What type of audience did shakespeare write for

It should be like the Never-too-well read Arcadia, where the Prose and Verce, Matter and Words are like his Mistresses eyes, one still excelling another and without Corivall; or to come home to the vulgars Element, like Friendly Shake-speares Tragedies, where the Commedian rides, when the Tragedian stands on Tip-toe.

Faith it should please all, like Prince Hamlet. But in sadnesses, then it were to be feared he would runne mad. Scoloker's scorn for the vulgars and their element, and for Shakespeare's ability to please all, supports the conjecture that, however they were paying for it, hard-handed men were getting to the theater" posted on Monday, 15 Feb Print this page Cite this page.

Related pages The audience Shakespeare's audiences A puritan's view Notorious audience members A satirical view Dekker continues. The audience would move around, buy food and ale in the theater, clap for the hero, boo the villain, and cheer for the special effects.

The audience might dance at the end of a comedy along with the characters onstage. One that you may notice is that his plays rarely begin with the main characters onstage; usually a minor character begins the first scene. The first scene would usually set the mood of the play, but the opening dialogue would not be vital because it might not be easily heard. Another trick that Shakespeare used was to break up the main action of the play with clowning.

This ensured that even during a 3-hour history play, there would be something that appealed to everyone. Audiences today can take a cue from Elizabethan audiences to inform how to watch a Shakespeare play. Here are some tips:. Being an Audience Today Audiences today can take a cue from Elizabethan audiences to inform how to watch a Shakespeare play. Here are some tips: Remind yourself that t he first scene mostly sets the mood of the play, and rarely has vital dialogue, so if you miss some of the words at the beginning, that is ok.

Elizabethan audiences clapped and booed whenever they felt like it. Sometimes they threw fruit. Groundlings paid a penny to stand and watch performances, and to gawk at their betters, the fine rich people who paid the most expensive ticket price to actually sit on the stage.

Theatre was not only a major social occasion; it could often feel like a competition for attention. Audiences came from every class, and their only other entertainment options were bear-baiting and public executions — and William Shakespeare wrote for them all. I mean, look: every convention of your average modern theatre serves to make people passive, docile, distanced from the play and from one another, almost entirely erased.

We give them a potty break. We tell them to shut up and turn off anything at all that might make any kind of noise. We provide them no reason to ever have to interact with the person seated next to them. We imply in a thousand ways that everything has been worked out in advance, encouraging total passivity of body, mind, and spirit. And then we turn the lights off and expect them to listen hard to complex, antiquated verse poetry that relies on an active, social, participatory relationship.

Can we really blame them for taking fifty-dollar naps? I told stage management I was willing to escort the gentlemen out of the theatre I played the butler, so I could have done it in character , but was informed, perhaps wisely, that my services would not be required.

Indeed, the house manager was able to convince the hockey fan he could focus more fully on the game while sitting in the lobby. But I would have done it happily. But there are videos of Hugh Jackman stopping the show because of an annoying phone ringing and Patti Lupone actually taking a phone away from a texting audience member the videos themselves further evidence of the annoying presence of phone cameras.

Actors taking matters into their own hands like this gets us into a more sensitive area described by Dr. Up until the 19th century, opera, symphonies, and Shakespeare — art events that might now be considered highbrow — were popular entertainment for all levels of society. As Dr.