TEXT 1 The 16th Century Theatre

Even if the theatres were different for some details they had a common structure. The building was often circular and his diameter measured from 25 to 30 metres. The central court was surrounded by three tiers of galleries and it was open to the sky. In the earlier period it was without artificial lighting, so that the plays had to be performed by daylight.

The stage was a raised platform (about five feet from the ground), with a recess at the back supported by pillars, and roofed (with a baldachine). On the top of this roofed recess was a turret (башенка), from which a trumpeter could announce the beginning of a play, and from which a flag would indicate that a play was in progress. There was no curtain, and the main platform could be surrounded on three sides by the audience. A few privileged persons were allowed on the stage itself. Behind the stage there was a curtain, which could be drawn, thus revealing a second stage (inner stage). Over the back of the stage there was a balcony, used for the musicians or like a scene object. Then there were two doors on either side of the curtain and a trap door opening on the floor. The last part of the tiring house was a garret where there were machines used for creating special effects and on the roof of which there was a flag that flapped when a play was in progress.

The Scene of the Elizabethan theatre didn't represent, neither directly nor through painted backgrounds, a particular place. Very simple objects were enough to symbolise a place or the role of an actor: so a table stood for a room, a bush in a vase for a forest, and a crown for a king. So it was difficult for the audience to follow the play because the place was quickly changed. However, the mimic art of the actors helped the audience very much. In fact they represented both physical sensations that the place gave him (cold, hot...) and the feelings of his character almost at the same time. Besides, the text of the play helped people to understand.

The theatre building was deeply linked with the performance. The baldachin that covered the back of the stage was used to create a physical distance between two characters, but often the distance was spiritual; e.g. while Hamlet speaks with king Claudius and the queen he is spiritually far from the court, thinking about the adultery of her mother. So he seats in the centre of the stage while the royal family seat below the baldachin.

The Public? The audience? We can imagine them, paying their pennies to stand or sit in different parts of the house; hissing or clapping, heckling or laughing, eating and smoking. The audience sat in the three galleries, the second of which was the most expensive, or stood up in the central yard. Into this yard there projected a roofed stage, trapezoidal or rectangular in shape. We can imagine the actors too, standing on that "long, rude tongue" of a stage, as someone once called it, thrust out into the middle of the audience, terrifyingly but exhilaratingly exposed.

Performances usually began at two o'clock in the afternoon and lasted for little more than two hours. The Elizabethan theatre could contain from 1600 to 2300 spectators. It cost a penny to stand in the yard and two pennies to sit in one of the galleries. The nobles or those who could afford up to twelve pence could sit on the stage while the groundlings gathered around the open sides. The lack of means and tricks was made up for the wealth of mimic and puns. People very much liked cruel and violent themes inserted in the Elizabethan plays. The audience had learnt to compare themselves with big moral and politic motives from the "Morality Plays", and therefore they appreciated dramaturgic theme. The other important current loved by the public was historical drama. It wasn't a celebration of England military power but a means for the audience, who had lived the performed facts, to understand the bloody game of wars in the hands of the powerful men.

In 1572 Elizabeth I's Ministers passed through Parliament the "Act for Punishment as Vagabonds"; this required all entertainers to obtain a noble patron who would vouch for their conduct as they travelled through the countryside. The protection wasn't free: frequently the actors had to work in their lord's castle. Acting was beginning the process of becoming a respectable profession. Permanent theatres and acting companies were soon to be established in London as profitable money-making ventures despite opposition from Puritans who objected to such idle diversions taking their workers from more productive labour.

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William Shakespeare

is considered to be the greatest and the most famous of all the writers. He is a vivid representative of the Renaissance. The last half of the XVI-th and the beginning of the XVII-th centuries are known as the golden age of English Literature or the age of Shakespeare. In spite of his fame there are a lot of vague points in his life. The exact date of his birth is unknown. We are aware that he was baptised on the 26-th of April in 1564. So the 23-d of April is an approximate date of his birth.

His father was a respectable shopkeeper, and dealt in wool, skins, leathers and gloves. His mother, Mary Arden, was a farmer's daughter. William was the eldest of eight children. He was fond of producing and setting plays with his boy-friends in his childhood. After Grammar School he worked as a teacher at it for some time. We know that when Shakespeare was 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a woman eight years older than himself, that in 1583 Susanna, their first child, was born, and that twins Hamnet and Judith followed in 1585.

At the age of 22 Shakespeare left Stratford alone, for London. In 1593 and 1594 he wrote two early poems, "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece".

Later, he became a member of the company known as "Chamberlain's Men" which played at the "Theatre"; and he wrote for the company. He was already reaching the height of his fame when the Globe Theatre was built in 1593. He often acted at court, and retired, about 1611, to Stratford. Stratford-upon-Avon is probably the best known town in Great Britain after London. Located in Warwickshire, in the heart of England, it's known internationally as the birthplace of the world's greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, and as the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The rolling Shakespearean countryside, the romantic river Avon with its swans, the beautiful sixteenth - century Tudor cottages and all things theatrical bring to this little town visitors from all over the world. The largest crowd gathers there on the Bard's birthday, this is April 23rd.

There are lots of places in Stratford associated with Shakespeare and his life. The main attractions include:

" Shakespeare's Birthplace (the house where, William Shakespeare was born and spent his childhood)
" Holy Trinity Church (where Shakespeare was baptized and buried)

" New Place (the house where Shakespeare spent the last days of his life)
" Shakespeare's Grammar School

" Hall's Croft (the home of Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, and her husband)
" Anne Hathaway's Cottage (the house where Shakespeare's sweetheart and future wife lived before her marriage)

" Mary Arden's House (the house where Shakespeare's mother spent her childhood)
" The Royal Shakespeare Company (which has three different theatres in the town: the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The Swan and The Other Place)

The 23rd of April is the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and it's a time of celebrations in Stratford - on - Avon. On the Saturday closest to this date, thousands of people arrive in Stratford to honor the great poet, to see the sights and to take part in spectacular celebrations. Celebratory events span the whole weekend and include a Birthday parade, a ceremony of the flags, a Birthday performance by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a special church service, a marathon and lots of street entertainment. The most spectacular event takes place on Saturday. A huge procession of bands, local dignitaries, important guests, actors and actresses, school teachers and pupils, morris dancers and town people walks through the town to lay flowers at Shakespeare's grave. By tradition, anyone with a flower may join the parade at any point as it goes through the town and into the church.

On the way to Holy Trinity Church the procession pauses for the flag ceremony. The bugles are blown and then flags of many countries are unfurled, to applause from the crowd. At the same time, banners representing all the works by Shakespeare unfurled on flag poles lining the streets. After the flag ceremony the procession makes its way to the King Edward VI School where it stops. The boys from Shakespeare's old school run out of the school building and join the procession.

The procession ends at Holy Trinity Church and participants lay flowers at Shakespeare's grave. Meanwhile, the fun continues with street entertainment of morris dancing, music and theatre.

The day of William's death was the 23-d of April, 1616, 52 years exactly after the supposed day of his birth. That is all we know about William Shakespeare. Shakspeare believed in man, his great abilities to make the mankind happy. That's why William Shakespeare's works do not grow old with the time.

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