The Globe Theatre

Today we went to the globe Theater which is a replica of Shakespeare’s original globe theater. It was an interesting experience and as I watched “Much Ado About Nothing” I could see why during Shakespeare’s time it was such a valuable commodity for the people of the time. Being a groundling was interesting and really made me understand how just about everyone was able to enjoy the theater as even if you don’t get all the jokes the energy the actors give off and the intense connections they make with the audience could compel anyone to watch the show. Though we did read it in class it was so much more entertaining on stage the actors gave great performances and gave the characters so much more personality than could be seen just reading the script. The stage movement and accompanying song and dance was also incredibly fun to witness. I hadn’t thought that the show would be so interactive with the audience but it allowed the actors to be both more comedic as well as give a larger feeling of intensity.  This would most likely be a different experience in contemporary America as we tend to add a lot of gravity to Shakespeare’s work whereas this performance felt much more informal and laid back. I imagen during Shakespeare’s time performances would have had a higher stake to them as the audience could have been armed with rotting produce but for the most part I think the performance demonstrated by the actors would have been quite similar The only major difference would be that there would be no female actors as female actors were not allowed back then, their roles would have been manned by younger boys dressed as girls. I also imagine that it would have been even more informal as people always had things to do so having a completely captivated audience wouldn’t have been as easy especially in some of Shales[ears less interesting plays.