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Shakespeare’s First Theatre Found, Ticket Prices Still Reasonable

Punch and Judy

So they’ve found Shakespeare’s first theatre. Well, not, you know, intact, like it was tucked away in someone’s attic. Some brick bits, apparently. And it was called The Theatre. And we assume that means it was the only theatre around just like when I was a kid you’d say you were “going to the movies” and nobody asked “which one” because there was only one damn movie theatre in the whole town and, if you were lucky, two movies playing. I grew up in a town that had a mall literally called “The Mall” so I can relate. They found it on an excavation while prepping the site for–no, not a Starbucks–another theatre. Nice.

Anyway, this theatre apparently pre-dates The Globe. And you can get a good description of it and the story about how they dismantled it overnight in order to go build The Globe here

[ad#longpost]The Theatre was designed as a construction which was similar to a small Roman amphitheatre – the Elizabethan Amphitheatre. They modified the features of the existing blood sport rings with the addition of a fixed stage, unlike the trestle supported stage used in the inn-yards. This allowed the new stage productions to become far more sophisticated.

There’s another account, as part of the history of The Globe here. And here’s a site that shows a plaque that’s supposed to be on the site (which means…the building the plaque was on was torn down?). Anyway, the story is cool but there’s frustratingly little additional info. And would it have killed anyone to snap a bloody picture of the brick remains they found and post it somewhere?

Found via Gridskipper.

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1 comment

  • Ha Ha…before I even read through your entire post I was thinking about “The Mall”. Then a few sentences later you mentioned it! However, the funny part isn’t that it was named “The Mall”, but they way you would say it. It was “THE Mall”…emphasis on THE. After we finally got another mall in town it was common to hear someone say, “Which mall are you going to? Parkway City? Or THE Mall?” Makes me laugh just thinking about it…but I suspect you have to be from Huntsville to find the humor.