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Shakespeare and Dramatic Craft
Quick questions on Staging and the Globe explained: H2 Literature in English
5short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the early modern playhouse?Show answer
Shakespeare wrote for open-air playhouses such as the Globe: a large, roughly circular building with a stage thrusting out into a standing audience (the groundlings) and galleries rising around it. Performances took place in daylight, the stage was largely bare with few props and no elaborate scenery, and female roles were played by boy actors. These were not limitations Shakespeare worked around so much as conditions his craft was built for.
What is a bare stage means words make the world?Show answer
Because the stage carried little scenery, the language had to do the work of setting place, time and atmosphere. When a character tells us it is night, or names a battlefield or a forest, the words are conjuring a scene the set cannot show. This is why Shakespeare's verbal scene-painting is so rich: the audience builds the world in their imagination from the dialogue. Reading a play as performance means recognising that such descriptions are doing practical, scenic work, not just decorating.
What is q1?Show answer
Why is Shakespeare's verbal scene-painting so rich? [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Why did soliloquy and direct address feel natural on the early modern stage? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
What extra layer did boy actors add to disguise plots? [3 marks]
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