In our 31st season we will be performing our first ever Bare Bard production of Henry VI, Part 2 as a part of our Fire and Reign series. What is a “Bare Bard” production? Actors will tackle the Bard’s work with 40 hours of rehearsal, no designers, and no director – just like the acting companies of Shakespeare’s time! The creative process of this production is completely actor driven, with a focus on artistry and storytelling. With such limited time to collaborate, the Bare Bard will result in a spontaneous performance where anything could happen!

Fun Facts About Acting in the Early 1600s

While the Bare Bard will incorporate some original practices, what was it really like to perform in an acting company during Shakespeare’s day? Check out our fun facts to get to know more about stagecraft during the early 1600s.

1. 1. They had no director.

      Directing, in what we know as the definition in carrying out a specific vision for the play and guiding the actors, did not exist at the time. Actors were largely self-directed when it came to gestures, movement and understanding their character. They were also expected to choreograph their own fight scenes with real weapons. There are very, very few stage directions in Shakespeare’s work, but his dialogue was key in telling the actors what to do and where to go on the stage, such as “here on my knees I ask” indicating the actor should be kneeling.

   2. They learned their “roles.”

      

      Our production team assembled roles for each actor in the show.

      Shakespeare’s actors were not given the full script, but a rolled up scroll called a “role” that only contained their lines and two words that cued them into their lines. An actor would learn his “role,” and if it were memorized, they would often keep them safe “under their belt” for quick reference. An actor might have quite a few roles “under their belt” if they were well memorized, or they might quickly review their roles backstage in the wings, and just “wing it.” The actors for our production memorized and rehearsed using “roles.”

   3. They were members of an acting troupe.

      Shakespeare’s troupe was called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later The King’s Men). They were, and still are, the most well known acting troupe of all time. But they’re main rival was another acting troupe called the Admiral’s Men. While Shakespeare’s troupe was the most well known, the Admiral’s Men were considered by many to be the best acting troupe. But they disbanded once their principal actor, Edward Alleyn, retired coinciding with the growing popularity of Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Alleyn and Burbage, the leaders of the rival companies, were featured in our production of Shakespeare in Love two seasons ago.

   4. They had short rehearsals. (If any!)

      Because of the insatiable demand and high turnover rate for new plays, there was little time for rehearsal. The Globe Theatre alone was known to produce 11 performances of 12 different plays every two weeks because of its popularity. As a result, when it came time for actors to learn their lines, they used two techniques. “Cue acting” in which a person would whisper the lines to the actor from offstage, and “cue scripting” in which the actor was only given his lines and the cues immediately before their lines. Only when the actors were on stage was the complete scene and the content of the play revealed. This method may have been invented to stop rival playwrights from stealing plays. There were no copyright laws at the time, so if someone else could steal Hamlet for their theatre, they probably would.

   5. Their performances at the Globe took place only in the daytime.

      There were several reasons why they did this: most importantly electricity hadn’t been invented yet and the Globe Theatre was made entirely of timber, so torches and lanterns were dangerous. Performances would take place between the approximate time of 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm in the afternoon because it was the time of the day where the sun provided enough light but the temperatures were cool enough for the audience to enjoy the entertainment. Later, when Shakespeare’s indoor theatre, The Blackfriars, opened, candles lit the entire stage and the audience, but there were no “lighting cues” as we know them today.

   6. They had little scenery and no stage crew.

      Shakespeare plays move from scene to scene very fast and the only scenery that would be onstage was anything that was absolutely necessary. Large heavy scenery, such as a king’s throne, might be left on stage regardless of the scene. As with the dialogue telling the actor how to convey the character, the same was done with scenery and props. The dialogue may mention a forest, so the audience had to imagine a forest, or an actor might carry a candle, indicating that it was night and the audience needed to imagine darkness.

   7. Flags were meant to signal the play’s genre.

      At the time, flags were the modern equivalent of theater marquees or advertisements for the play about to be performed. A flag was flown on top of the Globe Theatre each day to indicate what type of play was being performed. Each flag that was a different color represented the play’s genre. If it were black, it meant the play was a Tragedy; white meant a comedy or light-hearted in nature; red was a history.

   8. They used cannons for special effects.

      Although the set was nearly bare, the Globe Theatre was not short of attracting the audience’s attention with special sound effects. Cannons were fired to indicate the entrances and exits of important characters as well as thunder. In fact, a cannon misfire was the reason the original Globe Theatre burned down. Miraculously, no one was harmed or killed, except for a man whose pants caught on fire and it was quickly put out with a cup of ale.

   9. The audience was anything but quiet.

      The Elizabethan audience was a mixture of lower class, mercantile class and nobility under one roof. People would leave their seats to find food and drink. If rowdy audience members annoyed a particular patron, they might tell them to be quiet. The lower middle class stood on the ground (groundlings), close to the stage. The upper middle class sat in seats to the sides, in the galleries, and the most visible seats were private boxes high up and closest to the stage.

   10. Men or young boys played the female roles.

       Although women acted in street performances at the time, it was illegal for them to act in commercial acting companies, such as at the Globe Theatre. Female performers were associated with indecency and prostitution; the intention of the law was to protect women’s chastity. Therefore, young boy apprentices performed the female roles because their voices would be high enough before they hit puberty. In 1660, 44 years after Shakespeare’s death, Margaret Hughes would be the first actress to be in a Shakespearean play as Desdemona in Othello. Orlando Shakes performed an all male production of Twelfth Night two seasons ago, but our Bare Bard production features performers of all genders.