Shakespeare's Buildings, Lost, Found, Recreated

William Shakespeare-Chandos Portrait Loretta reports:

Shakespeare’s birthday is 26 April, but since this is my day to post, we celebrate a day early.

I had a chance to experience a Shakespeare play in something close to what it might have been like when he was alive. A few years ago, we were in England, and had, for once, made reservations sufficiently far in advance to see one of the Bard’s works at the recreated Globe Theatre .

Though it represents an educated guess at what the original Globe was like, it seemed an authentic enough experience to me. At one point in the performance of Much Ado About Nothing, it started raining. Those standing under the open roof pulled up their rain hoods or umbrellas or simply got rained on.

It was an altogether different experience from watching a performance in a closed theater, or even at an outdoor theater. For one thing, the playhouse is small, and the audience is practically mingling with the players. All in all, it was a fabulous experience, and I hope to return next year.
The Globe That was one reason I became so intrigued when an email message invited me to look at this beautiful series of Shakespeare-related photographs —including some fine shots of the recreated Globe Theatre —and I learned about the discovery, by members of the Museum of London Archaeology ,  of the Curtain Theatre , where it’s believed some of Shakespeare’s plays made their debuts.

The Curtain is going to be a centerpiece, interestingly enough, of a luxury development. You can find out more here and here .

There’s more about the Curtain Theatre at the MOLA site, and you can learn more about MOLA on their blog .

Images: Shakespeare, Chandos portrait , National Portrait Gallery via Wikipedia.
The Globe Theatre courtesy Shakespeare's Buildings

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