The Globe Theatre

Richard and Cuthbert Burbage inherited The Theatre, the first permanent playhouse in England. When the lease was up on the land, the landowner was going to destroy The Theatre. “On Dec. 28, 1598, the Burbage brothers and the acting company, known as Lord Chamberlain’s Men, dismantled the Theatre and moved it to an area known as Bank Side in the London suburb of Southwark”(Alison 8). This building site was the future site of the Globe Theatre which was built near the River Thames. The acting company did not have any help moving the wood and had only the cover of night guarding them from being caught. The landowner was out of town on holiday when the acting company found a loop hole in the land contract stating they could move the theater when the lease ended.
      Before the actual construction of the Globe began, a twenty-sided polygon was traced on the ground where the Globe was to be erected. Since the acting company did not have any help, the ownership was split between Shakespeare, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, and four other men from the acting company. “Since the Globe was in the shape of a twenty-sided polygon it had the illusion of being a circle” (“William Shakespeare” 353). The Globe Theatre was built with three different levels.
      Half of the first level was the stage, pit, and the gallery. The second level was the middle upper stage and a second level gallery. The third level was the upper most stage and the highest level of galleries. The galleries on all levels ran half way around the Globe. This meant that spectators in the galleries could watch from the left, right, or center of the stage. “The Globe Theatre could hold as many as three thousand people” (Wertheim). It was built to hold so many people because in Elizabethan times the plays were the main form of entertainment. Only the wealthy patrons of London were seated in the galleries.
      The poor of London would watch from the pit. “The pit was a courtyard that was occupied by the...