Shakespeare's Globe: A Theatrical Experiment

by Christie Carson (Editor), Farah Karim-Cooper

From 1997 Shakespeare’s Globe flourished once more on London’s South Bank after an absence of 400 years. The playhouse is now a major attraction for theatregoers, scholars, tourists, teachers and students of all ages who come to experience Shakespeare’s plays and those of his contemporaries performed in their original conditions. The team of artists and education specialists who made this happen come together here to reflect on their 10-year experiment. Principal actors, designers, musicians and Globe Education staff engage with international scholars in a lively debate about the impact of this extraordinary building. Featuring an in-depth interview with former Artistic Director Mark Rylance and a contribution from Patrick Spottiswoode, Founder and Director of Globe Education, the book highlights the complex relationship between designer, composer, actor and audience which gives energy to this thriving Shakespearean center.

Genres: Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Theatre

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2008

Reviews

[Candy Wood]

This collection of essays by actors, academics, and theatre educators provides a useful look at the first 10 years (and a bit) of the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. From several different perspectives, it becomes clear that one major discovery from this "experiment" has been the energizing effect of the standing audience, known as groundlings. As a dedicated groundling myself (one of the scholars in the book is credited with having seen 30 productions 1996-2007--using the very helpful list in an appendix, I find that I saw 35, some of them twice, mostly standing in the Yard), I have been fascinated by that phenomenon too, and enjoyed seeing what those on stage thought.

[Julie Bozza · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting scholarly look at the first ten years of Shakespeare's Globe, the Elizabethan playhouse reconstruction that opened in 1997 on the south bank of the Thames. The project has always included Globe Education as well as the more 'obvious' theatre, and it's interesting to read about the two independent yet intertwining strands of this commercial endeavour.

Having belatedly become rather a fan of the Globe's productions - and knowing they're just about to open an indoor theatre based on those of the same period - I'll be keen to see if there's an update of some kind after the enterprise's second decade.

[Taisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting accounts, especially about the effects of the Globe stage on the actors and on the audience. It's also interesting, that when staged in the environment the plays were written for, many things in the plays make sense (ex. 'Exit, pursued by a bear').

[Brian Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting document of essays that relate the findings of the Globe performative experience at the end of 10 years and Mark Rylance's Directorship. The best submissions are by the active theatrical practitioners, most specifically Tim Carroll, Jenny Tiramani, Claire Van Kampen, and Rylance himself. They share their insights in how they were forced to change their trained practices inculcated in drama school into workable practices that would need to perform within an open air, naturally lit, exposed to outside (and inside) noise, sometimes even rowdy experience - just like the original Globe itself. Their revelations are fascinating, and almost like the men on the moon, are only known to a number of people in the world, probably numbered in hundreds.

Which has always burned me about the purely academic response to the Globe. As a theatrical historian and long time theatre practitioner myself, I have attended numerous conferences where sessions featuring performers and practitioners seemed to be marginalized within the very community they were supposed to be a part of. I have heard highly intellectualized questions by respected academics which missed the point of the theatrical experience itself. This important question is raised within this book by those most directly impacted: researchers AND experimenters at the Globe. However, there are a cadre of academics within the Shakespearean community who would purely apply theory to practice in order to criticize the very notion of Original Practices at the Globe or to criticize other performers for the choices they make in other venues. There is a snobbery about certain (by far not all) academics who continue to sneer at the idea of researching by PRACTICING the craft rather than theorizing about it. The reality that this book demonstrates so well is that the two can go hand in chevril glove with each other, if we drop our Derridean pretensions about theorizing reality and just go enjoy the real thing for what it is: an experience to be savored.