On 11/8/08, John Freeman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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/
Excellent, John! I believe we have this kit in the files (Roger sent several to Demi a few years ago) but with your wonderful photos and report, we don't have to cut the poor thing up. :-) -- Mike Hungerford http://users.sdccu.net/chthulhu2/models.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
