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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.
This item from the BBC online explains a bit of trivia about the recent RSC production of “Hamlet”. The story is oddly similar to the fictional account of Oliver Wells willing his skull to the New Burbage Festival in the Canadian TV Show, “Slings and Arrows“. ~Heather
Human skull abandoned by Hamlet
David Tennant rehearsing with a replica skull
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A human skull will no longer appear in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet as it may distract the audience, the company has said.
The skull of concert pianist and Holocaust survivor Andre Tchaikowsky has appeared in the Stratford production, starring David Tennant.
It was his dying wish to have his skull used in Hamlet and he bequeathed it to the RSC.
But the company says a fake skull will be used when it transfers to London.
Tennant was the first actor to use Mr Tchaikowsky’s skull during Hamlet’s famous grave-digger scene.
Audiences in Stratford were unaware the skull belonged to the Oxford pianist, but the secret was revealed by Tennant.
The RSC told Channel 4 News that now the secret was out, it would be “too distracting for the audience” if the skull was used.
Mr Tchaikowsky was devoted to Shakespeare, often visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon to see performances of his plays.
He died of cancer at the age of 46 in 1982 and donated his organs to medical research, with the exception of his skull.
Bard’s genius slips through prison bars
The Seattle Times
And Helen Mirren has been tapped to play Prospero(a) in a screen version of The Tempest currently in production under helms-woman, Julie Taymore (director of “Frida” and writer of “Across the Universe”). Set amid the persecution of female alchemists in the 16th and 17th centuries, the film is also slated to star Jeremy Irons, Alfred Molina, and Geoffrey Rush. The film is currently in pre-production and is expected to release in the fall of 2009.
~Source: Internet Movie Database.
"Miranda" by 19th century pre-Raphaelite master JW Waterhouse
Talking Point at The Next Stage: Bertholt Brecht
A couple of articles on how young artists get established:
Theatre Ideas
Lyn Gardner @ the Guardian UK
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival Commissions a ten-year, 37-play American History Cycle.
English poet strikes back with Shakespeare when her poem is banned
Nelson’s new play How Shakespeare Won the West a “darkish Valentine to the theatre.”
Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet in 1899.
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