John,
Beautiful pictures and history. A model I've always wanted to build but haven't gotten to. I'm trying to remember a period movie t hat has some long scenes in the Globe. JoeG -----Original Message----- From: John Freeman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: papermodels <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 4:43 pm Subject: [Papermodels II 32382] John Freeman's Photos--Globe Theatre The history of The Globe Theater, and theater in general in Elizabethan England, is wonderfully interesting. The predecessor of The Globe was just called The Theatre, and it was built on land with a 21 year lease. As the lease was about to run out, the land owner wanted the theater out, so raised the lease rates hugely. The owners of the theater found a clause in their lease that allowed them to dismantle the building, so they did so--all the troupe working to haul the materials across the Thames to build another theater. The landlord was furious--he had thought he would have the materials himself to sell for a profit. The new theater was built using everything they had learned for the previous 21 years, and called The Globe. Across the river was a better place because it was outside the boundaries of London. The city was becoming less and less permissive of nasty things like theaters, and actors. Eventually all theaters were banned in London. The theater, and acting, were considered to be so disreputable that there were no female actors--what women would stoop so low? Female parts were generally played by young boys. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, theaters were hugely popular. Attendance was very profitable, and the whole place was surrounded with a festival type atmosphere. Admission at the door was one penny. That entitled you to be a "groundling," one of the folks standing on the floor in front of the stage. If you wanted to sit in one of the seats around the outside it was another penny--or a third penny let you up to the higher levels for a better view. The stage stuck out into the middle area of the theater--I guess the original theater in the round idea. It was about five feet/1.5 meters above the ground where the groundlings stood. The high priced seats had roof over them, as did the stage, but the groundlings just had to get wet if a bit of rain came by--as has been known to happen in England! The Puritans became a dominant political force in England, and by 1642 they had banned all plays in the country. In 1644 the Puritans demolished The Globe. It got worse--in 1648 all playhouses were ordered pulled down, all players were to be seized and whipped, and anyone caught attending a play was fined five shillings. As is generally the case, people eventually got tired of the religious repression and the power of the Puritans slipped. Theaters finally opened again, but The Globe was never rebuilt--until about eleven years ago, that is! The current reconstruction of The Globe is fascinating. We were privileged to tour it with Roger Pattenden, the designer of this and many other historically interesting models. http://home.clara.net/rogerpattenden/ Roger has worked closely with the reconstructors of The Globe, building for them a couple of large and highly detailed models for display. His work for them was considered so valuable that he was awarded one of the engraved paving stones outside, given otherwise to big money contributors to the project. As I often do, I shrunk this model (can you say "not enough shelf space?") to 1/250, or common ship model scale. I will admit this didn't make the model any easier to build, as most of the detail is inside and somewhat difficult to reach at this scale. Thank you Roger! -- John and/or Marzlie Freeman Check us out at-- http://2oldkiters.smugmug.com/ [Image Removed] [Image Removed] [Image Removed] [Image Removed] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Papermodels II" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Papermodels?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
