On June 29, 1613, the Globe Theater, where most of William
Shakespeare's plays debuted burned to the ground. The Globe was built by
Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, in 1599 from the
timbers of London's very first permanent theater, Burbage's Theater, built in
1576. Before James Burbage built his theater, plays and dramatic performances were
ad hoc affairs, performed on street corners and in the yards of inns. However,
the Common Council of London, in 1574, started licensing theatrical pieces
performed in inn yards within the city limits. To escape the restriction, actor
James Burbage built his own theater on land he leased outside the city limits.
When Burbage's lease ran out, the Lord Chamberlain's men moved the timbers to a
new location and created the Globe. Like other theaters of its time, the Globe
was a round wooden structure with a stage at one end, and covered balconies for
the gentry. The galleries could seat about 1,000 people, with room for another
2,000 "groundlings," who could stand on the ground around the stage. The
Lord Chamberlain's men built Blackfriars Theater in 1608, a smaller theater
that seated about 700 people, to use in winter when the open-air Globe wasn't
practical.
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