The secret of many an interesting play - and of the special event its production represents - is lost in the past, and must remain so, because in one sense no play really survives its own day, its performance being dead as soon as it ends. Yet in another sense, each new performance, each revival, ensures that something of the original life of the play is still alive.
To seek to recover the circumstances of staging a play is also to insist upon looking for its vitality. A play lives in its ability to create something of an electric circuit between the actor and his audience, and this interchange also reflects the r elationship of the theatre and society, between the implicit role of the stage and the community that nourishes it. It follows as the night the day that the merits of a play may not be fully understood without a sense of how it worked, or failed to work, when it was played under the conditions for which it was written.
J.L. Styan
Consider the two statements above. It is the reality of these two statements that allows for the tremendous controversy over the performance of many of the best plays of the past. Even with text in hand, one is still faced with an infinite number of interpretations and, very often, no clue as to which interpretation is "right." William Shakespeare has been recognized as one of the greatest playwrights ever, yet, even after 400 years, we still do not know what it was really like to experience a play under Shakespeare's direction. Many have conjectured, but there is no way to know.
The search for knowledge about, and a possible step closer to an answer to this question, has prompted the resurrection of Shakespeare's theatre, the Globe, over 350 years after it was torn down. By understanding the history of the Globe, as well as i ts function, one can learn a great deal about the original performances of Shakespeare's plays.
This Major Qualifying Project (MQP) presents lesson plans for a six-session course about the resurrection of the Globe Theatre. This course is intended to serve as an introduction to the theatre, a way to spread awareness of its history and re-establi shment, as well as to encourage further exploration of the theatre and of the plays performed within. It is my hope that by putting together this information, I will be making it possible for others who may not have the means to visit the theatre themsel ves to learn about, and become more interested in, the Globe Theatre.
Zachary Oser