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Archaeologists believe they have unearthed the remains of Shakespeare’s first theatre, the BBC has learned. A team from the Museum of London found the remains of the theatre in Shoreditch last summer. Built in 1576, it is thought the Bard acted there and that it also hosted the premiere of Romeo and Juliet. Taryn Nixon, from the Museum of London, said her team had found part of the original curved wall of the playhouse, which was believed to be polygonal in shape.
A metre and a half below street level, it has also uncovered the gravel surface, gently sloping down towards the stage, where the bulk of the audience would have stood. But the archaeologists fear the stage itself may be buried underneath a housing development. Ms Nixon told the BBC the theatre was built in what were known as “the suburbs of sin” just outside the city.
“The Lord Mayor actually passed a decree that there shouldn’t be any theatrical performances in the city… so just on the edge of the city is actually, classically, where you find all the slightly wilder, slightly more fun activities going on,” she said. Finds made within the gravel yard include a fragment of 16th-century pottery featuring the image of a man with beard and ruff.
The theatre was constructed by James Burbage, possibly using bricks from an old priory.
It is thought to have played host to Shakespeare’s theatre company, the Chamberlain’s Men. About 25 years after it was built, it was dismantled and moved timber by timber to construct the Globe Theatre on the South Bank of the Thames. In the 1990s the Globe was recreated on a site nearby.
Penny Tuerk, from the Tower Theatre Company, said Romeo and Juliet and an early version of Hamlet were thought to have been performed at the excavated site, as were some of Shakespeare’s comedies, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “There was a huge appetite for theatre at the time,” she said. “People were flocking into the theatres and they would have grabbed anything that they could and put it on to please the crowds.”
The site is now owned by the Tower Theatre Company. It plans to preserve the architecture in situ and construct a new playhouse around it which will open in 2012. Ms Tuerk said it would be a 21st Century equivalent of the original playhouse – a “no frills, hard-working place of entertainment” – that would bring London theatre “back to its roots”.
“Imagine actors in the future crossing the theatre and perhaps paying homage to Shakespeare as they go on stage for luck,” she added.
Portrait of Shakespeare Unveiled, 399 Years Late – The Lede Blog – NYTimes.com.
After major rounds of tests, it seems as though this portrait is, in fact, a portrait painted of Shakespeare DURING his lifetime and is therefore considered to be a truer representation of what he actually looked like.
We’ve had 4 terrific readings so far this season — Romeo and Juliet, Henry VIII, All’s Well that Ends Well, and Julius Caesar.
Each reading offers a terrific opportunity to become more familiar with the work of William Shakespeare, become more knowledgeable of the plays, cull the scripts for good quotes, monologues and characters in a quick and satisfying way. We pair some of our company’s strongest actors with community members to present the language of Shakespeare clearly and effectively for our audiences. They really are a pleasant and engaging way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Our next Free Library Reading will change things up just a bit. Charles West– the man behind last year’s “Sonnet-chanted Evening” will present “Women of Will”, a collection of monologues and scenes focusing on the women’s voices in Shakespeare. Charles’ presentations at the readings are always among our most well received, so don’t miss it!
“Women of Will”. Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m. Woodward Park Regional Library, 944 E Perrin at Champlain in Fresno.
And in April, South Valley Director Kristin Lyn Crase will direct Jennifer Hurd-Peterson, Michael Peterson, Faith Sidlow, and others in a reading of William Shakespeare’s ‘romance’, Cymbeline, on April 21st at 6:30 p.m.
~Heather Parish
WSF Artistic Director
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