Shakespeare Mise-en -scenic elements

Shakespeare’s mise-en-scenic elements

refer to those aspects of staging (e.g. music, sound effects, costuming, etc.) that contribute to the production as a whole (or specifically, to the presentation of Lady Macbeth) during shakespeare’s time

Shakespeare actors

No women actors appeared on a public stage until many years after Shakespeare’s death, for that would have been considered shameless. The parts of young girls were played by boys.  The parts of older women were played by older men.

Shakespeare’s acting:

An actor would speak directly to the crowd, hold them with his eyes, following their reactions.  He could play up the raucous laughter that greeted the comical, bawdy scenes, and gauge the emotional response to the higher flights of poetry.  Sometimes, he even improvised speeches of his own.

Shakespeare’s performance:

Unlike present-day theater practice, the performance was very fluid–changing a little with every performance, evolving more in performance than in the rehearsal space.  The actors made the choices as they went in a genuinely collaborative effort.  Each individual actor had little idea of the plot or the storyline of their respective characters, so they had to be observant and spontaneous to a fault, anticipating, interacting, remembering, responding, cooperating, trusting, encouraging - creating.

Shakespeare’s stage:

In the Globe, the stage was a platform thrusting out into the middle of the floor, and the audience, standing in the central yard, surrounded it on three sides.  Three doors at the back of the stage were used for all exits and entrances.  These were sometimes covered by a curtain, which could be used as a prop. 

Shakespeare’s lack of scenery:

The stage itself would seem uncompromisingly bare to our eyes.  There was no scenery.  No painted backdrops suggested a forest, or a castle or the sumptuous interior of a palace.  Shakespeare painted the scenery with words; the imagination of the audience did the rest.

Shakespeare’s properties (“props”):

Props were brought onto the stage only when they were essential for the action.  A bed would be carried on when a character needed to lie on it.  A throne would be let down from above when a king needed to sit on it.

Shakespeare’s blocking

Blocking is the positioning and movement of actors on the stage/set.  During Elizabethan times, an actor would learn his part with its associated movements and gestures that were established by the first person to play the role (which became standardized so anyone at any time could play the character exactly as it had been done before as per audience expectations). 

Shakespeare’s music:

Historically, music was an important part of any Elizabethan theatrical production from the pre-show chamber pieces and interludes to the songs alluded to and sung in the play itself to the jigs performed onstage by the cast as a sort of rousing curtain call. Popular songs of the time were incorporated and amended to suit any given play, and it is not out of reach to assume that Shakespeare or another member of his company may have written the lyrics for original pieces. Shakespeare took popular folk songs or ballads, serenades or raucous pub tunes, rounds or catches, even children’s songs or religious motifs, and wove their tunes and often their lyrics into the context of a play. Songs were most likely simple and memorable, inspiring audience members to tap their feet and even sing along, accompanied, if possible, by some musicians playing a hautboy (pronounced ho-boy) or oboe, flute, recorder, violin, viol, lute, as well as some kind of percussion.

Shakespeare’s sound effects:

Hautboys (pronounced ho-boys) or oboes, flutes, recorders, violins, viols, lutes, as well as some kind of percussion could be used to create sound effects.  Sound effects in Shakespeare’s time included storms, alarums and excursions (the sounds of battle), flourishes (entrances of royalty), a clock striking (indicating time of day or time passing) and musical accompaniment or underscoring.

Shakespeare’s costuming:

Shakespeare’s actors were responsible for their own costumes. Sixteenth century stage costume was a mixture of contemporary dress, historical costume and some symbolic features.  Systemization laws dictated certain colors and fabrics as being either allowed or forbidden at different levels of the social order. Purple was reserved for royalty while red and blue silks, satins, and damasks were reserved for the Royals and their Court.  Lower classes could only wear coarse homespun fabrics.  Headwear out of doors was a necessity for both men and women.  Elizabethan audiences would be quick to notice things that would mean nothing to our contemporary audiences.  So, the types of costuming chosen would have portrayed significant tidbits of information regarding the character wearing it.  For instance, a nightgown would be a keen indicator of late at night or early in the morning.  It could also be symbolic of 1) lust or romance, 2) unpreparedness or surprise, 3) deviousness, 4) a troubled conscience.

Shakespeare’s hair design:

Hair was frizzed and neatly trimmed; mustaches and pointed beards were fashionable. Front hair and eyebrows were shaved by women, a high forehead being considered a mark of beauty.

Shakespeare’s make-up:

While cosmetics were used heavily outside of the theater, makeup was used sparingly in Elizabethan theater, primarily because of the proximity of the audience and the natural daylight in which performances took place.  There were a couple of times in which specific makeup was used:  1) face-whitening makeup used by the boy actors to enhance their appearance as females (this was popularized by Elizabeth I who used a heavy lead-based white paint to hide small pox scars); 2) face-darkening make-up (a practice no longer socially acceptable today because of its racist implications), a blackened actor in a Shakespeare play did not necessarily denote a person of African descent).

Shakespeare’s natural outdoor lighting:

No dimming lights announced the start of the play.  In the broad daylight, the actors could see the audience as clearly as the audience could see them.  Torches, candles, lanterns, night clothes/sleepwear would suggest that it was dark as would movement indicating darkness, but the main burden of persuading an audience, at three o’clock in the afternoon, that it was in fact the middle of the night, fell upon the language.  In Shakespeare’s time, the illusion was dependent upon suspension of disbelief–”for them, one figure failed to see another and therefore the stage was assumed to be dark.”

Shakespeare’s special effects: 

In Shakespeare’s time, theater companies used a variety of staging effects in their productions to create a full-body experience for playgoers: fireworks, fake blood, fake body parts, paint, and more. Plays were smorgasbords for the senses—including, thanks to all those sweating spectators and the use of animal blood, the sense of smell. However, Elizabethan theater-goers did not attend a play to marvel at the lush costumes nor the elaborate scenery. They came to hear and watch a story unfold