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1. What was the name of the company Shakespeare belonged to? William Shakespeare's theatre company was The Chamberlain's Men, named after The Lord Chamberlain, an official responsible for royal and public entertainment. 2. How many companies were licensed to perform in London? Only two. 3. Why did Shakespeare's company build the Globe? Shakespeare's company built the Globe because they couldn’t use the special playhouse that their chief actor Richard Burbage's father had built for them in 1596, a roofed theatre inside the city, in Blackfriars. In 1576, James BurbageIn built the first successful amphitheatre, known as The Theatre, in a London suburb. Twenty years later, when the lease on The Theatre's land was about to expire, he built the Blackfriars as its replacement. But the wealthy residents of Blackfriars got the government to block its use for plays, so his capital was locked up uselessly.  4.  What did Shakespeare's company use to build the Globe? The Theatre had closed, ostensibly for good, in 1597, and the owner of the land on which it stood threatened to pull the building down once the lease had expired. The Burbages and their associates anticipated the threat, however, and in late 1598 dismantled The Theatre and carried the materials to Bankside (a district of Southwark stretching for about half a mile west of London Bridge on the south bank of the River Thames). 5. Who built the Globe? Two brothers, Cuthbert and Richard Burbage, who inherited its predecessor, The Theatre, from their father, James. 6. When the Globe was built, there were two other theatres in Southwark already. Which ones? The Swan and The Rose 7. When was it built? It was completed by the autumn of 1599. 8. How and when was it destroyed? In 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII, the thatch of the Globe was set alight by a cannon, set off to mark the King's entrance onstage in a scene at Cardinal Wolsey's palace. The entire theatre was destroyed within the hour. 9. When was it rebuilt? By June 1614 it had been rebuilt, this time with a tiled gallery roof and a circular shape. 10. When was it finally pulled down? Why? It was pulled down in 1644, two years after the Puritans closed all theatres, to make way for tenement dwellings. 11. Explain how acting at the Globe was like. Acting at the Globe was radically different from viewing modern Shakespeare on screen. The plays were staged in the afternoons, using the light of day. Therefore, all references to weather or time of the day had to be given to the audience through the text. The audience surrounded the stage on all sides. No scenery was used, except for occasional emblematic devices like a throne or a bed. It was almost impossible not to see the other half of the audience standing behind the players. Consequently much of the staging was metatheatrical, conceding the illusory nature of the game of playing, and making little pretense to stage realism. 12. Complete this chart :
THEATRE The Rose and the Fortune The Theatre and The Globe COMPANY LORD ALMIRAL'S MEN LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S MEN PLAYWRITER Christopher Marlowe William Shakespeare MAIN ACTOR Edward Alleyn Richard Burbage MANAGER Philip Henslowe  The Burbages PATRON Lord Charles Howard Lord Chamberlain