Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre “Not just theatre but the

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre “Not just theatre but the capital at its very best.” Sunday Telegraph

The History Of The Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre,which officially opened in 1997, is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse first built in 1599, where Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote many of his greatest plays.

Shakespeare's company erected the storied Globe Theatre in 1598 in London's Bankside district. It was one of four major theatres in the area.

The open-air, octagonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectators. The rectangular stage platform on which the plays were performed was nearly 43 feet wide and 28 feet deep. This staging area probably housed trap doors in its flooring and primitive rigging overhead for various stage effects. In 1613, the original Globe Theatre burned to the ground.

Reconstruction of The Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre Nowadays The new theatre on Bankside is approximately 230 metres (750 ft) from the original site, centre to centre, and was the first thatched roof building permitted in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666. The theatre opened in 1997 under the name "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre" and now stages plays every summer. Mark Rylance was appointed as the first artistic director in 1995 and was succeeded by Dominic Dromgoole In 2006.

As in the original Globe, the theatre has a thrust stage that projects into a large circular yard surrounded by three tiers of steeply raked seating.

Each year the theatre season runs from April or May to October with productions of the work by Shakespeare and modern authors, and plays to an audience of 350,000 who experience the ‘wooden O’ sitting in a gallery or standing as a groundling in the yard, just as they would have done 400 years ago.

Welcome to The Shakespeare's globe theatre!