An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Theatre. Starter Write down three things that you know about William Shakespeare and his theatre

An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Theatre

An Introduction to Shakespeare’s TheatreStarter

Write down three things that you know about William Shakespeare and his theatre.


First we need to go back two and a half thousand years to 500BCE and Ancient Greece which is where Theatre as we know it today began.

Complete Mini Task 1.

The Theatre At Epidavros Near Athens


Artists drawing of what the theatre at Epidavros near Athens might have looked like.


The Parts Of A Greek Theatre


Complete Mini Task 2

There were 3-5 main actors and a chorus of 12-15 singers/ dancers. All the actors were men and each actor would be expected to play a variety of roles in any play. However some actors only played serious parts in Tragedy while others were famous for the roles they played in Comedies.




Woman Man Old Man Boy Comedy

Examples of Greek Theatre Masks

As well as masksر Ancient Greek actors wore long costumes . This allowed them to change characters very quickly as there were only a few actors in each play to play all the parts. Complete Mini Task 4

The Mask has become the international symbol for theatre.


The Masks, representing Comedy and Tragedy,

Have become the international symbol for theatre.




We need to jump forward now about 1800 years to the Middle Ages in England. Theatre had ceased to exist after the fall of the Roman Empire. Church services in England were in Latin which ordinary, uneducated people did not speak. To help them understand the Bible, the priests in church started acting out stories from the Bible at festival times.

Medieval Mystery PlaysNow there was nothing on the telly and wasn’t going to be for another 700 years, so these ‘plays’ became very popular, so popular that they could no longer hold them inside the churches.


Medieval Mystery PlaysThe town craft guilds like the Candle-makers or the Shoemakers took over responsibility for performing one scene from the Bible story. For example the Shipmakers would perform the story of Noah and the Ark. These scenes were performed on carts that were taken around the town. Theywould stop at fixed pointsand the guild memberswould perform their scene.



Medieval Mystery PlaysCopies of the scripts for some of these Mystery Cycles have survived for nearly 1000 years and are still performed today in cities like Chester, York and Wakefield.Complete Mini Task 8


Chester Today*******

End of Part 1

Next TimeShakespeare & The Globe Theatre

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An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Theatre. Starter Write down three things that you know about William Shakespeare and his theatre