Is this a theater which I see before me?
Source: Agencies |
July 17, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IN the middle of London, a plot of earth is dug across with trenches and studded with old bricks. If the world of theater ever has hallowed ground, this is it.
It's the site of London's first theater, where William Shakespeare's plays were performed and where the Bard himself once trod the boards.
Archaeologists who have been digging here since 2008 have uncovered a section of outer wall and floor surface from the building, completed in 1576 and known simply as The Theatre -- whose timbers were later used to build The Globe theater.
Now a London drama troupe plans to erect a new building on the site, bringing live performances back to the spot where Elizabethan drama flourished more than 400 years ago.
This week actor Paul McGann stood amid the dirt and bricks and recited the prologue to "Romeo and Juliet" -- a play historians believe had its premiere on this site and in which Shakespeare may have taken a small acting role.
"It's possible the prologue was spoken by Shakespeare himself," McGann said.
It's the site of London's first theater, where William Shakespeare's plays were performed and where the Bard himself once trod the boards.
Archaeologists who have been digging here since 2008 have uncovered a section of outer wall and floor surface from the building, completed in 1576 and known simply as The Theatre -- whose timbers were later used to build The Globe theater.
Now a London drama troupe plans to erect a new building on the site, bringing live performances back to the spot where Elizabethan drama flourished more than 400 years ago.
This week actor Paul McGann stood amid the dirt and bricks and recited the prologue to "Romeo and Juliet" -- a play historians believe had its premiere on this site and in which Shakespeare may have taken a small acting role.
"It's possible the prologue was spoken by Shakespeare himself," McGann said.
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