Staging in the Elizabethan Drama

Elizabethan Masques were also accompanied with music and dance at the beginning and end of the performances and during the interludes. It is a form of Renaissance Upper class entertainment continued into the Elizabethan era, often spoken in verse and usually performed by masked where actors represented mythological or allegorical figures. Upper class women were permitted to perform in Elizabethan Masques. In fact, the mother of Queen Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn, performed in masques. The Masques of the Renaissance fused music, dance, poetry and drama.

The Elizabethan theatre also used a variety of sound effects. Music played an important role in the setting the mood of the plays. Other sounds created were thunder (by sloping wooden or iron alleys), running horses, falling rain, gunshots and cannon blasts. The baying of hounds and crowing of roosters were produced by skilled. In 1708, John Dennis improved the method for making thunder: It consisted of shaking a metal sheet that is suspended by wires. Fireworks were good to imitate the sound of a battlefield.

There was also another kind of effects. One of the most famous theatres was The Globe Theatre, and it was designed for this type of effects. Some of them are:

· Trapdoors: they were situated on the floor of the stage (called “Hell”) and in the stage ceiling (called “The Heavens”). Thus, in the case of the play “Hamlet”, the ghost could miraculously appear or disappear.

· Cannons: They were situated in the attic above the "Heavens" in order to herald great entrances especially in the plays by William Shakespeare.

· Blood: It was reproduced using a handkerchief soaked in blood. To simulate wounds and murders, several items were used: a blood soaked dummy to be substituted for an actor, animal intestines, tongues and bones. Actors put the blood of animals on their costumes to pretend wounds as well.

· Live animals: In some Shakespearian plays, dogs and bears appeared. It is obvious that not a lot of animals appeared in plays, but we can confirm the existence of this fact of using animals at the stage.

The Renaissance dances that appeared in the Elizabethan plays are related to the earliest European dances. One of the most famous choreographers of this period is Domenico da Piacenza. Dances such as the saltarello, galliard, and coranto were improvised forms popular amongst most European countries and classes.

In masques, “Mummers” had a very important role. The term Mummer derives from the old Middle English word 'mum' meaning silent, so the first mummers performed mimes, plays without words enacting old stories, legends and myths particularly those about Saint George. All of them were disguised with masks, and many of them played the same role for years. The Mummers introduced additional elements to the plays such as jokes, jests, songs and dance.

Unfortunately, it is too difficult to obtain copies from the choreographies performed in the plays and masques and sources.