Burbage and Alleyn

I love when classes intersect.  I took my Capstone class last semester (Renaissance Drama Sans Shakespeare with Gretchen Minton) and wrote my paper on the difference in acting styles for Chris Marlowe's lead actor Edward Alleyn (the top picture) and Shakespeare's lead actor (the picture to the left) Richard Burbage (Yates talks of him and his father - James, who built the first playhouse in England).  This time period (1580's-1616) is by far my favorite because it marks the beginning of the theatre.  Beforehand, there had been traveling acting companies, but this time was the first for settled theatre.  And the acting was tough.  The actors were in several plays at once.  They appeared on stage every day and the plays changed every day.  Their memories had to be powerful due to their various roles.  And this was a time without lights.  They couldn't memorize at night; candles were too expensive and they (well, at least Burbage) was too poor. They had to memorize during the day.

We talked today about the fact that without the written word, the sense of sight was keener.  Well, during Shakespeare's time, the sense of hearing was keener.  Think about it - these people did not have sounds, music, tv, etc., readily available to them.  This may help explain why Shakspeare's audience understood more clearly the plays - they picked up on the sounds of the words and what Shakespeare was trying to convey with these sounds.