Wednesday 13 January 2016

Year 5's Visit to the Globe Theatre!


Year 5 Tour the Globe!

In the Autumn term, Year 5 visited the world-famous Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London!

We arrived on a cloudy but warm Monday morning, raring to go! We met our guide, Scott, for the day, who quickly told us a barrage of facts about where the original Globe was built and why it was moved. Once we walked inside, we had a good look around the theatre. The first thing that struck us as we walked into the theatre was that it has no roof! This is because the Globe is a reconstruction of a theatre built about 400 years ago; the original theatre had no roof so that daylight could get in and you could see what was happening. As there were no electric lights back then, it would have been dangerous and expensive to light the building with candles.

We also noticed that the seats stopped some way short of the front of the stage and learned that this is because some people buy less expensive tickets and stand to watch plays.

 
We then had a good look at the stage: it is beautiful! The roof is painted with the sun, moon and an array of angels. Scott, explained that actors can even be lowered from the ceiling above the stage if necessary. Scott also said that any action that takes place that high up was taking place in the heavens, in a play. Therefore, the action on stage would be action on earth, and any character who appeared from underneath the stage, was coming up from Hell!

We thought that the character of Banquo from Macbeth, as a ghost, might come up from Hell, and we thought that the witches most definitely would!

Next, we got up onto the stage…

We wasted no time in jumping into the action, quickly rehearsing the famous, “Is this a dagger I see before me?” line from Macbeth! (Year 5 are Macbeth experts – we have been learning about it this half term, and we can tell you the plot, the settings, the main characters, and the motivation for their actions!)

We went backstage, and felt some of the excitement professional actors must feel getting ready to go onstage, then burst onto the stage to loudly exclaim our line!

 
Afterwards, we went to one of the Globe’s practice rooms, and went even further into character. We thought about how the Scots and the Norwegians would try and intimidate each other before battle, how the witches would move and look, and how Lady Macbeth feels about her husband, Macbeth.

 
After a quick lunch we headed back to school!