Field Research

Remembering the First Globe Theatre

The first Globe Theater was built in London in 1599 and burned in 1613. The staging directions of Shakespeare’s plays are the principle source of evidence for its appearance and construction. We do know that it was built of materials from the demolition of a nearby inn. Otherwise, a tradition of remembering, that has been practiced since the Greeks adopted the alphabet and feared losing their oral traditions, emphasizes theater’s role in cultural survival. At Arts Letters & Numbers, beginning July 1, we shall model what is known of the Globe. We shall use a suite of available materials likewise salvaged to model the Globe in different ways: at two scales of one inch to one foot, and in the scale of the available materials themselves on a site above the house and barn. We shall use tools and techniques appropriate to post and beam architecture in a Dutch style: an H-frame element with stub tenons topping each post, girted together, mortised to plates, and standing on stone. The only iron will be in the tools, the only power by hand - sawing, chiseling, drilling, splitting for trunnels.

A first gathering on Father's Day "This Other Eden", inspected the "table" of barn timbers, assessed the quality of the soil towards re-greening, and looked for appropriate rocks for pillar foundations. Our inspiration for this gathering was John of Gaunt’s garden deathbed speech in Shakespeare’s Richard II - the lines: “… This other Eden, demi-paradise / This fortress built by Nature for her self / against infection and the hand of war, / This happy breed of men, this little world …”