“I dramatize and am contradicted, and in the conflict of opinion find delight,†said Iain Mackintosh, theatre design advisor for Theatre Projects Consultants, U.K., speaking the words of Samuel Johnson.
Following two days of intense review and debate, he and nine other members of the team that has worked on Shakespeare & Company’s Rose project presented two years’ worth of study, Oct. 8. The Rose housed Shakespeare’s first plays, before they reached the Globe. Shakespeare & Company proposes to build a replica of the bankside theatre, authentic down to the plaster.
Mary Guzzy, director of the Rose Playhouse U.S.A., and Tina Packer, artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, introduced the team and the project. Packer opened the presentation with a letter from Dustin Hoffmann, its honorary lifetime president. He looked forward, he wrote, to joining “a project so committed to demonstrating the connection between language, the arts, architecture, history and society,†and he “was inspired by the courage and vision of this theatre company.â€
Packer said Shakespeare & Company had survived for 25 years “because in the end, we love doing the work; we love teaching the work; we love what the work has done to us.†The 16th century was a pivotal time in the history of theatre, she said. Permanent theatre spaces appeared. Shakespeare, Kidd, Johnson, Decker and others were creating a language, writing a psychology into existence. At the same time, plays shared the playhouses with jugglers, tumblers and horseback riders. She wanted to search out that energy, she said.
Archaeology & architecture
Jon Greenfield of Parameta Architects, U.K., was project architect for the Globe Theatre — which, he said, fills itself to 95 percent capacity at every performance. On the Rose project, there are no shortcuts, he said. The last two years have been full of minutiae. “This is really a story about some drains, a sewer . . .†He gave a flavor of the project.
Scholars have had an interest in the Rose since the 1950s, because the building is described in Henslow’s diaries — account books from the theatre’s operation in the 1580s. In 1989, Greenfield said, archaeological remains of the original Rose Theatre were found while builders were surveying the site for development. The Rose went from being an also-round to the most interesting theatre in the round scholars knew about.
The original Rose was a 14-sided building 71 feet in diameter. It was built into a natural amphitheater, a dip in the ground with a mound at the back. Water collects in natural amphitheaters; the original drain was still in place. The original Rose, he said, had no stage. It was an arena. People sat around the outside, watching juggling, dancing, trials by combat, and perhaps theatre on a booth stage: a temporary stage that could be erected, for instance, in an inn courtyard. But the Rose did eventually have a stage, and the replica will have one. Like the 1587 stage, it will tilt at a strange angle of the regular 14-sided arena, and allow room for a tiring house — a dressing room — at the back.
The foundations are built up with brick walls, and the structure above is timber-framed. The foundations show a natural dip, and a six foot wall separating the yard from the rings of seats. There is nothing like this, Greenfield said, in the Globe. He believed the Rose had three galleries and a fixed back wall for the stage.
Packer said Greenfield had calculated the change in latitude and longitude, and would see that the stage faced exactly as the Rose Stage had faced relative to the sun at 3 p.m.
Julian Bowsher, senior archaeologist directing the Museum of London Archaeology Service’s excavation of the Rose Theatre Project, said later that time ran out on the dig. There may be Medieval or Roman remains under the theatre that the dig did not uncover. The museum has recently received a grant for the full analysis of the remains from the original Rose, and the results should come out shortly.
Peter McCurdy, master builder of the Globe, gave a ‘potted history’ of the Globe project, to explain the tools and the methods that will build the Rose. The round along the Thames were gone by the time of the Great Fire in London, he said. He has studied maps and other existing Tudor buildings, and the building contract for the Fortune and the Hope theatres in the round. He framed the Globe in oak, with curved braces that followed the natural growth of the oak tree and larger, straighter trees for the posts. Historically, timber framing is prefabricated: assembled in flat pieces and brought to the site, in the case of the Globe, on barges. The beams are fastened with mortise and tenon joints and secured with wooden pegs, or trunnels. He filled in the frame with thousands of feet of split lathes, cemented in plaster. Lathe splitting must have been a major cottage industry in the 1580s, he said.
He would build the Rose replica the same way, and thatch the roof the same way. The Rose had internal stairways where the Globe had stair towers, and though the Rose had oak pillars, they did not support the stage roof.
Master builder Jack Sobon, a native of Windsor, Mass., will coordinate the American and British teams of timber framers on the Rose project. The American Timber Framers’ Guild has gotten involved; it has its headquarters in Washington, Mass.
Rose Village
George Marsh, an architect with Payette Associates, discussed Shakespeare & Co.’s preliminary plans for the campus around the Rose. He had studied the buildings on the campus. Many will be rehabilitated, and some taken down (because they have been condemned). They will not turn into 1580s architecture. The lawn for tents and pavilions, and the spires of Lenox Village over the trees, will give the campus all the authenticity it needs.
Packer hopes to have galleries in the space, for exhibits on anything from the History of Civilization to Modern America in the Elizabethan Age. There will be a library, facilities for students and actors, and a tunnel leading from the galleries to the Globe. Visitors may be able to enter by way of the stage.
The future of the Rose
Andrew Gurr, from the University of Reading Department of English and advising scholar to the Globe, said before the Globe opened, “the Brits said they didn’t want ‘Museum Theatre.’ In fact, the Globe has had a higher level of attendance than any in Britain.†And over 50 percent of the audience have been there before. They are regulars. Sales are over $2 million every year before the booking season opens. The experience you are not in the dark. You are not sitting . . . . It changes your mentality. You are not an individual, but a member of a crowd . . . . It works, and it works superbly. I think that’s a wonderful prospect.â€
Frank Hildy, director of the University of Maryland Theatre Department and an advising scholar to the Globe, said he recently participated in a meeting of Shakespeare Centers from all over the globe, and they were all brimming with envy, because the Rose was going to be here.
Simon Blatherwick said by all the sources, the London theatre in the 16th century was an exciting and even dangerous place. He read an excerpt from The Art of Living in London, published in 1642. It was an account of a merchant’s wife who asked leave of her husband to go to the theatre, for the first time in seven years. He told her to take his apprentice along, and to take care she did not lose her purse. She came back without the purse. She had taken care of it, she said; she had put it between her hose and her petticoat. “And did you feel no one’s hand there,†he asked? “Yes,†said she, “but I did not think it had come for that.â€
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Berkshire County Homes Celebrating Holiday Cheer
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
There's holiday cheer throughout the Berkshires this winter.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
We asked the homeowners questions on their decorations and why they like to light up their houses.
In Great Barrington, Matt Pevzner has decorated his house with many lights and even has a Facebook page dedicated to making sure others can see the holiday joy.
Located at 93 Brush Hill Road, there's more than 61,000 lights strewn across the yard decorating trees and reindeer and even a polar bear.
The Pevzner family started decorating in September by testing their hundreds of boxes of lights. He builds all of his own decorations like the star 10-foot star that shines done from 80-feet up, 10 10-foot trees, nine 5-foot trees, and even the sleigh, and more that he also uses a lift to make sure are perfect each year.
"I always decorated but I went big during COVID. I felt that people needed something positive and to bring joy and happiness to everyone," he wrote. "I strive to bring as much joy and happiness as I can during the holidays. I love it when I get a message about how much people enjoy it. I've received cards thanking me how much they enjoyed it and made them smile. That means a lot."
Pevzner starts thinking about next year's display immediately after they take it down after New Year's. He gets his ideas by asking on his Facebook page for people's favorite decorations. The Pevzner family encourages you to take a drive and see their decorations, which are lighted every night from 5 to 10.
In North Adams, the Wilson family decorates their house with fun inflatables and even a big Santa waving to those who pass by.
The Wilsons start decorating before Thanksgiving and started decorating once their daughter was born and have grown their decorations each year as she has grown. They love to decorate as they used to drive around to look at decorations when they were younger and hope to spread the same joy.
"I have always loved driving around looking at Christmas lights and decorations. It's incredible what people can achieve these days with their displays," they wrote.
The Wilsons' invite you to come and look at their display at 432 Church St. that's lit from 4:30 to 10:30 every night, though if it's really windy, the inflatables might not be up as the weather will be too harsh.
In Pittsfield, Travis and Shannon Dozier decorated their house for the first time this Christmas as they recently purchased their home on Faucett Lane. The two started decorating in November, and hope to bring joy to the community.
"If we put a smile on one child's face driving by, then our mission was accomplished," they said.
Many homeowners are showing their holiday spirit by decorating their houses. We asked for submissions so those in the community can check out these fanciful lights and decor when they're out.
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