ABSTRACT
This open stage form is also very much the Elizabethan model (Figure 2.2). Shakespeare’s Globe
S C E N I C D E S I G N I N T H E P A S T A N D T O D A Y
was a performance space that did not change scenically very much from palace to heath. Scenes were played in front of an architectural facade that provided doors for entrances and exits, and a raised balcony. Shakespeare wrote most of his scenes with characters entering at the beginning of the scene and exiting at the end because there was no scenic or lighting solution to how they could appear or disappear. Ever practical, the playwright solved the problem, often having the players announce the location they were entering. Again, stage machinery may have been used in a modest way, and there may have been scenic treatments involved, such as the painted “heavens” on the ceiling above the stage.
