry VI, part 2, probably the play 'harey the vj' • Julius Caesar, a performance is recorded on recorded as performed on 3 March 1592 by Lord 21 September 1599. co n t e n t s Strange's Men. • As You Like It, recorded in the Stationers' in t r o d u c t i o n • Richard III, probably first performed in 1592-3 Register on 4 August 1600. • Ha m l e t , probably written in 1600 and later revised. ch r o n o l o g y • The Comedy of Errors, probably the play 'The Night of Errors' performed on 28 December 1594. • Twelfth Night, probably written in 1601. th e a t r e s • Love's Labour’s Lost, probably written in 1593 or • Troilus and Cressida, 1602. life in england 1594. • All's Well That Ends Well, 1603. • Measure for Measure, 1604. in t r o d u c t i o n • A Midsummer Night's Dream, probably written in 1594 or 1595 immediately before or after Romeo • Othello, 1604. sy n o p s i s and Juliet. • The Tragedy of King Lear, 1605. in t e r v i e w s • Romeo and Juliet, probably written in 1594 or 1595. • Macbeth, 1606. • Anthony and Cleopatra, 1607. creative team • Richard II, probably written no later than 1595. • King John, probably written in 1595 or 1596. • Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1607. set design • The Merchant of Venice, listed in the Stationers' • Coriolanus, 1608. cl a s s r o o m Register on 22 July 1598, probably written a year • Timon of Athens, 1609. or two before… • Winter's Tale, 1610. • Henry IV, part 1, listed in the Stationers' Register • Cymbeline, 1609. AP P E N D I C E S : of 25 February 1598 • The Tempest, 1611-13. theatre terms • The Merry Wives of Windsor, probably performed • Henry VIII, 1611-13: the firing of a canon during ev a l u a t i o n s on the occasion of the installation of George one of the first performances of this play, on 29 Carey, Lord Chamberlain and patron of June 1613, started the fire that burned the Globe pi a n o Shakespeare's comapny, as a Knight of the Theatre to the ground. pr i n t Garter at Windsor (23 April 1597) back ¥ forward 4 ¥ EXIT by Amanda Mabillard playhouses The Theatre Introduction The Theatre The Theatre was the first London playhouse, built in 1576 The Curtain by the English actor and entrepreneur James Burbage, Newington Butts father of the great actor and friend of Shakespeare, The Rose Richard Burbage. It was located in a northern suburb of The Swan London (north of London Wall which bounded the city The Globe proper); on the edge of Finsbury Fields, just past Inn Yards Bishopsgate Street, where Shakespeare called home up The Blackfriars to 1597. The Royal Palaces The Inns of Court There are no images of the Theatre, but written accounts The Houses of the Nobility co n t e n t s of the building describe a vast, polygonal, three-story tim- ber structure, open to the sun and rain. Its exterior was in t r o d u c t i o n How to Cite this Article coated with lime and plaster. It had features similar to ch r o n o l o g y those of the future Globe playhouse and other playhouses of the day, such as galleries, upper rooms, a tiring house, th e a t r e s he plays of Shakespeare during his lifetime were and trap doors in the stage floor. Like the Globe, the life in england performed on stages in private theatres, provincial Theatre had two external staircases, standing on either theatres, and playhouses. His plays were acted in t r o d u c t i o n side of the building, and leading up to the galleries. Those out in the yards of bawdy inns and in the great halls of the people who watched from the main “yard” surrounded by sy n o p s i s London inns of court. Although the Globe is certainly the the comfortable covered galleries, were forced to stand in t e r v i e w s most well known of all the Renaissance stages associated during the entire performance.